Thoreauvian Punk Philosophy

Henry Thoreau is widely cited as an inspiration and patron saint by many diverse groups and varied ways of thinking. Far from simply an environmentalist or an abolitionist or an activist, Thoreau is a significant American philosopher. And the scope of my ongoing work "The Punk on Walden Pond" is specifically about viewing Thoreau and punk as belief systems. They offer distinct but common thoughts on "how to live."

The connection runs through themes of American history, specifically in writing and literature. For, Thoreau's essays, Whitman's poems, and Huck's narrative all can be considered precursors to punk philosophy. As punk scholar and curator of the St. Louis Punk Archive has noted, "It's a matter of intent," as opposed to rigid guidelines about the sound of the music or the style of clothing or the demeanor of the audience.

One need only look to the earliest underpinnings of punk culture in the late 1970s on the Lower East Side and a music venue/bar called CBGB's. With the Ramones, Talking Heads, Television, Patti Smith, and Blondie all playing at the same time, in the same venue, among the same scene, you have to see punk rock, especially American punk, as diverse and absolutely inclusive, and not just about a three-chord downstroke.

Kick off the Summer Music Season at FoCoMX in Fort Collins, Colorado

I was so excited to write this preview for FoCoMX, the "biggest little music festival in the country."

As the weather warms in Colorado, we can't help but think of music festivals. One of the largest and earliest festivals to kick off the season happens in downtown Fort Collins each April with FoCoMX, or the Fort Collins Music Experiment, which was created by the Fort Collins Musicians Association in 2008. Taking place across Old Town from Friday, April 18, to Saturday, April 19, this event features more than 400 bands at thirty-plus venues, and we have the lowdown on everything you need to "FoCoMX in style."

The festival kicks off at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 18, on the patio of Equinox Brewing with a solo set from the rich baritone voice of renowned Colorado singer-songwriter Michael Kirkpatrick, FoCoMA's 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award honoree. After a brief proclamation from the mayor's office acknowledging April as Music Appreciation Month, Kirkpatrick will croon his soulfully whimsical folk narratives, and the festivities are off and running.

The key to a successful downtown music festival is a collaborative relationship with the community and businesses that support a nearly all-volunteer effort to spotlight Colorado music. "FoCoMX has become the quintessential Fort Collins weekend," says Karla Baise of Odell Brewing, a longtime festival sponsor. "The vibe runs high from the center of the floor at Washington's, our largest venue, to the sidewalks as people stop to hug each other, crossing paths on their way to see bands and friends play across town."

Read the rest of the story at Westword ... 

How Fort Collins Music Association Built a Thriving Scene

In my latest piece for Westword Magazine, I explore a unique music organization which cultivates the thriving indie music scene in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Fort Collins is a hotbed for live music with a diverse collection of venues that host national touring acts and local bands. And the key to FoCo's thriving music scene is a unique grassroots music nonprofit that feeds and cultivates the area's love of music: the Fort Collins Musicians Association, or FoCoMA.
The organization officially launched in 2007. It was simply a means of “the right people at the right time,” according to co-founding member and board president Greta Cornett, who is considered the driving force, glue and spirit of FoCoMA. Cornett, a CSU graduate, has been heavily embedded in Fort Collins local music scene since the mid-90s, playing trumpet in the band 12 Cents for Marvin and volunteering as a host of KRFC's Live at Lunch show.

In the early 2000s, numerous Fort Collins music venues had closed for a variety of reasons, and local musicians were struggling for places to play. Many bands were displaced, with national acts often bumping them from the few spots at bars and theaters.

So Cornett, Peggy Lyle, Dennis Bigalow and numerous other local musicians began meeting to discuss how to support each other and the music community. Lyle, who is now FoCoMA’s executive director, was working as the event director for the Fort Collins Downtown Business Association. Bigalow, another co-founder and current board secretary, was the music director at Fort Collins indie radio station KRFC, which is where he met Cornett.

The musicians would have Sunday afternoon hangs at Route 34, a local bar and bike shop founded by two CSU grads. What began as simple conversations sharing knowledge about the industry eventually became more formal education panels, professional development programs that the association continues to this day. At Cornett’s suggestion, the spot added live music to its offerings, becoming a new venue for musicians to gather. Those Sunday afternoons discussing goals for FoCoMA "opened our eyes to so many different scenes,” Cornett reflects. “We have great music up here, but no one knew about it."

... Read the rest of the story at Westword.com ... 

The Wild: from Thoreau to Punk

In a 1972 essay titled “In Wildness is Thoreau,” delivered at an annual literary conference, scholar Lewis Leary opines to have “us think briefly about the Thoreau who was a wild man, who let his hair grow long, … who dressed as he wished, and did exactly as he wished.” That wild spirit of resolute and uncompromising individuality is foundational to both Thoreau's thinking and the philosophy and motivation for punk rock and punk culture. 

Musician and rock journalist John Robb describes punk rock and punk philosophy as “the wild spirit, that outsider cry.” A key component for understanding that spirit is to separate it from the term "wilderness," which people often mistakenly believe Thoreau was referencing. It wasn't the wilderness, which is outside of us; it was the wild, which is within.

In the critical analysis America’s Bachelor Uncle: Thoreau and the American Polity, scholar Bob Pepperman Taylor asserts “... the heart of Thoreau’s revolt was his continual assertion that the only true America is that country where you are able to pursue life without encumbrance” (3) And “Thoreau exhibits a young person’s rebelliousness,” an insight with which Emerson would wholeheartedly agree. And similarly, nowhere and at no time is rebellion more about a youth than it is in punk rock culture. For Thoreau was attacking the complacency of the emerging American middle class, just as second wave punk Bands Bad Religion and Black Flag did in the 1980s Reagan America.

Albert Camus famously asserted "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." And like Thoreau in his experiment living in society but simultaneously outside of it, Dicki Hebdige said of punk in his book on subcultures, “No subculture has sought with more grim determination than the punks to detach itself from the taken-for-granted landscape of normalized forms …”

Jack Kerouac's Birthday

I came to Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation via Jim Morrison of the Doors.

