Review: Smashing Pumpkins' 'Gish' -35th Anniversary Edition

Smashing Pumpkins debuted in the year of grunge, and though they fit in pretty nicely with that scene's predilection for grimy guitars and self-pity, there was something else going on. The scene lauded punk-level skills, but Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin were virtuosos, the latter seeming pretty well versed in jazz technique. Along with the noise typical of grunge, there were dreamy waves of psychedelia and goth. Plus Corgan had an innate sense of melody largely absent from grunge, with the exceptions of Kurt Cobain and Mark Lanegan. The Pumpkins were also capable of debuting with a remarkably consistent album that even Nirvana couldn't match with their own first effort. Though it doesn't swell with alterna-hits the way Smashing Pumpkins' next two albums would, Gish may still be their strongest album. At least it's my personal favorite.

Review: 'Alternative for the Masses: The '90s Alt-Rock Revolution '

2025 has been a pretty good year for acknowledging that the nineties alternative rock scene was something that actually happened. In previous years (and this year) publishers couldn't pump out enough pages about sixties rock, seventies rock, and Beatles, Beatles, Beatles. Meanwhile the era of Nirvana mostly boiled down to, well, Nirvana. But what about Shudder to Think? What about Helium? What about Belly and Urge Overkill and Primus and Arrested Development and Throwing Muses and Pixies, Pixies, Pixies?

Review: Audiophile Vinyl Reissue of Donovan's 'The Hurdy Gurdy Man'

The press loved to cop out and make trite Dylan comparisons, but Donovan was always a much more eclectic creature than that. Even during his early "folkie" days he was playing with jazz on things like "Sunny Goodge Street" that could never be mistaken for Bob. And once he remade himself as a sort of psychedelic-pop mystic, his albums started taking on unique and cohesive flavors quite unlike his initial solo acoustic guitar dominated albums. With his break through, Sunshine Superman, he crafted a fine and florid folk-raga record that made more extensive use of the sitar than The Beatles ever did. With "Mellow Yellow" he committed to coffee-house jazz for much of the record, and with A Gift from a Flower to a Garden, he created a children's record hippie parents surely stomached better than they would The Best of Burl Ives. 

Review: 'God Only Knows: The Story of Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, and the California Myth' (Remastered edition)

In 1977, The Beach Boys were still a going concern, but one that had recently released fluff like 15 Big Ones while playing the oldies festival circuit. The group's reputation was not strong. Mike Love was flapping his chicken wings and croaking "Fun, Fun, Fun" for the billionth time. Brian Wilson was shattered. His history of making progressive, futuristic music was not what the average person thought of when confronted with the name "Beach Boys."

Review- Alice in Chains' 'Jar of Flies' 30th Anniversary Vinyl

Review: Nirvana's 'In Utero' 30th Anniversary Box Set

After what seemed like an interminable wait, Nirvana finally released their follow up to Nevermind--the album that almost single-handedly plopped the pre-fab term "Alternative Rock" into the mainstream--in autumn of 1993. The band's purported goal was to shake off all the meat-heady fans they'd acquired since putting out a slick disc of metal-ish sounding drums and guitars and big sing-along choruses. Did it work? Well, although In Utero only sold half of Nevermind's figures, that's still pretty damn good, especially for an album so challenging and, despite some mixed notices, rewarding. Nevermind is a great record, but it lacks the personal atmosphere and unsanitized urgency of the record released just six months before the band's main voice took his own life. And that isn't just romanticizing a tragedy. Even before Kurt Cobain died, In Utero stood out for its perfect mix of classic melodiousness ("All Apologies", "Heart Shaped Box", "Scentless Aprrentice", "Dumb") and terrifying abrasiveness ("Scentless Apprentice", "Milk It", "Tourettes"), Steve Albini's massive and filthily organic production, and the tendrils of sadness twining through Cobain's grisly surrealism. 

That's a heavy legacy for an album being given the jolly 30th anniversary treatment, and it may account for why there is an almost total lack of text in this nine-pound-plus vinyl box set. The only reading on offer in the set's 48-page hardback book is a photo of Albini's letter to the band stating his working methods and expectations of the group. The rest is photos, graphics, and a few vellum pages. 

That leaves most of the talking to the music, of which there is eight-LPs worth. Leading the set is a new remaster of the core album, and compared to the Back to Black edition that has been the most common and affordable vinyl option for the past 15 years (and, frankly, the only copy I have for comparison purposes), I found this new remaster by Bob Weston (Albini's assistant engineer during the original sessions) to be much more dynamic, with better defined guitars, punchier bass and drums, and a deeper sound stage. It's also louder without being fatiguing on the ears.

