Article

Today’s extract from I’ll Take You There: Pop Music and the Urge for Transcendence by Bill Friskics-Warren is from the section of the book about prophets. In this case, Curtis Mayfield: It was not only Mayfield’s barely masked encomiums to equality that carried his message of uplift and transcendence. Even a putative love song like […]

My brother back home in England just reminded me about the inaugural John Peel Day, taking place for the next several hours. This particular section of the website is amazing: the top 125 Peel sessions of all time. The list is fun to play with: pick seven bands in a row, alphabetically, for a one-day

One of the things I love most about I’ll Take You There: Pop Music and the Urge for Transcendence is Bill F-W’s inclusion of several artists who wouldn’t normally be associated with the more ‘spiritual’ side of pop. Tricky, the Stooges, Eminem, and others. In the following extract, from the chapter entitled “The Great Wrong

The second extract from Bill Friskics-Warren’s new book I’ll Take You There: Pop Music and the Urge for Transcendence is taken from Chapter 2, “Sexual Healing, or Somethin’ Like Sanctified” – in which Bill looks at Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Madonna and, in this particular passage, PJ Harvey. Here’s Bill: Harvey’s gift for mythopoeia is

If you don’t mind, this week I’d like to shy away from the series a little, and concentrate on our excellent new book by Bill Friskics-Warren – I’ll Take You There: Pop Music and the Urge for Transcendence. It’s a wonderful piece of writing, looking at spirituality in the works of Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Madonna,

…If we could do more events like this. Here’s Jim Fusilli in action with his guitar, during a reading/performance last week at the Mystery Bookstore in Westwood, CA. I’m a big fan of Jim’s shoes.

Just received this quote from Greil Marcus, about John Niven’s Music from Big Pink novella: “Usually reading about dope, dopers and dope dealers is unrelievedly boring: this isn’t. It’s an amazing piece of work, as powerful as it is ugly. And the ending is perfect.”

I haven’t mentioned Voxtrot for a few days, but I still can’t get their Raised By Wolves EP out of my head. In a good way. They were utterly charming when we saw them play a CMJ show at Coda – and amazingly fresh-faced. (Tiny pic courtesy of the lovely Emma.) People so young simply

Good piece here by Kimberly Chun in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, about the timeliness of Zep. Includes copious quotage from our very own Erik Davis. And if you’re in San Francisco, you should know about this upcoming event: A short, crazed reading from Erik’s book Led Zeppelin IV. Part of “Live on Valencia!: Writers

Domino’s UK reissue of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has prompted Pitchfork to give it a 10.0 review today. I particularly like this part of the review: What the hell? A guy in a rock band saying he was emotionally devastated by a book everyone else in America read for a middle-school assignment? I