A trenchant and witty exploration, several cuts above typical surveys written in the wake of the “alternative” era.
An invigorating, broad-minded survey of pop music’s experimental fringes.
Martin (Philosophy/DePaul Univ.; Listening to the Future, not reviewed, etc.) attempts to define a 20th-century “music of ideas,” while acknowledging the inherent difficulty in doing so for a genre originally identified with adolescence and spontaneity, and perpetually corrupted by the marketplace. He shrewdly does so by sorting a galaxy of artists into categories broad enough that most readers can find jumping-off points. He notes that, as John Cage, Glenn Gould, and Ornette Coleman found the limits of “reasonable” for classical and jazz listeners, Yoko Ono and Brian Eno did the same during early rock experimentation (c. 1966–75), when mainstream consumers were exposed to provocative music ranging from the Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, and Steely Dan, to Can and Captain Beefheart. Soon, Martin notes, conglomerate record companies disdained supporting such efforts, while what’s termed “The Passage Through Punk” created a powerful, if dead-ended, ideology (and an enduring grassroots aesthetic) in the face of late-’70s social malaise, fueling artists like Patti Smith and Glenn Branca. Although important marginal figures are neglected (e.g., Peter Laughner, The Mekons, Roky Erickson), Martin addresses excellent analysis to a smart selection, including Cecil Taylor, Sonic Youth, Jim O’Rourke, John Zorn, Tortoise, the New Klezmir Trio, and Game Theory (one of many artists whose chess obsession he discusses). Martin relates their music to parallel developments in philosophy and literature, citing influences from Adorno and Debord to Nabokov and Harry Crews, and manages the neat trick of combining the sharp personal enthusiasms of underground rock’s fanzine culture, with the cooler head of academic explorations, so that the reader perceives why rock enthusiasts have stuck with it all these years. He concludes with two essay-manifestoes that question the overwhelming, image-based corporate stranglehold on mainstream music (e.g., the antics of Eminem and Britney), and probe avant-rock’s seemingly healthy, if fragmented, future.
A trenchant and witty exploration, several cuts above typical surveys written in the wake of the “alternative” era.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8126-9500-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Open Court
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2001
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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