…and away we go.

Ryan Ridge
Dan Reeder – This New Century (Oh Boy Records)
The National – High Violet (4AD)
Eluvium – Similes (Temporary Residence)
Spoon – Transference (Merge)
Wavves – King of the Beach (Fat Possum)
Robert Pollard – We All Got Out of the Army (GBV Inc.)
Girl Talk – All Day (Illegal Art)
Joanna Newsome – Have One on Me (Drag City)
This is Deer Country – What Wandering Heart (Self-released)
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse – Dark Night of the Soul (EMI)

Jeremy deVine
Justin Bieber – U Smile 800% Slower (Soundcloud viral mystery)
Eluvium – Static Nocturne (Self-released)
Eminem – Recovery (Shady/Aftermath)
Roky Erickson With Okkervill River – True Love Casts Out All Evil (Anti-)
Four Tet – There Is Love In You (Domino)
Frightened Rabbit – The Winter Of Mixed Drinks (Fat Cat)
Peter Gordon – Love of Life Orchestra (DFA)
Grails – Black Tar Prophecies Vol. 4 (Important)
LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening (DFA/Virgin)
Shipping News – One Less Heartless To Fear (Noise Pollution/Karate Body)

Christopher R. Weingarten
Harvey Milk – A Small Turn Of Human Kindness (Hydra Head)
Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (Def Jam)
Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Def Jam)
Linkin Park – A Thousand Suns (Warner Bros.)
Yelawolf – Trunk Music: 0-60 (Interscope)
E-40 – Revenue Retrievin’: Day Shift (Jive)
Waka Flocka Flame – Flockaveli (Warner Bros.)
The Chemical Brothers – Further (Parlophone)
Sightings – City Of Straw (Brah)
Rick Ross – Teflon Don (Def Jam)

Mark Konwinski
Sweet Cobra – Mercy (Black Market Activities)
Hammerhead – Pasquale (Self)
Kongh – Shadows of the Shapeless (Seventh Rule Recordings)
Gods and Queens – Untitled 2 (Sons of Vesta)
Grinderman – Grinderman 2 (ANTI-)
Your Skull My Closet – Let’s Get Acquainted (Self)
High on Fire – Snakes for the Divine (E1)
Fight Amp/Ladder Devils/Kowloon Walled City – Lose Lose Lose (Brutal Panda Records)
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Hawk (V2)
The Fall – Your Future Our Clutter (Domino)

John Wenzel
Phantogram – Eyelid Movies (Barsuk)
Midlake – The Courage of Others (Bella Union)
Land of Talk – Cloak and Cipher (Saddle Creek)
The National – High Violet (4AD)
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (Merge)
Laura Veirs – July Flame (Raven Marching Band)
Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Roc-A-Fella)
Girl Talk – All Day (Illegal Art)
Superchunk – Majesty Shredding (Merge)
Blonde Redhead – Penny Sparkle (4AD)

Maryann Bayer
Kvelertak – Kvelertak (Indie Recordings)
The Body – All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood (Aum War)
Darkthrone- Circle the Wagons (Peaceville)
Grinderman – Grinderman 2 (Mute)
BarnBurner – Bangers (Metal Blade)
Tinsel Teeth – Trash as the Treasure (Load)
Torche – Songs for Singles (Hydra Head)
Enslaved – Axioma Ethica Odini (Indie Recordings)
Christian Mistress – Agony and Opium (20 Buck Spin)
Jex Thoth – Witness (I Hate Records)

Kip Kelgard
Ty Segall- Melted (Goner)
Deerhunter- Halcyon Digest (4AD)
Weekend- Sport (Slumberland)
Belle And Sebastian- Write About Love -Matador)
Tyvek- Nothing Fits (In The Red)
Mantles- Pink Information (Mexican Summer)
John Wesley Coleman- Bad Lady Goes To Jail (Goner)
Superchunk- Majesty’s Shredding (Merge)
Perfume Genius- Learning (Matador)
Disappears- Lux (Kranky)

Some amazing things that I saw this year:
Pissed Jeans-Satyricon(RIP)
Guided By Voices-Crystal Ballroom(Fucking AMAZING!!!)
Thee Oh Sees-Doug Fir
Painf Of Being Pure At Heart-Holocene
Mayyors-SMMR BMMR
Melvins-Roseland
Ponys/Disappears-Doug Fir
Soft Pack-Doug Fir
Wavves-Berbati’s
Fucked Up-Hawthorne Theater
Red Fang-4th of July at the East End

But the best thing I witnessed in 2010 was the first thing I witnessed, The Jesus Lizard’s final (?) show at Metro, Chicago

Graham Smith
Rustie – Sunburst EP (Warp)
Copywrite – The Life and Times of Peter Nelson (ODOT)
Freeway/Jake One – The Stimulus Package (Rhymesayers)
Guido – Anidea (Punch Drunk)
Ikonika – Contact, Love, Want, Have (Planet Mu)
Tunng – …And Then We Saw Land (Full Time Hobby)
Maps & Atlases – Perch Patchwork (Barsuk)
Venetian Snares – My So-Called Life (Timesig)
Hot Club de Paris – The Rise and Inevitable Fall of the High School Suicide Cluster Band EP (Moshi Moshi)
Yeasayer – Odd Blood (We Are Free)

Ian Fitzpatrick
Owen Pallett – Heartland (Domino)
Corinne Bailey Rae – The Sea (Capitol)
Matthew Dear – Black City (Ghostly International)
Aloe Blacc – Good Things (Stones Throw)
Megafaun – Heretofore (Hometapes)
Das Racist – Sit Down, Man (self-released)
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (Merge)
Jamie Lidell – Compass (Warp)
Seabear – We Built a Fire (Morr)
Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid (Bad Boy)

Michael T. Fournier
Coastwest Unrest – Old Weird America (Reclaim)
Ketman – Ketman A-Go-Go (Lifted and Gifted)
Liars – Sisterworld (Mute)
Medications – Completely Removed (Dischord)
Shipping News – One Less Heartless To Fear (Noise Pollution)
Soccer Mom – s/t (s/r)
Superchunk – Majesty Shredding (Merge)
Touch And Go: The Complete Hardcore Fanzine 79-83 (Bazillion Points)
Mike Watt – hyphenated-man (Parbolica)
Women – Public Strain (Jagjaguar)

Antonio Dipietro
1.  Ariel Pink – Before Today (4AD)
2.  Big Boi – Sir Luscious Left Foot (Def Jam)
3.    
4.   
5.   
6.   
7.   
8.   
9.   
10.

