As Democrats flock to Boston to nominate John Kerry for president, few surprises will await them at the Fleet Center. Today’s political conventions stay relentlessly “on message,” and they serve as mere heralds of the home stretch of a seemingly endless presidential campaign. A key part of that unwavering message is a recounting of party […]
Richard Byrne
Richard Byrne is a journalist who lives in Washington, D.C. He blogs at Balkans via Bohemia.
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Please Come to Ohio
On the demo tape that won him a record deal back in 1991, Bottle Rockets’ leader Brian Henneman sang a song about Neil Young. Fittingly, Henneman’s portrait (co-written with longtime collaborator Scott Taylor) was more of a woodcut than a watercolor. “Neil once voted Republican,” sings Henneman in one verse. “And that pissed off a […]
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Mekon Love
The Mekons — punk rock’s aging but irrepressible street urchins — have yet to surrender to time. Holding forth from the stage of a smallish rock club in Northern Virginia on a recent March night, one could never tell that the band had started its career way back in 1978. Their latest release, Punk Rock, […]