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.
26 articles
List of articles in the library
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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? ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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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