It was during my middle school years that The Doors Greatest Hits was released, and I picked up the book No One Here Gets Out Alive, Danny Sugarman's rich biography of the Lizard King. That book became my reading list source, as the story of Jim's youth recounted his reading of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and other philosophers, as well as a vast list of other books. One passage in particular I can still recall mentioned how young Jim closed the book that had a profound impact on him, the story of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity.

I'd never heard of the book or its author Jack Kerouac, and I knew nothing of the Beat Generation. But I knew that if that book was a life changing experience for Jim Morrison, I was going to read it, too. Honestly, I'm not sure I really understood what I was reading after buy the classic paperback copy at Barnes & Noble, but I knew it was unlike anything I'd ever read, and I would be intrigued for many years to come by the works and life of Jack Kerouac.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars…”

   

Thoreau, Punk, & Music as Culture

The merging of a musical style and a philosophical movement is not unprecedented, and the connection between the concepts is actually a fairly obvious and significant part of cultural scholarship. In the book Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock-n-Roll, esteemed writer, critic, and music historian Greil Marcus explores American culture through its music, a distinction which is integral to understanding the uniquely American voice and the genre of music that grew from that foundation. In explaining his goal of writing the book, Marcus notes, “It is an attempt to broaden the context in which the music is heard; to deal with rock-n-roll not as youth culture or counterculture but simply as American culture.” 

The symmetry between those ideas and cultural markers is integral to understanding the connection between an early nineteenth century philosopher and a late twentieth century music scene. Art is never created in a vacuum, and few critics or scholars would deny that environmental factors play a role in the development of music, paintings, books, and other cultural artifacts. Art is of the zeitgeist, and in this case, as Kevin Dunn asserts in the book Global Punk: Resistance & Rebellion in Everyday Life, “Punk sprang from a … social context [of] … alienation from social, economic, and political forces around them.” 

Clearly, similarities in both social influences and artistic reaction can be seen in the writings of Henry David Thoreau and the songs, styles, and scenes of punk.

The Philosophy of Thoreauvian Punk

While the life of Henry David Thoreau is extensively documented with generally broad agreement of his identity and legacy, the task of narrowing down a commonly accepted definition of punk is far more complicated. Punk by its very nature is resistant to codification, and because so much of punk history is scene and time specific, it can be difficult to agree on common elements. It is seemingly more difficultu to imagine and articulate a unifying "philosophy of punk."

Of course, that does not mean there has not been an extensive amount of research and writing that attempts to clarify and articulate the punk ethos. In fact, punk is one of the most well-researched and written about subcultures in American history. Almost from its earliest incarnations, writers and critics documented the scenes with commentary that went far beyond reviews of bands, songs, and shows. Thus, it’s not surprising that when Greg Graffin sat down to articulate a common vision and set of beliefs, punk would be discussed as not simply a musical style but “a way of seeing and experiencing the world.” 

Two noteworthy studies of punk which share Graffin’s view of punk as more than just a style of music are Craig O’Hara’s The Philosophy of Punk: More Than Noise!! initially published in 1999 at roughly the same time as Graffin’s manifesto, and the academic collaboration Screaming for Change: Articulating a Unifying Philosophy of Punk by Lars Kristiansen et al, published ten years later. Whatever the origin of punk, and the claims and theories are vast, the music scene and the movement that followed are a significant merging of numerous factors which all played a role in creating something unique, impactful, timely, and ultimately timeless. 

Putting punk then in a historical context is generally “launched down one of three distinctly separate trajectories: 1. Punk is a subculture; 2. Punk is a musical genre; 3. Punk is an authentic cultural expression.” These three angles are all significant components of punk, and establishing a connection back one hundred and thirty years requires synthesis of all. Though deceptively simple and obvious on the surface or to the uninitiated, punk has a long story to tell, one whose roots trace back to the fringe of Concord, Massachusetts in the early 1800s.

Patti Smith: Transcendentalist Punk

Patti Smith is a transitional moment and figure in the development of punk, and a closer look at her career reveals her as also a manifestation of the Thoreauvian influence on the punk genre and movement. As a multifaceted artist, Patti Smith, like Thoreau before her, is appreciated by multiple communities, making her a perfect synthesis of transcendentalism and punk. 

Music scholar/writer Simon Warner describes her as “a woman who carries Beat credentials,” and Smith has been connected to a wide swath of musicians ranging from Bob Dylan to Iggy Pop. Her style, presence, and status in the punk community from its very beginning in the Bowery on Manhattan's Lower East Side also serve as a testament to the idea that punk does not simply refer to the stripped down, amped up musical style associated with the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and the entire hardcore scene. 

Called the punk rock poet laureate and even the Godmother of Punk, Smith is an arguably atypical punk in terms of her music, and she has been known to say she never considered herself punk at all. Simply by nature of proximity to the music scene that emerged in the Lower East Side around CBGBs, she became associated with punk. Performing at the same time and in the same place as bands like the Ramones and Television, the punk label was inevitably applied, and Smith was certainly part of the community of bands and artists supporting each other. But more importantly, Smith’s presence and association simply broadened the definition of punk, assuring it was more about originality and authenticity than it was about speed and volume. 

Truly, one of the earliest and most significant qualities of punk emerged from the one sacrosanct rule for performing at CBGBs – no covers. The only requirement owner Hilly Krystal had in the early days was that bands play their own music. Just like Thoreau, they heard a call to march to their own drum beat, and that spirit of originality has been the punk rock ethos, and that ethos is Thoreauvian Punk. As far as originals go, Patti Smith is in rarified air, and her place in the punk ecosystem is a testament to the idea that punk rock is more about intent than a specific chord progression, drum beat, or sound.

Beat Punks -- the Beats are the Bridge

The transcendental tone of the Beat Generation represents a lineage backward and forward in the American arts, and the influence of the Beats is vast. In fact, the connections and shared influences between the Beats and rock music represents a pivotal time in American cultural history with the merging of genres, and Simon Warner’s work Text, Drugs, & Rock-n-Roll suggests the Beat Generation could be the bridge between the philosophical movement of transcendentalism and Thoreau in the early nineteenth century and the emergence of punk in the late twentieth.

