Library Rock's Backpages

Jason Cohen

Jason Cohen

Jason Cohen's first paid work of writing was a Mekons interview for Rockpool. He has also written about music for Option, Details, Rolling Stone, SPIN, Request, Blender, MOJO, Stereophile, CMJ, the Austin Chronicle, Pop Culture Press, The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock and one of the less memorable versions of CREEM.

With Michael Krugman, he is the co-author of Generation Ecch! (Fireside Books, 1994) and the long-running, now-deceased "Well Hung At Dawn" column for Rollingstone.com.. Zamboni Rodeo, his book about minor league hockey, was published in 2002.
 

Cohen is currently a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly and a contributing editor to Portland Monthly. He lives Portland, Oregon; Missoula, Montana and maybe somewhere else by now. He likes to watch TV.

50 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Chuckii Booker, Janet Jackson: Janet Jackson/Chuckii Booker: Madison Square Garden, New York

Live Review by Jason Cohen, Sounds, 5 May 1990

EVERYONE from white guys with bad Bon Jovi hair to teenyboppers of every colour and class were out tonight. ...

Dinosaur Jr.: Palaentology

Interview by Jason Cohen, Option, May 1992

IF YOU GO by what's been written about Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis, his music, history and personality could be summed in the following list: loud, ...

Primal Scream

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Option, May 1992

BOBBY GILLESPIE can't stop being a fan. ...

Dim Stars: Dim Stars

Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, October 1992

FOR THE LAST ten years, every time there was a public poetry reading, ROIR cassette or CD reissue by Richard Hell, my friend Michael and ...

Alejandro Escovedo: Gravity (Watermelon)

Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, November 1992

A MEMBER of the same clan that produced percussionists Coke, Pete, and Sheila, the fortysomething Escovedo played in S.F. prototype punkers the Nuns, cowpunk originators ...

Stone Temple Pilots: Core (Atlantic)

Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, January 1993

IT LOOKS like Stone Temple Pilots are the first of what will be a long line of post-Pearl Jam/Soundgarden/Nirvana major-label grunge contenders. So, let's give ...

Pond (USA): Pond: Pond (Sub Pop)

Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, March 1993

THOUGH IT DOES hail from the Northwestern part of the United States, Pond is not hairy, metallic, or from Seattle. Instead, clean-shaven guitarist/vocalist Charlie Campbell ...

Bill Frisell

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Creem, June 1993

SEATTLE'S MOST incendiary and intriguing electric guitarist has nothing to do with that city's rock scene. ...

Nanci Griffith, Robert Earl Keen: Nanci Griffith: Other Voices, Other Rooms (Elektra); Robert Earl Keen: A Bigger Piece of the Sky (Sugar Hill)

Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, June 1993

THOSE WHO found Nanci Griffith's last two efforts for MCA to be awash in pop-lite production and overblown instrumentation should take Other Voices, Other Rooms ...

Prince and The New Power Generation: The Sunrise Musical Theatre, Florida

Live Review by Jason Cohen, Spin, June 1993

"Y'ALL MAKE ME SORRY I stayed away so long," Prince declared, as the opening night of his first American tour in five years reached a ...

Butthole Surfers: The Butthole Surfers: In Through the Back Door

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1993

The Butthole Surfers are the certified shock jocks of the next wave ...

Gutterball: Gutterball

Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, July 1993

GUTTERBALL IS one-time Dream Syndicate leader Steve Wynn, House of Freaks members Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott, their part-time guitarist (and ex-Silo) Bob Rupe, and ...

The Fall: Mark E. Smith's Wrath & Roll

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 16 September 1993

MARK E. SMITH is one of Britain's great misanthropes. On the 1980 live album Totale's Turns, only the third record by his band the Fall, ...

The Lemonheads: Lemonheads: Roseland Ballroom, New York City

Live Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 27 January 1994

THE SIDEWALK outside Roseland told the story: dozens of parents, a few clutching the Playbill from My Fair Lady next door, all lined up at ...

