You gotta love the late Lester Bangs, who departed this mortal coil in 1982. He remains the greatest rock critic who ever lived, by dint of his Gonzo-style journalism, scathing wit, and refusal to accept the premise that it was the critic’s duty to praise (and hence help sell) the music he was reviewing. No, he called them like he saw them, and wrote exactly what he believed in a miraculously entertaining prose style that transformed “mere criticism” into true literature. As Greil Marcus wrote in his introduction to a 1987 posthumous collection of Bang’s writings entitled Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, “Perhaps what this book demands from a reader is a willingness to accept that the best writer in America could write almost nothing but record reviews.”
As for me, I think his genius shone most brightly in his contentious interviews, conducted late at night and with both parties very wasted, with Lou Reed. Bangs had a love-hate relationship with Reed, and he channeled it into hilarious essays like “Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves, or, How I Slugged It Out with Lou Reed and Stayed Awake.” It’s a landmark of bile and vitriol, as is the equally wonderful “James Taylor Marked for Death,” but neither is mean for meanness’ sake. No, both demonstrate a sense of moral purpose that infused all of Bangs’ writing.
Before I move on to the subject of this review, to wit Lester Bangs and the Delinquents’ 1980 LP Jook Savage on the Brazos, I would just like to quote a tiny fraction of what Bangs had to say about Lou Reed. “Who else,” asks Lester, “would get himself as fat as a pig, then hire the most cretinous band of teenage cortical cavities he could find to tote around the country on an all-time death drag tour? Who else would doze his way back over the pond in a giant secobarbital capsule and labor for months with people like Bob Ezrin, Steve Winwood and Jack Bruce to puke up Berlin, a gargantuan slab of maggoty rancor that may well be the most depressing album ever made?” And things go radically downhill from there, with the two snarling and sniping viciously at one another until both were too wasted to continue their scabrous dialogue.
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Vinyl records top the popularity charts, From CNET Magazine: The demand for vinyl records — from hipster millennials, retro-fans and musicians — is spinning up faster than ever: 
Part two of the 
REISSUE PICK: Jungle Brothers, Done by the Forces of Nature (Get On Down) Jazzed by We Got It from Here…? Jonesing for more in the same vein? If so, then check out the 2LP reissue of this ’89 classic from Tribe’s contemporaries. To be accurate, Mike Gee, Africa Baby Bam, and DJ Sammy B slightly preceded their cohorts in the Native Tongues collective, blazing a trail without reaping the immediate recognition; instead, they’ve been the next step for those knocked out by 3 Feet High or People’s Instinctive Travels. Through uplift and inclusion, this sharp album’s immaculate flow has only improved with age. A
REISSUE RUNNER-UP: Waylon Jennings, Dreaming My Dreams (Fat Possum) That Jennings’ 22nd album (in a decade!) is arguably the best he ever cut inspires pause, for that’s hardly ever how it works. Ultimately, the fact reflects newfound artistic freedom through a fresh RCA deal, and the byproduct is subdued but rich with positives; tributes to Hank and Bob Wills (the latter recorded live in Austin), production (by Jennings and Jack Clement) that disdains overdubs, and an utterly non-dated atmosphere. The man is in superb voice (of course he is), and the material consistently delivers. A
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NEW RELEASE PICK: Wadada Leo Smith, America’s National Parks (Cuneiform) This 96-minute six-movement suite might seem an arduous undertaking, but in resisting nature’s majesty in favor of celebrating the idea of preservation and public works, the trumpeter-composer sidesteps Ansel Adams-style grandeur for the poetic (think Whitman and Gary Snyder). And by celebrating New Orleans, the Mississippi River, and the writing of Eileen Jackson Southern as deserving of National Park status, he eclipses the danger of mere respectfulness. Yet another highpoint in a long, distinguished career. A+
NEW RELEASE RUNNER-UP: Elliott Sharp, Port Bou (Infrequent Seams) Sharp’s been a crucial part of avant-NYC from the late ’70s right up to this release, an opera devoted to the final moments in the life of philosopher Walter Benjamin at Port-Bou Spain in 1940 as he fled Nazi-occupied France. The tenor of the times has surely deepened the emotional impact of this demanding but not formidable avant-classical work, but the primary reasons are bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood, pianist Jenny Lin, accordionist William Schimmel, and of course Sharp, who adds electro-acoustic backing tracks. A
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