Sleater Kinney | Philip Lynch Music

I recently received my copy of Mole City, the band Quasi’s double album, plus a t-shirt and their fanzine (all items are excellent, most importantly the tunes). Dig that cover! http://www.killrockstars.com/molecity/ I had a notion of creating a fanzine for myself and sending it along with the CD to the various reviewers we’re sending the Philip Lynch album (I’m still keeping title to myself)… now I realize the key to having a fanzine is having fans, I’m still in the market for more of those. I like to consider myself an “artisanal” songwriter and only a select group of very special humans will enjoy what I’ve been cooking up with James Beaudreau hahahahahaha. I’m kidding of course, a ton of people can dig this stuff. So what exactly is a fanzine? Well per wikipedia (I know, I know lazy):

A fanzine (portmanteau of fan and magazine or -zine) is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and first popularized within science fiction fandom, from whom it was adopted by others.

So yeah a fanzine can apply to comic books, fiction, music and anything really. Quasi’s fanzine features praise and insights from Corin Tucker (of Sleater Kinney), Jon Raymond, Gary Jarman (The Cribs), Jon Spencer (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion), Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater Kinney, Wild Flag and the t.v. show Portlandia). There’s also an awesome piece by Sam Coomes (Quasi’s lead singer) reflecting on the band being at it for 20 years. Great photos of shows, backstage antics, life on the road, posters and a couple of reviews.
When I was a kid (said the old codger) fandom was different. We really got into what we were listening to. It didn’t have to be dance music to dance to it. There were 2 kids in my highschool so into the Ramones that they wore only torn jeans and those black leather jackets and they were inseparable. They knew the secret, their band had the best tunes and everyone else was a fool. Also a couple of friends were so into Pink Floyd that that was almost the extent of their conversation and they were really bright. (I went to that animated movie Heavy Metal with those guys and ended up riding around in a shopping cart for a little while) heh. Nicole Blackman was a die-hard Replacements fan and tried to get me into them but in my heart of hearts I was such a Beatles devotee that just the name ‘Let it Be’ (the Replacements album she was pushing) was an affront! How dare they!! Well, here it is years and years later and wow do I love The Replacements (sorry Nikki). I wonder if the kids today (quoth the codger) are devoted to their bands to a degree that they dress like them, fight over who has the better taste, try to convert other listeners and compile and circulate their own ‘zines?

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=uh3_my_web_gs&sz=all&va=fanzine

Here’s a track from Mole City! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJlUjm9fGv8

Thanks for tuning in (heh get it?) dear readers I’ll catch you soon! -p

P.S. I’ll have special post for Lou Reed next time, I was kind of devastated and needed time to digest the loss.

I’m not sure how the subconscious works but I’m pretty sure it’s up to something up there in my cranium. Recently, well let’s be honest, always, women have been under the gun. The horrible and terrifying rapes in India, in the US Military and the kidnapped tortured women in Ohio are enough to make me want to forget having anything to do with anyone ever again. Rape is a violent crime but on top of that it seems to me such a betrayal, an act usually associated with love, pleasure, procreation, something positive is completely destroyed. There are power dynamics in our society which dictate who we are and how we should behave as such. The stereotypical portrayal of men as sexually aggressive beasts and women as alluring sirens persists. A lot of these signifiers are in marketing, on television shows, in magazines and stray far afield from understanding the opposite sex let alone ourselves. In fact, if anything, the advertisements we are constantly bombarded with are meant to be the ‘norm’ so that they can keep selling whatever it is they’re pedaling. I had a conversation once with my friend (great actor) Johnny Kitt about his experience being black, African American and we agreed that being born black in America meant you were immediately thrust into a political situation more so than whites. I remember seeing an example of this on some t.v. show….the woman, an author, I forget her name, used the example of what nude pantyhose looks like and I don’t know whether things have changed since I saw that show but ‘nude’ pantyhose were for white skin. I think women are also born into a political situation, lower pay, warped assessments of their looks, strength, ability, and intellectual prowess. I’m reminded of the John Lennon/Yoko Ono song, “Woman Is the Nigger of The World”. I’m uncomfortable with the n-word still (call me old-fashioned) despite it’s use as means to reclaim it’s power. There has always been rape as there has always been war. That doesn’t mean we should accept what we know to be wrong as natural.
Sometimes I’ll direct my listening towards a particular sound or genre either based on a recommendation or a mood or a curiosity…that was not the case these past couple of weeks. I think my subconscious has done something with these news stories and I’ve been listening to women who rock, maybe as a coping mechanism? Not specifically Riot Grrrl bands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_Grrrl) but rocking tunes. Real horror is hard to process, music helps.

Be good to each other. Have good listens! Til next time. -p

P.S. I post these things every Monday!

Philip Lynch Music

'At The Start / At Long Last' debut LP is now available at workbenchrecordings.com. Digitally available on iTunes, amazon.com, Spotify. Performance news.

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