It looks like I only bought 2 records this year, but these are awesome!

Chris Pacifico
Coliseum – House With A Curse (Temporary Residence)
Clipd Beaks – To Realize (Lovepump)
Bison – Dark Ages (Metal Blade)
Black Mountain – Wilderness Heart (Jagjaguar)
Yakuza – Of Seismic Consequence (Seasons Of Mist)
Maserati – Pyramid Of The Sun (Temporary Residence)
Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky (Young God)
Kylesa – Spiral Shadow (Seasons Of Mist)
The Black Angels – Phosphene Dream (Blue Horizon)
Grinderman – Grinderman 2 (Anti)

Don Malkemes
Leather – Anchorite 7" (Caesar Cuts)
Drunkdriver – s/t (WTD)
Rob Duncan – Terriers Theme Song – (FX)

Jonathan Williams
Bardo Pond – Bardo Pond (Fire Records UK)
Circulasione Totale Orchestra – Bandwidth (Rune Grammofon)
Rempis/Rosaly – Cyrillic (482 Music)
Scorch Trio – Melaza (Rune Grammofon)
Mi Ami – Steal Your Face (Thrill Jockey Records)
Bob Dylan – Witmark Demos (Columbia Records)
Kriegshog – War for Peace? (La Vida Es Un Mus/H:G Fact)
Nails – Unsilent Death (Six Feet Under Records)
Harvey Milk – A Small Turn of Human Kindness (Hydra Head Records)
Tyvek – Nothing Fits (In the Red Records)

Chad LeBlanc
Zach Hill – Face Tat (Sargent House)
Tera Melos – Patagonian Rats (Sargent House)
Marnie Stern – s/t (Kill Rock Stars)
Bygones – Spiritual Bankruptcy (Sargent House)
Omar Rodriguez Lopez Quartet – Sepulcros de Miel (Rodriguez Lopez Productions)
The Sunglasses – Bad Happy (vinyl – TransRuin Records)
Dungen – Skit i allt (US – Kemado Records)
Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group – ???????? (Rodriguez Lopez Productions)
Thank God – Ice/Age (Exotic Fever Records)

Ethan Stanislawski
Grinderman – Grinderman 2 (Mute)
Sleigh Bells – Treats (Mom+Pop)
Wavves – King of The Beach (Fat Possum)
Vampire Weekend – Contra (XL)
Galactic – Ya-Ka-May (Suicide Squeeze)
Titus Andronicus – The Monitor (XL)
Red Pens – Reasons (Grain Belt)
LCD Soundsystem – Greenberg Soundtrack (DFA)
Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM (Elecktra)
Gogol Bordello – Trans-Continental Hustle (Columbia)

Vincent Chung
Red Dons – Fake Meets Failure (Deranged)
The National – High Violet (4AD)
Masshysteri – Masshysteri (NY Vag)
Beach House – Teen Dream (Sub Pop)
Double Negative – Daydream Nation (Sorry State)
The Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky (Young God)
Bastard Noise – A Culture of Monsters (Deep Six)
CoCoComa – Spectrum of Sounds (Red Lounge)
Superchunk – Majesty Shredding (Merge)
Firestarter – Saturday Night (is the End of the World) ep (Shit Sandwich)

Andrew Earles first book, Hüsker Dü: The Story of the Noise Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock, is available now.

I noticed an occasional dip into a joke (for levity) here and there, but did you ever have to consciously divest your comedy alter-ego while writing or interviewing people for the book? Were any interview subjects aware of exactly who you were as a writer and comedian?

My comedy alter-ego? At first, I was a little put off at the suggestion that I have a “comedy alter-ego” – like my girlfriend is constantly forcing me to leave the portable P.A. system at home because of a personal tendency to do stand-up in the middle of a restaurant, or as if I carry a rubber chicken around in my back pocket. But then I realized that I did treat my work in the comedy field as a secret life whenever I did work on the book. My comedy album and what I’m known for relative to the comedy genre…none of it had any place in my work on the Hüsker book, and I consciously tried to separate the two. I had two sources mention it during phone interviews, and I was mortified when they did. I tried to promptly change the subject. Those two worlds felt like different planets, and the Just Farr A Laugh 2CD set was released by Matador when I was five months into working on the book! The color probably drained from my face when Lori Barbero answered the phone one morning with, “I know about yoooooooouuu…..” I mean, the year before I got the book deal, you and I were on the “Comedy and Indie Rock” panel at SXSW! Most of my book work was done in a mindset that had no room for humor, for both obvious and not-so-obvious reasons, and I felt like it attached an unprofessional feel to my demeanor if my sources knew that one of the largest and most successful labels around had released a double CD and massive booklet based around prank phone calls I’d done with a friend (Jeffrey Jensen). When the phone call 2CD set was released in May of 2008, the whole world seemed to act like it was covered in feces and live ants, and it went on to be the worst-selling release on Matador in the past ten years, I think. If not the worst, then close to it.  I guess it speaks to my supreme failure in the comedy genre that I was able to keep these two worlds separated….for the most part. So the really short answer to your question is….no, it was not hard to turn off that part of my life when I was doing book work.

