Those of you near Houston, please join me for a history-minded and up-to-date discussion of punk and politics in this time of existential crisis and governmental morass! Joining him will be YOU and members of No Love Less, the Drafted, Mydolls, Anarchitex, and more; Houston Press journalists; photographers and artists; and KPFT personalities too! Marquee Moon, FREE, 7 PM, April 7. Afterwards, I (as DJ Sonic Reducer) will also be spinning my fave politico-punk records after the heated and frank talk!
Drummer Robert “Skin Man” Murphy (Lightnin’ Hopkins, Clifton Chenier, and more), at home, 2011, shot by David Ensminger
Thank you Houston Press for running my tribute to Robert “Skin Man” Murphy, the drummer for Lightnin’ Hopkins and Clifton Chenier! The piece also features some enticing video clips and a down-to-earth unpublished interview I had with the fine-fingered funky percussionist: this includes material that did not end up in Mojo Hand, my co-written biography of Hopkins. Read it here.
Thank you to Tim Hinely at the long-running Dagger for publishing my overview of punk, indie, and hardcore in the dry desert climes of New Mexico, where I attended both the College of Santa Fe and University of New Mexico. The piece is a short, wily homage to the quick-witted, persistent, feral, out of control rock’n’rollers I met then, and those that continue to shred! Also, mucho thanks to my former band mate Jobrian Stammer for helping me flesh out some details, memories, and characters! Check out the flyers of my old band Silver as well! Read it here.
Lastly, I appreciate M. Curtis for referencing my article “The Allure of the Instant: Postscripts from the Fading Age of Xerography” (from Art in Print) in the new scholarly work “Certified Copies: 1980s New Zealand photocopy journals and the Xerographic Aesthetic,” which was printed in the Journal of New Zealand Literature 34.2 (2016).
Long live Xerox art / photocopy art / instant-art, and more!
Don’t forget, my new book (Out of the Basement) about the underground music scene of Rockford, IL, the hometown of Cheap Trick, is out now! Find it at your local bookstore or shop at Microcosm!
The Center for Punk Arts 