Back At It

 Admit it. You're still in sweatpants eating Entenmann's crumb coffee cake straight from the box with your hands between zoom meetings. It's ok.  You are all of us. As we take our first tentative steps back into a changing world, here is a smattering of upcoming big-ticket and small venue events that might help bridge the gap between your quarantine couch sitting and the full-tilt social blowout you aren't quite ready for yet.

Uncle Hank is at it once again. Everyone's favorite punk godfather is on tour after being temporarily sidelined by the entertainment venue apocalypse that befell nearly all showmen and the stages that they performed on.  Now he's back at the tip of the spear headlining dates in Europe starting after the new year and in the US this spring.  As avid fans, we advise you to catch one of his hard-hitting stream of consciousness monologues live and up close. You won't be disappointed.  For more on dates and times and to buy tickets go to https://www.henryrollins.com/tour

Did you know that Duran Duran released a new album? Did you also know that it's pretty damn good? Future Past is the band's fifteenth studio album, coming nearly forty years after their debut.  It doesn't matter if you were an out of control screaming Duranie in 1983 clutching your newly purchased albums and dreaming of running away with Simon or if you were one of the Johnny-come-lately fans from the 90s, you will enjoy this new release AND you should jump on the opportunity to see them on their mini-tour of Europe. I had the distinct pleasure of seeing this band at the height of their popularity in New York a total of four times and it was spectacular. And although I'll never be fourteen again, I can try to recapture my youth screaming along with all the other die-hard Duran lovers. Keep an eye out for possible future dates in the US. https://duranduran.com/tour/

Sowing the seeds of love. I've never understood why Tears for Fears isn't included on the "best of" rotating playlist inside of everyone's head.  In 2004 they released Everybody Loves a Happy Ending and I thought for sure that was the last we'd see of Smith and Orzabal. Even the album title sounded like a swan song. Come to find out, after all the hiatuses and unfulfilled wishes the band is releasing The Tipping Point on February 25th, 2022 and they are going to tour in support of it. Music to our ears. http://tearsforfears.com

Think back to a time when we were sure we were coming out of pandemic mode but jumped the gun prematurely and started scheduling all sorts of events and concerts only to have our new plans canceled because wave after wave of new sinister variants, each with whimsical greek names, put us back in our hazmat suits and bunkers. In that brief moment of early hope, the Cruel World festival was born, and then true to its name, it ended up on the trash heap of events that never happened. Well, guess what? Cruel World has risen from the ashes with most of its original lineup intact (only Gary Numan and Marc Almond are gone from the bill). So if you want your dose of Blondie, Bauhaus, Devo, Morrissey, Psychedelic Furs, Violent Femmes, Echo & the Bunnymen, English Beat, Public Image Limited.. etc, etc, etc, then get yourself to Pasadena, California's rescheduled festival. http://cruelworldfest.com

Not ready yet? That's ok too. Netflix & Amazon prime video will be cranking out content until the end of time and we'll be here waiting for you.

Henry Rollins, Alligator Wrestler

Admit it: that title didn't surprise you in the least.

This is from an upcoming episode of Nat Geo's Animal Underworld:



[source]

Soccer Balls And Soap: Our Interview With Henry Rollins

I once heard a colleague refer to Henry Rollins as a Jack of all trades while we sat across from each other in a dismal office cubicle.

At the time I didn't really give it much thought, but if I had I might have countered with the remainder of the old saying that clearly doesn't apply, "master of none." And while I agree that he moves between mediums and projects at a breakneck pace, you have to understand that when Mr. Rollins gets his teeth into something, he goes at it full throttle until it's either perfect or lying there with its throat ripped out.

Either way, you never end up with something half-baked.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to talk to us about the book today.
No problem.

