Paste #34

Paste #34 (August, 2007) is out now, with a cover shot of Jack and Meg White in all their red and white glory. There’s more White Stripes glory on the inside, too, and my bud Jason Killingsworth conducts a quite insightful interview with the band, wherein Jack expounds on big capital-letter themes like God and Truth as well as engages in the usual musical shop talk.

There’s a great feature article on Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin which explores the conundrum of how a frothing-at-the-mouth punker can also be intrigued by early 20th century Appalachian music and earn a Ph.D. in Biology from Cornell. And there’s a heartwarming article (hey, she appeared on Oprah, okay?) on one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Lori McKenna, who has found a way to raise five kids and still record a handful of great albums.

You want album reviews? There are about fifty of them. Movie reviews? Check. Book reviews? Check. Video game reviews? Got those too. Humor, pathos, incisive commentary, flippant obnoxiousness. It’s all here. Plus a CD with 21 songs from the most eclectic record collection imaginable. For $6.95. That’s right, the price of one Jersey Mike’s Italian Sub. Ridiculous, I say, and less caloric.

I have a column on The Summer of Love and suburban lawnmowing (yes, there is a connection), and reviews of new albums from Luke Brindley and Linda Thompson.