Sitting in the other pocket of the main LP's gatefold is a disc with B-sides and compilation tracks on one side and a selection of live cuts from different sources on the other. The B-sides are an excellent assortment with such gems as Dave Grohl's menacing ballad "Marigold", the unbelievably catchy "Sappy" from the No Alternative comp, and the grinding "I Hate Myself and Want to Die" from the soundtrack of that Beavis and Butthead movie. The live cuts are mostly culled from a Rome show that was one of Nirvana's final concerts, but there's also a performance of "Milk It" recorded in Springfield, MA, and "Tourettes" from NY, both from '93. Despite some AI tinkering to exaggerate the separation between Cobain's and Pat Smear's guitars, the dinkiness of Grohl's usually elephantine drums, and the unsettling effect of having the audience's cheers almost completely muted, the Rome stuff sounds pretty good, as does that version of "Milk It" with extra-mumbly vocals from Kurt. "Tourettes", however, sounds like a low-grade MP3, quite possibly because of that AI business.

Which brings us to the next six-LPs in the set. There's a full set recorded at LA's Great Western Forum on December 30, 1993 and a nearly identical one from Seattle's Center Arena on January 7, 1993, both presented as triple-LP sets. While these recordings don't sound as gnarly as "Tourettes", they aren't ideal fidelity either. Of the two sets, the one from Seattle is less compressed with fewer artifacts. All in all, the sooner this current fascination with AI's ability to put people out of work and make old recordings sound weird comes to an end, the better. Nevertheless, the performances are terrific in spite of Nirvana's reputation for being an erratic live band during their troubled final year.

For the most part the vinyl is quiet, flat, and well-centered. Only the main album's bonus disc has a bit of a warp in the set I received, though it does not affect the sound. 

The packaging is lavish, with that hardcover book, a clear acrylic panel featuring a print of the organ-exposing angel from the album cover, and a packet of goodies Krist Novoselic likened to the extras included with The Who's Live at Leeds. There are repros of concert tickets, posters, ads, fliers, and backstage passes. I was most impressed with the two live albums' triple-pocket jackets, the likes of which I'd never seen. Finally, a non-frustrating, non-chintzy way to store triple albums. Now there's something to celebrate.

Review: 'The Amplified Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana'

In late 1993, Nirvana was just two years into their global fame and had just three albums under their belts, but they'd already done and experienced enough for young journalist Michael Azerrad to fill a full and eventful biography. Ads for Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana were all over MTV, and for rock geeks of my generation, it became an immediate must read, especially after Kurt Cobain took his own life just a few months after publication. I guess we were a bit desperate to make some sense of what had happened.

After the author added an extra chapter acknowledging what had happened, my friend Phil bought the revised edition and loaned it to me. I devoured it in a couple of days and have not forgotten much of what was in there. Nevertheless, when I saw a copy of it at my local library about six months ago, I snatched it up and reread it for the first time since '94.

Soon after, when I discovered that Azerrad was once again expanding his book with additional material and insights to be republished as The Amplified Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana for its thirtieth anniversary, I almost didn't request a review copy since I'd reread the original text so recently. But since that edition was published so long ago and at such a crucial crossroads in Nirvana's career and Cobain's life, I was very curious to see what Azerrad had added, so I went ahead and submitted my request to HarperOne.

I'm very glad I did, because there is literally another complete book in The Amplified Come As You Are. Azerrad has nearly doubled the original's 335 pages to a whopping 609. There is additional material on every single page of this new edition. Occasionally it's no more than a short sentence, but more often, it's a block of text that outweighs the old passage it illuminates. 

Some of it involves facts and figures Azerrad has gleaned over the past 30 years, but mostly we get additional insights into the band's personalities; little details about their routines and behavior that might have been awkward to slip into a traditional rock-bio narrative but work well as annotations; personal stories about the writer's interactions with Cobain, Krist Noveselic, Dave Grohl, Courtney Love, Chad Channing, and the book's other major players; and revised attitudes and regrets. 