To address the question as to whether or not it was a challenge to silence my usually uncontrollable irreverence, or whatever, while writing the book, I will admit to having a small handful of barbed sentiments were poo-poo’d by my editor, but they were directed at entities removed from my subject. More genres and demographics than specific bands or artists, really.

Is there anything you want HD fans to take away from this book that they wouldn’t get from anywhere else?

Meaning, the stuff they can’t get from the other books written exclusively about Hüsker Dü? I’m not sure I understand this question. At least 80% of the text between the two covers comes to mind…excluding some of the info at the end of the book, which is available in another form and presented in a totally different fashion on Paul Hilcoff’s Hüsker Dü Database.

Other than Bob Mould and Greg Ginn, are there any other principal interview subjects you wish you could’ve reached?
 
Reached? Oh, I reached a lot of people, including those two, I think; it’s just that they decided not to participate. Jello Biafra would have been a nice interview, and he was one of the few that actually reached out to me before I had attempted to reach him. Problem was, he only wanted to do it if all three members were involved, and I can respect that decision. I had a rather awkward experience with Henry Rollins. I found his manager, and sent her my request for his participation…..via e-mail. She called me up. Let’s just say that very few personalities have actually made me feel like the naive bumpkin stereotype that shrewd movers-and-shakers from the West Coast and NYC might associate with this part of the country. This was like trying to talk to a character from a Neal LaBute movie about entertainment managers, if such a movie were to exist in real life. It was clear that she didn’t read or didn’t consider anything I’d written in my e-mail, or her brutally-toned questions would have been rendered unnecessary. And the incredulous undertone, like I was some unpublished dipshit writing about Hüsker Dü in a spiral notebook. Also, all of the "What exactly do you want to ask my client?" and "Why do you want to interview my client?" -style questions imply that she knew nothing about her client. She would ask me to explain the connection between Henry and Hüsker Dü, then cut me off after I got four words out of my mouth….with another question that was either obvious, or covered in my e-mail. After we got off the phone, I got an e-mail within five minutes. "Henry won’t be participating in your book." So here’s the funny part: Two days later, my editor at the Memphis Flyer assigns me a preview of the Henry Rollins spoken-word performance that’s coming up in town, so I had to get back in touch with this woman and ask for a totally unrelated interview. I went ahead and preemptively stated that I wasn’t going to disrespect the decision to remain uninvolved with my book while I was conducting an interview for my Alt-Weekly about a completely different and removed subject; something I felt stupid clarifying, as I was basically saying "Oh, and by the way, I’m not an integrity-challenged weasel." When it comes to ease of acquiring sources, my book had two major attributes going against it: It was about Hüsker Dü, a band comprised of three people who are more-or-less unfriendly or uncommunicative with one another, so you automatically have three camps of sources who could conceivably have a problem with discussing the subject matter. And it should be clarified that Greg and Grant are not unfriendly with one another, though they only speak over the phone about Hüsker business. The other red flag for potential interviewees was, of course, not having Bob on board. I made sure to tell all of my prospective sources about this on the front end, within the invitation. In hindsight, there’s no telling exactly how many potential interviewees this cost me, because there were a lot of people who simply didn’t bother to respond to my request. That was a little irritating, but hey, these folks don’t owe me anything. Lastly, I must issue a terse comment about the people who agreed to participate, seemed fine with the dynamics of my book, and received a list of questions only to give me the silent treatment when I attempted follow-ups. I was not using a stock set of questions, and put a lot of time and thought into each individual interview. To not have the grapes to say, "You know, I’ve decided I’m not comfortable with this" or to just blow me off due to laziness or apathy? You shouldn’t do people like that. Is it not somewhat flattering that a writer deems you worthy of quoted commentary in a published biography or historical text? Oh, there was a third factor going against this book: Previously-published books or other examples of music press that I had nothing to do with. I had one very, very important source turn me down based on a bad experience with previously-published book that will always be associated with my book. I shouldn’t elaborate on this one, but it wasn’t the only book that indirectly costs me a source or two. One book guaranteed that an entire band wasn’t going to speak with me, and it would have been nice to get at least one of these guys on the horn. Lastly, I’d like to drive something home: If an excluded source pops out of my book and bothers you, dear readers, please understand that there is a really, really good chance that I contacted this person and their absence is based upon a personal choice. Sadly, a reader’s, or a critic’s, first impression tends to be that I didn’t even know to get in touch with certain sources or that I did know but made no effort. ?

Were there any people you interviewed for the book who despite giving plenty of good information were just not able to be used?

No, I used at least one or two quotes from everyone I interviewed, unless I’m forgetting someone. It is entirely possible that I’m forgetting someone. Now, there are hours of unused interview content when it comes to the frequently-used sources, like Mike Watt and Grant, and I wish I could have used more of Ray Farrell’s excellent interview.

In retrospect, looking back at your time on this, your first book, what would you have done differently? What could you have done better?
 
Ask me this in nine months. This isn’t where my head needs to be at the moment, though I will say that I will make more of an effort to guarantee that my personal life isn’t in a tumultuous state. Pretty tall order, considering the unpredictable nature of several key factors. I know that I will be more financially secure when I’m writing my next book. Terrified and broke is not a condition that I find conducive to creativity/productivity. I had a large percentage of my side work disappear due to the economic downturn in the fall/winter of ’08 and into the first half of ’09.

