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Interview: Tony Clifton

Am I blue?
When comedian Andy Kaufman died 26 years ago, it seemed logical to think that Tony Clifton would be dead too.
By ROB TURBOVSKY | October 19, 2010

Dream Syndicate's Steve Wynn revives a classic

Medicinal properties
At the end of 1983, I was writing for Boston Rock magazine, and in one issue, we predicted the defining releases of the year to come.
By BRETT MILANO | October 12, 2010

R.E.M. | Fables of the Reconstruction: 25th Anniversary Edition

IRS/Capitol (2010)
From the first three notes that make up the odd riff on "Feeling Gravity's Pull," Fables of the Reconstruction is probably R.E.M.'s weirdest, darkest, and most challenging album.
By RYAN STEWART | July 28, 2010

Reality bites

The singular surrealism of Robyn Hitchcock
At some point or another, the greatest artists are pegged as oddballs, weirdos, freaks. Being a great artist does mean going out on a limb.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 04, 2010

Review: On the road with David Foster Wallace

David Lipsky’s Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself treads lightly in the footsteps of a literary giant
David Foster Wallace had a crush on Alanis Morissette. He drank Diet Rite soda by the case. David Lynch changed him.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | May 17, 2010

Crossword: ''Schoolyard Pranks: Platinum Edition''

Only for the classiest children
Only for the classiest children
By MATT JONES | May 05, 2010

Alex Chilton, 1950 - 2010

In memoriam
When Alex Chilton had a fatal heart attack while mowing his lawn last week, he was, statistically speaking, just a 59-year-old New Orleans resident, nothing more than an edit on some census forms. What Chilton represented, however, was a true American iconoclastic hero.
By JEFF BREEZE | March 24, 2010

The Big Hurt: Everybody hurting

Warning: Scorpions content
The music industry's response to the Haiti disaster has been pretty great, since it's given some huge names a chance to complete the vital circuit between the public's heartstrings and their wallets.
By DAVID THORPE | February 02, 2010

Do over

The Feelies pick up their legacy
I tried hard to be born earlier, but it didn't work. As a result, I've had to contend with an irritatingly positioned cultural blind spot (roughly 1976–1986) that currently occupies all that open space once filled with childhood memories.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | November 18, 2009

Risqué management

The Hidden Cameras didn’t mean to turn you on
One of the worst things you can do as a person-who-writes-about-music is to ask an artist which of his songs is his favorite. For one thing, it makes you sound kind of dull. For another, you’re just gonna put the dude in a bad mood.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | October 28, 2009

Epics in minutes

Sian Alice Group make a lot from a little (of everything)
Rupert Clervaux has made a game out of reading how people dissect his band's sound. As a multi-instrumentalist in the London collective Sian Alice Group (who come to the Middle East on Monday), he hears the whole spectrum of genres.
By REYAN ALI | October 13, 2009

Major laser

Naked Raygun assess their legacy
Of Naked Raygun's many conquests, perhaps their greatest was impressing Steve Albini. In a 1992 Maximumrocknroll interview, Albini — the sharp-tongued musician/producer who, among other things, once dismissed Nirvana as "R.E.M. with a fuzzbox" and the Pixies as "blandly entertaining college rock" — offered a rare public endorsement.
By REYAN ALI | August 31, 2009

Major laser

Second summer

Catching up with discs missed
Summer's over, the kids are getting back to school and I'm loath to turn the seasonal page. The music's been terrific. New discs by Spencer and the School Spirit Mafia, Grand Hotel, dilly dilly, Samuel James, and Gypsy Tailwind have highlighted the depth and breadth of our local talent and the return of shows on the pier has reminded many of us just what a great summer town this can be.
By SAM PFEIFLE | August 26, 2009

Make it new!

A refresher course from the indies
Not to make too big a deal out of this or anything, but holy shit this spring is huge. Think about it: it's the first spring following a long, drawn-out winter made longer and more drawn-out by a grueling two-year election that overturned eight even longer years of dreary uncertainty and near-constant suckage.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 16, 2009

Action Jackson

Screaming down the Highway, over the limit
Locally, Loverless, This Way, and now Highway Jackson are forging a bit of a rock renaissance in Portland.
By SAM PFEIFLE | March 04, 2009

The Big Hurt: Frequently asked questions

Pop's great rhetorical inquiries answered in uncomfortably erotic detail
Who wrote the book of love? Book of Love (1990) was a low-budget teen comedy that I rented once on a whim.
By DAVID THORPE | December 17, 2008

Fast-breaking music

You heard it here first
WFNX has always been a maverick radio station.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | December 03, 2008

Flashbacks - February 24, 2006

The Boston Phoenix has been covering the trends and events that shape our times since 1966.
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Chris Brook and Jessica McConnell.
By EDITORIAL | October 27, 2008

The Baseball Project

Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails | Yep Roc
The smart, funny, fanclub chants herein, each as catchy as Willie Mays in the ’54 Fall Classic, are gemlike tributes to the characters who’ve made that diamond shine.
By MIKE MILIARD | July 08, 2008

What's that smell?

Musk turns three at the Midway
There are booty-dancing cuts from the ’80s, white girls hitting body-lock poses, and a sign slung on the taps that reads “$2.50 Cans of Mystery Beer.”
By MATT PARISH | June 17, 2008

Robyn Hitchcock

Sex, Food, Death . . . and Insects | A+E
Robyn Hitchcock, in one of many illuminating moments of reflection during this 53-minute documentary, posits that his songs “don’t appeal to meatheads.”
By JEFF TAMARKIN | May 20, 2008

Going on sale: April 4, 2008

Breaking news from the concert ticket trade
Kate Walsh, Adam Green, R.E.M., and more.
By GOING ON SALE | April 02, 2008

Here and now

R.E.M.’s ‘back-to-basics’ disguise
No band ever made a late-career statement of purpose just by quoting “Louie Louie” — but it never hurts.
By BRETT MILANO | March 24, 2008

Déjà vu

Spring Arts Preview: R.E.M., B-52’s, Counting Crows, Breeders: what year is it again?
Prepare yourselves: R.E.M. have decided to become a rock band again.
By MATT ASHARE | March 10, 2008

Portland scene report: November 16, 2007

Sibilance starts now
We here in Portland know more about alt-country/indie pop than those poseurs in NYC.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | November 14, 2007

R.E.M.

R.E.M. LIVE | Warner Bros.
Unless you’re a diehard fan, wait for their new album in the spring.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | November 13, 2007

Difficult people

Tom Perrotta keeps his characters company through the bumps and bumbles of American life
As a reader of fiction, at this point in life I’m sort of in my late Imperial phase — a sensationalist, easily distracted, with a vulgar appetite for brilliance.
By JAMES PARKER | October 03, 2007

Fallout joys

When the Nirvana explosion rocked Boston
In his newly published The Sound of Our Town: A History of Boston Rock & Roll , Phoenix contributor Brett Milano explores the evolution of the local music scene.
By BRETT MILANO | September 18, 2007

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