The Beat Generation is another movement and sub-culture that has been researched and written about extensively, and in some ways its connections to the hippies and classic rock music of the 1960s would seem to defy a connection to punk. It’s well acknowledged and documented that the early punk musicians were quite literally reacting against what they believed had become a stale and unoriginal music industry that was more interested in status and money than in music. However, the Beats' connection to Thoreau and transcendentalism as well as their relationship with and influence on the rock music scene cannot be denied. With that in mind, the connection of the Beats as a transition for Thoreauvian ideas to work their way into contemporary music and, yes, later the punk music scene, is worthy of investigation and discussion. 

The Beats were most definitely a counterculture movement, perhaps one of the firsts to significantly impact a broader American history and definitely music culture. Warner does not miss the connection, and he explores the Beat influence on punk rock and punk culture in numerous ways. An important contribution is the discussion of Beat writer William S. Burroughs who was referenced as the Godfather of Punk before the term was later applied to Iggy Pop. Early punk musicians such as Patti Smith and Richard Hell certainly exhibit and acknowledge a connection to the Beats and to Burroughs. Of course, Allen Ginsberg is a more prominent connection to the punks, actually appearing on stage with Joe Strummer and The Clash in 1981. Ginsberg would later connect with bands such as Sonic Youth, and countless punk and post-punk or punk-adjacent musicians have mentioned an appreciation for Kerouac’s On The Road. 

Allen Ginsburg’s Howl is an iconic piece of American art that could be considered a perfect example of transcendental punk. The very title of Jonah Raskin’s book American Scream: Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ and the Making of the Beat Generation sounds like a punk story. And descriptions of that first reading by Ginsberg at Six Gallery in San Francisco in the fall of 1955 portray the emotionally charged and almost cathartic moment in the same way many people would describe a punk show. Considering the later emergence of the punk poet Patti Smith, and the post-punk careers of the Dead Kennedys Jello Biafra and Black Flag’s Henry Rollins on the spoken word circuit, the connection between transcendentalism, the Beats, and punk is almost poetic. 

Finally, the connection between the Beats and punk is a topic which has been explored before, notably by classic rock biographer Victor Bockris in his work Beat Punks: New York’s Underground Culture from the Beat Generation to the Punk Explosion. Through extensive interviews with artists such as William Burroughs and Patti Smith, Bockris draws a clear connection in how the punks drew from and were inspired by the Beats at the same time the Beats were drawn to the punk phenomenon. With a clear connection to transcendentalism in the Beat Generation literature, it’s clear that Thoreau can be seen as a godfather to both movements. Thoreau’s connection to and influence on the Beats is fairly well acknowledged, but the relationship with punk remains to be adequately researched.

Thoreau's Civil Disobedience & Punk

Clearly, an anti-establishment and authority-defiant approach is fundamental to both Thoreau and the punk aesthetic, and it is perhaps the most obvious connection between the two. In a scholarly book length follow up to his punk manifesto, Greg Graffin expanded on the punk ideal with Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God. In that work, Graffin explains punk’s challenge to the tyranny of institutional authority warning that “If people unquestionably give in to the massive force exercised by the oppressive institution that is the government, they will enable the people in power.” This criticism clearly mirrors Thoreau’s assertion in Resistance to Civil Government about the relatively few bending the government to their will with the Mexican War. 

Prior to Graffin’s book Anarchy Evolution, Bad Religion’s song You are the Government had decreed “when people bend, the moral fabric dies,” and that concern is the essence of Thoreau’s abolitionist stance and the development of his most significant and enduring political work in the art of “Civil Disobedience.” Thoreau’s original thinking on government and the integrity of the individual who dissents began as his counterargument to William Paly’s “Duty of Submission to Civil Government” from The Principals of Moral and Political Philosophy. While scholars and historians widely acknowledge the lineage of Thoreau’s ideas running through the anti-colonialist revolution led by Mohandas Gandhi and the American civil rights protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the defiant beliefs can easily extend through the 1970s and 80s with the rise of punk. 

Granted, no one is aligning the historical struggles for abolition, independence, and civil rights with the kids raging in mosh pits during the early 80s. That doesn’t, however, discount the connection of the punk ethos linking back to the ideas of Thoreau. For, when Graffin “warns against blindly accepting the government directives and blindly conforming to their ideals,” he is clearly channeling the transcendentalist concepts of self-reliance and civil disobedience. Graffin, Bad Religion, and the punks of the Lower East Side would certainly “accept the motto that government is best that governs least” and might even agree that “when men are prepared for it, that is the type of government they shall have.”

Thoreau, Punk, & the Uncompromising Spirit

If there is one significant quality that is synonymous with both Thoreau and punk, it is an uncompromising sensibility. From an early age, Thoreau did not capitulate, did not give in, did not compromise when it came to values and beliefs. Such a firm conviction is what inspired him to quit his first teaching job rather than give in to the expectation, even the requirement, that he implement corporal punishment. He would not hit his students, and so he quit. The same can be for one of his most well-known revolutionary acts – the refusal to pay his taxes in protest of the Mexican-American War and to subsequently go to jail rather than capitulate, rather than compromise. 

Interestingly, just like Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, Johnny Ramone, and pretty much the entire hardcore punk scene, Thoreau was often described as “prickly” and grumpy and not particularly concerned with making others happy. In The Adventures of Henry David Thoreau: a Young Man’s Unlikely Path to Walden Pond, Michael Sims writes how Thoreau “never strove to be popular and seemed not only resigned to not fitting in, but to sometimes revel in it.” For example, in some ways he was even dressing punk in the 1830s – while black was the standard dress for church, Thoreau might show up wearing green. He wore what he wanted, ate what he wanted, did what he wanted, and lived how he wanted, and he did so at a time and in a place that was much more reserved and homogeneous than the society where punk arose a century and a half later. 

