This Week’s Model — The Mountain Goats with Stephen Colbert, “This Year”

The brilliance of the extended performance piece that was The Colbert Report duly acknowledged, the portions of the program I most adored were those instances when the host’s disguise fell just enough for his inner fan to emerge. In crafting a nightly show partially dependent on the guests with some amount of celebrity, Stephen Colbert at some point figured out that the rundown could be shaped in part by his own personal predilections formed through a lifetime of obsessive attention to science fiction, fantasy novels, comics books, and other touchstones of Gen X geekery. I admired the way he lived … Continue reading This Week’s Model — The Mountain Goats with Stephen Colbert, “This Year”

This Week’s Model — Bob Mould, “I Don’t Mind”

Bob Mould writes about the impact of the Buzzcocks in his memoir, See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Memory. As a college sophomore, Mould saw the Buzzcocks opening for Gang of Four. Enamored by what was before him, Mould intently studied the guitar work of frontman Pete Shelley. The scrutiny was obvious enough that Shelley supplemented Mould’s studies by shouting out chord changes as he made them. Elsewhere in the book, Mould recounts meeting Steve Garvey, bassist for the Buzzcocks, enthusing about the long-past show that shaped him. “I was again reminded that I’m simply part of the … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Bob Mould, “I Don’t Mind”