Discussion boards across the UK are a’splodin’ and some Very Serious punk fans are up in arms over the sainted Johnny Rotten’s decision to do a series of commercials for Country Life Butter. Like this one.
Read moreThere are all kinds of fun arguments to be had over which band is best or whether one’s taste is critically defensible (*cough*Brian used to listen to Madonna and Gloria Estefan*cough*) and, of course, my favorite – can we separate what we like from our critical faculties (that is, is your “favorite” list different from your “best” list)? But there’s
Read moreThe results of last week’s Name Those Bands contest are in. In first place we have … a disqualification, sorta. Our friend Ubertramp logged in with an impressive 47 of 53. Seriously, that’s pretty damned good. But he has disqualified himself because I’m the one who turned him onto most of these outstanding artists and he felt like he might
Read moreMost years are pretty good for music if you know where to look, and 2008 was no exception. It’s a shame that you have to search so hard, of course – once upon a time all you needed to keep track of what was good in the world of music was a radio. These days it requires a little effort,
Read moreIt has been alleged that Scholars & Rogues is not, strictly speaking, a political blog. Sure, we write about overtly political issues and devote our share of time to things like media policy, energy and the environment, business and the economy, and international dynamics. Yes, we were credentialed to cover the DNC, but we don’t really do hard, insider, by
Read more2004: the year of Nu Wave. And an interesting year, for me, because I’ve always thought the New Wave explosion of 1978-79 was the greatest musical moment of my life, and the “New Wave of the ‘80s” stuff that trailed along in its wake was frequently pretty cool, too. So when I realized that there was a new generation of
Read moreBelow is my Best CDs of the 1990s list. I never kidded myself for a second that I could produce a definitive review – if I can’t even convince myself that the list is as good as I’d like it, I can hardly fault others for disagreeing here and there, can I? In the end I wound up deciding on
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lullaby pit 