The Devil’s Traxionary

Music Reviews to Maximize Annoyance.

“96 Tears” (? and the Mysterians)

Originally entitled “69 Tears,” and decency standards only foreground the dislocating effects of
paternalism and love (of the sculpted social): even when lovers face each other, their backs are
against the wall and against each other simultaneously. Dumpee-turns-dumper storyline ends
with singer crying, highly aware that gendered social emplacements always end in the requisite
tears. Implied race politics: can the naming (“?”) ever avoid complicity in a world of counting?

“Rubber Bullets” (10cc)

Though Elvis’ “Jailhouse Rock” had forecast strictly law-abiding homoerotics at the jailhouse
hop, the governor calls in the National Guard anyway, just to “hear those convicts squeal.”
Nasal delivery, sweetened harmonies and overall “pop” delivery system compound the gap
between threat and response. The police state’s prison industrial complex as pure population
control (keeping the lights on at death row).