Br. Danielson of the Danielson Famile, Smoosh, Beck,
Mark E. Smith of the Fall, Donovan, Karen O, and Aimee Mann.
Cover illustrations: Charles Burns!
How to Be a Christian Artist
by Rick Moody
Dressed as trees and doctors, the Danielson Famile makes evangelical rock music that’s free from preordained Old Testament imagery.
FULL TEXT
Perverted by Language
by Douglas Wolk
Dense, scathing, and repetitive, the Fall’s appearances on the BBC contained some of the strangest and most resonant songs recorded.
Electrical Bananas
by John McMillian
The undergound press revolutionized the media. It all began in 1967, with a rumor that smoking banana peels could get you high.
Bones of the Lion
by Oliver Broudy
How much should the George Plimpton archive cost?
Karen O
interviewed by Carrie Brownstein
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ frontwoman remembers a time when kids from Mexico City weren’t the only ones who knew how to rock.
Beck
interviewed by Eric Spitznagel
Beck gives us a musical education in irony-free seduction, from Gary Wilson to R. Kelly.
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Smoosh
interviewed by Steve Almond
The hardest-working teen-sister-duo in rock and roll discover that true happiness might just be a dancing audience.
FULL TEXT
Aimee Mann
in conversation with Patton Oswalt
Two old friends drink a bottle and a half of wine and talk about G.W. Bush, superhero mythology, and Fellini’s boob fixation.
John Roderick
interviewed by Litsa Dremousis
The Long Winters lead singer walks across Europe and has the haunting realization that he’d much rather be fun than brilliant.
Notes on the 2005 Believer CD
by Matthew Derby
FULL TEXT
Three Songs from the End of History
by Hua Hsu
Anti-Diva: Susie Suh
by James Hunter
A Secret History of Popular Labyrinthitis: Seven Musical Moebius Strips
by Ed Park
FULL TEXT
Microphone: The Egg-Static Harp Mic
by Steven Page
Rupert Thomson’s Divided Kingdom
reviewed by Dan Johnson
Thalia Field’s Incarnate: Story Material
reviewed by Miranda F. Mellis
David Francis’s The Great Inland Sea
reviewed by Morgan Meis
Georgi Gospodinov’s Natural Novel
reviewed by J. M. Tyree
FULL TEXT
James Richardson’s Interglacial
reviewed by Sarah Manguso
Julia Slavin’s Carnivore Diet
reviewed by Adam Novy
No Notation
by Fat Bobby
Sedaratives
by Amy Sedaris
Stuff I’ve Been Reading
by Nick Hornby
La Zona Fantasma
by Javier Marías
Schema: Singing Drummers
by Utrillo Kushner