One thing is very clear in the original book: Azerrad takes much of what Cobain says at face value, which is not something a biographer should do with any subject, especially not when that subject is a heroin addict, like Cobain was, or a guy who wanted nothing more than to remodel his past, as Cobain did. Azerrad expresses regret for mirroring Cobain's disdain for his own hometown of Aberdeen, Washington, and his own father, who apparently wasn't as bad as Kurt always made him out to be. Azerrad clears up some of Cobain's tall tales, such as his claims that the things he sings about in "Something in the Way" were directly autobiographical. Essentially, Azerrad vastly improves Come As You Are by bringing a middle-aged man's perspective to a story written by a guy in his early thirties. One can't help but wonder how Cobain might have similarly reconsidered his own story if he were still with us today.

Review: 'Kurt Cobain: The Last Interview'

There's something exploitative and ghoulish about naming your anthologies of interviews with dead celebrities The Last Interview, especially when the last interview with Kurt Cobain in Kurt Cobain: The Last Interview is a pretty insubstantial four-page talk with a guitar mag. Yet even when doing his press obligations with something like Fender Frontline, Cobain couldn't help but move beyond the superficial to discuss his family, coming to terms with his audience, and his desire to move beyond grunge cliches. When he ends it by imagining himself fronting Nirvana as an old man opening for the Temps and Tops, you don't know whether to laugh because the image is so absurd or cry because he was clearly expressing his frustration with the limitations of fame that may have contributed to his fatal depression. Either way, that is a bill I would have paid good money to see.

Review: 30th Anniversary Edition of 'ABBA Gold

ABBA should have been the squarest thing in the seventies pop universe: four toothpaste ads from Sweden singing gleamingly cheerful or earnestly distraught songs tailored for the top ten. Yet even the coolest of the cool wouldn't deny the quality of Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus's songs and production or the flawless and emotive harmonies of Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Elvis and the Attractions couldn't stop listening to them on the tour bus and consciously paid tribute to their style on songs such as "Oliver's Army". Pete Townshend praised their songcraft. A decade later, Nirvana not only made ABBA their own tour bus soundtrack, but also actually took an ABBA cover band on tour with them. Starstruck fandom or smirking irony? It was the nineties, so who could tell the difference?

Review: Matthew Sweet's 'Girlfriend' Vinyl Reissue on Intervention Records

The threshold between the last gasps of hair metal and the grunge revolution, 1991 saw a record not so easy to categorize as Mane Attraction or Nevermind. While Matthew Sweet was very much a rock and roll artist, his music existed states away from metal or grunge. 

Review: 'I Found My Friends: The Oral History of Nirvana'

Half way through I Found My Friends: The Oral History of Nirvana, Kevin Franke of the band Vegas Voodoo describes Kurt Cobain as “almost a ghost presence.” This kind of sums up Nick Soulsby’s book, which largely consists of the memories of musicians from obscure bands who played some gigs with Nirvana or saw them play but didn’t really know them very well. Too often we get snatches about how Krist Novoselic is tall or liked to party, or Cobain seemed shy or like he might have been on drugs, but insights about who these people really were and continue to be are rare. That’s because I Found My Friends is less the story of Nirvana and more the story of the music scene surrounding them. One thing we already knew about the group is that they were always supportive of bands that never cracked the “Alternative Nation” playlists, and Soulsby gives these musicians a chance to explain what it was like to play all the shitty, lice-infected clubs Nirvana did in their early years, or in the case of Calamity Jane, open for Nirvana at a huge post-stardom show in Buenos Aires where the crowd showered the opening act with abuse.

While Nirvana fans who come to this book expecting inside information on the band members’ personal lives or studio work will be disappointed, I Found My Friends is a compelling read for those who are simply interested in the nineties rock scene or the often thankless and grinding experience of being in a band in any era. And along the way we do get some genuinely valuable tidbits about Kurt and Krist’s generousness, playfulness, loutishness, devotion to worthy causes, and talent (there’s precious little about their drummers, and that includes Dave Grohl). Soulsby includes some odd comments as well, such as the occasional “I didn’t stick around to watch Nirvana’s set and never thought they were any good anyway,” an anonymous person’s account of his/her own heroin experiences, and the concluding string of eulogies for musicians from other bands, some of which are never even mentioned elsewhere in the book.

