After a period of being out of stock, Bloomsbury has completed a new printing of my 33-1/3 book on Ministry’s The Land Of Rape And Honey. Go get you one!
Thanks to everyone who showed up to my Ministry book event at Rough Trade Below on Saturday Oct. 25. I promise a more detailed dispatch very soon once my joints and my sinuses are fully repaired. Soon I shall start writing text for my GoFundMe to finance one of those portable CPAP machines I can run on a plane, a car or inside a janitor’s closet while I’m hanging upside down. But first…
Congratulations to SPIN magazine on its 40th anniversary! The Fall 2025 issue is on stands now sporting Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain on the cover, which proudly announces “The 40 Greatest Musicians Of The Last 40 Years.” I was given lead review real estate to wax about Bleeds, the new album from Wednesday, as well as rejoicing over AFI making the record I’ve been wanting them to release for 15 years. In my latest Vinyl Countdown column, I draw on stuff that’s new and fabulous (Fast Money Music), old and venerable (Bowie, Led Zep, Zappa) and continuously cool (Tav Falco, Moving Targets). Gratitude to my editor Jon Cohen for having me along for this ride.
Rhino Records’ latest round of reissues from the Ministry catalog were released Oct. 24. The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste (1989) and Psalm 69 (1992) are out into the world, augmented with bonus remixes and non-LP B-sides. Did I mention they sound fuk’n amazing? At the right volume, “Dream Song” feels like the waiting room in Purgatory, while “Corrosion” and “Grace” are still some of the greatest electronic constructions to be realized in the last century. Al Jourgensen was pretty open about the Psalm 69 experience, but informed me that “liner notes for Filth Pig? Now that can be a fuk’n book…”
And finally, Greg Prato has written more books than I’ve had hot meals. (Actually, that’s not true, because I got on the bathroom scale before starting this piece.) His latest, Alternative For The Masses: The ‘90s Alt-Rock Revolution — An Oral History, compiles a stack of quotes from interviews with prominent personalities from that titular zeitgeist. If your hard drive contains morsels from Helmet, Ministry, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Filter, Slint, Pixies, Primus and The Breeders, or if you’re merely fond of the opinions held by the guy whose website you’re currently reading, you will appreciate this. Nice work, Greg!
Back in a few days with all the squalor, filth and treachery surrounding PTGRW in NYC. Cheerz, frenz!
