Tag: rock music

3,467 words

When I first chanced across Counter-Currents almost a decade ago, two things kept me coming back. Firstly, it was the first site I had seen which featured philosophy from a Right-wing perspective. Philosophy is my academic environment, and my BA, MA, and PhD are all in the subject, but online philosophy magazines are offshoots of mainstream academia, and therefore lean strongly to the Left. (more…)

1,436 words

For most of my life, it seemed like the Left had all the entertainers. We pretended not to care or we coped with shrugged shoulders, “What do they know about politics? They’re just entertainers!” Or we had to pretended to be thrilled with having Charlton Heston and Tony Danza on our side. (more…)

1,403 words

A man fighting to keep his innocence can serve as the premise to a great story. It’s real to life and a struggle that nearly everyone has to face at one point or another. To stay true to yourself, you must stay true to where you came from. You must always be honest about your origins and never turn your back on the milieu from which you emerged. (more…)

Mick Jagger and William Rees-Mogg

3,725 words

In February of 1967, two men were arrested in Sussex, England, on drug-related offences. They were not politicians or members of the Royal Family, but their cultural status in the Britain of the “Swinging Sixties” made the resulting media coverage feverish. The young men, both aged 23, were a new type of upstart aristocracy, social arrivistes in a country built on tradition and privilege. They were also possibly the first male defendants in a high-profile court case whose outfits in the dock were the subject of media pieces, at least since they tried Oscar Wilde. (more…)

4,102 words

Like a dog to its vomit, a junkie to his stash, or an inveterate gambler to table or race-track, I went back. I was determined to write no more about obscure English rock bands, believing that I had covered the territory to my satisfaction and, one hopes, that of the reader. Having covered Killing Joke, Joy Division, Thin Lizzy (not strictly English, granted), Queen (not exactly obscure), Sex Pistols (ditto), The Fall, The Pogues (definitely not English), Morrissey, The Auteurs, Ultravox!, Ian Dury, Wild Billy Childish, and The Slits, I thought it a job done. (more…)

3,158 words

During my misspent youth, back when wooly mammoths still walked the Earth, I caught a replay of the Yellow Submarine movie at an indie theatre. It went into production during the Summer of Love, and the film premiered in 1968. One way of regarding the movie is as a framing story to showcase a dozen Beatles songs. (more…)

2,716 words

I think fame is to be avoided. And I’ve done pretty well at that.
-Luke Haines

Whatever happened to rock music? Do white teenagers still form bands, rehearse in garages with cheap guitars and a borrowed drum-kit, record demo-tapes? (more…)

1,384 words

It’s been 20 years since Nirvana’s Nevermind album and its breakthrough single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” were released. The scrawny corpse of Kurt Cobain, the Man Who Refused to Be Marketed, is being repackaged and remarketed, with Nevermind now reissued in multiple commemorative editions of escalating cost and pointlessness. (more…)

5,520 words

John Barylick
Killer Show: The Station Nightclub Fire, America’s Deadliest Rock Concert
ForeEdge, 2012

I remember where I was and what I was doing when the news broke with a story about a horrible fire at rock concert in a roadhouse in West Warwick, Rhode Island on February 20, 2003. (more…)

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Mark E Smith
Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Marc E Smith
Viking, 2008

I hope this book turns out like Mein Kampf for the Hollyoaks generation.
–Mark E. Smith, Renegade

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I’ve written about a number of English bands for Counter-Currents: Joy Division, Killing Joke, Morrissey, Ultravox (the original, good Ultravox). (more…)

1,131 words

I think the decline of guitar music, an all-conquering cultural force in the latter half of the 20th century, has been a tragedy and not just because what has come to replace it is qualitatively inferior. I think it’s bad because starting a band used to be a pro-social thing that white kids could do together. I think it was Dave Mustaine who once said that playing in a band together was as close as four guys could get without having sex. (more…)

3,037 words

The word “sleaze” has a strange history which has left it with a number of meanings. In the UK, it has become associated with political corruption, and has recently been brought back into service as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer continues to let down our old school by accepting inappropriate gifts and services from some very shady political wheelers and dealers. (more…)

5,097 words

In this article, I will be listing my ultimate fantasy rock and roll band.

However, this will be different than your usual fantasy rock band list where people create a theoretical supergroup composed of who they think are the best and/or their favorite musicians on each instrument: “I’d have Eddie Van Halen on guitar, John Bonham on drums, Geddy Lee on bass….” For my fantasy rock band, musical talent will not be a criterion I  will be using. (more…)