Review: Lynne Goldsmith's 'Music in the '80s'

If you paid any attention to rock music during the eighties, you've seen a bunch of Lynn Goldsmith's pictures. She shot all of the decade's biggest stars from the coolest (Prince, The B-52s, The Ramones, Siouxsie) to the squarest (Barry Manilow). The variety of her photos is as eclectic as the people she photographed. She took glossy posed pics and candid back-stage ones that could be Polaroids. She took black and whites and colors and electrifying live shots and casual al fresco ones. My personal faves are the weird after-party pics featuring unlikely gatherings of stars. You want to see John Mellencamp beaming alongside Jayne County and David Johansen? You want to see Nile Rogers, Chrissie Hynde, Dexter Gordon, and Paul Shaffer sharing a table? You want to see Darlene Love in a clutch with Joan Jett and Elton John, who's wearing a huge, fake mohawk? Then Music in the '80s is the book for you. 

Review: 'Rock and Roll Woman: The 50 Fiercest Female Rockers'

Who would you select if tasked with choosing “The 50 Fiercest Female Rockers”? Once I was through grumbling about that measly number, I wouldn’t select a lot of the ones who make it into Meredith Ochs’s new book Rock and Roll Woman: The 50 Fiercest Female Rockers. To the writer’s credit, she makes a strong case for even the ones who made my eyes roll while perusing the table of contents. Ochs’s colorful prose and infectious love for her subjects nearly brought me to the precipice of reconsidering the artistry of Gwen Stefani or Sheryl Crow.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 193

The Date: April 10

The Movie: Punk Attitude (2005)

What Is It?: Don Letts’s era-spanning punk doc lingers a bit too long after the seventies, but it’s still awesome hearing the whole filthy and furious story straight from the mouths of Siouxsie Sioux, Captain Sensible, Mick Jones, Chrissie Hynde, Polly Styrene, David Johansen, Tommy Ramone, and too many other legends to mention.

Why Today?: Today is Safety Pin Day. Clearly, there is a bullshit holiday for everything you could possibly think of.

August 4, 2009: The Kinks A-Z

Today is the 45th anniversary of “You Really Got Me”, a revolutionary single that not only made the Kinks’ career (sorry… kareer) but also pioneered heavy metal, power-chord rock, heavy guitar distortion, and probably half-a-million other good things. In celebration of this milestone, I bring you…

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