Ronen Kauffman
New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goodbye: Bands, Dirty Basements, and the Search for Self
Sub City/Hopeless (2007)
High fives to Ronen Kauffman for head stomping all over my pretentious attitude about what good literature should be. When I first heard about this book's release I was glad to see a paperback devoted to the subject matter but I was a little annoyed that yet another memoir was hitting the shelves. Are people self-centered enough to think their lives are book worthy? When New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goodbye was in my hands I opened to the first page, expecting Kauffman's work to be worthy of the cannon, or maybe on par, to Jack Kerouac's and some of my other literary heroes who use their own lives as a springboard for the story. Not even a sentence in, I was let down. From the first chapter Kauffman's writing takes a conversational tone, creating a style more similar to barroom story telling than "literature." This disgusted me, thinking again that this was just another memoir by some lucky blogger. But as I read on, his stories felt like some of my own punk rock escapades, and his description of first hearing Green Day made me want to run to my mother's house to dig up Operation Ivy's album and the … Read more
Angels of Light
We are Him
Young God (2007)
When Michael Gira disbanded Swans in 1997, he declared himself free of the connotations that came with being in that … Read more
The Ruins of Beverast
Rain Upon the Impure
Ván (2007)
This is the only album I've ever heard that sounds like it should have been wrapped in a shroud. Relentlessly … Read more
Kris Racer
Has a Banner Year
Two Thumbs Down (2007)
I don't want to pigeonhole this record; Kris Racer lacks the pink hair and Hawaiian shirts of a Chris Conley … Read more
First to Leave
Forging a Future
Wednesday/Lobster (2007)
First to Leave have been the unfortunate victims of poor timing, not once, but twice. The first time occurred shortly … Read more