And about nine months into the book-work, I suffered an acute case of appendicitis that was the single most traumatic situation I’ve ever experienced. The offending organ actually ruptured a few minutes prior to surgery, which occurred a short 12 hours after the first pangs of pain became noticeable. I was told that I would have been dead within two or three hours had the surgery not happened when it did, and I was in the hospital for almost five days of post-op recovery. Prior to any notable medical attention, I was kept in a room for several hours, delusional from the worst pain I’ve ever known. It was during this time that I became convinced I was going to die. There were other complications, too, but this isn’t what anyone wants to read about. Nor do they want to read about my mom falling ill, which also happened while I was writing this book…

Do you have any future writing plans you can discuss? Are you anxious to start working on another book or did this one cure you for a while?
 
I am very anxious to start work on another book, or two books at once, depending on what type of book we’re discussing here. I am tightening up the proposal and putting feelers out for a book that I’m afraid to explain. I really don’t want someone to steal the idea. Elsewhere, I’m carefully deciding whether or not it’s a wise idea to start proposing a biography of an particular artist who is no longer with us, I’d love to write an encyclopedia or history of the independent label that began a quarter-century ago and went up to present day, then there’s a book about how eBay has altered if not become the gold standard by which vinyl worth is now determined (or basically a history of the vinyl record’s relationship with eBay), and I’m trying to settle on an angle re: a book about deregulated "extreme"/underground metal. Oh, since other factions of 90’s hardcore have gotten book or large-scale bio treatment, what about the crust or metallic side of things that had nothing to do with NYHC meatheads or sports jerseys…the early part of the d-beat revival, huge riffs courtesy of Neurosis, His Hero is Gone, etc, power-violence, you know what I mean. No one’s done that book, yet. One idea I’m pretty excited about is a book telling the recent history of the budget-level guitar and how many such brands/models now feature a quality-level that rivals guitars costing much, much more, starting in the early-90’s with the Yamaha Pacifica and moving forward to present day. This book would also serve as an expose of some expensive brands that are now coasting on the power of their name yet building decisively shoddy products, not to mention the powerful strain of now-unjustified snobbery shown by guitarists and magazines that snub brands like Squier and Epiphone and invest so much importance in the name on a headstock, thus promoting some dubious rip-off schemes on the part of mid-to-high end manufacturers. I’m also starting to compile either one or two volumes of my own writing as it was done in a certain tone and published for several years as a column and in an entry-based section of well-known alt-weekly, and this is to be combined, somehow, with the content created by Dave Dunlap and myself for our late-90’s zine (1996 – 2000), The Cimarron Weekend. Finally, I still believe that my life’s work will be an epic-length biographical treatment of the man who is perhaps my biggest hero, if not the strongest interest I have in a single personality, the untouchable Bill Drummond.
 
This is what I do, and I’m not doing any other type of work at this moment. I have to keep an eye on my mom, whose health is worsening, and up until recently, was splitting my physical work areas between the makeshift office I made in my mom’s guestroom and my office at home, in the house I share with my girlfriend. Trying to do writing work in two physical places is a fucking nightmare, and it automatically creates this default third workplace known as "the automobile". Point is, I wasn’t sending out pitches at the rate I once was (or should be now), and I have less work in the pipeline than I’ve had in years. That doesn’t dance with having a recently-published book, especially one that’s getting some attention, and the irony is painful rather than funny.

What about Earles and Jensen? Are you two still recording phone calls?
 
On Christmas Eve of last year, Jeffrey sent me an e-mail encouraging me to take a look at the Matador home page, where ‘Earles and Jensen’ had been removed from the "Current Roster" drop-down menu and placed in the "Alumni" drop-down menu. As a result, our 4LP/Book/DVD conceptual set entitled "The Blues 2" has no home. Jeffrey aligned with American Apparel to create an album of prank phone calls to AA locations, which he did with the help of East Village Radio (each call was done on the air). To explain it further would only serve to confuse readers, but the calls are brilliant and can be found online by searching the archives for the "Gay Beach" program, I believe. He invited me to contribute, but I could only manage some creative consulting long-distance, as book-work didn’t allow anything more involved at that particular time…I was trying to remedy a content dry-spell and get up to Minneapolis for some face-time with people. Someone should release those AA calls, though. Solid stuff. ?

Care to elaborate on anything?
 
You sure you want me to do that?

It’s been a hectic month so far, and I’m only now getting around to offering this.

Any domestic orders include free shipping for the next month. Overseas orders can have discounted shipping if we arrange it through Paypal, but it’s just too tricky to deal with on the Chunklet store.

This here is a tape that never even came across my radar until over twenty years after its release and well, it’s my job to pass it along to you! I mean, innit?

Well, boy howdy, this is the When The Bow Breaks tape compilation released by the legendary live archivist Greg Webb back when he lived out on the eastern side of Virginia. To those who haven’t been next to Greg at the countless gigs he’s documented in the South over the past twenty five years, I feel it necessary to tell you that his video footage makes up the great majority of footage on the Harvey Milk "Anthem" 2xDVD.

Apart from the glimmer of future Athens legends (Porn Orchard and Mercyland), there’s killer live audio of Corrosion of Conformity, but the real gems lie in all the live recordings of the DC bands that’d duck down to Virginia Beach and play. Sure, we’ve got yer Fugazi and Soulside on here, but really, those are almost garden variety compared to the other gems that Greg has on here.

First off is the ridiculously underrated Three which I never even knew performed live outside of the immediate DC area. Also, for your listening pleasure Kingface, One Last Wish and Scream make appearances.

I certainly hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed listening to it for the first time. One of these days, when Greg makes his way back to Georgia (he now lives in SoCal) I’ll bug him about raiding this collection. However, in the meantime, crank this.

Much thanks to Arthur Johnson for allowing me to borrow his copy of this.

