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Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad

Michael Azerrad is the acclaimed author of the Nirvana biography Come As You Are and of Our Band Could Be Your Life. He has written for Spin, the Village Voice and countless other publications.

94 articles

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The Fall of Our Discontent

Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Only Music, November 1986

ON STAGE AT the Ritz in New York, the Fall are putting on their typically powerful, mesmerizing show. The band churns out discordant but catchy ...

The Dukes of Stratosphear: Psonic Psunspot (Geffen)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 October 1987

THE DUKES of Stratosphear are XTC's psychedelic alter ego; XTC first donned this paisley disguise for the import-only psychedelic psendup 25 O'Clock. That album was ...

Alex Chilton: High Priest (Big Time)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 3 December 1987

NO DOUBT about it, Alex Chilton is really hip right now, with bands like R.E.M., the Replacements and the Bangles citing his legendary early-Seventies group ...

Public Image Ltd: Public Image Limited: Happy? (Virgin)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 11 February 1988

TEN YEARS ago he was burying Led Zepplin; now he's praising it. Such are the artistic swings from Johnny Rotten (ne Lydon), professional iconoclast. Not ...

Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians: Globe of Frogs (A&M)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 March 1988

"SURREAL," "WHIMSICAL" and "psychedelic" are the standard adjectives that are applied to Robyn Hitchcock's oeuvre, but with his brilliant new album, Globe of Frogs, you ...

Negativland: Escape From Noise (Seeland)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 19 May 1988

DOORS SLAM/PEOPLE yell/Children scream/Sirens whine/Trucks rumble and roar/And rock music blares, as Negativland asks the musical question "Is there any escape from noise?" ...

Blind Boys of Alabama, The Original Soul Stirrers with J.J. Farley, J.D. Steele Singers: The Gospel at Colonus Soundtrack (Elektra/Nonesuch)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1988

THIS YEAR'S award for Best Gospel Adaptation of a Greek Tragedy will surely go to The Gospel at Colonus, the Broadway musical that presents Sophocles' ...

Stump: A Fierce Pancake (Chrysalis) ***

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1988

FRESH FROM an extended engagement at the Theatre of the Absurd, Stump makes music that virtually defines the word quirky. This half-English, half-Irish quartet boasts ...

Robert Plant: Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford NJ

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1988

YOU HAVE to feel a little sorry for Robert Plant. Since the breakup of Led Zeppelin, the singer has put together a successful solo career ...

Billy Ocean: The pacific world of Billy Ocean

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1988

Fame hasn't rocked the even-keeled pop singer ...

Camper Van Beethoven: Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (Virgin) ***½

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1988

CAMPER VAN Beethoven, the long-time champ of college radio, has burst out of the indie underground with a strong major-label debut that boasts better songs ...

The Bible: Eureka (Ensign/Chrysalis) ***½

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 25 August 1988

THE NEWS that new-country bad boy Steve Earle produced this high-gloss record might seem like a publicity hoax, but it's true. And believe it or ...

Public Enemy: Rockin' The Joint

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1988

The incendiary rappers preach black self-sufficiency at New York's Riker's Island. But are they prisoners of their own racist doctrine? By Michael Azerrad ...

The Primitives: Lovely (RCA) ***

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1988

ART POP or pop art, it makes no difference — in a perfect world, every song on this record would be a hit. ...

David Lindley: The Weird World Of David Lindley

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 6 October 1988

DAVID LINDLEY has found the oud of his dreams in a guitar store on Manhattan's Forty-eighth Street. "This is a beauty," he says, admiring the ...

Bon Jovi, Metallica: Bon Jovi: New Jersey (Polygram)***; Metallica: ...And Justice for All (Elektra)***½

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988

When things get heavy ...

Run-DMC: Concert Violence: Who's to Blame?

Report by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988

Action needed in the wake of recent deaths at rap and metal shows ...

Edie Brickell and New Bohemians: Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars (Geffen) ***

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1988

"I'm not aware of too many things/I know what I know if you know what I mean/Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box/Religion is ...

Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir: The Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir: Alice Tully Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Billboard, 17 December 1988

THIS BULGARIAN vocal ensemble, better known by the name of its Nonesuch album, Le Mystere De Voix Bulgare, made its U.S. debut here Nov. 4. ...

R.E.M.: Green (Warner Bros.) ***½

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1989

The greening of R.E.M. ...

Pink Floyd: Delicate Sound of Thunder (Columbia)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 26 January 1989

THIS LIVE double-LP set documents Pink Floyd's enormously successful 1987-88 world tour. Although it was inevitable, releasing a live record is still a bit strange, ...

The Go-Betweens: 16 Lovers Lane (Capitol)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1989

AUSTRALIA'S GO-Betweens have been quietly recording wonderful albums of engaging pop for almost ten years. Previous records featured cleverly structured tunes with even cleverer lyrics, ...

De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising (Tommy Boy)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989

DE LA SOUL HAS already mastered the three Js of postmodernism: juxtapose, juxtapose, juxtapose. Welcome to the first psychedelic hip-hop record. ...

XTC: Oranges and Lemons (Geffen)****

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989

XTC's Paternal Power Pop ...

Rush: A Show of Hands (Mercury) *½

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 20 April 1989

ALTHOUGH THEIR fans treat the three members of Rush as if they were the Holy Trinity, the band chose the theme of another threesome — ...

Enya: Clannad's Little Sister Sails Away

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Musician, May 1989

ENYA IS sitting in Geffen Records' New York offices, looking a bit perplexed. "People in the British press were referring to me as...'beat.' Something about ...

De La Soul's Hippie-hop: Psychedelic Rappers Introduce the DA.I.S.Y. Age

Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 4 May 1989

"HELLO, YOU'VE reached Mars. What can I do for you?" Trugoy the Dove is on the telephone in the tidy basement of his parents' house ...

Tim Finn: All's Well That Enz Well

Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 15 June 1989

ONE OF TIM Finn's best re-cent gigs was performing at a sheepshearing party in his native New Zealand. Along with his brother, Neil Finn of ...

Wendy and Lisa: Fruit at the Bottom (Columbia) ** 1/2

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 15 June 1989

ON THEIR 1987 debut album, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman seemed to be bending over backward not to sound like Prince, whose band they had ...

Wynton Marsalis: Majesty of the Blues (Columbia) ***½

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1989

NONE OTHER than Miles Davis himself pronounced trumpeter Wynton Marsalis a "perfect player," but that may have been damning with faint praise — there was ...

Bread

Retrospective by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1989

BREAD VIRTUALLY invented soft rock in the early Seventies, and the group's biggest hits – 'Make It With You', 'If', 'Baby I'm-a Want You' and ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Mark Farner

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1989

"THE TRUE JOY that I have now comes from knowing Jesus Christ as my Savior and my Lord, and rendering my life in servitude to ...

The Cure On Tour: Mope Rock For The Masses

Interview by Michael Azerrad, St Louis Post Dispatch, 27 August 1989

THINGS DON'T LOOK good. A couple of days after two extraordinary sold-out concerts at Paris' 15,000-seat Bercy Auditorium, The Cure is getting ready to play ...

The Cure: Searching For The Cure

Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 7 September 1989

Can the masters of "mope rock" enjoy life at the top? ...

The Cure, Love and Rockets, The Pixies, Shelleyann Orphan: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1989

HAD SOMEONE predicted in 1978 that 49,223 people in a stadium would one day clap and sing along as the Gothic rockers in the Cure ...

Tears for Fears: The Seeds Of Love (PolyGram) ****

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1989

AFTER THE release of Tears For Fears' mammoth-selling second album, Songs From the Big Chair, in 1985, an English music paper remarked, "It'll soon be ...

The Jungle Brothers: Jungle Brothers: Done by the Forces of Nature (Warner Bros.) ***1/2

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 8 February 1990

THE JUNGLE Brothers are part of the Native Tongues, a triumvirate of innovative rap groups (including De la Soul and A Tribe Called Quest) united ...

