The Sex Pistols

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The Big Hurt: Sex Pistols perfume

I think I’d be a much happier person if I disabused myself of all my quaint expectations about artistic integrity.
Plus ELO death and Moz racism
By DAVID THORPE | September 17, 2010

Review: Public Image Ltd. at Royale

Terrifying, ridiculous, glorious
PiL, live at Royale, May 7, 2010
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 14, 2010

Photos: Public Image Ltd at Royale

PiL at Royale, courtesy of The Bowery Presents
PiL, featuring Johnny Rotten, at Royale | May 5, 2010
By DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN | May 14, 2010

The Big Hurt: Attention whoring and headline parsing

Slow news week.
Music news in brief
By DAVID THORPE | September 18, 2009

Blank slates splattered with neon: Santigold and Amanda Blank

I’m not sure what kind of set list Santigold brought, but I’m guessing that she scrapped it after the crowd remained limp three tracks in.
Santigold, Amanda Blank, live at the House of Blues, June 1, 2009
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 12, 2009

Interview: Greil Marcus

Greil Marcus on rock-and-roll photography
Rock's critic-in-chief talks rock and roll photography
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | January 21, 2009

Scenes 4 tweens

When I was a teenager, all I ever longed for was to live in a world where it was socially acceptable, nay, a social requirement , to frequently burst into song.
Troy, Gabriella, and the HSM2 crew put the music in them. Now our two quasi-theater critics are trying to get it out.
By SARA FAITH ALTERMAN AND CHRIS FARAONE | January 07, 2009

Interview: The Damned's Captain Sensible

"School teachers and lawyers come along to see the Damned. . .and they want to see really bad behavior."
The Damned carry on
By JIM SULLIVAN | December 29, 2008

Post-masters

In the annals of rock-and-roll-origin stories, Colin Newman, singer/guitarist for the pinned-down cynical conceptualist rock band Wire, has one of the odder ones.
47 releases in, Wire can still get it up
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | October 01, 2008

Harold Wells made up this headline, too

Letters to the Boston editor, September 26, 2008
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | September 24, 2008

Sex on wheels

Subcultures all need their touchstones: entities that over time assume the stature of full-fledged institutions.
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult just never get old
By BARRY THOMPSON | September 16, 2008

The Big Hurt: Confessions of a band namer

Maybe you’ve never heard the name Harold Wells, but it’s a safe bet that you’re a fan of his handiwork.
The music industry’s best-kept secret speaks out
By DAVID THORPE | September 02, 2008

Interview: Shane West

The actor discusses the Germs . . . and ER.
Too late to stop
By JIM SULLIVAN | August 19, 2008

Three in one (more)

Last week, we previewed the releases of three discs. This week, we offer three discs that came out this summer, but didn’t hit my desk till recently.
New from Marie Moreshead, Adam Kurtz, and Hotel Arrival
By SAM PFEIFLE | August 13, 2008

Coverings

If the title teen of Juno can dismiss Sonic Youth as “just noise,” what would a representative of a generation for whom quiet is the new loud make of the even harsher sonic barrages of first-wave punk?
Jeffrey Lewis’s Crass, and Dirty Projectors’ Black Flag
By FRANKLIN BRUNO | March 10, 2008

Unauthorized!

I think it may have been sometime in the 1970s that the term “unauthorized” became sort of cool.
Axl Rose, Albert Goldman, and the renegade art of rock biography
By JAMES PARKER | February 15, 2008

Repackaged treasures

Repackaging music in box-set format and in newer, more-deluxe versions is a marketing ploy that’s been around at least since the dawn of the CD age.
The ongoing survival of the box set
By MATT ASHARE | December 11, 2007

Temple talk

Julien Temple was one of the first filmmakers on the scene when punk erupted in the UK.
Julien on Joe
By MATT ASHARE | November 08, 2007

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

Temple captures the chaos of Strummer’s early years, with overlays of interviews with him and footage from the era.
Well-done revelations
By MATT ASHARE | November 07, 2007

Double visionary

Joe Strummer was the embodiment of punk, up till his final day, December 22, 2002.
The two sides of Joe Strummer
By MATT ASHARE | November 06, 2007

Chronicle of a death foretold

What a difference a death makes.
Joy Division were rooted in grim finality. Now, through a series of new books, CDs, and films, the band has found new life.
By JAMES PARKER | October 24, 2007

Disc by disc

The new Joy Division catalogue
By MATT ASHARE | October 24, 2007

Snakes and pilgrims

There’s something classic about a pretty blonde girl in a bikini with a boa constrictor wrapped around her neck.
From venom to the Otherside Café
By JIM SULLIVAN | October 08, 2007

Punks find their inner Americana

Punk might have been swept along, cleaned up, dirtied again, then separated into a million different subgenres created to simplify things when really it only complicated everything.
The altered aesthetic of punks playing folk
By JON MEYER | August 31, 2007

Boston music news: August 31, 2007

Notes on the return of the Late Risers' Club
By JIM SULLIVAN | August 28, 2007

Portland scene report: August 24, 2007

Harrington, who also publishes the local uber-zine Kapital Ink, is nothing if not elbow-deep in rock.
Sibilance starts now
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | August 22, 2007

Elvis

This article originally appeared in the August 23, 1977 issue of the Boston Phoenix.

His death will change nothing: He had already expanded forever our notion of what was possible

By KIT RACHLIS | August 20, 2007

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