POST SCRIPT: I got an email from "thee" Greg Webb (check out his You Tube channel). Instead of rewriting what he said, I’ll just post it as is.

"Hey, just happened to notice the cassette tracks posted on Chunklet. Please put in text that I put on the shows and taped the shows I put on. That’s how DC bands made it to Virginia Beach, because I called them. Also note that the cover art was done for free by the late, great Ted Hafer. Also, I still owe four people, who sent me $5 from the MRR review, copies of the tape, in the slim chance that arises. Thanks, Greg"

Porn Orchard-Live ’87
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Three-Live ’87
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Soulside-Live ’88
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Scream-Live ’88
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One Last Wish-Live ’86
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Mercyland-Live ’87
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Kingface-Live ’87
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Fugazi-Live ’88
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Corrosion of Conformity-Live ’86
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So the Final Outlet movie is something that I don’t know if anybody outside of Athens or the stars’s circle of friends will either ‘get’ or ‘enjoy’ but whatever, it doesn’t hurt to change things up a bit. Shot throughout the mid-’90s, Fatal Outlet is in dire need of an edit job. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its moments. Ted Hafer was the gent behind this and he personally gave me the copy you are going to watch and even he thought it needed to be redone.

Regardless, the list of Athens ‘celebrities’ starts to get dizzying after the first few scenes. However, I just always thought highly of most of these folks when I first moved to Georgia so maybe that has something to do with it. Paul and Creston from Harvey Milk, Amber from Jucifer and Ballard from Roosevelt/Hayride/ElfPower/Vic Chesnutt’s band appear along with probably the entire working staff of The Grit from ’93-’97 and every regular at the Manhattan from the same time period.

I know, I know, this will probably fly over the head of most, but I thought it best to throw it up here before YouTube wises up and takes it down due to some seedy language.

One aside, this movie rests in its entirety on YouTube and can be watched in 10-15 minute segments at my ‘channel’. I just can’t figure out how to make one vid flow into the next. So deal with it.

Ted Hafer RIP.

What was initially going to be a brief interview has blossomed into a 6,000 word behemoth which I didn’t dare edit by even one word. Andy is just always such a treat to read. So here, dear reader, is part two (read part one over yonder).

Andy Earles’ book, Hüsker Dü: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock, is now for sale.

You delve into correcting several books about hardcore (generally) and HD (specifically).  Most importantly, you heavily criticize "American Hardcore". Was it merely your opinion that Blush’s book was off base or was this an overall sentiment that was shared by folks you interviewed?
 
I wouldn’t say “opinion” had much to do with it, nor did anyone else’s commentary about Blush’s book because I rarely brought it up to my sources, if at all. Sadly, the second edition of American Hardcore hit shelves between the time that I made the last changes to my book and its publication, which makes me look like an asshole because I don’t specify that I’m referring to the first edition of his book because a second one didn’t exist when I was writing that. Blush added almost 90 pages of content to the second edition, and removed several passages that I would hope any reasonable person would take issue with. To avoid this answer growing to novella-length, I will point out three examples which will more than sufficiently prove my point. And let it be known that I extended an invitation to Blush – to have himself heard in defense several passages I’d be taking to task in the Hüsker book – and never heard back.

The ‘IQ 32 (MIDWEST FUCK YOU)’ chapter itself is seven pages longer in the second edition than it is in the first. About halfway through the Hüsker Dü section, there appears this sentence at the beginning of a paragraph:

“The trio were all gay men hung out with outcast teenage boys.”

Aside from the fact that Greg Norton is not a homosexual and the third grade-level grammatical error (the exclusion of ‘who’ between ‘men’ and ‘hung’), I don’t think I need to elaborate on what is fundamentally wrong with this sentence.

The sentence was entirely removed from the 2nd edition, but the rest of the paragraph remained largely unchanged and reads as follows:

“All who knew the Dü say their gay predations with all these alienated young boys were discreet – and they basically were. But a creepy memory persists of a barefoot, drugged-out Grant Hart, on the prowl for young meat after a show.”

Really? Did Grant say, “Now let me state the age requirements for tonight’s drugged-out trolling session…” So, he’s a gay man looking for some company after a show. This is probably what Blush witnessed, if he witnessed anything at all. What’s that got to do with hardcore’s important stamp on culture? Why am I pointing out what’s wrong with this passage? It’s obvious. Other hardcore homosexuals like Gary Floyd, the late Biscuit Turner, and MDC’s Dave Dictor are not shown such disrespect.

The book is full of loaded speculation, like stating that Gibby Haynes became such a notorious crack smoker in the late-80’s and early-90’s that Mexican drug dealers called their extra large baggies of crack “gibbies.” And the definitive nature of so many claims; it seems like he credits each hardcore scene as rising in opposition to one regional entity, such as Austin hardcore happened in opposition to the cosmic cowboy, Jerry Jeff Walker hangover suffered by the town. No, Austin hardcore happened because hardcore was HAPPENING EVERYWHERE.

In the 2001 introduction, Blush claims that during the five years that went into “writing” American Hardcore, he has had to…..

“…distinguish fact from opinion, forcing myself to rethink preconceptions. I’ve tried to purge myself of all of the punditry, stereotyping, sloganeering, gut feelings, and knee-jerk reaction developed over the years, and I’ve quit trying to defend my personal tastes. Plenty of petty attitude persists among Hardcore participants to this day, but I strived to avoid adopting the bad vibe.”

Really? Because I know of no officially-published (not iPublishing) book so saturated with everything listed above.

In the 2010 introduction, Blush wastes no words before diving headfirst into the nonsense. This is the first sentence:

“Here’s the Second Edition of American Hardcore, the book that set the record straight on American Hardcore Punk music.”

