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Pat Blashill

Pat Blashill

Pat Blashill (selfie'd here in 1986) wrote about rock and pop music for US magazines like Rolling Stone, SPIN and Details from 1987 to 2003. He grew up in Texas, consuming a steady diet of Butthole Surfers records and Ed Wood movies. He now lives in Vienna, Austria, and still writes about stuff for the Munich newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

48 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Throwing Muses: House Tornado (Sire)

Review by Pat Blashill, Spin, July 1988

FIRST THING you hear is this voice. Singing or babbling like a little girl alone in the back yard, trilling like a crazy old woman. ...

Mudhoney: Psycho Dirtbag Blowout

Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, April 1989

MARK ARM and Steve Turner are the Mutt and Jeff of distortion. He's Super Fuzz, I'm Big Muff, they'll say. Fuzz and Muff work for ...

My Bloody Valentine: My Waking Dream

Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, May 1989

My Bloody Valentine are black sheep grazing the English countryside with the subconscious as their shepherd. ...

The Stone Roses: Stone Roses: Would You Like Some Candy?

Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, October 1989

Manchester's Stone Roses sing about hate, death, violence and idealism while running a guitar-driven machine. Their single 'Elephant Stone' was produced by New Order bassist ...

Galaxie 500: Satellite of Love

Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, December 1989

Based in collegiate Boston, Galaxie 500 favor New York because it's the town the Velvet Underground left cold and lonely. Haphazardly purposeful and accidentally poetic, ...

The House Of Love, The Sundays: The House of Love: The House of Love (PolyGram); The Sundays: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (Geffen)

Review by Pat Blashill, Spin, June 1990

ENGLAND BREEDS pop sensations almost as efficiently as the American suburbs birth thrash metal bands. And there's a time delay: American cultural ambassadors like Anthrax ...

Donald Byrd, Digable Planets, Guru: Digable Planets: Cool Like Us

Report and Interview by Pat Blashill, Details, July 1993

B-boys in berets and turtlenecks. Rappers with hippie tattoos. Gangstas with saxophones. What is rap coming to? Pat Blashill hangs with the Digable Planets and ...

Amorphous Androgynous , Aphex Twin, B12, Black Dog Productions, Brian Eno, Fortran 5, Heavenly Music Corporation, Steve Hillage, The KLF, Moby, The Orb, Polygon Window, Psychick Warriors ov Gaia, Psychic TV, Seefeel: Hey, DJ — The chilled-out charms of ambient techno

Guide by Pat Blashill, Details, November 1993

RICHARD JAMES has seen the future and it's nothing special. In fact, it's nothing at all. Nothingness itself. Vast, blank wildernesses, majesticaly vague cityscapes, machines ...

Jimmie Dale Gilmore: Space Cowboy

Profile and Interview by Pat Blashill, Details, February 1994

From Texas to the ashram and back again: the earthbound adventures of country rocker Jimmie Dale Gilmore ...

Shonen Knife: Rock Animals (Virgin)

Review by Pat Blashill, Details, February 1994

SHONEN KNIFE are insanely cute; it's both their blessing and their curse. ...

Pavement: Musique Concrete

Report and Interview by Pat Blashill, Details, April 1994

Pavement practice the art of falling apart with wrecking-ball rock 'n' roll and an apologetic postmodernism ...

The Beastie Boys: Triumph of the Ill

Report and Interview by Pat Blashill, Details, June 1994

They make music, movies, magazines, and menswear. And the Beastie Boys still find time to fight for the right to be stoopid. Pat Blashill discovers ...

Angry Samoans, Bad Brains, The Big Boys, Black Flag, JFA, Minor Threat, The Minutemen, The Necros, Suicidal Tendencies: An Oral History of Hardcore Punk

Retrospective and Interview by Pat Blashill, unpublished, 1995

NOTE: I conducted these interviews and more for a magazine story that never ran. What follows is a rough, incomplete edit of the piece. I ...

