Alec Hanley Bemis

Queasy Sick Wonderful

Photographs by Max S. Gerber One day at Amoeba: Record buyers photographed January 3, 2002. Interviews by Vanessa Silverton-Peel and Christine Pelisek. RECORDS: the burden, the commitment. Even as props behind dark, gloomy curtains in airless subbasements, they’re essential the way all designated essentials are: the universe would topple without......

Attack of the Widget People

“Musicians need to start thinking of themselves as makers of a product just like widgets,” said Kevin Murray, a Democratic state senator for L.A. County‘s 26th District. Unfortunately, Murray -- a former agent at William Morris -- was speaking as an artist’s advocate. What have we come to when the......
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The Sound of Music

It feels like a time for cutting back. What is essential? Certainly, music does not come first on the list. Recently I got away, took a trip to Vermont. I was in my friend‘s bathroom, under her showerhead. I opened my mouth and swallowed the water. The plumbing in her......

Hungry Heart

Dan Bern is not the smartest man in the world. Nor is he the wisest or the wittiest. Nor does he have the largest vocabulary. But he is honest, and he seems comfortable with what he thinks and who he is, and he brings that honesty, that comfort and those......

Remains of the Day

The thing to remember in the face of death is that it is a moment when we who live through it are the most alive. We notice the same things. Reality comes into focus. This morning, you freeze up when you hear the news and drop a handful of change......
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I Will Be Absorbed

THE BETA BANDHot Shots II (Astralwerks) Screw Almost Famous. For every record fiend worthy of the title, High Fidelity was 2000‘s mainstream entertainment event of the year. The film contains a very telling scene about the charms of Scotland’s the Beta Band. Record-shop owner Rob Gordon holds up a copy......
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Motor City Breakdown

Photo by Michael AckermanDealing with emotion has never been electronic music’s strong suit. When Kraftwerk sang, “Fun fun fun on the Autobahn,” the fun was in the disconnect: It didn’t sound like Florian Schneider and Ralf Hutter would know the difference between a belly laugh and a system error. (The......
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Freedom Fighter

Here’s a thought: If you are an American, a real one, one who appreciates the difference between here and everywhere else, you‘re probably seeking one thing: freedom -- creative, financial, social or religious. You may seek to free yourself from morality’s grip; you may wish to fill yourself to the......
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Standards and Practices

”Look. Utilizing sources your audience doesn’t recognize so they‘ll think you concocted ’em yourself -- everybody does it. It‘s one of the ’principles‘ on which rock has always been based,“ explained the rockwriter Richard Meltzer in last year’s A Whore Just Like the Rest, an anthology of his music writings......
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Spare 1 Bdrm. Fully Furnished.

Illustration by Bill Smith In the 27 years prior to his death in 1925, the composer Erik Satie allowed no one to enter his apartment. He had friendships with other members of the French avant-garde. A group of young composers, Les Six, even formed a minimovement around him. But he......