Did the record need to be “set straight” or did the scene simply need to be documented? He goes on to describe the “five-year pre-internet research” he conducted for the original book, a book that was published in 2001. Did he finish his research in 1997, do something else for four years, then say, “oh shit, I’ve got this book I need to try and get published….” No, because in the intro to the American Hardcore discography section, he states that…

“Every piece of information I’ve seen posted on the Internet regarding American Hardcore is wrong, so I’ve chosen to totally ignore it.”

That statement was written in 2001. And if it wasn’t ridiculous enough, check out this follow-up in the same section of the 2010 edition:

“In the first edition I wrote… ‘most piece of information I’ve seen posted on the Internet regarding American Hardcore is wrong, so I’ve chosen to ignore it’ A decade later – due to this book’s influence – the Hardcore info posted online is far more complete.”

Wow.  Hopefully readers noticed that Blush changed “Every” to “most” and removed the “totally” in the process of QUOTING HIMSELF, if they were not blinded by the absurdity of this claim. 

I do regret that I allowed myself to come across as a hothead gunning for Our Band Could Be Your Life and tried to dial down some of the more ham-fisted quips in my final edit, but I had a short amount of time to comb through the entire draft. Along with Paul Hilcoff’s exhaustive Hüsker Dü database, the band’s chapter in Our Band… was an obvious cross-referencing point for chronological conundrums, of which there seemed to be an unending barrage. When I pointed out discrepancies or claims that differed from what my sources were telling me, I wasn’t in the mindset I’m in presently. Now I have a book out, and my book contains some honest mistakes. Look, Our Band… was the first time most of that subject matter had been discussed in such an official and widely-read forum, not to mention the fact that the book was the seed that grew into the one and only true miracle within the history of seminal band reformation: Mission of Burma.

Bob Mould will undoubtedly read your book. In a perfect world, what would you like to happen?
 
Why does it have to be a perfect world? That suggest that he will automatically hate my book if we’re speaking in terms of the world we’re living in. I wanted Bob to be a part of this book. Bad. I took the proper channels and invited him, and he respectfully declined. The book didn’t magically transform into an anti-Bob venture at that point, which really seems to blow some minds. There was a lead review of my book in the Star Tribune, and the writer got in touch with Bob and interviewed him about my book. I don’t want to assume anything about this writer’s motives, but this move suggests that I purposely excluded Bob, like this writer purposely excluded me from an interview about my book. Or perhaps it’s saying, “Look how easy it is to get an interview with Bob” ….for a book review. I think that people are assuming I didn’t even ask Bob to participate. Our culture is so irreparably fucked in that it’s geared towards the negative these days, but that’s a can of worms for another time. My editor put this gem in my head: “On the internet, it’s either shit or sunshine.” I couldn’t agree more, but I’d expand that sentiment to include every other format. I feel like people think the moment after I got the news of Bob declining, I exclaimed, "Who the fuck does he think he is?!? I’m gonna lay waste to his entire career!!! [Sound of me dialing phone] Grant? Commence with Operation Bury Bob!" I was attempting to be facetious just now, in case some dipshit takes that seriously. I was writing a biography about a band that practically built my record collection, indirectly, so to speak. 

You’re very cautious in that you refrain from talking about business dealings between HD and SST in the book. You talked to Joe Carducci (long time SST employee) at length, but couldn’t get Greg Ginn on the horn (not a surprise). If you could look into a crystal ball, what do you envision will happen to the SST-era HD recordings?

Exactly what should happen to them, it’s just going to be a bumpier road than, say, what it took to rope in the Sonic Youth albums on SST. One thing complicating matters, besides inter-band relations/communication, is that the SST albums, barring some represses on colored vinyl that appeared in the late-80’s and early-90’s, have remained in print on vinyl and CD, just like the Black Flag and Minutemen titles have remained in print, more or less. Now, a warning to any individual record buyers that take this as an invitation to personally order from the SST superstore, the second edition of my book will probably be published before you receive your order in the mail. But any store or distro that orders weight will get their factory-sealed copies of Zen Arcade or Flip Your Wig the next week. Go any deeper than this, and it gets confusing. How does one explain the sudden appearance of long out-of-print Saint Vitus LP’s earlier this year? I bought a couple, then did some research on eBay as to what differentiated my factory-sealed copies from original presses, and found that it had to do with the inserts found inside. I opened both of my records and it turned out that I had one original press and one “repress”. I’d always wanted these records, but they were fetching serious coin online. But on the subject at hand…I will say that talks are currently happening for the best of this cause, and a label is involved in these talks. Terry Katzman has been working on some archival releases for several years, too, for he has a great deal of the live recordings and demo recordings. He was the band’s real-time archivist, and a better, more stand-up guy doesn’t exist. I feel like I owe Terry Katzman my firstborn, and probably do.

You know that Warner’s did a toe-dip into reissuing Hüsker product at the beginning of 2009, when all of the sudden Candy Apple Grey appeared as a 180-gram Rhino reissue (vinyl only). Now, that’s a record that did go out of print on vinyl, technically, though it was never hard to find or expensive. This reissue hit stores in March of 2009. There was no fanfare, no announcements, nothing in the way of promotion. It was just in the bins one day. Now, the Warner’s royalty situations are supposedly on the up-and-up, and I heard nothing to speak to the contrary. But something did happen, or didn’t happen, relating to this reissue that I found immensely depressing. Six months after its release date, in August of 2009, I was on the phone with Grant, and this is when I was trying to sort out the Hüsker + major label situation and present it in a readable manner. This was the hardest part of the book to write, by the way, but that’s for another time. Anyway, I casually mentioned the Rhino reissue for whatever reason, and Grant had no idea what I was talking about. I mentioned it with the impression that he knew about it and had copies, mainly because I had left him a phone message back in March when I saw the thing in the bins. He doesn’t check his phone messages. “What reissue?” I explained what I was referring to, my voice losing more and more life as my short description of the reissue reached silence. He responded, “Let me call you back in ten minutes.” This was the one time in which I got a little critical over Grant’s insistence on living a computer-free life, which he was doing until very recently. Grant was never preachy or critical of my use of a computer, so why should I weigh in on his abstinence from it? Because it was costing him money and it was costing him show patrons when he started touring his most recent record.