So much of contemporary society, especially in terms of music and popular culture has always been about giving in, softening or amplifying an original vision in submission to a more popular and broader one. In fact, the record industry and consumer have so strictly demanded compromise, from song length to haircuts on the album cover, that such rules are a primary reason punk remained outside of the mainstream. For, truly, to become part of the mainstream there has to be compromise. If an uncompromising sense is paramount to punk, then the founder of Civil Disobedience must be the most punk of all. An uncompromising spirit is a key to punk, as it is a key to Thoreau.

The Politics of Thoreauvian Punk

Thoreau’s innovations in American political thought, specifically in an uncompromising sense of justice and a refusal to capitulate to what is easy or popular, is also the essence of punk rock, which is associated with challenging institutional authority on everything from musical forms to clothing styles to language. Just as Black Flag’s Henry Rollins and Bad Religion’s Greg Graffin led the charge for many second wave punk bands calling out the bankrupt '80s economic positions of the Reagan Revolution, Henry David Thoreau rejected and refused to support the foreign policy disasters of President Polk, and he openly challenged any passive acceptance of the institution of slavery, especially in his native Massachusetts following the capture and re-enslavement of Anthony Burns, per passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. Thoreau's passionate defense of abolitionist Captain John Brown is one of his most aggressive and overtly political stances, indicating a support for civil disobedience by violent means if necessary. Thoreau’s support for Brown in opposition to Brown’s conviction and execution was resolute and unwavering. 

In taking the very public stands he did, Henry David Thoreau was a true American original, as significant as any of the Founding Fathers for his innovative and influential political and philosophical ideas. While not overly famous in his lifetime, Thoreau has only grown in fame over the past one hundred and fifty years. In his eulogy Emerson noted, “no truer American existed than Thoreau.” Thoreau's connection to contemporary society specifically in punk culture is related to the passion and determination with which both operate. Henry Rollins has said he believes punk is where you have “young people in vitality,” and nothing could be a more apt description of Thoreau. Pushing back against authority and the established norms of the time was a key motivator in the life of Henry Thoreau, and it is a guiding principle of punk. When Thoreau walked into the woods to build his cabin and see if he could “live deliberately” it was an absolute expression of what is now known as Punk.

Walden Pond Punk

Henry David Thoreau has played many roles as an American writer and philosopher – environmentalist, abolitionist, progressive, libertarian, and punk rock poet. While the punk label is less well known, if acknowledged at all, it’s every bit as valid and worthy of discussion. The punk of Thoreau, the transcendental punk whose lineage runs throughout American history, is not the stereotyped punk of spiked hair, tattered clothes, anarchy symbols splayed across leather jackets, mosh pits, slam dancing, and loud, fast, riveting guitar rock. It’s the punk of individual liberty, authenticity in the sense of self, and the rejection of conformity amidst a mindless society.

This small paragraph is the beginning of a piece I published several years ago with Pop Matters. It's really the beginning of the idea that I have now decided might be a longer project, a book even. Read the rest of the piece here:

Henry Thoreau as Performance Art

 Far from being a hermit and a recluse in the woods, Henry Thoreau actually lived a very public life, and he was every bit a citizen of his Concord community. As I've noted before, if Thoreau truly hated people and wanted to go off and live in the woods somewhere secluded, he easily could have and would have. Instead, as Laura Dassow Wells notes in her esteemed biography, "... the circumstances meant it [his journey] would be performed on a very public stage. His two years living at Walden Pond became and remain an iconic work of performance art."

Thoreau's experiment at the pond was meant to be seen and talked about, for he intended to be "a rooster crowing to bring in the dawn." He had a strong message to deliver to his neighbors, whom he feared lived "lives of quiet desperation," and he wanted to be asked about his work, his thoughts, his realizations, and his insights. The economic argument in which he grounds - and introduces - his performance was enthusiastic social commentary, calling out and even mocking the drab, dour existence of the Puritans as well as the work-driven existence promoted by Adam Smith.

Because the market economy and the rise of consumer culture treated people inhumanely as simple cogs in a machine, and because writers like Smith promoted well-being and self-worth solely through material wealth and the exchange of labor for money, Thoreau saw people diminished to an inauthentic human experience. He sought to explore and model a life lived for experience and knowledge. And, in many ways, the philosopher in him took the action of living his performance as a test of whether man could live as he believed.

Wild & Free

Here's the final Thoreau mixed media piece I recently put together last weekend. This uses a shadow print of Felix Edouard Vallotton’s portrait over selections from Thoreau essays “Walking” and “Civil Disobedience.” While Thoreau is obviously known first and foremost for Walden, and as a nature writer, he was also an ardent advocate for individual liberty. Civil Disobedience is perhaps his second best known piece, while "Walking" is known mostly to Thoreau scholars and fans for its discussion on his "case for the Wild."

Wild Heart

 Another Thoreau-inspired mixed media piece. This piece draws from the Lynchian theme "Wild at Heart and Weird on Top," and works in some Thoreau quotes on "the Wild." While many know Thoreau as an early environmentalist and nature writer, many of his passages are often misquoted as talking about "wilderness" rather than "wildness."

Thoreauvian Wild

 I've been meaning to do some Thoreau-inspired mixed media art that emphasizes the Thoreauvian Punk vibe I've been writing about. So, when a local gallery put out a show call centered on David Lynch and his film Wild at Heart, I figured it was the perfect time. 

I'm decently happy with this piece, though I'm still learning the technique.

These Are the Best Music Venues in Fort Collins

Home to the Fort Collins Musicians Association, FoCo, or Fort Collins, CO, is a town that is overflowing with live music from local and touring musicians. Home to the heart of Colorado's craft beer industry and a legendary punk rock recording studio The Blasting Room, Fort Collins is a dream location for musical artists, young and old. In fact, I loved the music scene so much after visiting for FoCoMX, the local music festival, that I moved here. I just published a feature on the best places to see live music in town:

Fort Collins, home to FoCoMX, the "biggest little music festival in America," is a genuine music town that can rival the best in the country for its support of the local scene. Anchored by a tight-knit community of musicians and artists through the Fort Collins Musicians Association, the area is always vibing to great music across every imaginable genre. Fort Collins residents simply love to go out for live music, many doing so several nights a week, and there's no lack of opportunities.

