Lester Bangs

Richard Hell: I'm more at ease now in my own skin

Of all the legendary figures and over-the-top characters to come out of New York's '70s punk scene, there were few who were more influential than Richard Hell -- and probably none who were as mercurial. He was a founding member of three groundbreaking bands -- Television, the Heartbreakers, and his ... More >>

Legs McNeil on Joey Ramone, punk in 2012, and not trusting music critics

Legs McNeil is a legendary rock music historian, author and journalist. He co-founded and wrote for Punk Magazine back in the mid-'70s, is a former senior editor for Spin, and founder/editor of Nerve magazine in 1992. He is renowned as co-author of Please Kill Me: the Uncensored Oral History of Pu ... More >>

Russell Brand in Get Him to the Greek

It's a messy but funny spin-off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Jim DeRogatis talks about leaving the Chicago Sun-Times

​Jim DeRogatis began his writing career in high school in 1982, completing an assignment by interviewing another young-blooming music thinker: the brightly burned out, young, and probably canon Lester Bangs. Twenty-eight years later DeRogatis is a widely and justifiably respected critic and journa ... More >>

Iggy Pop announces jazz album for French people

Fortunately, the French are already masters in the fine art of eye-rolling.

Tinted Windows announce their spring debut

90s nostalgists take heart: Hanson and Smashing Pumpkins at last find an excuse to collaborate.

Pretty Boy Thorson and the Falling Angels: We Are Trying To Break Your Heart

Complicated Clash: The Mick Jones Interview

A Beautiful Mind

Minnesota-born Paul Nelson was a '60s folk revival pioneer and a founding father of rock writing

Auteur of the Scenester

With 'The Horrible Flowers,' indie filmmaker Eric Tretbar aims to prove he's still in bloom

It's just the beat of time, the beat that must go on

Doomsday!

From the garbage house to the club with P.O.S. and his Doomtree crew

Can You Say "Cracker" on TV?

Solving the mysteries of race and culture with the writers of 'Ego Trip'

Tomb Raider

Before Pere Ubu, before the Dead Boys, there was Cleveland's Rocket From the Tombs

Never Mind The Sex Pistols, Here's Neal Pollack

A snarky writer thinks he's America's greatest living punk

I Like Trash

Chuck Klosterman wallows joyfully in cultural crap, while in the afterlife, Lester Bangs rises above it

Rock 'N' Roll--A Love Story

What it's like to get all flushed over a record

This is Hardcore

It made less history than '77 punk. It sold fewer records than Nirvana. But the suburban rebellion of Eighties America found its own potent way to say no.

Song Of Songs

Barbara Sibley's all-encompassing love of music has inspired her to sacrifice her time, her blood, and a whole lot of shelf space. A look at record collecting as a metaphor for life--and life as a metaphor for record collecting.

Artists Of The Year

From escapist entertainment to aesthetic ecstasy: Twenty-nine writers script valentines to twelve months of culture

He's With the Band

Critic-turned-filmmaker Cameron Crowe defers to the talent in Almost Famous

Daydream Believers

Five skeptical spin doctors probe for local music's pulse -- a City Pages roundtable

CULTURE TO GO

Culture To Go