(End of part 2. Part 3 discusses Andy’s comedy pursuits, even more about SST and Bob Mould and how Earles & Jensen are now Matador Records "alumni".)

A couple weeks ago Mike Treff from Soundscreen Design came down to Georgia and we assembled 300 Man…or Astro-Man? 7"s  (current eBay bidding is up to $280!) and spoke at Criminal Records about their new book that I wrote for. Yes, a dangling participle, but what do you expect on Black Friday?

Here’s parts two and three for those that are interested. And yeah, I recommend getting the book "Touchable Sound" for that special loved one. Enjoy.

This is one of those weird introductions that I don’t know where to begin. I met Andy Earles via his fanzine Cimmaron Weekend in 1996 or ’97. I immediately found his writing to be arresting and he, too, was from the South, and well, a quick friendship was formed. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to have Mr. Earles contribute to each subsequent issue of Chunklet along with our two published books. Andy’s prolific writing career is in tandem with his equally prolific career as part of the Earles & Jensen comedy duo which was originally a self-released CD (Just Farr A Laugh) which has since been paired by Matador along with their second CD. Recommended? Uh, yeah.

To say that I admire and respect Andy as a peer is to put it mildly as I’ve watched him steadily climb his way up the freelance writer ghetto to a full-fledged author of his first book: Hüsker Dü: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock. I remember when Andy and I originally discussed his pitch to do a 33 1/3 book about Hüsker Dü and it was shot down. Of course, that didn’t come as a surprise, but what I loved is that Andy repackaged his pitch and got a book deal out of it. Well, that phone call and pitch was over two years ago (possibly three?) and now Andy has his first book out and, man, is it a doozie.

What had originally started as me thinking of a casual interview turned into a behemoth of an email discourse between us two. Andy went to town with my questions and this being one of Andy’s first homes, I feel obligated to let you read everything he wrote back to me. What follows is part one of three delving into his debut book, the obvious questions about Bob Mould and Greg Ginn, his comedy pursuits and well, everything in between.

It’s my sincere pleasure to present this to you.

After reading the book, I was impressed by how you deftly were treading a tightrope between three very sensitive, and separate, camps (Grant, Greg and Bob) while only two (Grant and Greg) were willing participants. Was the temptation ever there to dip into the more scandalous aspects of the band? Were you, in a way, trying to stay true to all three in the band by being both passionate and objective in your writing?
 
Thanks to Paul Hilcoff’s excellent Hüsker Dü Database site and the absurd amount of music-based non-fiction (zines/magazines, books, saved clippings, etc) that I’ve amassed since succumbing to “the disease” at age 16, I have probably read and attempted to process at least 95% of the preexisting music journalism/criticism/coverage relating to Hüsker Dü in some way. I guess every band, once you hit a specific level of exposure, becomes a magnet for dumb questions, but wow…I learned that it may seem like people don’t pay attention these days, or that we’re in some era of the short attention span, yet this has always been a problem. Writers were asking Bob and Grant about hardcore, in the present tense, when Candy Apple Grey was out. I think the smarter the band, the dumber the questions seem to be during an interview. Or that’s an automatic illusion for a third party who’s privy to how smart band members happen to be, as I was with this band. What I’m getting at is…this band has always had, to this day, a uniquely negative relationship with music writing/journalism/criticism. So here I come along with such a project, and it’s of massive scale, and my unconscious inclination from the get-go was to distance myself from the past quarter-century of writing about Hüsker Dü. I’ve already been accused of a journalism no-no when I admitted that I considered Greg and Grant to be “friends” in my intro. That’s relative usage of the term; of course, I didn’t go golfing with Greg. I didn’t help Grant restore one of his Studebakers. But these guys don’t let you in unless some sort of friendship is developed, some degree of trust that goes hand-in-hand with the applicable degree of friendship. But that’s not why my angle at the band is different from past angles. That has more to do with me as a person, two very bad years of my life having coincided with the writing of this book and my natural approach to writing, meaning, if I’m able to (control-wise), I will hopefully create something that doesn’t get lost in the mire of mediocrity that is music writing as a whole.

Some people actually thought I was writing some critical beat-down of the band. I got an e-mail asking if I was going to "let ’em have it, Street Team-style, or at least bag on Grant and Bob’s solo careers." Why would the first book about Hüsker Dü be irreverent and negative, exactly what a historically neglected and misunderstood band doesn’t call for? What Hüsker Dü‘s music did for the past quarter-century of whatever-you-want-to-call-it rock music cannot be overstated, yet it was never even STATED to begin with because irresponsible writers and editors went with the easy hook. I really enjoy being ass-deep in the virtual (online) and physical clutter of research, reading zine interviews from almost 30 years ago, following the band as they reach one tiny achievement or hurdle one massive obstacle at a time, watching the amount and type of music press change as the band builds a following, hearing live clips from 1982 of the band playing freshly-written content that wouldn’t appear on record until two or three years later, and I should stop before I lose the plot again. My point is: This band broke way too much ground on way too many levels, and the casual but curious future-fan only knows them as the band that didn’t get along, or the band that was gay, or the band with a drug problem, or the band that did Zen Arcade, or the band that’s suing their old label, etc. There are so many reasons why I either didn’t want to be a part of that, or wouldn’t be a part of that without even thinking about it.
 