Afghan Whigs: Whigging Out

Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Details, May 1994

The Afghan Whigs have made a career out of confrontation, failed love affairs, and loud guitars. Jason Cohen joins their traveling circus of maladjustment in ...

Pavement: The Road Less Traveled: Pavement's Crooked Path to Stardom

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1994

FOR A BAND that is decidedly reticent about the prospect of mass exposure, Pavement are awfully good at getting it. In their earliest days, when ...

Daniel Johnston: Starry Eyes

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Option, November 1994

TEN YEARS AGO Daniel Johnston roamed the streets of Austin, Texas, passing out cassettes of his homemade songcraft to just about anyone he encountered. Someday, ...

Oasis: Maxwells, Hoboken, N.J.

Live Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 15 December 1994

FOR A YOUNG but already massive British band, there's nothing quite so incongruous as the first American tour. Goodbye to blind worship, magazine covers and ...

Candlebox: Keepers Of The Flame

Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 23 February 1995

DEFYING THE ALTERNATIVE-ROCK TREND, CANDLEBOX BREAK OUT OF SEATTLE WITH TRADITIONAL POP METAL ...

Nine Inch Nails: Madison Square Garden, New York City

Live Review by Jason Cohen, Spin, March 1995

FOR A LONG TIME NOW, there's been but one thing missing from Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails: Crackerjacks! ...

Suede: The London Suede: Manhattan Center Ballroom, New York NY

Live Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1995

"THIS IS A boring old one," Brett Anderson says with a shrug, and then Suede ignite 'Animal Nitrate', a typically brazen concoction of straight-razor guitar, ...

Oasis: The Trouble Boys

Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 18 May 1995

OASIS CROSS THE ATLANTIC WITH A HOT RECORD, TWO BATTLING BROTHERS AND ATTITUDE TO SPARE. ...

Gene: Olympian (Polydor) ***

Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 29 June 1995

BARELY A year old, Gene have already attracted the standard amount of instant acclaim in merry old England. In this latest case the critical clamor ...

Hole Is A Band

Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1995

While the Courtney saga continues, Hole prove that a rock & roll band is the sum of its parts ...

Garbage: Clean Sweep

Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1995

Garbage's masterminds craft murky pop into an album that's impossible to refuse ...

The Walkabouts: Strangely Famous in Greece, the Walkabouts Trace Their American Roots

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Option, November 1995

IT'S SATURDAY, just past noon, in Austin, Texas. A fine time to be in bed, or at the very least, shaking off sleep over a ...

Live: "Live!" "Hootie!" "Live!" "Hootie!"

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 25 January 1996

THIS IS THE exchange on the streets, a cry that rises up as the members of Live make their escape from the 1995 Billboard Music ...

Pavement: Liberty Lunch, Austin, Texas

Live Review by Jason Cohen, Spin, May 1996

THERE AREN'T many Australian tours with Texas on the itinerary, but leave it to Pavement's Stephen Malkmus to figure that America's Western states are, like, ...

The Cardigans: First Band On The Moon (Mercury) ****

Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 14 November 1996

IN THIS WORLD of cookie-cutter,post-alternative bands, the Cardigans are fueled by a deep and abiding faith in novelty. ...

Presidents of the United States of America: The Presidents of the United States of America: The Presidents of the United States of America II (Columbia) **½

Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 28 November 1996

The Real Presidential Debate ...

The Divine Comedy: Casanova (Setanta) ****

Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 17 April 1997

LIKE MOST tortured artists, Neil Hannon is filled with anguish and frustration. But Hannon, the Irishman who is the Divine Comedy, has little use for ...

Charlatans, The (UK), Primal Scream: Primal Scream: Vanishing Point; Charlatans UK: Tellin' Stories  

Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 10 July 1997

YES, VIRGINIA, there were rock & roll-meets-club culture collisions before the electronica boomlet. Take Primal Scream's 1991 masterpiece Screamadelica, a soulful, druggy expansion of rock's ...

Lucinda Williams, Ryan Adams, Wilco: Lost Highway Blues

Report by Jason Cohen, Slate, 14 August 2001

The dirty little secret about Ryan Adams and his record label. ...