Before I start congratulating you on a job well done, let me just say that Occupants is not at all what I expected.
No matter what your reaction was, that pleases me. I've done a lot of books and I tried to make this one really different. I mean, I've never done a photo book but I tried to take it a little further than that, hence all the writing. That was way more time intensive than the photos, actually. The photos, you kind of put your finger on the button but the writing was a real bear to kind of drag myself through. I was trying to do something where there are people who dig what I do who go, "OK, this is different, I didn't know what I was getting." We sent out two thousand of the books last week and I had signed up all the preordered and I guess that they are arriving because I am getting hit with lots of emails now from all the people and their reactions. I'm getting some "Wow, this was worth it. Nice going."

Book Review: Henry Rollins, Occupants

One of the most appealing things about modern photography is its almost magical ability to level the playing field for those of us not having spent years fiddling around in a dark closet transferring film out of its metal cartridge and into the tank for development. Its mass appeal in this age of click, shoot, and upload is also tempered by the ability of a select few individuals to provide us with images that stop us in our tracks long enough to astonish and educate. Skill levels may vary from polished longtime professional to rank amateur, but the ability to really see, document, and deliver is rare. So it was with skeptical eyes I began paging through Henry Rollins new book of photography, Occupants.

There is a jolting, matter-of-fact quality to the images he's shot here and strange rolling commentary provided to go along with the photos.

From the bleak (I found the Man Down picture from Thailand 2008 [left] more than a little upsetting) to the downright uplifting, he's covered his travels all over this world and he's obviously not been spending all his time hunkered down in plush hotel rooms listening to the Stooges on his IPod. The bold, colorful faces of smiling children surrounded by devastation are followed by piles of bleached out skulls and hooded mannequins, with the results being both funny and frightening. My emotions suffered some whiplash while turing the pages.

He is clearly not an impartial observer either and sticks around to get some of the story after the click of the shutter. Rather than being just a mere recorder of events and people, he makes you feel better that you might now know what happened to the smiling children playing on the mound of filth after the picture was downloaded.

This book is a compelling portrait of a man perpetually in motion and the people and places he visits. It serves as a very powerful reminder of what makes this great big world and its inhabitants unique.

Occupants will be released on October 1st, 2011.

Craft Time With Henry Rollins!

If you're looking for something to do with the kids today, here's a neat little craft from artist and awesome pop culture illustrator Brandon Bird:

(Here's the full-page version.)

Tramp The Last Mile: Our Interview With Henry Rollins

CREDIT: Chapman Baehler

The image of brown-eyed, heavily-muscled Henry Rollins as a screaming, glowering malcontent has persevered in the eyes of those who haven't been following his career as closely as they should have. While others who have stood in his rarefied position now lie in a dung heap of spent force, he seems impossibly alive with more to talk about than ever before.

Most things written about his long career are either fawning or unnecessarily critical, further confirming the belief that he provokes powerful responses from those he comes in contact with.

Through the years he's expressed no allegiance to any particular medium, subculture, or movement, preferring instead to move between music, film, TV, radio, publishing, and spoken word concerts with such rapid fire succession that it makes fans prone to whiplash.

On February 13th, Rollins passed the fifty year mark and his current series of spoken word engagements see him taking an unflinching look at life, rage, and age with the same honesty and humor that busts myths, ignites conflicts, and puts the spotlight again on his showmanship.

As soon as you think you've got Henry pegged down. off he goes again. I was bowled over by his winning charisma and immediate likability of the guy. What follows is our conversation on an early weekday morning fueled by four cups of rocket fuel coffee on my end and probably fifteen on his.

Don't Look Back In Anger

We need to talk about Henry.

A full summer evening of pounding rock and roll at Atlanta's Masquerade Club in the early nineties sounded like heaven to most people, especially with a roster that included Helmet and Rollins Band among other earsplitting favorites.

I had made the mistake of attending this show solo since I had been in lone wolf mode after finding out my boyfriend did not enjoy the thrill of the rock concert the way I did, so I naively made my way to the front where others gathered in the sweltering outside space.

Soon enough, the combination of thundering music, torrential rains, unbridled testosterone, and a poorly constructed wall resulted in an out-of-control crowd and a wave of sopping wet humanity crashed through the wood barrier and snapped my tiny arm.