Nine Inch Nails

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 February 1990

"IT'S NOT like I'm a horribly depressed person trying to come across as having a noose around my neck," says Trent Reznor, the sole member ...

David Byrne: Everybody Mambo!

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Hits, 19 March 1990

NO DOUBT about it, the musical flavor of the week is Latin/Brazilian — even Paul Simon's recording an album of Brazilian music. It figures that ...

The B-52s: Mission Accomplished

Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 March 1990

...

Beats International

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 12 July 1990

Former pop bassist Norman Cook proves a studio wizard ...

The Pixies: Surfing With The Aliens: The Pixies

Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1990

THE KIDS AT England's annual Reading festival are a scruffy lot. A ‘90s hybrid of hippie and punk, they wear tie-dyed T-shirts, asymmetrical hairdos, jeans ...

Cocteau Twins: Beacon Theater, New York NY

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 January 1991

THE COCTEAU twins are the prototypal ethereal postpunk group, their diaphanous music aerated by layers of rippling guitars and Liz Fraser's virtuoso wordless vocals. Prone ...

The Waterboys: Beacon Theater, New York NY

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 24 January 1991

ON THE Waterboys' 1988 tour, the stage was thick with musicians playing Irish folk instruments while leader Mike Scott hung back on acoustic guitar. But ...

Primus: Does Primus Really Suck?

Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 31 October 1991

The San Francisco trio, whose music mixes thrash, funk and progressive rock, has built a devoted following of fans on the alternative scene ...

Matthew Sweet: A New Girlfriend for Matthew Sweet

Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 28 November 1991

Hard-edged album documents romantic turmoil ...

Robyn Hitchcock: Start Making Sense: Robyn Hitchcock finds a method to his madness

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Details, December 1991

A SHARP-dressed man, Robyn Hitchcock never leaves home without his American Express card. But, true to his station as a legendary alternative-rock guru, Hitchcock's plastic ...

Lloyd Cole, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan: Lloyd Cole, Grant McLennan & Robert Forster: The Academy Theater, New York NY

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1992

A GUY WHO can sing a line like "Baby, you're too well-read" and mean it, Lloyd Cole is the intellectual in the black leather jacket ...

My Bloody Valentine: The Sound of the Future: My Bloody Valentine

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 6 February 1992

"WE'D LIKE TO COME OUT FROM the shadow of the greatest things ever done," declares Kevin Shields, the soft-spoken, bookish-looking leader of My Bloody Valentine. ...

Luka Bloom Doesn't Want To Be Just Another Boring Folkie

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1992

A STRICT VEGETARIAN, Luka Bloom is right at home at a fanatic health-food restaurant in Manhattan's East Village, where he's outlining the fundamental problem with ...

XTC: Nonsuch (Geffen)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1992

A CHARTER MEMBER of England's class of '77, XTC is one of the few bands from that era to remain virtually intact. ...

Nirvana: Inside the Heart and Mind of Kurt Cobain

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1992

FOR NOW, Kurt Cobain and his new wife Courtney Love, live in an apartment in Los Angeles's modest Fairfax district. The living room holds little ...

Green River, The Melvins, Mudhoney, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Supersuckers: Seattle: Grunge City

Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 16 April 1992

For real rockers Seattle is the ultimate wet dream. By Michael Azerrad ...

Fugazi: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1992

ONE OF this country's few truly underground bands, Fugazi refuses to join a major label and adamantly avoids any promotion. The band members won't even ...

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana: Kurt Cobain: I'm Not Gonna Crack!

Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Vox, July 1992

Poisoned by the chalice of instant success, bedridden with road-rash after a ton of amp-smashingly intense gigs – what's happened to Nirvana's tortured singer and ...

Helmet: Big Boom in Industrial Metal

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 20 August 1992

Helmet signs million-dollar deal with Interscope ...

Helmet: Meantime (Interscope) ***½

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1992

A MARVEL OF precisely channeled aggression, Meantime could be the soundtrack to the mind of an NFL linebacker. Leader and rantwriter Page Hamilton sounds like ...

