Print Reviews

Find your next great graphic novel, retrospective, memoir, or manifesto in this all-over-the-place reading list, curated by our eclectically interested staff for your education and quiet-time entertainment.

Meditations on Crime

Meditations on Crime

Print Reviews

Politics is Crime. Crime is Politics. Discuss… Carl F. Gauze reviews Meditations on Crime, the book half of Harper Simon’s super-collaborative art and music project.

Love, Death, and Photosynthesis

Love, Death, and Photosynthesis

Print Reviews

Love, Death, and Photosynthesis is Bela Koe-Krompecher’s memoir of addiction, friendship, mental illness, and the music scene of early ’90s Ohio.

Hard + Fast

Hard + Fast

Print Reviews

A look back at the early days of Los Angeles punk through the lens of photographer Melanie Nissen and her book HARD + FAST.

Metallica: The $24.95 Book

Metallica: The $24.95 Book

Print Reviews

From underground thrash metal pioneers, to arguably the biggest rock act in the new millennium, Metallica has had a long and tumultuous history. Ben Apatoff scours a myriad of sources to catalog this history in his new book.

Poetic Song Verse

Poetic Song Verse

Print Reviews

Carl F. Gauze reviews Mike Mattison and Ernest Suarez’s study of how poetry crept into rock and roll.

Junkwraith

Junkwraith

Print Reviews

A young woman abandons a promising skating career only to be chased by her inner demons. Review by Carl F. Gauze.

Self Taught

Self Taught

Print Reviews

Over a ten-year period, punk guitar legend Tim Kerr and his wife Beth used thrift store cameras to document self-taught artists’ environments. Combined with portraits of the creators, Self Taught is a celebration of artistic spirit.

In My Eyes: Photographs 1982-1997

In My Eyes: Photographs 1982-1997

Print Reviews

Jim Saah documented the D.C. hardcore scene with training from a high school photography class, capturing energy and excitement with a natural sense of technique and art.

Home Time 2: Beyond the Weaving

Home Time 2: Beyond the Weaving

Print Reviews

This charming graphic novel from Australian Campbell Whyte mixes wonderful illustration and totally weird denizens with regular ‘tween issues.

Under-Earth

Under-Earth

Print Reviews

Carl F. Gauze reviews this graphic novel about a dystopian prison society obsessed with sewage and fighting.

The Book Tour

The Book Tour

Print Reviews

A low-energy author heads out on a book tour that becomes more and more nightmarish as his life falls apart.

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A.J. Croce

A.J. Croce

Interviews

Concert addict Jeremy Glazier talked with A.J. Croce near the beginning of his year-long Croce Plays Croce tour about embracing his father’s music and his own while honoring both their familial bond and shared influences.

Best of Film 2023

Best of Film 2023

Screen Reviews

For Lily and Generoso, 2023 was a fantastic year at the cinema! They select and review their ten favorite films, six supplemental features, and one extraordinary repertory release seen at microcinemas, archives, and festivals.

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco

Event Reviews

This fall, Ani DiFranco brought new Righteous Babe labelmate Kristen Ford to Iowa City, where Jeremy Glazier enjoyed an incredible evening of artistry.

Garage Sale Vinyl: Ian Hunter

Garage Sale Vinyl: Ian Hunter

Garage Sale Vinyl

This week Christopher Long grabs a bag of bargain vinyl from a flea market in Mount Dora, Florida — including You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, the classic 1979 LP from Ian Hunter.

Archive Archaeology

Archive Archaeology

Archive Archaeology

Bob Pomeroy gets into four Radio Rarities from producer Zev Feldman for Record Store Day with great jazz recordings from Wes Montgomery, Les McCann, Cal Tjader, and Ahmad Jamal.

Archive Archaeology: Phil Alvin

Archive Archaeology: Phil Alvin

Archive Archaeology

Bob Pomeroy digs into Un “Sung Stories” (1986, Liberation Hall), Blasters’ frontman Phil Alvin’s American Roots collaboration with Sun Ra and his Arkestra, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and New Orleans saxman Lee Allen.

A Darker Shade of Noir

A Darker Shade of Noir

Print Reviews

Roi J. Tamkin reviews A Darker Shade of Noir, fifteen new stories from women writers completely familiar with the horrors of owning a body in a patriarchal society, edited by Joyce Carol Oates.

Garage Sale Vinyl: The Time

Garage Sale Vinyl: The Time

Garage Sale Vinyl

Feeling funky this week, Christopher Long gets his groove on while discovering a well-cared-for used vinyl copy of one of his all-time R&B faves: Ice Cream Castle, the classic 1984 LP from The Time, for just a couple of bucks.

Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir

Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir

Interviews

During AFI Fest 2023, Lily and Generoso interviewed director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, whose impressive debut feature, City of Wind, carefully examines the juxtaposition between the identity of place and tradition against the powers of modernity in contemporary Mongolia.