Steve Albini Was an Icon of Punk-Rock Purity—but He Also Showed How You Could Evolve by Sam Adams

The news was startling. In the corridors of modern music where I devote most of my rambling, Steve Albini was a true icon. Especially for my generation, reared at a time when there were few things more devastating to an artist’s reputation than a convincing accusation that they were selling out, Albini was the personification of living a proper punk rock credo. When Nirvana hired him to work on their follow-up to the monster hit album Nevermind, it was understood that Kurt Cobain and company were hoping Albini would rescue them from the flood of hollow-hearted fans they’d unwillingly accumulated. As Sam Adams argues in this remembrance of Albini, published right after his death at too young of an age, the music maker’s most admirable trait was his willingness to grow and change as a person, particularly in owning up to how his provocateur helped foster harmful environments for vulnerable people. In general, Albini’s more recent contributions to the discourse have been exemplary. This piece is published by Slate.

Police Clashes at Columbia University and UCLA Campus Protests Prove They Don’t Belong There by Lex McMenamin

Watching militarized responses to peaceful protests on campuses across the country these past couple weeks, including abuses against students occurring literally on the anniversary of the Kent State shootings, I find it appalling that anyone could reach a conclusion other than the one Lex McMenamin presents in this article. Policing is broken in this country, perhaps irreparably. This article is published by Teen Vogue.

I was a teenage Frank N Furter. by Gia

I just discovered this piece, which was posted last fall. It is an absolute delight, and it also has some profound considerations of the deeper meaning and sense of purpose that comes from performing alongside — in front of, really — screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The article is published on Gia’s own Substack, My Apophenic Haze.