Blogging at the intersection of urban studies and popular music

dance with me while they sleep: the 7" singles of Martha and the Muffins
Leonard Nevarez

dance with me while they sleep: the 7″ singles of Martha and the Muffins

by Leonard Nevarez on Jan 22, 2020 • 3 Comments
Let’s start with the obvious: Martha and the Muffins were never a ‘singles band.’ The musicians in Canada’s greatest new wave band came of age in the 1970s, a time when the rock album was the format of choice for mass audiences and (in the case of the young Muffins)...
the story of DinDisc Records
Leonard Nevarez

the story of DinDisc Records

by Leonard Nevarez on Mar 1, 2019 • No Comments
OMD were a perfect fit for what I had in mind for DinDisc — they had a serious, artistic side with real depth, as well as a commercial, pop side. That duality was reflected in all the early DinDisc signings, like Martha and the Muffins, and then the Monochrome Set....
how the Queen Street West scene began, pt. 1: the Thornhill sound
Leonard Nevarez

how the Queen Street West scene began, pt. 1: the Thornhill sound

by Leonard Nevarez on Sep 11, 2017 • 6 Comments
THE EVERGLADES are ambassadors of the Thornhill Sound, a sound long fermenting in the rec rooms and condo apartments just north of STEELES AVE. Among its proponents include: Martha and the Muffins, Johnny and the G-Rays, the B-Girls, and the now defunct Dishes, Cads, E-Static and the legendary Oh Those...
in exile: the rootless cosmopolitanism of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the Gun Club
Leonard Nevarez

in exile: the rootless cosmopolitanism of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the Gun Club

by Leonard Nevarez on Jun 23, 2015 • 7 Comments
I’ve never quite understood why the Gun Club, one of the all-time great Los Angeles bands, had an estranged relationship with their city of origin. It seems to me no local critic or serious music fan can deny their impact on L.A.’s music legacy. One of the great cult bands...
putting the Hudson Valley on the musical map: Basilica Soundscape and O+ Festival
Leonard Nevarez

putting the Hudson Valley on the musical map: Basilica Soundscape and O+ Festival

by Leonard Nevarez on Oct 17, 2014 • No Comments
Over the last month I’ve been writing for Sound It Out, a new music blog that covers adventurous new music from a snark-free, consumer-friendly point of view. “The music may be evil, but we’ll try not to be” is the motto. Most of my writings there are basic reviews and...
the greatest reinventions in pop-music careers, #50-41
Leonard Nevarez

the greatest reinventions in pop-music careers, #50-41

by Leonard Nevarez on Jul 22, 2014 • No Comments
Today I take up a question of pop-culture history: which performers made the most unexpected left turns with their careers?  I farmed this question out awhile back to readers of this blog, and today I start filing the results based on my own subjective assessment.  Debate and criticisms are welcome...
Martha and the Muffins: a book project in musical urbanism
Leonard Nevarez

Martha and the Muffins: a book project in musical urbanism

by Leonard Nevarez on Jun 18, 2014 • 4 Comments
This summer I begin in earnest a new research project on the Canadian new wave group Martha and the Muffins.  I’ve blogged about them extensively already, focusing on the mixed-gender approach and geographical sensibilities that inform their work.  The book I intend to write will incorporate these into a new...
sound in 70 cities: the European urbanism of Simple Minds
Leonard Nevarez

sound in 70 cities: the European urbanism of Simple Minds

by Leonard Nevarez on Aug 6, 2013 • 14 Comments
Dream, dream, dream It’s the eighties’ youthful theme Loving the city A theme for great cities And loved ones And love – “Wonderful In Young Life” (1981)   Americans know them mostly as “that Breakfast Club band” from the 80s, but Scotland’s Simple Minds have carried on in one form...
musical suburbanism, pt. 1: Kidz Bop and the commodification of kids' listening
Leonard Nevarez

musical suburbanism, pt. 1: Kidz Bop and the commodification of kids’ listening

by Leonard Nevarez on Jan 18, 2013 • 3 Comments
Last summer I took a family roadtrip and was driven slightly insane by the heavy rotation of Kidz Bop CDs on the car stereo.  In a rare moment of solitude carved out of a frenzied week, I sent out these missives via Twitter:   1. if one promise of musical...
studying the college music scene and beyond
Leonard Nevarez

studying the college music scene and beyond

by Leonard Nevarez on Nov 11, 2012 • No Comments
Remember the bands that formed in college?  You heard them at dorm parties, frat parties, apartment parties, the campus bar, battle-of-the-bands competitions, and impromptu outdoor settings.  They practiced in dorm rooms, dorm basements, conservatory and theater rooms, backyard sheds, and laundry rooms, amusing/irritating neighbors and passers-by.  Many college rockers and...
Tito Larriva: the hombre secreto of L.A.'s culture industry
Leonard Nevarez

