Music
Vaccinated with a Phonograph Needle
By David MenestresThere’s this guy. He’s pretty normal looking, just your average mid-century white Texan male in a probably un-ironed white dress shirt and slacks, possibly a lab or sports coat, maybe a tie. If you were around a few decades ago, perhaps you saw him, maybe at the library in Dallas visiting his husband Stephen Housewright at work, maybe playing piano in a strip club to help make ends meet, or in an art museum in Holland, giving a performance of his music—though ritual might be a more apt description of what you would have seen.
Smoke and Stars: YOB’s Our Raw Heart
By John AmenEmerging in 2002 with Elaborations of Carbon, YOB mined the sub-genre of doom metal, with Mike Scheidt’s lyrics frequently indecipherable, his voice ranging from a whispery snarl to a trebly howl to a demonic roar.
In Conversation
MISSY MAZZOLI with Anthony Hawley
Composer Missy Mazzoli is at the top of her game. Having just premiered her third opera, Proving Up, to wide acclaim, Mazzoli was recently commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera; one of two women ever commissioned by the Met in its 138-year history.
Outtakes
By Steve DalachinskyHenry Flynt gave a whacky, insightful talk—after playing about seven minutes of music—at the Swiss Institute on what he felt was and wasn’t art. He also stated he had a science degree and that E=mc2 was bullshit and had never been proven (relatively speaking, it was, after all, only a theory).
The Sound of Ambivalence: Exploded View at Rough Trade NYC
By Dan Josephxploded View is a self described international project fronted by the artist known as Anika (Annika Henderson), a strikingly alluring British-born singer currently living in Berlin.