Just a drive up I-25 from Denver, FoCo's thriving music scene is supported by a seemingly endless network of bars, breweries, restaurants and venues that showcase the best in both local and national touring music. Discover your next favorite music venue in Fort Collins below:

For the complete list, check out the rest of the story at Westword.com

What is Punk & Who is Thoreau?

In a video clip asking What is Punk?, former Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins explains that punk in his view is “everything from the Velvet Underground to Occupy Wall Street and everything in between.” In that regard, then, Rollins, like many other punk musicians and artists, moves the term beyond simply a descriptor for a musical genre and into the realm of an idea, an attitude, a philosophy, a subculture, and even a socio-political movement. A similar board stroke could be used to characterize the life, identity, persona, and legacy of Henry David Thoreau, who defied simple explanations and encompassed a universe of ideas during his brief forty-four year life. Henry was a brilliant young man who lived, studied, worked, and wrote at the time of the New England Renaissance. Punk is a musical style that originated in New York and London in the early to mid 1970s with the rise of bands like Television, the Ramones, the Clash, and the Sex Pistols. Henry was a Harvard graduate who worked as a surveyor while also writing essays and poetry. Punk is a anti-authoritarian subculture that coalesced around alternative styles which rejected and challenged mainstream institutions. Thoreau was “simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.” Punk is three chords and aggressive beats. Thoreau was an abolitionist who developed and articulated ideas of civil disobedience to challenge the abuse and overreach of government. Punk is an attitude that rejects oppression by societal institutions that are unresponsive to the margins of society. Thoreau was a man who “lived deliberately … front[ing] only the essential facts of life.” Punk is a way of life boiled down to the essentials.

Groundhog Day — “An Existential New Year”

It’s not about monotony — it’s about re-birth.

Twenty-six years ago, an unassuming little film about a cantankerous weatherman on the most random of holidays became a pop culture phenomenon that ingrained itself in our consciousness. The title became a metaphor for reluctantly acknowledging the dailiness of life. With the silly story of Phil Connors waking up everyday in Punxsutawney, PA, with Sonny and Cher singing “I’ve Got You Babe” on an endless string of February seconds, Groundhog Day entered the lexicon as a way to describe the drudgery and repetition of daily life. But the movie was never simply about the mundane nature of existence. It was always about self-awareness and second chances and reinvention and hope.

Let’s face it, by February 2 the New Year’s resolutions are fading, the fitness centers are back to the regulars, and we’re all bogged down in the drudgery of winter. These moments are ripe for a bit of pop culture existentialism, and the quirky film from Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin puts that long cold winter, the odd little holiday, and the repetitiveness of daily life in perspective. Watching the story of a disgruntled weatherman pondering the absurdity of a weather-forecasting rodent provides a second chance at mid-winter self-reflection and re-invention. The conceit of the film is not only the ridiculous holiday but also the inexplicable weirdness of Phil Connors’ predicament.

The film Groundhog Day is actually a wonderful primer for the wisdom of existentialism, and when I taught the philosophy in my college literature class, I would often lead or conclude with a viewing of Bill Murray’s brilliant portrayal of a man trying to bring some sense of meaning to a life that seems nothing short of absurd ....

Read the rest of the story on Medium

Dead Pioneers Are Punk Rock’s New Conscience

I've written about this new punk band out of Denver before for the alt-weekly Westword. In the past year, the band has seen some incredible growth and exciting new opportunities.

Gregg Deal has a warning for everyone: “America is a pyramid scheme, and youain’t on top!” The self-proclaimed “Bad Indian” behind the new Denver punk band Dead Pioneers delivers that blunt assessment in the opening track “Tired” from the band’s 2023 self-titled first album. It’s a scathing indictment of capitalism, racism, sexism, and every insidious side of prejudice and corruption pulsing through contemporary American society.

Delivered in aggressive spoken word against a backdrop of riveting punk guitar riffs from veteran punk rockers Josh Rivera and Abe Brennan, the song launches a new band, a new sound, and a necessary, timely new voice in punk rock music. Though Deal ends the song by acknowledging, “I’m so very, very tired,” he has channeled that centuries-long weariness into a powerful, energetic music project that projects a bold social consciousness.

Read the rest of the story at PopMatters.

Thoreauvian Punk: Rebel and Revolt

 Few political theorists ever note the political side of Henry Thoreau's writing, and, true to form, Thoreau often disavowed any explicitly political slant to his writing. However, that's difficult to accept of one of American history's most ardent abolitionists and a man who wrote a pivotal piece of American political philosophy that has come to be known as Civil Disobedience.

Scholar and Vermont history professor Bob Pepperman Taylor has written two books specifically focused on the political angle of Thoreau's work, and in a classic punk rock connection, Pepperman notes that "Thoreau exhibits a young person's rebelliousness." A classic criticism of Thoreau has been that his writings, especially early pieces, were "so youthful as to appear immature." Was Thoreau too young and inexperienced to be a true political philosopher? Or was the spirit of his passion, young and inexperienced, not old and jaded. 

Pepperman also observes how Thoreau's reflections on economy in the opening section of Walden enable us to "think of Thoreau as the first and perhaps greatest American writer to attack the complacency of the emerging American middle class." And that characterization is an apt connection to the early 80s post-punk, early hardcore of Greg Graffin's band Bad Religion and Henry Rollins work with Black Flag. 

Thoreauvian Punkonomics

 While many see Henry Thoreau as primarily or even exclusively as a nature writer, it's no surprise that the opening section of his opus Walden, or Life in the Woods begins with a section titled "Economy." Having graduated from Harvard in the economically turbulent year of 1837 (recall the "Panic of 1837" from your high school history class), Thoreau was significantly impacted by and focused on the economic and working conditions unfolding in America during the early part of the nineteenth century. This was a tumultuous era grounded in growing industrialism and the rise of the commercial economy.

