I Ain't Evil, But I Ain't Good

Flashing back to that time I broke up The Jesus and Mary Chain

Before we begin today’s Jagged Time Lapse entry, I’d like to express a heartfelt thanks and a hearty welcome to all the new subscribers who have joined the party in the last week or so — primarily via my recent Flop and Ahmad Jamal pieces. So glad to have you all along for the ride!

As you newcomers may have gleaned from the unlikely juxtaposition of the aforementioned artists, plus the James Brown entry that landed between them, this Substack is music-intensive — and there are no genre, temporal or stylistic limitations to it. If I love a song or album, or if it otherwise transports, fascinates or amuses me, then it’s fair game for coverage. For a more detailed explanation of what this is and why I do it, you can read the basic JTL mission statement here.

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All right, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about the time I broke up The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Well, maybe I didn’t actually have that much to do with it. But I was definitely the last journalist to interview JAMC co-founders William and James Reid before their infamously fractious September 12, 1998 gig at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, which turned out to be the last time that the brothers would perform together onstage until 2007. The poisonous vibes which permeated that particular show were very much present during our interview, and had ramped up considerably over the course of it, so I felt semi-responsible — even though I knew the Reids’ sibling dysfunction was as at least as toxic and deep-rooted as that of Ray and Dave Davies or Noel and Liam Gallagher. But here’s what happened…