These Reviews Will Change Your Life.

So we're not quite sure yet whether These Reviews Will Change Your Life is going to become a re-occurring feature here at This Blog Will Change Your Life, we still need to focus group this, but we are pleased to let you know that TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer has most excitedly accepted a greatly expanded role reviewing zines, books, comics and CDs for the always excellent Wonka Vision magazine. Some of the reviews will appear in their webzine and others in the print edition and today's post covers the recent batch of reviews we did for the current edition of the webzine. We read, and listened, to a lot of good stuff, but thought we would take a moment today to highlight the quite delightfully punk graphic novel Snake Pit from Microcosm Publishing and the re-issue of Devo's Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! All the reviews can be found at the above link, but if you are craving a sneak peak, please feel free to look below.

"Ben White, a.k.a, Ben Snake Pit, is a member of cool bands. He draws. He endlessly gets high and drunk. He has a babe girlfriend who cooks him rocking meals. He has a cute dog and gets to live in Austin, Texas the slacker capital of the free world. He also has to work a day job that isn’t so great, but at least he has one. Basically, Ben Snake Pit lives the DIY life you once lived, wished you had lived or are happy to live through vicariously by reading his comics. The Snake Pit comics themselves are all three panels in length and while entirely in black and white, they are vibrant and fun. Each strip more or less follows the one before it which allows the reader to follow Ben Snake Pit on his day to day escapades. One of the fascinating realizations in doing so though, is that as you follow someone day to day, you are reminded that even the coolest life has its quotidian elements. Like all of us Ben Snake Pit fights with his significant other, gets colds and experiences disappointment, frustrations and sadness. If Snake Pit at times lacks a more in-depth look at what Ben Snake Pit is truly feeling much of the time, it does subtly capture how even punks slowly, inevitably, get older and start to grow-up, as they open bank accounts, lose friends, occasionally need more sleep and discover touches of gray in their beards. Ultimately, we all need to get through the day, but as the Snake Pit comics remind its readers, how we get through it is up to us."

"I approached the re-issue of Are We Not Men? We are Devo! wondering if it would sound as good to me as I remembered it when first released back in 1978. I also wondered if it could still sound as fresh as it did then, a work of art wholly unique and original at its inception, but coming with a built-in 30-year interlude between listenings. What’s fascinating on the one hand is how different it still sounds, still of a piece like nothing else anyone is creating. Sure, they were New Wave and post-Punk, and many others were as well, but Devo really didn’t sound like anyone else in 1978 and they still don’t. What is more fascinating to me however, is how much of what they accomplish here can feel so current. It’s not like their technology meets anxiety vibe wasn’t relevant in the late seventies, but it’s hard to imagine it feeling more relevant then than it does now as we slowly find ourselves subsumed by new technologies at every turn and fresh anxieties with each new day. This is particularly striking with their remake of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, a song the Rolling Stones turned into a paean to sexual frustrations everywhere, but which Devo turns into the endless struggle to get through the day when your anxieties are only too happy and willing to paralyze you every step of the way."

"Tanzer's characters turn superficiality into an artform." Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine gets Wonka Vision'd and likes it. A lot.

Apparently there is even more to be thankful for here at TBWCL, Inc. headquarters than we realized. We have been thankful for some time to be a contributing writer for the most excellent Wonka Vision magazine, but we are now especially thankful for the kind, thoughtful and humorous review of Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine in the new print issue - issue NO. 45 for those of you counting at home. Meanwhile for those of you at home, in a coffee shop, or on the train, please feel free to enjoy the review in its entirety below:

"Ben Tanzer's erstwhile novel of the '90s harkens back to that great era when people wanted nothing more than to talk all day - about our sex lives and our tattoos and our favorite cancelled TV shows - without anyone ever telling us to worry about an economic meltdown, or genocide in Darfur, or that pesky little war in Iraq. Well get ready for the nostalgia train: Tanzer's characters turn superficiality into an artform and listlessness into a lifestyle in this charming ramble of a novel about relationships gone awry in Manhattan."

A sort of literary music minute. Punks. Jews. Springsteen. Love. Okay, we're not sure about the love part in general, but we're feeling it. Big time.

Last week we were riffing on meeting author David Masciotra who's doing this new joint on Bruce Springsteen at Continuum and then almost immediately we see that Continuum has posted some lengthy blurbage about the book Working on a Dream - The Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen on their website. Quite cool stuff indeed. And then today we see that The New York Times, yes that New York Times, has done a piece about a gathering and panel discussion in New York City on the intersection between being punk and being Jewish led by some legendary Jew Punks, Tommy Ramone and Lenny Kaye among others, and in the article they quote author and friend Steven Lee Beeber's most excellent book The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's, which we have written about here in the blog and reviewed for Wonka Vision magazine. Also good stuff. And all worth checking-out don't you think? Way.

Awake - A Reader for the Sleepless rocks it. A lot.

We have finished AWAKE - A Reader for the Sleepless and it is an eclectic, free-wheeling trip through the endless confusion, compulsions and complexes that those of us who find ourselves counting ceiling tiles late at night know all too well. Big props to editor and Jew Punk Steven Lee Beeber and for those of you interested in his take on this anthology, as well as, his fantastic book The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's you need look no further than If I Could Sleep, I Would Dream of Joey Ramone an interview/book review we did with him for Wonka Vision magazine. We should add here, that while we are contractually obligated to reference the interview, we really do think you will enjoy it. A lot. Plus, we also think that it just might change your life, well at least, a little, and if you don't, or it doesn't, please let us know, because we are always happy to talk refunds.

Music and Politics and Wonka Vision #42.

You know, we don't spend a lot of time here at This Blog Will Change Your Life talking politics because frankly we don't see how doing so will increase sales. That said, today we are making a sort of exception because we are quite geeked about the next issue of Wonka Vision magazine where TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer is a staff writer. Issue #42 which is due out in August is not only dedicated to Music and Politics, but on the cover you will find among others, Billy Bragg, hands down one of our favorite artists here at TBWCYL, Inc. headquarters. We hope you will take a look at this most excellent issue, but more importantly we also hope you will consider supporting and hyping Wonka Vision, because it is not only quite cool, and quite well done, but this being a time period where we seem to be endlessly losing great magazines, journals and zines, we need to band together and take care of those who continue to exist despite the odds stacked against them. If all that isn't enough however, we also believe that Wonka Vision will likely change your life, if only briefly, which as you know, we tend to think is the coolest thing of all.