If hip-hop acts are the most in need of a back-story to keep their street cred intact, singer-songwriters are a close second. Why? Because there are so damn many of them. Some folk singers build a stage persona, talking about their small-town upbringing or their nomadic travels, all in an attempt...

By Will Thompson “You’ve been flying blind/people never change/bitch don’t even try.” (“Keep It Together”) If this is how Aqueduct’s David Terry genuinely looks at the world, then it’s not a surprise that his most recent album Or Give Me Death isn’t...

U.S. history is no more violent and oppressive than the history of England, Russia, Indonesia, or Burundi

Jimmy took two steps into our classroom, looking very much the part of a thirteen-year old boy wearing a button-down plaid shirt and khaki pants. He froze just beyond the doorway with his palms pasted to the front of his hips, his elbows jutting out at odd angles. His hair waved in a disheveled, frizzy...

There have been few instances within the indie rock subculture where the hipsters and rock snobs have been able to push aside their overwhelming cynicism and grasp the merest glimmer of hope and optimistic thinking in their sad, depressing little world. And if you do some digging into those good times,...

Clearly and respectfully, I am only one man from Canada. That has never been more apparent to me than while reviewing music from different musical scenes and specters of the globe. Having nothing of a reference point, I could see definitive tones of Crowded House and Canadian native Matthew Good emanating...

Norman Mailer calls novel writing an attack on reality, an attempt to penetrate the tough exterior shell of existence to gain the secret kernels of truth inside. He has also said that the twentieth-century artist who had the most influence on his work was not a writer at all but Pablo Picasso. For Picasso...

11-18-06 Dear Trojan… A hormone ate my dinner roll. We were having dinner the other night — me, my three children, my wife and the fetus — when I asked: “Hey, is there any more bread? I didn’t get a roll.” You’d have thought my words had been: “I have been...

As we hear about nearly every day, America has an all-volunteer military. This means that today’s servicemen and women are more likely to be parents than those who served in Vietnam, when young men were drafted for war. Since Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of children have lost a parent to the war on...

The Arcade Fire is a unique band whose music has been a part of my life at some pretty significant and special moments. Yet, Funeral was not a record that latched onto me immediately. As a matter of fact, when I bought Funeral, over a year had passed since its release. Despite glowing reviews from every...