How could you forget Adam Ant? He’s back touring, recording a new album,and in fabulous form.

The new Van Halen album is great and totally unexpected.

Artists I wish had made a comeback:
Captain Beefheart. Although most of his best work was recorded earlier, he never stopped being interesting.
John Lurie. Why, oh why?! Another brilliant musician who turned to a tragic life of creating great paintings. Between the Lounge Lizards, Marvin Pontiac, and his solo/soundtrack work, he created a very unique sound that has endured well.

Re: The vinyl comeback. I’d have thought! I dedicated myself to its survival and resurrection back in 1983 when I heard the first CD demo to the public at an Audio Engineering Society meeting in Los Angeles. The player was the size of a ‘fridge and they had digitized and turned into a CD Roxy Music’s “Avalon.” The sound was repellant: harsh, bright, flat, edgy and artificial. I said to myself: “the tech is cool, but the sound is horrible. I’m sure it will improve.” But when the music stopped and the engineers all around started marveling at the sound quality–which was unbearable—I knew music and the business was in big trouble so I started my seemingly successful campaign then and there to save vinyl. It’s worked. In fact the RIAA’s numbers barely scratch the surface (bad metaphor!). You can buy just about anything released today in indie rock on vinyl. Adele? No problem. Just about everything. And even though you can steal it free on the internet kids are buying. Why? When they hear vinyl for the first time after years of MP3s, it’s like seeing HDTV for the first time. It sounds better. Better than MP3 and better than CD. 96/24 files? Not much difference, particularly if the recording was done digitally (though analog tape still sounds better). But compared to CDs? Vinyl wins every time….and more people are starting to enjoy what previous generations did: sitting down, not doing anything else but lights out listening to music instead of using an artist’s output in a parasitic way by having it on in the background and drawing blood while doing “other things.” How many people of my generation say things like “oh vinyl? I used to have thousands of records. I’d put on one sit down and just listen. But who has time now?” Guess what? If the experience is nourishing, you’ll find time! CDs are empty calories. Even people who think they are superior behave in ways that make clear they are repulsed by the sound: they don’t listen to them! They may hear them, but they don’t sit down and listen as they used to. I hear from music fans every day who have gone back to vinyl and they once again sit down and LISTEN….that’s why vinyl is making a comeback.

I’m a big 13FE/Roky Erickson +/- the Aliens fan, and his continued longevity in the face of the considerable challenges he’s confronted in his life makes me as happy as anyone, but as a psychiatrist I have to say that your (I’m looking at you, Tom Hawking) description of Roky being ‘subjected to ECT and thorazine’ as though these are or were part of some kind of arcane torture ritual belies a level of ignorance and insensitivity to the subject of mental illness that I personally find offensive. It’s the very kind of ignorance that perpetuates the stigma faced for centuries by those who suffer from mental illness, and its inclusion in an article that purports to celebrate Roky’s perpetual triumph over his illness is as baffling as it is irresponsible.

While I’m no apologist for the often shameful and at times frankly horrific conditions that typified mid-20th century mental institutions, I can assure you that Roky fared much better in a hospital than he would have in prison. The treatments to which he was ‘subjected’, namely antipsychotic medications like thorazine and ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) are alive and well to the present day. They are among the most effective and evidence-based treatments we have to alleviate the suffering of mental illness, and contrary to the irresponsible misinformation disseminated by the popular media (e.g., this article), they are not designed to turn our patients into mindless drooling zombie slaves of the state.

The modern practice of ECT is as humane and harmless a treatment as a routine colonoscopy: our patients are put under a brief period of general anesthesia while the treatment is administered, and then gently woken up when the treatment’s over. The vast majority of patients suffer either no side effects at all or side effects no worse than mild, temporary short-term memory loss, a short-lived headache that usually responds to tylenol or motrin, and muscle soreness akin to what you’d experience after a moderately strenuous workout. It is a safe and humane treatment and I have seen it literally save people’s lives, as for some of the most severe mental illnesses, it’s the only treatment that works.

Sorry for the long-winded rant, but we have enough trouble as a profession advocating for our tragically misunderstood patients without some smartass indie rock journalist thoughtlessly promulgating dangerous falsehoods by mouthing off on subjects about which he quite obviously has no expertise and hence no business writing about. As it stands this article does a huge disservice to Roky’s legacy and to the hardship he has to struggle with on a daily basis. Come on, man. You should know better than that.

Jimmy Scott is a touching comeback story.

A bit commercial but Chris Brown is a comeback that I just can’t understand.