Richard Klin
RICHARD KLIN is the author of Something to Say (Leapfrog Press, 2011).
Off the Shelves
By Theodore Hamm, Megan Marz, Richard Klin, and Anne McPeakOn May 4, 1886, Chicago’s anarchists and radical labor leaders gathered in Haymarket Square to protest ongoing police violence against the movement for the eight-hour workday. Although some leaflets in circulation at the event called "workingmen … to arms!!!," most of the speakers at the rally discouraged any resort to violence.
Some Time in New York City
By Richard KlinThe standard musician’s autobiography can run long on detail and short on writing style. It is doubtful, really, that anyone would pick up Neil Young’s Waging Heavy Peace—as interesting as his story is—for the prose.
A Trip to the Alter with Priests
By Richard KlinPriests, the D.C.-based foursome consisting of vocalist Katie Alice Greer, guitarist G.L. Jaguar, drummer Daniele Daniele, and bassist Taylor Mulitz, defy easy categorization. The band’s compelling, incendiary stagecraft was on full display at Basilica Hudson’s SoundStage (with Merchandise’s Carson Cox filling in for Taylor Mulitz on bass), a weekend of innovative and experimental music, visual art, and spoken word, plunked down in the county seat of Columbia County.
Artistic License
By Richard KlinKim Gordon is an artistic polymath, steeped in visual art, film, the written word. Her primary focus is music: for three decades, the world knew her as Sonic Youth’s inscrutable bassist. Girl in a Band is Gordon’s literate memoir of following “the forward wave of momentum, noise, and motion” that led to New York City, to husband and bandmate Thurston Moore, and to the long-running Sonic Youth.
Natural Elements
By Richard KlinKeyboardist Jamie Saft, drummer Craig Santiago, and bassist Brad Jones make up the New Zion Trio. The ensemble can be best understood as a substantive, far-ranging conversation: Each participant has a full voice, each listens, and together all participants shape and guide the flow of ideas.
Loony Tunes
By Richard KlinThe lion’s share of Dan Hicks’s musical renown came during his stint, in the 1960s and 1970s, as the front man of the sometimes madcap ensemble Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks.
The Alexander Technique
By Richard KlinDuring the 1990s, I went to hear Alex Chilton at every conceivable opportunity. This was the late-model Chilton: a no-frills trio, Chilton on guitar and vocals, a bassist, and a drummer. His unassuming, low-key demeanor was an enigma, not quite jibing with a wildly oscillating career and famously turbulent past.
