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Van Gosse

Van Gosse

Van Gosse lives in downtown Manhattan with his partner, Deborah K. Holmes, and her sons. He is an Associate Professor of History at Franklin and Marshall College and author of numerous books and articles on U.S. politics. He has been active in antiwar and solidarity politics since 1982, with organizations like the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, Peace Action, United for Peace and Justice, and Historians Against the War. From 1979 to 1984, he wrote for the Village Voice, Melody Maker and other publications, and for most of that time he DJ’ed at the club Trax. Earlier, he played guitar in a group called Crowd, which had the dubious distinction of being named "Pennsylvania’s first New Wave band." Samples of their music, as well as lots of historical and political writing, can be found on his website (see below). He is also co-founder of the Post-Capitalist Project, a cooperative, nonsectarian venture of left journals, popular education centers, and electronic media (www.postcapitalistproject.org), and blogs on Huffington Post.

Van Gosse online

The Post-Capitalist Project

26 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

The Clash: Clash Bites Apple

Live Review by Van Gosse, Melody Maker, 29 September 1979

FIRST time here, in February, the Clash were merely grand. The energy was awesome but the music was more volume than anything else; in the ...

The Cure Play It Pure

Live Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 21 April 1980

MOTHER OF GOD, another good English band. It's getting so people are scared to go near record shops, for fear of parting with their fillings, ...

The Pretenders: Pretenders II

Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 12 August 1981

THIS IS NO FUN. Raves for faves are love letters in the sand. Shoveling poseurs onto the garbage heap is heartwarming. But soaking up and ...

The Human League: In League With The Human League: Dare

Essay by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 13 April 1982

By the charts, the Human League are the most popular band in the U.K., as well as the most successful of the electropoppers: Depeche Mode, ...

The Blasters: Blast From The Present

Profile by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 3 May 1983

I'VE BEEN reveling in the Blasters ever since their first Slash album in late '81, but for no good reason, or so it seemed to ...

The Stray Cats: Stray Cats: Cooneybilly

Live Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 13 August 1982

Stray Cats: Roseland Ballroom, NYC ...

The Clash: Sandinista!

Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 14 January 1981

CONFRONTING THE Clash's epic monstrosity Sandinista! is like being a teacher (which I once was) and having one of your favorite little buggers show up ...

Soft Cell: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret

Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 23 February 1982

TO CHAMPION AN English electropop duo right now is a poor business; on all sides are heard the virile snickers of those who abominate synthesizers ...

Talking Heads: The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads

Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 8 June 1982

TALKING HEADS: TV shorthand, video argot for the small-screen dance. The words themselves give up little ghosts, conceptual bombs – media as alienation, the medium ...

John Cale: Music for a New Society

Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 23 January 1982

ON THE BASIS of his new LP, it would be too easy to discover that John Cale is a Big Fake, maybe The Big Fake, ...

Sly & Robbie: Reggae Titles: Footlong Skanking

Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 22 April 1981

IN RECENT MONTHS Riffsters have written paeans to the gritty nudisco and rapperound 12-inch song-and-dances now heard blasting from the shiny boxes on the street ...

Buzzcocks, Gang of Four: Buzzcocks/Gang Of Four: Club 57, New York, NY

Live Review by Van Gosse, Melody Maker, 8 September 1979

THIS IS the year that the New Wave, or at least its more retrograde element, has finally hit the U.S. charts. Everybody English and short-haired, ...

Joe Jackson: I'm The Man

Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, Spring 1980

FOR YEARS JOE Jackson made his money playing covers in English Playboy Clubs, ignored amid the bedroom eyes. His own music was rejected by every ...

The Cure: Emerald City, Philadelphia

Live Review by Van Gosse, Melody Maker, 26 April 1980

THE CURE HAVE just made their American debut at Emerald City, a huge "rock disco" outside of Philadelphia. Beside Jefferson Starship playing the Roxy, it's ...

Talking Heads: Remain In Light (Warner Bros.)

Review by Van Gosse, Musician, January 1981

I DON'T KNOW about you, but I've been holding my breath through all of 1980, waiting for something to happen. So far there's been a ...

Pylon Draws the Line

Profile by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 25 February 1981

MY PAL Danny voices the common hipster sentiment when he says, "Pylon, they're like the 52's, but they mean it." Quite so, but then again ...

The Ramones: You're Not The Same. Are They?

Report and Interview by Van Gosse, Melody Maker, 25 August 1979

Will the Spector of big things gone by give the Ramones the platinum sound that has so far eluded them? ...

The Bongos' Postboybeat

Profile by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 20 April 1982

MAKING SENSE in words of the Bongos' strange, translucent hardpop dreaminess is like trying to tell a stranger about rock'n'roll, or maybe like trying to ...

Gang Of Four: Solid Gold

Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 29 April 1981

GANG OF FOUR called their first album Entertainment!, as if shouting from the rooftops that it wasn't. ...

The Specials in Hit City

Profile by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, January 1980

DADUHDA/DAduhDA/DAduhDA/DAduhDA/DAduhDA/DAduhDA/DAduhDA.... Triplets in two-four, the sound of the Specials: call it ska, call it punky reggae, it's a jumping groove, the group going up and ...

David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club: David Byrne: The Catherine Wheel; Jerry Harrison: The Red And The Black; Tom Tom Club: Tom Tom Club

Review by Van Gosse, Musician, February 1982

Talking Heads Alone ...

The Rolling Stones: Undercover

Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 22 November 1983

The Stones Try Harder ...

David Byrne, Talking Heads: Talking Heads' David Byrne (1980)

Interview by Van Gosse, Rock's Backpages audio, September 1980

The Heads' head talks in depth about new album Remain In Light, tensions within the band, his interest in World Music and much more.

File format: mp3; file size: 71.6mb, interview length: 1h 18' 13" sound quality: **

Wayne Kramer: Trax, New York NY

Live Review by Van Gosse, The Village Voice, 15 July 1981

He Walks the Line ...

The Sex Pistols, Chris Spedding: The No-Frills Attack of Chris Spedding

Interview by Van Gosse, Guitar World, May 1981

Don't ask this guitar star what gauge of strings he uses. He just might punch you in the face. ...

The Bongos, Bush Tetras, Our Daughter's Wedding, The Outsets, Pylon: The New Independents

Overview by Van Gosse, Musician, June 1981

A pot pourri of personal insights into the galaxy of artist-centered independent labels, including a sample (sampler?) of the latest bumper crop. ...

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