Posts by Zach Johnson

Anyone else out there agree that New York was Lou Reed’s best solo album? Not entirely sure how bold of a claim that is, as that record has always been considered one of his best, but because the sound, style, and era is so far removed from his more infamously decadent glam years, it can […]

Has there ever been a more brilliant “fuck you” follow-up to a significant commercial breakthrough album than Faith No More’s Angel Dust? Released three years after their Grammy-nominated platinum album The Real Thing, the band went in a decidedly less accessible and much darker/experimental direction on Angel Dust, and the results were manically fantastic. And […]

Not many people know that Stewart Copeland from The Police was once a lead singer in a punky new-wave band called Klark Kent. It was a fairly short-lived project, mainly to avoid disrupting the career of The Police, but it nonetheless yielded some delightfully weird little gems. Chief among them was “Don’t Care” performed live […]

Folks wear black for a whole host of reasons. Some people just think it looks cool, whilst others may be making a fashion statement, perhaps acknowledging humanity’s apparent insignificance set hopelessly adrift in a remarkably cold, dark, uncaring and incomprehensibly infinite universe. Or it could very well be less existential in nature, sure. Folks might […]

Does anyone else agree that My War-era Black Flag was the best period for the band? It’s probably not the most popular opinion, but it has its advocates (including this writer). Everything about the band’s sound and style at the time seemed to be rebelling against what traditional notions of hardcore-punk should feel and sound […]

Election night hangover got you down? Well, we here at Glide have the perfect antidote via this hilarious live cover of “YMCA” from a parody TV show in Finland circa 1979. Hopefully, this will help temporarily take your mind off all the ongoing vote counting, claims, concerns, grievances, etc… And hey, if you don’t like […]

There have been many times over the course of human history when things have looked particularly dire, but somehow or another, we always seem to step back from the brink and avoid disaster. Sure, things can get bumpy from time to time, but sometimes you just have to power through the proverbial turbulence until you […]

When you ask a typical Metallica fan what their best album is, chances are their response will be either Master of Puppets (i.e., the correct answer) or The Black Album (i.e., the wrong answer). Granted, Metallica has their fair share of classic/great albums, but broadly speaking, those records above tend to be their most popular […]

Any pseudo-ode to Halloween would not be complete without a salute to perhaps the campiest band of the lot: The Cramps. Gone but never forgotten, the psycho/gothabilly legends led by the husband-and-wife duo of Lex Interior and Poison Ivy personified the over-the-top excess of the season perhaps better than any other band. There are numerous […]

With only a couple of days left until Halloween, if you haven’t started already, it’s not too late to start indulging in some (debatably cliché) bands often associated with this time of the year. Some of those bands are also really good, regardless of the season. Chief among them for this writer is Type O […]

Is there any band more synonymous with Halloween than the Misfits? Granted, there have been plenty of groups over the years that have campy and dark elements (chances you may have seen some of them from this writer recently), but you’d be hard-pressed to top the overtly ghoulish flair pioneered by Glenn Danzig and the […]

There have been many great cover versions of “Screamin’ Jay” Hawkins’ original seasonal classic “I Put a Spell on You” over the years. Nina Simone, CCR, and Marilyn Manson all come to mind, but as is often the case, there’s nothing quite like the OG version, as this positively batshit performance from 1956 aptly demonstrates. […]

If you’ve felt the urge to dust off some characteristically dark albums from your record collection lately, chances are you’re not alone. It is late October, but whatever the case, sometimes, in your quest for campiness, you might rediscover some music that may be stylistically “dark” but is good enough that it transcends the season […]

By this time in October, chances are you’ve noticed a palpable chill in the air at some point as we head into the home stretch of the season of the witch. This is especially true for those of us from northern latitudes, where things can get downright “frosty” this time of the year. Take Switzerland […]

Being a member of the Osees (aka Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees, etc.) must be a little exhausting. That may be particularly true for founding vocalist/guitarist John Dwyer, considering he’s put out an album or two every year since the band’s inception roughly two decades ago. And on top of that, when the Osees are […]

When thinking about some of the most surreal and disturbing movies of all-time, David Lynch’s 1977 cult-classic film Eraserhead can’t help but come to mind. One might argue it’s essential viewing this time of the year, not only because of its distinctly bizarre nightmare imagery, but the score alone is often enough to send chills […]

By 1974, David Bowie had pushed his decadent glam persona virtually as far as it could go both musically and stylistically, culminating with the release of Diamand Dogs. But that’s not to say it still didn’t yield some awesome results, as evidenced by this classic performance of “Rebel Rebel”, which captures Bowie in all his […]

1977 was a pretty epic/pivotal year in music, particularly for the burgeoning UK punk scene, which saw a slew of classic debut albums from the likes of the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Wire, and Elvis Costello (just to name a few). So, suffice it to say there was a lot of competition, but if you’re […]

Speaking of celebrating the glammy decadence of the season (see yesterday’s Tuesday’s Gone), continuing in that spirit, it doesn’t get much campier than the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show, now does it? Indeed, few movies are as hilarious, debauched, bizarre, and outright fun as that notoriously risqué musical, which, of course, features several absurdly […]

If there’s a specific time of year when it just feels a little extra fun to blast some classic 70s glam rock, it would have to be October, would it not? Indeed, considering it’s the season for decadence, the glittery flair, pizzaz, and stylistic flashiness of the genre really go hand-in-hand, so let’s take it […]