R.J. Smith

Eddy Grant Does It California Style

Interview by R.J. Smith, Creem, January 1984

I JUST GOT my current issue of Processed World ("The magazine with the bad attitude"), and it's a winner. Written by and for the shitheels ...

Gang of Four = Hard Men in Good Cars

Profile and Interview by R.J. Smith, Creem, March 1984

"All we have in common is the illusion of being together. And the only resistance to the illusions of the permitted painkillers come from the ...

Letch Patrol, Missing Foundation: Message in a Bottle: Homesteaders Rock the Lower East Side — The Tompkins Square Riots

Retrospective by R.J. Smith, Village Voice, October 2005

August 23, 1988 ...

Minutemen, The: The Minutemen: Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence Of Heat (SST)

Review by R.J. Smith, Creem, April 1984

CIVIL DEFENSE QUIZ: ARE YOU PREPARED?What should you do in case of a sudden dropping of a nuclear weapon on your neighborhood? A) Grab ...

Ol' Dirty Bastard: Nigga Please (Elektra)

Review by R.J. Smith, Spin, November 1999

THE TRUE opener of this dazzling, daffy album gets buried near the end. Nigga Please should have begun with his mocking yet eerily touching cover ...

Rancid: What's In A Mohawk?

Report and Interview by R.J. Smith, New York Times, January 1996

EVEN FOR A break-all-the-rules punk rock band, some rules still apply. It's 10 minutes to stage, and the members of Rancid are sitting in their ...

Tupac Shakur: All Eyes On Him

Obituary by R.J. Smith, Spin, December 1996

Tupac Shakur was more then just another million-selling gangsta rapper. He polarized the races like few pop stars, in death as in life. ...

Elliott Smith: He's Mr Dyingly Sad, And You're Mystifyingly Glad

Profile and Interview by R.J. Smith, Spin, January 1999

ELLIOTT SMITH recovers nicely. Just one hour ago he was sitting in a tiny backstage room, enjoying a postshow libation and breathing in a blue ...

Elliott Smith: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

Retrospective and Interview by R.J. Smith, Spin, February 2004

WHEN ELLIOTT SMITH played Los Angeles in the fall of 2002, after more than a year of semi-seclusion, he didn't look so good. His hands ...

Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band: Charles Wright Expresses Himself

Interview by R.J. Smith, Grand Royal, 1995

YOU COULD see the 8x11 flyers when you got off the freeway north of downtown, or drove down Melrose, or about 100 other locations. Block ...

Rocking Cincinnati's R&B Cradle

Retrospective and Interview by R.J. Smith, New York Times, January 2009

A CROWD GATHERS around crumbling walls that are a small evolutionary step up from a miserable pile of bricks. The facade leaks water, and masonry ...