John Lees, who previously wrote a piece for CBR called Scalped and the Stereotype That Wasn't There, has now begun a new series of Scalped-related essays on his blog, which can be found here.

First is Studying Scalped: An Introduction.

And the newest is The Shadow of Scalped, which examines some of the themes of Scalped and looks at where they reappear in my other works.

It's extremely well-written and most definitely worth your time if you're at all a fan of anything I've ever done.

I mostly listen to alt-country and bluegrass these days (which as a teenager, I would've never believed could ever fucking happen). But every once in a while, like tonight, I'm reminded of how much I used to like Rage Against the Machine. You know, before they broke up. Tonight I was listening to their last studio album, Renegades, which is a collection of cover songs. A terrific and wildly diverse collection of cover songs. It is without a doubt my favorite Rage album. I dug all their stuff beginning with their 1992 debut, but looking back, too much of their original material seems a tad sophomoric and at times pretentious. But Renegades is just pure fun. It's an inspired grouping of covers that all showcase guitarist Tom Morello at his most wildly inventive. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the same about any of the Audioslave material that followed the dissolution of Rage. Perhaps in part because Chris Cornell's voice reminds me of someone trying to sing after they've been up all night vomiting. In other words, I'm not a fan. Not that Rage vocalist Zack de la Rocha is all that golden-throated or really even that great of a rapper. But nevertheless something about the combo worked. For me at least. So basically what I'm saying is, Rage, I miss you. I know you're supposedly working on a new album. Here's hoping it's your best yet. Regardless, I'll be listening.

Now back to my Flatt and Scruggs.

Via Wrong Side of the Art

CBR has an exclusive preview of ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE #5 as well as a preview of WOLVERINE #7. Both are due in stores next month and both are, as you can see, awfully pretty to look at.