Blake Maddux

Music Interview: Andrew Grant Jackson on 1965, Music’s ‘Annus Mirabilis’

April 21, 2015
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1965 was the year in which the leading artists in American and British popular music pushed themselves beyond making albums that mixed covers with subpar originals.

Book Review: “Shame” — Racism and the Sins of Paternalistic Liberalism

April 8, 2015
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According to Shelby Steele, white liberals “dissociate” themselves from the past sins of white America by subscribing to the “poetic truth” that the United States is “characterologically evil.”

Book Review: “Madison’s Music” — Listen to the Melody of the First Amendment?

March 12, 2015
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If James Madison was so verbose that his draft version of the First Amendment could be cut in half, then he can hardly be called an artist with words.

Book Review: “American Justice 2014” — A Sturdy Look at the Current Supreme Court

February 7, 2015
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The most important takeaway from American Justice 2014 is the potential danger, from Epps’s perspective, of the growing influence of Justice Alito.

Book Interview: “Season of the Witch” — Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Occult Imagination

February 3, 2015
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“To say that the occult ‘saved’ it is really to say that the spiritual agitation is at the heart of what was able to bring rock ‘n’ roll to its most interesting places.”

Author Interview: Historian Jason Sokol on Race and Massachusetts — From the Red Sox to Springfield

January 5, 2015
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“I think a lot of people around town are fairly aware of the Red Sox’s checkered history in terms of race.”

Book Interview: No Guns — No Civil Rights?

November 5, 2014
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“If you’re dead you won’t have a movement, and guns kept people alive. In particular, kept people who made the movement alive.”

Fuse Music Interview: Cold Specks — The Queen of Doom Soul

October 27, 2014
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Neuroplasticity is a bit more fleshed-out than its predecessor, but the album retains ample amounts of the slow to mid-tempo spookiness that Al Spx calls “doom soul.”

Rock CD Review: Canadian Pop Rockers Sloan Share the “Commonwealth”

October 24, 2014
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So how do four young guys successfully build upon two masterworks while simultaneously facing possible enervation due to record label woes and botched stateside promotion?

Book Interview: Jim Vrabel Explores Boston’s History from the Grassroots Perspective

September 28, 2014
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A People’s History of the New Boston takes the “grassroots” view and tries to give overdue credit to the role that community activists and neighborhood residents played in building the “New Boston.”

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