Review: The Pixies' 'Doolittle 25'

Like Please Please Me, The Velvet Underground & Nico, and Nevermind (which wouldn’t exist without it), Doolittle is an album that launched a thousand bands. It still sounds as disturbing, catchy, crazy, and uniformly perfect as it did 25 years ago—much less a product of its time than those other albums in its influential league. There is nothing indicative of the antiseptic sounds of ’89 in Gil Norton’s raw, organic production, though its original CD release was still in need of a sonic upgrade. Doolittle apparently got that when it and the rest of The Pixies’ catalogue was remastered in 2003. I don’t have that version, so I can’t confirm whether or not 4AD’s new triple-disc deluxe edition is an all-new master or a recycle of the 2003 one (and since nothing in the press material indicates a remaster, I think it might be safe to assume the latter). However, this is still a pretty must-own repurchase of an album that should have already been in your collection for twenty-something years.

Like all really necessary deluxe-edition excesses, Doolittle 25 offers ways to hear some familiar music in fresh and enlightening ways. While the original album occupies disc one, its demos on disc three strip away Norton’s barely-there sheen for an even rawer, even wilder Doolittle; not necessary a better version of an LP I already called perfect (and it can’t be said enough: Doolittle is perfect. It’s perfect), but a good idea of how it would sound on stage. Genuine live recordings can be heard on disc two in the form of a snatch of John Peel sessions that reinterpret some of the material faster, nastier. That second disc also includes all related B-sides, (many also in Peel performances) which are the best original B-sides of The Pixies’ career: “Manta Ray”, “Weird at My School”, “Wave of Mutilation UK Surf”, “Into the White”, and “Dancing the Manta Ray” (though I should note that “Bailey’s Walk” is probably their worst B-side). That these tracks are significantly meatier here than they were on 2001’s anemic sounding Complete B-sides CD leaves no wonder that at least they were remastered for Doolittle 25.

Psychobabble Hall of Fame to Open in Cleveland!

Breaking news! After an as-yet unidentified Cleveland museum was accidentally demolished by a slightly moist fart, city officials agreed it would be idiotic to rebuild it, instead deciding to replace that as-yet unidentified museum with a new one called the Psychobabble Hall of Fame! 

All artists are eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. At least one non-shitty contribution to Rock & Roll history is the sole criteria for induction. The ability to apply clown makeup will not be a consideration for induction.

Proposed Museum Design.

Breaking update! The list of inductees has just been announced! It is as follows:

Paul Revere and the Raiders

Outstanding Contribution: Can play brutal bubblegum garage rock while doing choreographed dance moves in American Revolutionary War costumes.
Most Outstanding Work:  The Spirit of '67 (1966)

The Zombies

Outstanding Contribution: Crafted ethereally jazzy pop and masterful, Mellotrony psychedelia. Responsible for the current zombie craze.
Most Outstanding  Work: Odessey and Oracle (1968)

The Pretty Things

Outstanding Contribution: Recorded and released the very first LP length-rock opera. Wore the very first 1970s-length long hair. Rocked terribly hard.
Most Outstanding  Work: S.F. Sorrow (1968)

The Turtles

Outstanding Contribution: Racked up hits by recording consistently wonderful bubblegum folk rock with an emphasis on beautifully stoned harmonies and wise-ass humor.
Most Outstanding  Work: Turtle Soup (1969)

Nico

Outstanding Contribution: Metamorphosed from gorgeous, icy voiced pop chanteuse into ghoulish, icy voiced goth princess. Was the scariest thing about The Velvet Underground, which is saying a hell of a lot.
Most Outstanding  Work: The Marble Index (1968)

Love

Outstanding Contribution: One of the few integrated rock groups of the sixties made a totally new sound with each album, and each one was fabulous. Were LA's coolest underground band, and Arthur Lee could shout as well as he could coo.
Most Outstanding  Work: Forever Changes (1967)
 
The Monkees

Outstanding Contribution: Started as a totally manufactured sitcom pop band, said "Fuck that!" and threatened their record company until they were allowed to be one of the greatest real bands of the sixties. Were pretty awesome even before that. Hated by Jann Wenner, which is practically instant credibility.
Most Outstanding  Work: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones, Ltd. (1967)

The Left Banke 

Outstanding Contribution: Single-handedly invented mopey British pop. Were from New York City.
Most Outstanding  Work: Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina (1967)

The Creation 

Outstanding Contribution: Parodied art by setting canvasses on fire on stage. Taught Jimmy Page how to bow a guitar. "Making Time"? Holy shit!
Most Outstanding  Work: We Are Paintermen (1967)

The Move

Outstanding Contribution: Ripped out hilarious power pop, power bubble gum, and power prog rock, often while smashing used cars with sledgehammers. Kept Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne out of trouble.
Most Outstanding  Work: Move (1968)