Moby: The Divine Mr. M

Interview by Pat Blashill, Details, April 1995

First a DJ saved his life. Then he found Christ. Now, after years of raving, Moby is ready to become techno's first pop star. ...

Smashing Pumpkins: Out on a limb

Interview by Pat Blashill, Details, October 1996

Billy Corgan is the zero who became a hero. But when Jonathan Melvoin died and Jimmy Chamberlin was dismissed from the Smashing Pumpkins, the world ...

Juan Atkins, Afrika Bambaataa, The Chemical Brothers, Tricky: Who Put The Bleep In The Boom-Chi Bleep?

Overview by Pat Blashill, Details, December 1996

PAT BLASHILL TRACES THE HISTORY OF ELECTRO, THE UNSUNG SOURCE OF RAP, TECHNO, AND TRIP-HOP ...

The Chemical Brothers: Chemical Warfare

Interview by Pat Blashill, Details, April 1997

THEY DON'T PLAY ANY INSTRUMENTS, BUT THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS HAVE INVENTED DANCE MUSIC'S BRAND-NEW BEAT. PAT BLASHILL MIXES IT UP WITH ELECTRONICA'S PREMIER BOOGIE BAND. ...

Radiohead: Band of the Year: Radiohead

Report and Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, January 1998

Thom Yorke is one paranoid android: freaked out by cars, haunted by houses, suspicious of everyone. You couldn't ask for a better rock star. ...

The Vengaboys' Party Rules

Interview by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 10 June 1999

THE VENGABOYS' 'We Like To Party!' is a Big Gulp of bubblegum techno and the goofiest, most ubiquitous beach-party anthem since 'Rock Lobster'. But the ...

Smash Mouth: Astro Lounge

Review by Pat Blashill, Spin, July 1999

TWO YEARS AGO, when Smash Mouth snuck into the upper reaches of the Top 40 with a bit of '60s-damaged pop-rock called 'Walkin' on the ...

Loud, Fast, and Out of Control

Report by Pat Blashill, Spin, August 1999

Welcome to the Hardcore Rave scene, where the DJs throw meat, the kids stick their heads inside speakers, and the scent of grape lollipops mixes ...

Gomez's Galactic Soul Party

Interview by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1999

MEET BRITAIN'S GREATEST LIVING SPACE-ROCK HOOTENANNY BAND ...

Les Rythmes Digitales, Jacques Lu Cont: Jacques Lu Cont: The "French" Prince

Interview by Pat Blashill, Spin, November 1999

LES RYTHMES DIGITALES' JACQUES LU CONT IS AN '80s-LOVING FAUX-FRENCHMAN WITH A FORBIDDEN LOVE FOR PHIL COLLINS. HE'S ALSO MADE ONE OF THE MOST IRRESISTIBLE ...

The Chemical Brothers: Dark Side of the Rave

Report by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999

Drug deaths and police crackdowns threaten the national rave scene ...

The White Stripes: White Blood Cells

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2001

THE WHITE STRIPES play gothic garage punk strictly by all the best and baddest rules. Detroit's Jack and Meg White, allegedly brother and sister, look ...

Incubus: Morning View

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 16 October 2001

FOR A NEW-METAL band competing in a field of alpha males with pierced, sloping brows, the supple, even delicate Incubus have an awful lot of ...

Jay Z: Jay-Z: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York NY

Live Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 8 November 2001

Jay-Z Hustles ...

Juan Atkins, Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Shadow, Richie Hawtin, Derrick May, Josh Wink: Six Machines That Changed The Music World

Guide by Pat Blashill, Wired, 5 January 2002

EVER SINCE Sam Phillips stuffed some wads of paper into an amplifier, inadvertently creating the fuzzed-up, overdriven electric guitar sound on Ike Turner's 1951 rave-up ...

