1. When Will the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Run Out Of Mainstream Acts to Induct?
2. Meet New Moon Cast Members at Fair Oaks Mall
3. Clip Job: Five Bands with at Least as Many Members as Songs
4. Photos: Miley Cyrus @ Verizon Center
5. Photos: Bruce Springsteen @ Verizon Center

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C., held an old-fashioned book burning last week (above is an AP video on the same).

Now, my people didn’t burn books when I was growing up, but my youth pastor did ask me to toss my copy of Pyromania, and my grandfather, an Episcopal priest, refused to allow books written by Carl Jung inside his house. Also, I once had to scribble an ode to masturbation on a slip of paper during mass and throw it into a cauldron of fire.

Based on these criteria, I feel qualified to offer the following FAQ for attending a book burning.

Read More “What is the Proper Etiquette for a Book Burning?” »

A few weeks ago Shortstack came out of hiding and performed a show at Comet Ping Pong. I went here instead. Fortunately, All Our Noise was there and shot some footage of the band. And they’re rocking out. The band’s past couple of releases–History of Cut Nails in America and 2008’s Covers EP–had some grit, but this clip has some real aggro-Creedence stuff going on.

Bite Sized Sets at Comet: Shortstack from All Our Noise on Vimeo.

Thereby further cementing his place in the annals of weirdness.

Someone should give Walken the treatment Chuck Klosterman gave Val Kilmer. By which I mean a nice thinky profile that makes you love him more than you already do.

This is the question Mike Conklin asks at L Magazine:

Right around the mid-80s, or 25 years ago, or the exact amount of time that needs to have passed since a band’s debut in order for them to be eligible for induction, when hair-metal came along and ruined everything, it simply became cooler for rock bands to exist below the radar of the mainstream. With the exceptions of a period of a few years in the early 90s, with Pearl Jam and Nirvana, and then again a decade later with the White Stripes and Radiohead, all the best rock bands have been, for lack of a better term, indie rock bands.

Are the Replacements going to be inducted? Sonic Youth? Husker Du? Joy Division? The Go Betweens? Pavement? Guided By Voices? If they’re not, it’s bullshit: for people who actually still really, truly care about rock and roll, these are the bands that have carried on in the tradition the Hall of Fame has always held dear. But if they are inducted, the Hall of Fame will surely lose the massive cultural appeal it so obviously strives for, considering barely any of those bands have sold as many copies of all their records put together as most current inductees have of even their least successful record.

While a good question on its face, a little historical digging says we can prolong answering this one for a while yet.

Read More “When Will the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Run Out Of Mainstream Acts to Induct?” »

1. Area Code: The term “DMV,” brought to you by the hard work of local rappers. And phone cards.
2. Post Profile Brings Up Touchy Subject: What Claim Do Writers Have on Their Bylines?
3. Meet New Moon Cast Members at Fair Oaks Mall
4. Das Racist Goes After Sasha Frere-Jones For Being White ‘N’ Educated
5. Creed Was Never Underrated

What a difference a block makes. For the Long View Gallery, a short move down 9th Street NW may become a major coup in a year when many galleries are struggling. Owner Drew Porterfield has opened a cavernous 5,000-square-foot gallery in an old warehouse across from the convention center—a major upgrade from his previous storefront space. The opening show is a collection of new work from gallery artists, among them, Scott G. Brooks, Anna Davis, Steve Pyke, Dan Ellyn, and Matt Sesow. —Maura Judkis

Read the full City Lights pick here; deets below the jump.

Read More “Today in Galleries: New Works at the Long View Gallery” »

Greetings, readers! As few individuals whose names aren’t Beaujon may have noticed, I’ve been gone for the past two weeks. (In New Hampshire. Writing something other than blog posts.) Hey, the leaves were pretty…there were rabbits to be eaten…there were felled Black Locusts to be sawn through! (And reams of leaden prose, of course, demanding the same treatment.)

But now I’m back. Hell, I may even start twittering again. Still, those bookish weeks up north gave me time for something other than woodwork and typing. After the jump, four books suitable for reading by a crackling woodstove, and one suitable for kindling.

Read More “Five Books I Did, in Fact, Read” »

Reading Jonah Weiner’s Creed encomium yesterday reminded me that when “Higher” hit the airwaves in 1999 as the first single from Creed’s Human Clay, I knew on first listen that I had to learn that song.

Read More “Creed Was Never Underrated” »