October, New York: Village Revival Records / Highway 61 Revisited
In the summer of 1994, I went on a road trip to the west coast—a first for me, a kid from the Chicago suburbs who had previously only made it as far west as Iowa City. I was nineteen. The world was rediscovering the Beatniks. One song on Jawbreaker’s new album name-dropped Kerouac. Another song on that same album featured a recording of Kerouac in the background. More visibly, Ginsburg did an ad for Gap. More bizarrely, Burroughs did one for Nike. Say what you want about the commercialism of counterculture…say even more about whether any of those 1950s white male hedonists would survive a contemporary, woke reassessment. All you might say is true. But here’s something: When you grow up in a world believing sports were everything—and you sucked at sports—it was more than a little bit liberating to learn about this other world where suddenly the writers were the cool guys. All of which to say: a long road trip out west with barely any money, nowhere to stay, and no firm plans…this re...