And Thoreau had his questions, his skepticism, his criticism. 

As scholar Brian Walker noted in a piece on Thoreau's Alternative Economics, "Thoreau's central theme is that working conditions in a market economy can easily undermine liberty and erode autonomy." Thoreau was writing not too long after Adam Smith had begun to weave modern economic views with his treatise on Capitalism, Wealth of Nations. And it can be argued that Thoreau's work in Walden was a direct response to and even political satire of Smith. Thoreau was quickly realizing the insidious power of money and capital to compromise even to warp individual lives and choices. 

Similar views can be found in the rise of punk rock and punk culture in and around the year 1977, with comparable economic turmoil in both the United States and Great Britain. The similarities between 1837 and 1977, and the response of artists and writers to those challenging conditions, is a unique connection between the views of Henry Thoreau and the themes of punk. The nonconformist do-it-yourself attitudes of Thoreau and punk are intriguing and an interesting way to view both the man and the movement.

Because the market economy treats people inhumanely as simple cogs in a machine, and writers like Smith promote personal well being and individual value through material wealth and acquisition, an important key to understanding Thoreau, and specifically the section on Economy is as a critique of the rise of consumer culture, noting and criticizing the shift to a commercial and industrial economy that exploited man and forced an individual to view himself primarily, if not exclusively, through his economic value.

Thoreau: Not a Recluse or a Hermit

Henry David Thoreau, the sage of a Walden Pond and the Transcendentalist writer and philosopher of early 19th century Concord, Massachusetts was not, as many people believe, a grumpy reclusive hermit living out in the woods, escaping from society. Anyone who has ever been to Walden Pond knows it is actually a short walk into town, especially for someone like Thoreau who regularly walked four to eight miles a day. And the close proximity to "civilization" is often used to criticize Thoreau for being a poseur or a fraud. In fact, a New Yorker article from years ago raised the ire of a many a Thoreauvian when the writer railed against Thoreau as "pond scum" because, according to her, he walked into town for his mother to do his laundry. That hit piece of unresearched commentary has been roundly exposed and criticized for all it gets wrong, and it's not worth extending the discussion here.

For, I am much more interested in revealing the fully engaged citizen and community member Thoreau who was a shining example of the rebel and the punk who achieved the impressive feat of living in society while also apart from it. The Walden experiment was actually an exercise in non-conformity, and the book reads as a guidebook for nonconformists. Thoreau was well aware of his surroundings and quite familiar with the wilderness and the natural world. If he wanted to truly escape society and live out in the woods away from people, he most certainly would have. Instead, his decision was, according to renowned Thoreau biographer Laura Dassow Walls, "an iconic work of performance art." His proximity to town and his regular visits (as well as receiver of visitors) was intended to ensure his actions were "performed on a very public stage." 

Thoreau's intent was quite literally to rattle the bars of society and raise important questions about how to live. And, I am writing about Thoreau today as a bit of a reflection on the work I am doing with Thoreau and the punk rock ethos. What began as a simple magazine piece of pop culture criticism has actually become a bit of a passion. And I wrapped up my teaching career last may to pursue a fellowship of sorts, researching and writing about The Punk on Walden Pond. My initial plan and goal was to pursue this project in an official fellowship or MFA program, but when those options didn't pan out, I moved up to Fort Collins where I've been writing about music and trying to turn this idea into something more. 

We'll see how it goes. Check back occasionally to learn a bit more about what I call Thoreauvian Punk.

12 Great Books for the Music Lovers in Your Life

For many music fans, the next best thing to the actual songs is the story “behind the music.” For book lovers who are also music lovers, the well-written and often unexpected music book is a treat to feed both passions. Music books come in a variety of formats including band memoirs, music criticism, and pop culture philosophizing. From Lester Bangs’ collection of reviews in Psychotic Reactions & Carburetor Dung to Henry Rollins’ incredible journal-turned-memoir Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag, the music book is a valuable part of the art and the industry.

I can still recall the first music book that grabbed and held my attention from cover to cover – No One Here Gets Out Alive (1981), the seminal biography of legendary Doors frontman Jim Morrison, by Danny Sugarman. That book was more than just a memoir – it was a key player in my rock-n-roll coming of age. The last few years have seen numerous bestselling books from the music genre. Now, as the holiday season approaches, here’s a list of great reads for the music lover in your life.


Black Punk Now (2024) – Edited by James Spooner and Chris L. Terry – James Spooner, the filmmaker and graphic novelist known for the 2003 documentary Afro-Punk, begins this fascinating mixed media anthology by recalling how after purchasing his first computer in 2001, “one of the first things I did was Google ‘Black Punk.’ There were exactly zero links.” Spooner’s feeling of being all alone, and his certainty that “I wasn’t the only one,” grounds the book and its importance in chronicling the significance of race in the punk movement. From the seminal all-Black proto-punk band Death developing during the Motown era of Detroit to the rise of hardcore pioneers Bad Brains, the connection between punk culture and the African-American experience is profound. Bobby Hackney of Vermont punk band Rough Francis tells the story of discovering that his father and uncle were in the band Death, and he writes “Being Black and punk challenges the notions of what people think ‘Black’ is supposed to be … and that is so punk.” The multi-genre format of the collection with zines, fiction, nonfiction, comics, and more emphasizes the intersectionality and DIY spirit of punk culture. With discussions of “Sista Grrrl Riot,” extensive personal narratives about being Black and punk, and a short film script called Let Me Be Misunderstood by Kash Abdulmalik, this book is a treasure trove of insight on music, race, and culture. Abdulmalik explains, “Nobody is more punk than the Black youth of America.” Black Punk Now affirms that belief.

