Opinion
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Guest column: Destroy Boys’ Violet Mayugba on outside perceptions
Destroy Boys, courtesy. Editor’s note: The last time Violet Mayugba of the Bay Area’s Destroy Boys checked in with us, nearly a year ago, she (like everyone) was trying to adjust to the pandemic lifestyle. The music the band released back then strangely fit the newly uncertain times, even if…
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Insert Foot: Soundgarden’s fight discredits the magic of distant rehearsal rooms
Insert Foot wants Soundgarden and Vicky Cornell to get along. It’s truly awful and terribly ironic what’s going on between the surviving members of Soundgarden and Vicky Cornell, the widow of late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell. “This column writes itself, right?” Insert Foot. Rendering: Adam Pardee/STAFF. Cornell just sued…
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Insert Foot storming the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame if there’s no Iron Maiden
Insert Foot vs. Iron Maiden haters. If you didn’t notice, it’s time to get hysterical again over Rock and Roll Hall of Fame selections. I don’t get a say in the critic’s vote, which I accepted a long time ago. One doesn’t give Metallica’s St. Anger a positive review…
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Opinion: Getting the poke of ‘old normal’ in a COVID-19 vaccine
California Gov. Gavin Newsom watches as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is prepared by Director of Inpatient Pharmacy David Cheng at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center on Dec. 14, 2020 in Los Angeles. Photo by Jae C. Hong-Pool. California has about 3,000 designations for the COVID vaccination process. Even…
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Insert Foot: Why Morgan Wallen has no excuse anymore
INSERT FOOT vs. Morgan Wallen. I once struggled with the idea of separating artist from art. Not anymore. I will (sort of) give Donald Trump some backhanded credit, this one time. His presidency made a few things so much easier to figure out–things literally connected to black and white.…
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Insert Foot: Post-rock, post-apocalyptic Coachella, not over Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly
INSERT FOOT is into the post-apocalypse, post-rock and post-metal, but he’s not over Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly. I wince when someone attaches the word “post” to a noun. Except for maybe “apocalypse,” which is pretty clear, as there’s probably not much margin around an apocalypse. “Post-modern” was…
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Insert Foot: Rx side effects, Bernie Sanders, songs about pickup trucks
INSERT FOOT and Bernie Sanders vs. Jon Bon Jovi and pickup trucks. January and February aren’t usually the best months for the entertainment industry. Even when we’re not dodging explosive murder germs. Spring will be here before we know it. Let’s try to keep things … nice, until then.…
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OPINION: The ramifications of American fascism, which is still here
A gallows erected by pro-Trump rioters outside the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. Courtesy: Tyler Merbler. All of this was entirely avoidable. Those words have rung in my ears well beyond the last four years, but they have become deafening as a result of…
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Jason Hill on producing and recording with Sylvain Sylvain and New York Dolls
Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls (right) with Jason Hill. Courtesy: Hill. Editor’s note: Guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, a founding member of seminal punk band New York Dolls, died Jan. 13 after a battle with cancer. Born in Egypt, the 69-year-old co-started the hugely influential group in 1971. Musician-producer-composer…
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Obituary: Fairness demands remembering Phil Spector for who he was
Phil Spector photographed in the 1970s, and a recent booking photo. I heard Phil Spector died and immediately thought of the end of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” That’s happened every time I’ve heard Phil Spector’s name since 2003, when he killed Lana Clarkson, the actress who played the…