The Strokes: England's Creaming…

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Spin, November 2001

…itself over New York City "it" band The Strokes. So who the hell are they? ...

Prefab Sprout

Interview by Jason Cohen, Stereophile, Winter 2001

THE NEWS was right up there with Brian Wilson playing Pet Sounds live, Steely Dan making a new record and Mario Lemieux lacing up the ...

Kirsty MacColl

Discography by Jason Cohen, Stereophile, Summer 2001

WHEN IRS RECORDS gave Kirsty MacColl the best-of-treatment in 1995, the CD booklet overflowed with praise from famous fans and comrades. ...

Charlatans, The (UK): The Charlatans

Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, CMJ New Music Monthly, Fall 2001

TIM BURGESS is waiting for his man. ...

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: Break Stuff… And Send the Bill To Trail Of Dead

Interview by Jason Cohen, Spin, April 2002

AN EVENING with …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead goes something like this: For dinner, Conrad Keely and Kevin Allen kill ...

John Denver, Twisted Sister: Let Freedom Sing: Tipper Gore versus Twisted Sister

Retrospective by Jason Cohen, TV Guide, 20 April 2002

TIPPER GORE is showing way too much leg. The future second lady shimmies on both knees across a conference table, chest out, hips on a ...

Bob Mould, Paul Westerberg: The Living End: Can Bob Mould and Paul Westerberg handle middle age?

Review by Jason Cohen, Slate, 30 April 2002

OLD ROCKERS keep on getting younger. "Hope I die before I get old" remains the relevant credo, but it's no longer restricted to those who ...

Flaming Lips: The Band That Fell to Earth: The Flaming Lips' Christmas on Mars

Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, CMJ New Music Monthly, July 2002

WAYNE COYNE'S creative mission for the evening is to get the pants off his manager's young intern. ...

Alice In Chains: The Man Boxed In: Layne Staley, 1967-2002

Obituary by Jason Cohen, Spin, July 2002

LAYNE STALEY was already something of a ghost. Alice in Chains, the Seattle band he'd fronted since 1987, was officially on "hiatus," a two-year respite ...

Andrew WK: Super Fan: Andrew W.K.

Interview by Jason Cohen, unpublished, Fall 2002

With his anthems 'Party Hard' and 'It's Time to Party' blasting from stadiums, soundtracking Sportscenter highlights and fueling beer commercials, Ann Arbor,MI native Andrew W.K. ...

The New Pornographers: Bands to watch: The New Pornographers

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Spin, June 2003

They may look like mild-mannered grad students, but they're actually super-rockin' Canadians!: Todd Fancey, Neko Case, Blaine Thurier, Carl Newman, Kurt Dahle, and John Collins ...

The Kills

Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Spin, July 2003

WHO: Florida femme fatale "VV" and Englishman "Hotel," chain-smoking vegans with a beatbox and vintage gear, both of whom sing and play guitar. ...

Gram Parsons: Parsons Lives in Film: Grand Theft opens in theaters tomorrow

Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 17 June 2004

IT'S ONE OF rock & roll's great mythologies: the day Phil Kaufman stole Gram Parsons' body, keeping a promise to give his friend a fiery ...

Townes Van Zandt: Van Zandt's New "Love"

Report by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 23 September 2004

IF YOU KNOW your Texas music, it's a famous story: in 1970 a young Joe Ely picked up a hitchhiker on his way to Houston. ...

Nick Cave and Australia's Bad Deeds

Report and Interview by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 8 May 2006

Rocker's screenplay for The Proposition considers Australia's "open wounds" ...

Seymour Stein: Shellac in My Veins

Retrospective and Interview by Jason Cohen, Cincinatti Magazine, March 2008

A New York City record man recalls his dearest mentor. ...

Franz Ferdinand, Cold War Kids: Portland, Oregon

Live Review by Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone, 17 December 2008

CHRISTMAS GIFTS from 94/7 FM come in bigger packages: the Portland alternative station's "December to Remember" concert series features eight bands over four evenings, instead ...

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE