Hot Gross Summer Is Here

Plus, a different kind of road trip.

I’m ambivalent about summer. The heat. The sun. The heat. The only good thing about summer is it serves as a magnet for places I don’t want to go anyway, like amusement parks, county fairs, and music festivals.

Sure, I like going for a dip in the pool and showing off the tattoos as much as anyone, but if I’m being totally honest I’d rather be inside listening to music or reading a book and when the weather gets warm it makes those things uncomfortable.

But it sure beats summer in Lapvona. Where’s that, you ask? Lapvona is the fictional medieval shithole in Ottessa Moshfegh’s eponymous new novel. It’s a place where the villagers toil under the thumb of an oppressive ruler. A place where people resort to cannibalism during famines, witches walk around with horse eyeballs, and royalty amuse themselves by making their servants eat grapes they shoved up their rectums. You know, like Orange County, maybe?

Even though Lapvona has been widely panned by critics, I picked it up and read the novel immediately. Maybe it was the Friz Quadrata font on the cover, made famous by Black Flag, Bad Religion, and KFC that pulled me in…

Move over Black Flag & Bad Religion…

I’ve read all six of Moshfegh’s books and except for the first one, McGlue, which I loved, and Eileen, which I didn’t, I never know how to feel about her books. Her creative instincts are somewhat perverse in that she can be counted on to do the unexpected. Her characters aren’t just unlikeable, they’re irredeemable, which is interesting. Moshfegh’s plots are always kind of wonky and the story unfurls on the strength of her sentences and her ideas, but I found Lapvona to be kind of a slog. Here’s my updated Moshfegh ranking.

1 McGlue
2A My Year of Rest & Relaxation
2B Death in Her Hands
2C Homesick for Another World
2D Lapvona
6 Eileen

I debated whether to move Homesick higher, but I can’t recall a single story in the collection so there you go.

But here’s something I bet that even the most hardcore of Moshfegh’s fans don’t know: she went to the same prestigious Boston high school the founding members of the Lemonheads attended back in the ‘80s. How’s that for some brains in your face?

Corporate Rock Sucks on the Road Again.
Sort of.

Next week I’m doing a Corporate Rock Sucks event at Thrillhouse Records in San Francisco on Thursday June 7 at 6pm. I’m also going to see Jerry Stahl talk about his new book with Josh Mohr at Green Apple Books on Friday June 8 at 7pm.

Since I’m going to be driving up from San Diego next week and then back again the following weekend with a couple boxes of Corporate Rock Sucks, I’m opening my schedule up to my friends (and future friends) in California:

• Did you buy a copy of Corporate Rock Sucks? I’ll come sign it.

• Do you want to buy a signed copy (or three)? I’ll hook it up.

• Do you want to hang out at your favorite book shop, brewery, record store, or tattoo parlor and talk about punk rock? I’ll swing by.

• Oceanside? Ojai? Oxnard?

Hit me up in the comments or reply to this email. No reasonable offer will be refused. Who’s up for some good clean chaos?

Corporate Rock Sucks Link of the Week

Speaking of talking about punk rock, something interesting is happening. While reviews of Corporate Rock Sucks continue to pop up and I’m still recording podcasts, the book is sliding into the larger conversation about punk and punk-related themes. In Pop Matters, Iain Ellis used the book to bolster his argument about the weird relationship between punk and the media.

Although there are no equivalents to John Peel in regards to radio contributions to punk culture, Rodney Bingenheimer performed a comparable role in spreading the word during the genre’s infancy in Los Angeles. Whether through his work DJ’ing at the KROQ station or at his English Disco club nights, Bingenheimer kept his finger on the punk pulse, promoting the new noises emanating from London and New York in late 1976, as well as those arising from his own city. Although that scene started in Hollywood, Bingenheimer was not averse to exploring beyond when hardcore started creating a buzz from the suburban beach zones. He was at Black Flag’s legendary debut show at the Moose Lodge in Redondo Beach on 27 January 1979, where he picked up a copy of the band’s self-made, self-produced, self-released debut, “Nervous Breakdown”, which he proceeded to play on his KROQ show. 

What I’m Listening To

When I was at Vancouver’s Neptoon Records I picked up a copy of Civic’s 2021 debut Future Forecast from Ato Records and I’ve been listening to it nonstop. It fits the groove of Aussie punk rock I’ve been into lately like Amyl & the Sniffers and C.O.F.F.I.N. both of whom I saw in April. Civic is a touch more melodic and hits the sweet spot between the Saints and Cosmic Psychos. I can’t wait to see these blokes live.