Early on in the book, you say something that HD fans have probably not considered which is that before the band even entertains reuniting on stage, they need to sit in a conference room with attorneys and settle the business side of things. Providing that happens, do you think the band could pull a Mission of Burma and record new material that is as fresh and new as, say, Metal Circus?
 
That’s in the intro, and it’s in reaction to several e-mails and a couple of ridiculous phone conversations. And I should clarify that in no way was I wishing for or advocating the reformation of Hüsker Dü. I was stating that another type of reunion would be much more important and rewarding, both for the band and their fans. Someone’s living room, hotel conference room, or a Food Avenue inside of a Target location, the point was…in the same room. And I was not implying that lawyers would need to be present for the purpose of inter-band moderation, they would need to be present so that no game plan misunderstanding or miscommunication took place outside of that room, once an agreement is reached as to how the back catalog can move into the hands of a label capable of a proper repackaging/reissue campaign. There are other important parties that have to be involved in this, too, like Terry Katzman, who is quite literally the friend that was there at the beginning and who will be there in the end. Terry is the closest thing that Hüsker Dü has in an archivist, especially regarding the first half of the band’s lifespan. Also, since I have already read several complaints about my dismissal or exclusion of information about SST’s or Greg Ginn’s control over the band’s most important and best-known albums, and past issues centered around the non-receipt of regular royalty statements/payments, my decision to more-of-less bypass this situation was one made with the band member’s best interest in mind. I also refused to report on this in any detail unless I was able to get Ginn on record, explaining his side of things. This is not the black and white, label-screws-band problem that it’s been painted as. Ginn, or someone affiliated with SST, has been sending statements and payments to the band members in the past couple, three years. I could not get an accurate assessment of the regularity or the amount paid out, but it’s important to note that an effort has been made to deal with what must be a monumental clusterfuck. After I made a couple of e-mail attempts at contact, Ginn happened to come through town with both of his improv/jam-type bands. I wrote a preview of the show for The Memphis Flyer, then attended out of curiosity and the faint hope that I might be able to get him on board in an official capacity. About five people showed up. Ginn was walking around with his pre-performance glass of red wine, all chatty and in the best of moods. We spoke briefly and the guy was disarmingly nice, and I just didn’t feel right about getting all up in his shit about participating in my book, like it might steal his mood away right before he was to get on stage. Not my place. Grant once said that it was unfortunate how each time Hüsker Dü and SST are discussed, the heyday years are always overshadowed by the negativity of the royalty/money issue. I simply didn’t feel like being "another one" at that moment in time, asked for a primary e-mail address that he checks most often (the same one I had on file), and left it at that. Maybe I’m not cut out for this shit.

You delve into the band’s live set lists which I don’t think I’ve seen before in a band biography. The band was legendary for performing material before going into the studio, but what was the main motivation behind including the set lists?
 
Meaning, did I have some hidden agenda? No, my point behind doing that was the point that you just made. Oh, and the point that I made in a previous answer. To younger readers, or those just now getting into and trying to understand music from or related to what’s known as "the underground", the idea that a band would get in front of an audience and knock out half of the record after the next record….is a bewildering one. It’s expected of bands today – even those considered to be embedded in an untouchable sheen of scene-cool or those rocking a willful dance with obscurity – that there should be an unspoken or understood call-and-response with their audience based upon released recordings. Bands have moved away from unleashing hair-parting new material upon unsuspecting patrons just to show they’re good enough to produce a positive reaction that’s wholly unrelated to fan familiarity. The reason for this is too depressing to pinpoint for readers. It’s a fact that, live audiences of over 15 years ago, in a punk rock, underground, indie, post-hardcore, hardcore, whatever sense…had a larger percentage of knowledgeable fans. Today it’s sub-literate halfwits with their beautiful faces lit up in iPhone glow, who can’t process a brand new musical experience without knowing how their peers feel about it first.

Bob Mould’s book that’s being wrangled by Azzerad, did you or the publisher look at its release as a threat or an opportunity for both books to sister each other?
 
I’m not going to speak for my publisher, but I will say that I never viewed Bob’s book in a negative or threatening way. I adopted an idealistic view of the future that saw my book existing harmoniously with Bob’s, and who finished first was never a concern of mine. Doing the best I could do given the circumstances….that was my primary concern. Again, this is the ground I personally held throughout the writing of this book. I do not have a gun to my head as I write this answer – it’s the honest to god truth, despite its resemblance to the text found inside of a Hallmark card or on a Successories poster.

A stranger sent me an e-mail saying that there was a rumor flying around about Bob and Michael ceasing work on Bob’s book until mine came out, so my book could be eviscerated within those pages. This is outlandish.

(End of part one. In part two, Earles delves into American Hardcore, revisionist history and why he doesn’t have a comedy alter-ego.)

Before you write this off as gossip mag bullshit, remember that is was the National Enquirer that nailed Gary Hart, John Edwards, & Rush Limbaugh to name a few. Did they whiff on some here & there? Sure. It ain’t The Economist. But not only do I pray to Mama Grizzly’s god above that this is true; I hope the lil’ tike is fathered by a Honduran illegal alien pot dealer who works at the Wasilla Pizza Hut (oh, and that the kid’s retarded…uh, I mean "touched".)

Sorry. I just missed, "the funny". You can now make the joke, "I’m still missing it, dick!"

For those that are skeptical of the release of "Sight & Seen" here’s a trailer (resplendent with a typo and all!) so you can see and hear what you’re getting. It really is a beast of a release for fans and newcomers alike.

Paypal orders? Email henry at chunklet dot com, ay?