The Importance of Cursive’s “Happy Hollow” Almost 20 Years Later

Category: music

I don’t remember when I actually found Cursive. All I know is that I had a copy of their debut album Such Blinding Stars For Starving Eyes. I probably picked it up because that was around the time I found out about Mineral and other bands on Crank! Records. I played Cursive’s debut a lot, especially the first two songs “After the Movies” and “Downhill Racers.” It sounded … Read More The Importance of Cursive’s “Happy Hollow” Almost 20 Years Later

May 20, 2025 + christianity, diana butler bass, mewithoutyou, mineral, music, religion, stavesacre, worship

“Worship is an experience that transforms the heart”: Songs That Bring Me to Worship

by Matthew Teutsch

Over the past few years, my reading habits oscillate from fiction and graphic novels to history to religion and beyond. Sometimes I have a plan for what I want to read next, and sometimes a book just falls into my hands, as if out of nowhere. The latter is what happened recently when I picked up Diana Butler Bass’ Christianity for the Rest of Us: … Read More “Worship is an experience that transforms the heart”: Songs That Bring Me to Worship

February 18, 2025 + afropunk, assignment, composition, music, Pedagogy, punk, zine

Zine Assignment in the Composition Classroom

by Matthew Teutsch

This semester, I am teaching Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl and Carrie Brownstein’s Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl. Since I am teaching two memoirs by musicians who came of age and still work within the punk and indie scene, I wanted students to make zines for one of their projects. I have always thought about having students make zines in class; however, I have never had the opportunity … Read More Zine Assignment in the Composition Classroom

August 20, 2024 + fascism, music, nina simone, punk, sonic youth, the muslims, woddy guthrie

“This Machine Kills Fascists” An Antifascist Playlist

by Matthew Teutsch

During the performance of their song “Holiday” at a recent concert in Washington D.C., Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong asked the stage crew to turn out the lights. He stood on stage, with a flashlight pointed out towards the audience, as they held up their cell phone lights, illuminating the entire stadium, and asked, “Do you want democracy?” The crowd responded with a … Read More “This Machine Kills Fascists” An Antifascist Playlist

December 21, 2023 + afropunk, comics, graphic novels, james spooner, music, punk

The Misappropriation of Anti-Racist Punk Classics

by Matthew Teutsch

In The High Desert: black. punk. nowhere., James Spooner details growing up as a Black kid in Apple Valley, California, and being into punk rock. He details the liminality he felt, being seen as not Black enough by his Black classmates or as nonwhite by his white punk friends. When Spooner met Ty, a Black punk kid, at school, he fell in love with … Read More The Misappropriation of Anti-Racist Punk Classics

Interminable Rambling

The Importance of Cursive’s “Happy Hollow” Almost 20 Years Later

Category: music