PJ Harvey: CBGB, New York NY

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 1 October 1992

PJ HARVEY isn't like anybody else. The British power trio combines English folk cadences, the stark interplay of electric Chicago blues and vintage postpunk, suffused ...

Nirvana: Reading Festival, England

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 29 October 1992

"FUCK WOODSTOCK," read one popular T-shirt here, although this twentieth annual jamboree also began with lots of wasted folks frolicking in the mud and ended ...

Nirvana: New Noise for '93

Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1993

After a successful European summer tour and a sold-out show at the mammoth 45,000-seat Velez Sarsfield Stadium, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, what has the world's ...

The Beastie Boys, Henry Rollins: The Beastie Boys, Rollins Band: Roseland Ballroom New York NY

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1993

THIS PAIRING wasn't as odd as it seemed, because the Beastie Boys have created ― or at least mobilized ― a new kind of fan. ...

Mudhoney, Pavement: 45rpm Singles: Seven Inches of Pleasure

Report by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1993

For bands and fans, the single is the new format of choice ...

Dinosaur Jr: Where You Been (Sire) ****

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1993

TODAY'S TWENTYSOMETHINGS didn't grow up on the Beatles and the Stones. They grew up on Kiss, Peter Frampton and Neil Young. Making something meaningful out ...

Screaming Trees: The Lost Boys

Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1993

IT IS THE second of a pair of Seattle homecoming shows that close their tour with Alice in Chains, and Screaming Trees are well into ...

John Peel: Q&A: John Peel

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 19 August 1993

"HELLO, I'M A little fat chap that plays records on the radio," DJ John Peel announced at the start of a recent broadcast. ...

Nirvana: Winners Get Scars, Too

Book Excerpt by Michael Azerrad, Vox, October 1993

Nirvana's meteoric rise was a classic example of the American Dream in action — until heroin turned it into a nightmare for singer Kurt Cobain. ...

Nirvana: Territorial Pissings: The Battles Behind Nirvana's New Album

Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Musician, October 1993

KURT COBAIN has found that being a professional rock musician is not quite what he imagined when he was banging out his raunchy punk rock ...

Smashing Pumpkins' Sudden Impact

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 14 October 1993

BILLY CORGAN is laughing and slapping his knee.  ...

The Breeders: The real new deal

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 28 October 1993

The BREEDERS get wet and wild as they dive back into action on "Last Splash" ...

Afghan Whigs: Wigging Out

Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1993

AFGHAN WHIGS join Sub Pop alumni with a major label debut, Gentlemen ...

CBGB: This Ain't No Mudd Club

Report by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 February 1994

CBGB celebrates its 20 years of rock & roll ...

Beck: Mellow Gold

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 7 May 1994

WHETHER BY preference or rationalization, slacker victims trumpet their dropout status with dilapidated jeans, greasy hair and a sarcastic, defeatist posture. Enter 23-year-old Beck singing, ...

Meat Puppets: High Time

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 19 May 1994

MEAT PUPPETS make bong rock for now people ...

Nirvana: Live Through This: a year on the road with Nirvana

Obituary by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 2 June 1994

LAST SPRING, Kurt Cobain sat at his kitchen table at 3 a.m., chain-smoking and toying with one of the medical mannequins he collected. "It's hard ...

Guided by Voices: Bee Thousand (Scat) ****

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1994

LATE IN Bee Thousand, Guided by Voices singer/songwriter Robert Pollard provides a skeleton key to his remarkable music. "I am a pharmacist, prescriptions I will ...

Smashing Pumpkins: Artist of the Year: Smashing Pumpkins

Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Spin, December 1994

Far Billy Corgan and his band, 1994 was both flush with success and filled, as Michael Azerrad learns, with fear and loathing ...

Soul Coughing: Ruby Vroom (Slash/Warner Bros.)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 15 December 1994

RAP & ROLL exploded five years ago, long enough to spawn a second generation, mongrelized by even more influences and hence more sophisticated. Beck, Bobby ...

