Talk Box

    There’s Action. Prog. Death. Noise. There was the all too weepy Emo. And Folk, Industrial, Punk, New Wave, and A-Billy. Alt, Math, Grunge. And without drawing another breath, Funk, Post-Punk, and Hard. The designators are all over the place but like all roads point to Rome, it always come back to the suffix that’s formed the cornerstone of this here very issue you are NOW emotionally involved with: Rock. The word and the deed, and the deed is something we talk about like it’s got flesh-and-blood dimensions because as clichéd as it is, how many of us would say with a completely straight face that Rock saved their lives?
    Author:
    Updated:
    Original:

    Oh sure, OK, it’s just me then.

    Well then I offer a testimonial: Rock saved my life, a life that, prior to, had been filled with disco dance instructing, repeated visits to Studio 54, and fashion excess too terrible to retell. And then there was, in rapid succession, the Ramones, Eddie and the HotRods, and the Sex Pistols, cemented all by the Plasmatics live, all chainsaw and Wendy O. Williams (RIP), and finally there was the lock, stock, and barrel, and my purchase of the same.

    It was/is great. I’m biased though. Biased because the dirty secret is, in a stunning refusal to age gracefully, or sanely, I still rock. Mic side for the band Oxbow. Rock in extremis. Which is code for, YES. Which is the answer to the question ARE YOU READY TO?

    Rock, that is.

    And we do and are. With the estimable LINDA PERRY, she of the producers Who’s Who of pop-post-punk-rock rock success from Pink to Gwen Stefani and Courtney Love to her present salon at Kung Fu Gardens and her take on EVERYTHING. Back this up with AL SCHMITT, DAVID Z, ELLIOT SCHEINER, JOE CHICCARELLI, ED CHERNEY, and PAT DILLETT on rock drums, HOWARD BILERMAN on A SILVER MT. ZION and ARCADE FIRE, and even the EQ exclusive on Stubblebine’s Signal Chain Shootout, and you might get the sense that we are ready to.

    Rock, that is.

    Related Articles