The Creative Act: A Way of Being (2023) – Rick Rubin – Rick Rubin is a musician’s producer, despite being a man who claims to be not remotely musical. The founder of Def Jam records has played a pivotal role in countless noteworthy and even-career altering albums over a diverse collection of bands ranging from LL Cool J and The Red Hot Chili Peppers to Johnny Cash and Adele. This book is not specifically focused on music and the art of making it – though Rubin has vast knowledge and experience about some of the most significant music recordings of the past thirty years. Instead, Rubin’s somewhat stream-of-consciousness pondering about the process of creativity is rooted in one basic idea – an artist must make art first and foremost and solely for themselves if they want to achieve their maximum creativity. Anything created with a market in mind is automatically less authentic, and though the music industry pushes incessantly for musicians to compromise their artistic voice in search of greater marketability, Rubin believes the best music comes from artists uninterested in such economic compromise. While not technically a music book, Rubin’s tome is an investigation to explore the creative process in perhaps the same way that some artists have done under his tutelage.

Girl in a Band: a Memoir (2015) – Kim Gordon – Beginning with a raw, honest, and heartfelt chapter titled “The End,” recounting the last live show from Sonic Youth, Gordon poignantly describes how “When we came onstage for our last show, the night was all about the boys.” She describes keeping her distance from Thurston Moore, the couple just a month removed from a record company announcement of their separation and divorce. And then Gordon goes back to the beginning with an exhaustive account of her career in music and notably Sonic Youth, where she was the girl in a band. The history is rich and honest, delving deep into her relationship with her brother, an inspiration and a burden as he struggled with mental illness. She shares honest but casual references to times like when Sonic Youth played Lawrence, KS, opening for REM when she and Thurston joined Michael Stipe to visit beat writer and legend William Burroughs. “That day, all I could think of was how much Burroughs reminded me of my dad,” she writes. Chronicling a true rock and roll life, Gordon’s story, unlike many memoirs, doesn’t stick to chronology, instead focusing more on themes and feelings. And it’s filled with song-specific chapters that read like essays of music and pop culture criticism. It’s somewhat emotionally distant while also coming across as honest and vulnerable, and it’s exactly the type of book fans might expect from the badass female bass player from one of post-punk’s most significant and enduring bands. Granted this book is a few years old; but it must be mentioned in any list containing the book from Gordon’s ex-husband/bandmate Thurston Moore.

Hip Hop is History (2024) – Questlove – Framed against the Hip-Hop 50 Tribute for the 2023 Grammys, the book is a definitive history of hip-hop, establishing that hip-hop is, in fact, a significant and indispensable component of the history of America at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. In fact, one could argue, it’s impossible to understand late contemporary American history without understanding the role hip-hop culture has played. Inspired by common reflection of the pandemic years, Questlove says “I began to think more about preservation. Too much culture, especially Black culture, has passed into the past without a second thought.” From the man who directed Summer of Soul, the Oscar-winning documentary about the Harlem Culture Festival of 1969, the book is an incredible academic achievement that is incredibly familiar and readable as a bit of pop culture criticism. He begins pondering: “So here we are at the fiftieth anniversary of this wonderful bottomless creative meaning-crying shape shifting genre. So what is the state of the art?” Questlove answers that question tenfold. Talking about “The Roots” – which is a perfect name for his group, the Tonight Show band – he watches new hip-hop come and go, and shares sweet moments like when he talks fondly of artists like Doja Cat who not only knows his generation but also knows the music that influenced his generation. Picking up on and playing off his previous memoir Music is History, songs he picked out which have formed his own history, this latest work is a beautiful blend of memoir and criticism.

Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan (2024) – Alex Pappademas and Joan LeMay – This collaborative mixed media work between a pop culture writer and a contemporary fine art painter delves into one of the most loved/hated bands in music history. The catalog of Steely Dan is nothing short of Dickensian or Dylanesque in the characters and stories it contains, and music fans all know about protagonists like Rikki who shouldn't “lose that number.” From “Dr. Wu” to “Cousin Dupree” or even a nostalgic dreamer just known by the address “Hey, Nineteen,” the people of Steely Dan songs are a cast as varied and interesting as many of the most well known characters from American literature. And the music of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen draws from a seemingly endless well of influences, with everything from existential philosophy to the inner workings of jazz legends. Pappademas, the senior culture editor for GQ and author of Keanu Reeves: Most Triumphant— The Movies and Meaning of an Irrepressible Icon (2022), has done some thorough scholarly investigative work into the history of “the Dan” and has amassed a thorough collection of the stories behind the songs. This innovative book is a work of art unto itself with the detailed commentary of Pappademas alongside the captivating art of LeMay.

Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk (2024) – Kathleen Hanna – When Bikini Kill hit the road for a huge summer tour, it was clear the hard core feminism that grounded Riot Grrrl remains more important than ever. Thus, it just makes sense for punk rock badass Kathleen Hanna to tell her story. The memoir, obviously building off the Kill’s seminal “Riot Grrrl” song, is both a timely and important reminder of the reason the genre exists, and the important role music plays in social movements. If #MeToo had a soundtrack, then Bikini Kill would be an indispensable track. Hanna’s story is raw and honest and vulnerable while also coming across as hardened, tough and ultimately triumphant. Hanna pulls no punches and bluntly recounts and indicts the harsh misogyny endemic to the music industry – a condition necessitating the rise of Riot Grrrl “girls to the front” battle cry. The stories come across as almost conversational, like we’re sitting around with Hanna recollecting the highs, lows, and in-betweens of a legendary career. And she delivers her soft recollections of Kurt Cobain while also recounting the strange story of how she contributed to the title of Nirvana’s breakthrough hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Hanna has seen it all in the music world, and her stories are invaluable to the history of the industry.

She Come by It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs (2021) Sara Smarsh – Sarah Smarsh is an award-winning journalist from Kansas who has chronicled the lives of working class people from the country’s Heartland, and she writes with honesty and integrity about the challenge of being poor in the richest country on Earth. Her book on the music of Dolly Parton and the lives of the people her songs honor began as a long-form series for the roots-music magazine No Depression about music that tells the stories of America’s unsung people. Smarsh is well-versed in both the lives of the people and the music of country’s queen, and she brings an honest, often painfully so, portrait of people like her grandma Betty who are the truest portrait of feminism while also being averse, or simply too busy to acknowledge and understand, the term and its political implications. Smarsh weaves her narrative and music commentary with an authentic voice that understands how “Parton jokes that she had to get rich to sing like she was poor again.” Growing up rural and poor while working to rise above her challenges, Smarsh explains through true stories and characters from Parton’s songs how “People can be found packing up and leaving in the lyrics of most musical genres, but there is something particularly poor, female, and American in the the leaving that happens in country music.”