Cake Like: Delicious (Avant/Sphere)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 23 February 1995

THE MEMBERS OF Cake Like reportedly formed a band because they were sick of listening to their musician boyfriends talk about their bands. They may just get ...

Green Day: Nassau Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Spin, March 1995

GREEN DAY at Nassau? The band that had been playing graffiti-riddled ratholes for gas money only months before took six minutes to sell all 14,895 ...

Stephin Merritt: Man With A Plan

Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1995

Stephin Merritt: Low-fi Svengali ...

Stone Temple Pilots: Peace, Love and Understanding

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Spin, August 1995

AFTER MORE THAN A YEAR ON THE CHARTS WITH THE TRIPLE-PLATINUM ALBUM PURPLE, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS' SCOTT WEILAND LEARNS TO LIVE WITH HIS MONSTROUS SUCCESS ...

Everclear: In The 'Clear': Everclear

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Spin, September 1995

ART ALEXAKIS SAYS says all the right things. In a cushy, white conference room in Capitol Records' midtown Manhattan offices, Everclear's frontman utters such statements ...

Girls Against Boys: House Of GVSB

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 2 May 1996

FOR ALL their rebel posturing, many so-called alternative bands still adhere to the old-fashioned conventions of melody and verse-chorus-verse. But not Girls Against Boys. ...

Sonic Youth: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 22 January 1998

Noise Goes to the Philharmonic ...

Hank Williams III: Grandpa Was A Honky-Tonker

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 10 December 1998

HANK WILLIAMS III LOVES PUNK, HATES NASHVILLE AND WANTS TO SAVE COUNTRY MUSIC ...

Blink 182: Caca-phony: Blink 182: The Mark, Tom and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back!) **

Review by Michael Azerrad, Revolver, Winter 2000

SONGWRITERS from Chuck Berry to Paul Westerberg have written definitively about the adolescent experience long after their teen years were over. Although the mid-twenty-something Blink-182 ...

The Ramones: Joey Ramone's 50th Birthday Bash: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, The Boston Phoenix, 31 May 2001

IT'S FUNNY HOW memorials often take on the character of the person they honor. The sold-out "Life's a Gas – Joey Ramone's 50th Birthday Bash" ...

Black Flag: Flying the Black Flag

Book Excerpt by Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life, 21 July 2001

The following is the first chapter from Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991, in which Michael Azerrad vividly ...

They Might Be Giants: Urban Legends: The Do-It-Yourself Success of They Might Be Giants

Retrospective and Interview by Michael Azerrad, The New Yorker, 12 August 2002

JOHN FLANSBURGH and John Linnell–partners in the musical duo They Might Be Giants–were on their way out of a trendy little restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, ...

Lyrical Assassin

Comment by Michael Azerrad, Spin, 27 October 2008

For a music critic, being immortalized in song could be the highest compliment...unless the song is a death threat. ...

Miles Davis: The Miles Davis Quintet: Live In Europe 1967

Film/DVD/TV Review by Michael Azerrad, Rock's Backpages, October 2009

LIKE ANY credible person, I dig Miles Davis. But I particularly dig his quintet with saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and ...

Robyn Hitchcock in Nowhere-Land: I Often Dream of Trains in New York

Film/DVD/TV Review by Michael Azerrad, Rock's Backpages, 14 November 2009

IT WAS FITTING that a Robyn Hitchcock DVD arrived in the mail the same week as the Monty Python documentary debuted on the IFC channel ...

The Rolling Stones: The Gimme Shelter You Didn't See

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rock's Backpages, 24 November 2009

GIMME SHELTER is generally considered one of the best rock documentaries ever made, perhaps one of the best documentaries on any topic. ...

Shearwater: Jet Plane and Oxbow

Review and Interview by Michael Azerrad, subpop.com, October 2015

JET PLANE and Oxbow, Shearwater's second original full-length for Sub Pop, is their career-defining album — the leap forward those of us who've been watching ...

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