MTV get off the air

 a recent interview I did with the Alarmist.  It has been awhile...

Who killed the radio star?

Neil Jumonville R.I.P.

 Sad that first thing I had to blog about for a while was the death of Neil Jumonville.  

I write with a great sense of sadness about Neil’s passing. Though I don’t think I ever met Neil in person, ours was a relationship of the minds, with emails and phones serving as our points of communication. We discovered our shared interest in using (vulgar as that sounds) intellectual history as a means of political and social criticism. I had read his book on Henry Steele Commager, delighted to find his charge: “Historians must reach out and engage the wider public in a dialogue about historical issues if history as a field is to continue to have relevance in our national culture.”

Somehow we decided it would be a good idea to edit a book about the history and (hopefully) future of American liberalism. We both saw the history of ideas as the best approach to such a challenge. And it was while editing the book that I grew an admirer of Neil. I cherish the conversations we had, including our disagreements. We both worried about editing our heroes (or elders), like John Patrick Diggins and Alan Wolfe. We worked hard to make sure a range of views got into the book. At times difficult, Neil always kept us on the same page, figuring the best way to make the book cohere.

Neil dedicated himself to the life of the mind. A historian yes but also an intellectual. He knew his heritage – especially the New York Intellectuals (in his books Critical Crossings: The New York Intellectuals in Postwar America and The New York Intellectuals Reader). He believed the life of the mind could inform debates about the future of the nation. It was his optimism and realism in those hopes that I admired the most. He will be missed; he is already.

 Astroworld Disaster and thinking about the past

Arena Rock Death

 The website for the book still exists and will announce soon the last online discussion hub.  This includes a D.C. presentation that will hopefully be posted soon: 

We're Not Here

But I'll go back to posting here things that go beyond the book.

That includes a recent piece I did for Slate:

Carter at Slate

This led to an interview at:

Chicago radio

A few sentences plucked out of context was done at Fox News:

Fox on Mattson

Which led to phone messages that accused me of being both a Nazi and Commie.  Go figure.

More explaining Trump

 The Empire Trump Built

something with no punk in it

 Here's a story I wrote for Dissent: Trails to Socialism

History News Network AND new website

 Just to alert everyone to this piece for History News Network:

HNN

And the marvelous website designed by my great assistant Shalon.  

we're not here to entertain

Notice the blog at the new website.  I'll be posting there more than here from now on...

This just in...

we're not here to entertain

This just in from the AV Club

 Short and sweet review of the book: Summer Reading

This just in...

 Here's a great interview I did with the hosts  of the 80its.  Two smart and fun guys that I enjoyed conversing with: Punk Rock in the 80s.

SpeakEasy: An event you don't want to miss

 Here is a fascinating program that I'll be participating in.  The theme is "Those were the Days."  My theme will be the bizarre nostalgia of the 1980s that we've witnessed recently.  Check it out: SpeakEasy

A fun interview on the day of the book's release

Enjoy!: https://www.siriusxm.com/clips/clip/65cfb29a-195e-4b44-91fb-9e855ad51e03/69feebe6-8f8a-4925-93e6-d6847ef4bfbd

Great description of what I researched to write the book.

Here's a wonderful treatment of some of the zines I used for We're Not Here to Entertain: Great Zines.

Do the right thing and subscribe to

Dissent where you'll find my latest: Hiking as a means to get to... socialism

Trump like Carter (cont.) or like Nixon and a send out about punk rock

You can find all of that in the podcast that I link to below.  A very fun and interesting discussion.  The whole show's great, but if you want to skip to me, I come in later.

Here you go: politics, politics, and well you know.

Trump Like Carter???

Very interesting story here that compares Carter to Trump.  My book on Carter is mentioned,  The punk book argues that Carter really hit the skids by 1980 -- declaring war for protecting oil  You're watching the country move to the right just as a suburban punk movement started to gel.

The "Carterization of Donald Trump"

WITH THE HELP OF THOSE MUCH BETTER THAN ME...

Please visit the "Top Ten Punk Songs" against the police here: Punks vs. Police

THE POLICE AND THE BOOK!!!

Alright, the book long in the making -- We're Not Here to Entertain -- is about to come out, and I'm surveying the tragedies we're going through right now, and I'm thinking about how many 1980s punk songs focused on suspicions about the police.  So I've gone ahead and made: 

Top 10 Punk Songs about Police

Dead Kennedys, “Police Truck”: One of the best. Not just anti police but anti-macho.

Black Flag, “Police Story”: “A war we can’t win…”  Which was proven when the LAPD practically shut down every show they could.

The Dicks, “Anti-Klan,” with great opening line: “I see that you’re a policeman, I know you’re in the Ku Klux Klan” (before they moved to San Francisco, this band was from Texas!).  During 1980s protests, I remember the chant: “The cops and the Klan go hand in hand!”

The Dicks (yes they get two, because they were the anti-police band, just as much if not more than MDC): “Dicks Hate the Police.”  This one lasted, especially when Mudhoney covered it later on.

Red C, “Pressure’s On” (early political punk in D.C., with Tomas who would later lead the very political band, Beefeater.)  This is a great one with its shredded vocals.

Circle Jerks, “Back Against the Wall”: The futility of rebellion, much like “Police Story.”

Crucifucks, “Cops for Fertilizer” and get a hold of the album where there’s a recording of the police talking to the band’s leader about an upcoming show.  It ends with the following skirmish, “You guys… shouldn’t go so far out of your way to make fools of yourselves.”  To which, the authority figure on the other side retorts: “Well, that’s a matter of opinion.”  The band’s retort?: “It’s a matter of intelligence.”

The Vandals, “The Legend of Pat Brown” about a punk arrested for trying to run the cops down in his car.  Also featured in the movie Suburbia, the quasi-realistic depiction of suburban punk.

SS Decontrol, “Police Beat”: Slightly obvious, like much of the band’s releases.

MDC, “Dead Cops”: Even more blunt than SS Decontrol and clocks in below thirty seconds.

All of these angry songs can be found on youtube.  I'm not sure it's right to say "enjoy," maybe flex your anger muscles.

once more trump/nixon

The latest of this on-going history.  Yours truly is here...

trump nixon again

The first interview about the next book

The first and hopefully not the last discussion of the forthcoming book, We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America.  Appropriately on a podcast dealing with 1980s pop culture.  You can listen here (I come in after a beginning segment):

The 80its