60 Songs that Explain the 90s (2023) – Rob Havilla – Music critic and pop culture writer Havilla writes he is “loathe to lay on you some ulta pretentious Grand Unified Theory of the 90s, which is far away enough to feel like the past, but close enough to be hounding the present …” And he doesn’t actually do that, but he clearly has a thesis about the 90s, and this fascinating collection of music commentary is the mix-tape soundtrack for his theory. Havilla astutely notes how “The music you loved as a teenager will be the sweetest music you’ll ever hear, the music will be in all likelihood the greatest wildest purest love affair of your whole life.” Havilla covers all the genres and doesn't shy away from explaining why Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” is every bit as significant as Eminem’s “My Name Is” and Beck’s “Loser.” And he ponders unique historical moments such as the philosophical significance of Dion “the bombastic pop diva” and Elliot Smith “the sad quiet guy with the acoustic guitar” both performing at the Academy Awards for best movie theme song in 1999. Havilla’s knowledge and research are vast, and readers will enjoy loving and challenging his opinions.

Sonic Life: a Memoir (2023) – Thurston Moore – When a band breaks up, fans often feel like the children of divorce, betrayed and confused by the division. That situation was all the more significant during the breakup of post-punk pioneers Sonic Youth, which featured a punk rock power couple of cool in Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. And now fans have two books exploring the history and dissolution of the band. Actually, with Moore’s memoir, the relationship, and more importantly his infidelity that ultimately derailed it, is loudly noticeably absent. What’s not is a nearly encyclopedic recollection of the rise of punk rock, its control of a young fan, and its impact on a seminal second wave band. In fact the memoir is so detailed, you’d think Moore kept a daily journal of his forty year career, beginning with the noise rock movement connected to the late 70s/early 80s punk scene in New York City. The book is so filled with vivid narrative recounting of his endless stream of influences – The Stooges, Patti Smith, Television Talking Heads, Ramones – it seems like he listened to and deconstructed every band he heard on the way to forming a unique musical experiment known as Sonic Youth. The book seems to be simply and exclusively about his love affair with music. And he talks a great deal more about other bands than he does the significance of his own. In fact, Moore was so embedded in the early scene, he sounds like a true historian at times, and that’s the appeal of this book, chronicling his first hand experience of the rise of the punk movement.

There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A." and the End of the Heartland (2024) – Steve Hyden – Perhaps the most academically and culturally ambitious book on the list, Hyden’s tome is incredibly well-researched and insightful and might just be one of the best overall books of the year. As the music critic at large for UPROXX, Hyden is the consummate Gen X music fan, and he has published numerous books and lists of significant music and its historical context. In fact, his 2023 book Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation was an innovative and insightful bit of music criticism, as Hyden explained the history of the band through fifteen songs, a chapter for each song and moment in the band’s incredible history. With this book – how is he so prolific? – Hyden acknowledges that while most fans would cite Born to Run as Springsteen’s masterpiece, he believes “Born in the USA is undoubtedly his most iconic record from a pop culture perspective. It’s the album that defines his persona in the broadest sense. The way Bruce sounds, looks, and acts in the popular imagination derives mostly from the BUSA era.” Steve Hyden is a critic’s critic with an everyman’s voice, and the Springsteen book is an impressive achievement. His intricate music knowledge enables him to connect the album’s influence on 21st century politics and sociology.

The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture (2024) – Tricia Romano – While it’s not technically a music book per se, it spotlights the original alt-weekly newspaper Village Voice, which played a key role in the music scene, not just on the lower East Side, but ultimately all of New York and the rest of the country. For, as the New York Times review notes, “both Blondie and Springsteen got their drummers by placing ads in the back” of the Village Voice. Little tidbits of history like that fill this book, and music fans will appreciate the vast insider history of the scene from actual voices who recorded it. Its music criticism played a key role in the industry, and it was one of the earliest news voices writing about the rise of hip hop. With headlines like “There’s some music coming out of the Bronx called rap,” this collection of recollections is as surprising as it is insightful. At more than 500 pages, this type of oral history is one to be checked in with casually. The Voice’s early writing about Donald Trump is a fascinating time capsule, especially because it documents how he mentioned running for president in 1987. The book is organized as a series of casual recollections from people like Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs,and with quips acknowledging graffiti as art while subsequently documenting the careers of icons like Basquiat and Haring, the book is certainly worth a look from music and arts fans.

Where Are Your Boys Tonight? The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008 (2024) – Chris Payne – According to the author’s disclaimer, “This book is not meant to be an encyclopedia of emo, but a narrative of a specific moment in history.” Granted with interviews of more than 150 people over three hundred hours, Payne has certainly amassed an encyclopedic history of that moment in the early 2000s, a time during which the heirs to punk, post-punk, hardcore, indie rock and grunge became immensely popular in the third wave of emo. Payne even concedes that many bands mentioned would not consider themselves emo, likely because of the negativity surrounding the term at various times. That said, the bands from My Chemical Romance to Panic! At the Disco to Fall Out Boy to Paramore truly represent a notable musical movement that was rich and varied and synonymous with the popular culture of the era. Organized as an oral history with a cinematic “cast of characters” introducing each section of the book, the book aptly covers the various disconnected but relative emo scenes geographically and somewhat chronologically. Movements like punk and all its offshoots including the various waves of emo are rooted in local scenes, and Payne’s incredibly well researched and insightful history effortlessly moves from New Jersey to Chicago to south Florida, documenting each scene as every bit as influential on emo as the Lower East side or DC or Berkely were to early punk waves.