Poem in The Twin Bill

I have a poem in the latest issue of The Twin Bill, a journal of baseball literature and art.  I would say that the poem (“Under Green Light”) is not concerned with the realism of an actual baseball game, so much as it is with non-ordinary mind states and with absorption in an ongoing moment, non-linear time.

Read the poem here: https://thetwinbill.com/under-green-light/

The Music and Noise of the Stooges, 1967-71: Lost in the Future

Cover photo: Douglas R. Gilbert

My book The Music and Noise of the Stooges, 1967-71: Lost in the Future, a critical study of the Stooges, is now published by Routledge.

Here is the webpage for the book: https://www.routledge.com/The-Music-and-Noise-of-the-Stooges-1967-71-Lost-in-the-Future/Begnal/p/book/9780367648435

Here is the back matter:

The Stooges have come to be considered one of the most important rock bands, especially in regard to the formation of punk. By emphasizing their influence on later developments, however, critics tend to overlook the significance of the band in their own context and era. The Music and Noise of the Stooges, 1967–71 addresses such oversights.

Utilizing the lenses of cultural criticism and sound studies (drawing on the thinking of Theodor Adorno, Jacques Attali, and Pierre Bourdieu, among others), this extensively researched study analyzes the trajectory and musical output of the original Stooges. During the late 1960s and early 70s, a moment when the dissonant energy of rock’n’roll was more than ever being subsumed by the record industry, the Stooges were initially commercial failures, with the band’s “noisy” music and singer Iggy Pop’s “bizarre” onstage performances confusing their label, Elektra Records. As Begnal argues, the Stooges embodied a tension between market forces and an innovative, avant-garde artistic vision, as they sought to liberate audiences from passivity and stimulate an immanent joy in the rock’n’roll moment.

This book, which includes new material gleaned from first-person interviews and engages with less-trodden archival texts, offers a fresh perspective on the Stooges that will appeal both to rock fans and scholars (especially in the fields of cultural studies, punk studies, and performance studies).

Oblivion Demo Tape, 1985

Oblivion is a band I co-founded in Philadelphia in the fall of 1984. Originally, the band was the four-piece lineup of Steve Lukshides (who had formerly been bassist in YDI), Marc Fernich (ex-Kremlin Korps and Vatican Commandos), and myself (formerly of Wasted Talent), with Todd Cote on vocals. After Todd left the band, Dave Wynter replaced him as singer, and Fil Cerny was brought on as second/lead guitarist. Oblivion played frequently in the Philly punk/hardcore scene between 1984-86, finally breaking up in late ’86.

Our two-song demo tape was recorded in 1985 at Philly's Spectrum Studios.

See also the Oblivion article at Freedom Has No Bounds.