Willie Nelson: The Great Divide

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 8 January 2002

SUNNY AND UPLIFTING are not words generally associated with Willie Nelson, but that's not the only reason some will be surprised by his new album. ...

Ludacris: Word of Mouf (Def Jam South)

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 17 January 2002

The South's most freewheeling mouth? ...

Mobb Deep: Infamy (Loud/Columbia)

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 31 January 2002

Rappers ride spooky thing into ground ...

Mobb Deep: Infamy (Loud/Columbia) **½

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 31 January 2002

Rappers ride spooky thing into ground ...

Natalie Imbruglia: White Lilies Island (RCA)

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 28 March 2002

'Torn' pop starlet gets less convincing ...

Avril Lavigne: Let Go

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 2 July 2002

FOR ANYONE who's already screaming "Enough!" whenever Avril Lavigne's supernaturally catchy single 'Complicated' comes on the radio, the news is all bad. ...

The Pixies: Pixies: Pixies

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 2 July 2002

IN 1987, BACK when alt-rock was called "college rock," the Pixies loomed large, like a bizarre crossbreeding of pop sensibilities, art-rock conceptualism and nasty guitar ...

Jeff Buckley: Songs To No One: 1991-1992

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 8 October 2002

IN THE EARLY '90s, two restlessly inventive musicians, Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas, both haunted by phantoms from the '60s, crossed a generation gap and ...

Kraftwerk: Trans-Europe Express

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 22 October 2002

WITH THEIR 1974 international smash hit 'Autobahn', Kraftwerk had coolly demonstrated that an experimental electronic group from Dusseldorf, Germany, could kick out perfect pop on ...

Leonard Cohen: The Essential Leonard Cohen

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 22 October 2002

THE DARK, POETIC music of Leonard Cohen should be listed on the table of periodic elements — when you discover it, it suddenly seems as ...

Flaming Lips: The Flaming Lips: Finally The Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid 1983-88

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 14 November 2002

FOLLOWING THESE fearless alterna-rockers on their path from '80s weird to pop bliss, few would have thought in the late '80s that the Flaming Lips, ...

Ben Harper: Diamonds On The Inside

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 25 February 2003

EVEN AS HE invokes folks such as Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix, Ben Harper turns rock clichés inside out until they mean something new again. ...

A Tribe Called Quest: Hits, Rarities & Remixes

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 24 June 2003

THE TIP-OFF TO all of a Tribe Called Quest's considerable talent was the grainy, mischievous curl in rapper Q-Tip's voice: Tribe were abstract imps who ...

Steely Dan: The Greatest Albums Ever Made: Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 30 October 2003

WALTER BECKER and Donald Fagen were wiseass New York musician nerds stranded in L.A. in the early '70s, and they poured all the cynicism and ...

David Byrne: Grown Backwards (Nonesuch)

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 29 April 2004

Ex-Talking Head – and the most cosmopolitan man in New York – continues his global luau. ...

Al Green: Call Me/Explores Your Mind

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 29 June 2004

WHEN WRITER Toni Morrison said that black artists always seem to move with ease, she was talking about someone like Al Green. He sings from ...

The Clash: London Calling (25th Anniversary Legacy Edition)

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 22 September 2004

IN 1979, London Calling was sold with a sticker declaring that the Clash were the only band that matters, and they acted as if they ...

Green Day: Irving Plaza, New York

Live Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 28 October 2004

GREEN DAY'S New York show, one of four small venue dates the band played before its fall arena tour, felt like it was shot out ...

Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 25 November 2004

PAVEMENT MAY have been alternative rock's most notorious mess, but this deluxe reissue of their best album, appended with nearly forty extra tracks, illuminates one ...

The Big Boys, Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid: Someday All the Adults Will Die!

Book Excerpt by Pat Blashill, 'Texas is the Reason' (Bazillion Points), February 2020

THE MISFITS had never been to Texas. They were just four lunkheads from Lodi, New Jersey, who had heard about punk. They had black leather ...

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