Tito Larriva: the hombre secreto of L.A.’s culture industry

by Leonard Nevarez on Jan 31, 2012 • 9 Comments
As a central destination for musicians, actors, filmmakers and artists, Los Angeles has more than its share of unsung, forgotten or behind-the-scenes figures who have made a significant mark on the city in the course of their careers. In this category, one of my favorites is Tito Larriva, who readers...
living the urban crisis at the new wave rent party
Leonard Nevarez

living the urban crisis at the new wave rent party

by Leonard Nevarez on Nov 10, 2011 • No Comments
I recently downloaded the reissued Human Switchboard album, Who’s Landing in my Hangar? Anthology 1977-1984, which set me off again obsessing about a subgenre of new wave that I’ve never really seen recognized.  I don’t even know how best to name this subgenre, although I’m convinced it has a musical coherence. ...
looking for the Hudson Valley hipster
Leonard Nevarez

looking for the Hudson Valley hipster

by Leonard Nevarez on Aug 8, 2011 • No Comments
In the town where I live, there’s been a lot of chatter over a recent NY Times article which reports how Brooklynites (an apparent synonym for NYC’s mobile, creative types) are descending upon the Hudson Valley area some 75 miles north of the city to live, visit, consume, and generally do...
musical urbanism: statement of a scholarly project
Leonard Nevarez

musical urbanism: statement of a scholarly project

by Leonard Nevarez on Jul 21, 2011 • No Comments
It’s promotion review time for me, and in writing a research statement for the three anonymous sociologists evaluating my work, I’ve had the occasion to compile and synthesize my thinking on musical urbanism into a single essay.  Think of this post as a users manual for understanding what I’ve been...
how Joy Division came to sound like Manchester
Leonard Nevarez

how Joy Division came to sound like Manchester

by Leonard Nevarez on Jul 13, 2011 • 2 Comments
[Update: this blog post has been expanded and revised into an article for the Journal of Popular Music Studies.] I’m always puzzled when I hear how Elvis Presley or Mick Jagger “sounded black” when they first appeared on the radio.  Back in the 70s, when I was a kid listening...
just stay put: an alternative vision for arts-based urban revitalization
Leonard Nevarez

just stay put: an alternative vision for arts-based urban revitalization

by Leonard Nevarez on Apr 1, 2011 • No Comments
Here are some thoughts about a different way to think about arts-based urban revitalization, written in the form of a suspiciously confident manifesto.  These ideas are completely pie-in-the-sky and fly in the face of the prevailing wisdom in this field, but I’m fine with that if it reveals some fallacies...
Latest entries
the urban ethos on a Saturday night
Leonard Nevarez

the urban ethos on a Saturday night

by Leonard Nevarez on Jan 10, 2011 • 1 Comment
My considerations of musical urbanism owe a good deal to the work of Adam Krims, particularly his book Music and Urban Geography. Like much scholarly work on popular music, at times it’s a little weird to read his highly academic language (I had to look up one of his favorite terms, “cathexis”) applied to the Wu-Tang...
dancing in uptown Kingston
Leonard Nevarez

dancing in uptown Kingston

by Leonard Nevarez on Jan 6, 2011 • No Comments
Ran across “This is Ska!,” a light but fun promotional film from 1964, on Dangerous Minds (one of my go-to culture aggregators). Some thoughts: 1.Wow, that place is jumping. It must have been amazing to be young at that moment in post-independence Kingston. 2: [Around 3:45] Really? That’s how you “dance the ska”: plant your feet, wave...
great moments in selling out: the Paisley Underground
Leonard Nevarez

great moments in selling out: the Paisley Underground

by Leonard Nevarez on Jan 2, 2011 • No Comments
I first heard about the so-called Paisley Underground in 1985. Sitting in the office of a drivers ed classroom, I flipped through a copy of People magazine, where I read a feature about the Los Angeles scene of 60s garage, country-rock and pop revivalists, and gawked at photos of groovy kids in paisley shirts and...
haunting the urban: dubstep
Leonard Nevarez

haunting the urban: dubstep

by Leonard Nevarez on Jan 1, 2011 • No Comments
First post draws on Bassweight, a new documentary about the dubstep scene coming out of South London. The film begins with a DJ leading the camera on a daytime tour of Croydon’s sidewalks, pointing out a nightclub here or there atop anonymous commercial buildings before ending up at (what else?) a record store. At some point...

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