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Byron Coley

Byron Coley

American music critic who wrote prominently for Forced Exposure magazine in the '80s. Also wrote for NY Rocker, Boston Rock, and Take It!. Coley is one of the first writers to have extensively documented indie rock from its inception to the present day. Coley was a contributing writer to Spin in the 1980s and '90s, and currently writes for The Wire and Arthur magazine with Thurston Moore. He also runs Ecstatic Yod, a record label and shop based in Florence, Massachusetts. In 2011, Coley published the first collection of his reviews, C'est la guerre : Early Writings 1978-1983 in a bilingual edition put out by Montreal publisher L'Oie de Cravan.

Byron Coley's <i>C'est la Guerre</i>

List of articles in the library by artist

45 Grave, Vox Pop: California Screamin': 45 Grave and Vox Pop

Profile and Interview by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, September 1982

"All I can say is that everyone in Vox Pop is smarter than everyone in 45 Grave."--Jeff Dahl, May '82"I'm smarter than everyone in Vox ...

8-Eyed Spy, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, Lydia Lunch: Way Out West With 8-Eyed Spy

Report by Byron Coley, New York Rocker, May 1980

IF LYDIA LUNCH'S Queen Of Siam hadn't come out when it did, I'd probably still be freezin' my butt off in Ketchum, Idaho, a town ...

Captain Beefheart: Grow Fins: Rarities (1965-1982)

Review by Byron Coley, Wire, The, May 1999

ALTHOUGH IT WAS their third released album, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band arrived with 1969's sprawling Trout Mask Replica. The ability to appreciate its ...

Captain Beefheart: Three Decades Inside The Mask: Captain Beefheart

Retrospective and Interview by Byron Coley, unpublished, December 1999

NOTE: This article appeared in a much-shortened version in the December 1999 edition of Spin entitled "The Strangest Album Ever Sold: The Making Of Trout ...

Hampton Grease Band: Music To Eat

Review by Byron Coley, Spin, June 1996

THE HAMPTON GREASE BAND were an Atlanta-based combo unlike any other. A genuinely strange and Southern-fried cross between the early Mothers of Invention, the Grateful ...

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