Procol Harum 

Outstanding Contribution: Invented goth rock even though everyone insists on primarily categorizing them as prog rockers. When they did play prog, Gary Brooker's voice made it soulful prog. Revolutionized the double-keyboard approach. Made their non-singing, non-instrument playing lyricist an official member of the band, which is very considerate. Occasionally wore Merlin costumes.
Most Outstanding  Work: A Salty Dog (1969)

Nazz

Outstanding Contribution: American rockers who kept the concise spirit of '65/'66 British pop alive during the long-winded, jammy late sixties. Were the first thing on Todd Rundgren's resumé.
Most Outstanding  Work: Nazz (1968)


Nick Drake

Outstanding Contribution: Was the king of morbid, introverted singer-songwriters. Made three perfect yet distinct albums.
Most Outstanding  Work: Bryter Layter (1970)

Yes

Outstanding Contribution: Fused Beatlesque pop with prog pretensions. Jon Anderson sang lyrics that didn't even make sense when you were tripping your butthole off. Pissed off your super dogmatic punk buddies.
Most Outstanding  Work: Fragile (1971)

King Crimson

Outstanding Contribution: Are the only prog band you're not embarrassed to keep in your record collection. Robert Fripp did incredibly beautiful things with heavily distorted electric guitar and  incredibly heavy things with the beautiful Mellotron.
Most Outstanding  Work: In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

Big Star

Outstanding Contribution: For those with no space in their hearts for prog, Big Star were the early-seventies saviors of power pop. But only critics knew that.
Most Outstanding  Work: #1 Record (1972)

Pete Townshend

Outstanding Contribution: Already inducted in old museum as member of The Who, deserves to be inducted in new one for making better solo albums than any other member of a major band and better demo recordings than God.
Most Outstanding  Work: Empty Glass (1980)

The Damned 

Outstanding Contribution: Punk, pop, psych, goth, garage rock, prog. They mastered it all without losing their sense of humor. Made the first punk single and the first punk album and toured the states before any of their British brethren. Outlasted about a million break ups and all the asshole critics who said they'd never last.
Most Outstanding  Work: Machine Gun Etiquette (1979)

The Jam

Outstanding Contribution: Introduced sharp mod style and twelve-string Rickenbackers to seventies punk rock. Made eighties new wave honest and organic even if no one else did.
Most Outstanding  Work: All Mod Cons (1978)

Cheap Trick 

Outstanding Contribution: Were the only traditional Rock & Roll band that mattered during the late seventies punk revolution. Their lyrics were as funny as their two heartthrobs/two slobs image.
Most Outstanding  Work: Cheap Trick (1977)

The Cure

Outstanding Contribution: Made the most thrillingly bi-polar music in rock history. Reinvented the dirge. Reinvented grooming.
Most Outstanding  Work: Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987)

Siouxsie and the Banshees

Outstanding Contribution: Transformed punk rock into avant garde art, transformed the Gothic into the delectably poppy, transformed millions of perfectly nice high school girls into wild-haired, wild-makeupped mini-Siouxsie Siouxs (note: just to confirm, Siouxsie's outstanding ability to apply clown makeup was not a consideration in her induction).
Most Outstanding  Work: A Kiss in the Dream House (1982)

XTC

Outstanding Contribution: Made the best hurky-jerky new wave since Talking Heads and the best Beatles and Beach Boys albums since The Beatles and The Beach Boys.
Most Outstanding  Work: Black Sea (1980)

The Replacements

Outstanding Contribution: Were too crazy to contain, too beautiful to ignore, too drunk to keep it together, and too cool for that other hall of fame.
Most Outstanding  Work: Let It Be (1984)

The Smiths

Outstanding Contribution: Made gloriously shimmering pop for mopey kids who didn't quite understand that Morrissey is really, really, really funny.
Most Outstanding  Work: The Smiths (1984)

Suzanne Vega

Outstanding Contribution: Most often stereotyped as a folk singer, the New York singer-songwriter actually reinvented herself as regularly and audaciously as David Bowie. Possibly the only pop artist to dabble in industrial music without making a fool of herself.
Most Outstanding  Work: 99.9F° (1992) 

Throwing Muses 

Outstanding Contribution: Were the scariest thing ever to come out of Rhode Island. Had the most stellar rhythm section in college rock history and a front woman with a voice that could melt your face faster than the Ark of the Covenant.
Most Outstanding  Work: The Real Ramona (1991)

