In my former role as Reviewer Rob, the Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of Reviewer Magazine for 20 years, I'd always get review material sent to me for free. In fact, getting free stuff was kinda like my religion, one that I followed fanatically. If I was to sit down with a shrink and analyze it on the couch I'd probably discover that it's the main reason why I got into publishing Reviewer Magazine. Back then my mailbox (the actual post office kind) would often be stuffed with free merch like CDs, all kinds of books including expensive high-end first edition art photography monographs, and sometimes even fashion like t-shirts. Then, in every city, I'd get into any show I wanted for free, enthusiastically, because the band or venue promoter wanted a printed review. This was long before reviewing became an online phenomenon crowdsourced at websites getting five star ratings for businesses and services from any opinion slinging keyboard peasant that can type a blog post, haha. To my joy, last night after the Lisa Carver show at Peter D's I was given a review copy of the new book Psychiatric Tissues by Jeff "Clinical Depression" Schneider @pigroastpublishing, formerly of Arab On Radar. It's about his time in that Indie band from the 90s from Rhode Island and it's during that same time period, matching the pre-social-networking heyday of "indy DIY" creativity with its Non-Stop flood of review merch coming in. Jeff's now a practicing psychoanalyst in Providence, Rhode Island. He read last night at Peter D's in his gruff Sopranos-esque contrabass voice. I expect the book will be well written as a stark and revealing trip down memory lane to a kind of life I didn't experience personally but covered from afar. Also educational, because if we forget the past how can we ever learn from it and attempt to preserve what was good about it? That's not really a question. It's more of a statement. #arabonradar #lisacarver #psychistrictissues #peterds #iloveart #sandiego #jeffschneider #pigroastpublishing #providencerhodeisland #psychoanalysis #indymusic #diy #the90s #liveperformance #peterds #sandiego #reviewcopy (at Peter D's) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzV_JGaAqdD/?igshid=de7h4begalfv