Guided by Voices

Outstanding Contribution: Made it OK to be a lo-fi, middle-aged, self-made Rock & Roll superstar. Literally released 6,000 albums, including a slick, hi-fi one produced by Rik Ocasek that is amazingly awesome despite what everyone says.
Most Outstanding  Work: Bee Thousand (1994)

The Pixies

Outstanding Contribution: Have you ever heard nineties rock? They're responsible for that.
Most Outstanding  Work: Doolittle (1989)

Nirvana

Outstanding Contribution: Revitalized Rock & Roll after the "hair metal" years. Were the last truly culture-crossing, globally important band of the Rock & Roll era. Only band of previous museum's recent inductees deemed worthy of inclusion in the Psychobabble Hall of Fame.
Most Outstanding  Work: In Utero (1994)

Review: 'I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution'

With that barrage of commercials instructing 7-year-old me to call my cable company and demand my MTV, I was hooked on the new basic–cable channel showing nothing but music videos even before it finally came to New York in 1982. It was the classic scenario: my sister and I would come home from school ever day, ditch our textbooks in the nearest wastebasket, plop a few inches from the T.V. screen, and vegetate until our parents came home and read us the riot act about consuming so much sexed-up, violent crap starring weird-looking specimens like Boy George, Madonna, and the increasingly cadaverous Mick Jagger. That, of course, just deepened our addiction to MTV. Years away from even becoming a record buyer, I couldn’t consume enough music videos. I wanted my MTV, and when I got it, I OD’ed. By the time that initial golden age passed, my tastes evolved beyond new wavy one-hit-wonders and made no room for shitty hair metal. I’d pretty much had enough of MTV at that mid-‘80s turning point, even as I was still strangely compelled to spend hours and hours watching it. Perhaps Martha Quinn and J.J. Jackson were too deep in my bloodstream to purge them completely.

November 13, 2009: Psychobabble recommends ‘Babylon’s Burning: From Punk to Grunge’

For a genre that ostensibly sneered at intellectual-pursuits and nostalgia, Punk Rock has sure spawned a lot of analyses and histories. There have been exhaustive studies and accounts of British Punk (Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming), East Coast Punk (Legs McNeil’s Please Kill Me), and West Coast Punk (Marc Spitz’s We Got the Neutron Bomb). Clinton Heylin’s Babylon’s Burning: From Punk to Grunge ambitiously tackles all of these branches, while also delving into the movements in D.C. and Australia; the post-punk, no wave, and paisley underground movements of the ‘80s, grunge, and just about every other offshoot of the genre an obsessive rock geek could think of. As a result, Babylon’s Burning is a messy smorgasbord that touches on innumerable bands from the backbones (The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Nirvana) to the toe bones (Eater, The Killjoys, Long Ryders). The backbone groups are the glue that fastens all of these disparate groups together, but Heylin refreshingly emphasizes the importance of less celebrated groups like The Slits, The Damned, The Fall, and Radio Birdman, giving them near equal space to The Pistols and The Clash.


It tosses a wide net, but Babylon’s Burning gives a thorough, vivid portrait of Punk and all it wrought, although the title may be a little misleading: by page 530 of this 622-page book we’re still in the ‘70s, so it’s main focus is firmly on Punk’s first wave. But the final 30 pages of the book, in which we’re finally introduced to the grunge era touted in the book’s title, is a provocative account of that period, which Heylin basically illustrates as Punk’s last gasp. His iconoclastic portrayal of Kurt Cobain as a Rock star who publicly professed his fidelity to Punk ideology, betrayed that ideology at every possible opportunity, and killed himself because he couldn’t live with his hypocrisy is intriguing, although I think it’s highly remiss to ignore the role Cobain’s drug addiction played in his death. I didn’t agree with all of Heylin’s assertions, but I do appreciate a history that manages to be as opinionated as Babylon’s Burning, and Heylin balances his theories with ample quotes from Brian James, Howard Devoto, Siouxsie Sioux, TV Smith., Elvis Costello, Poly Styrene, and countless others responsible for creating the scene.

As with all of these Punk books, Babylon’s Burning will help all but the most devoted Punk fans to discover a few bands she or he had never heard of before. That may be the most valuable contribution of any piece of Rock writing, but Babylon’s Burning is also essential for its variety, the neat way Heylin ties the various bands together, and the heady dose of punk attitude he mainlines into his prose. It’s a starter, but anything that attempts to accomplish as much as Babylon’s Burning does couldn’t be anything else.