'Buy it or grow up!' cries collaborator

"Pop Culture Gadabout" and cartoonist Bill Sherman featured a terrific review of Rick Johnson Reader this spring, writing, " Collecting a slew of Johnson's music reviews ... – along with a few shorter sections on television, sports, books and videogames – Tin Cans, Squeems & Thudpies catches both an era where rock 'n' roll fans were so starved for good music that they actually paid attention to the likes of Jefferson Starship or Uriah Heep and the more fecund late '70s/early '80s when the world was so fulla good/promising/pop/rock musicmakers that only a rock critic could keep track of 'em all. In both settings, Johnson's trademark skepticism came in handy: He could be just as incisively nasty about the Next Big Thing as he could the fossilized remains of the Rolling Stones. (Writing about an utterly disposable Roger Daltry solo elpee, he notes that 'No member of the Who has ever put out a listenable solo album, and they never will because they're too old and smart to be anything but boring.') But what elevates Johnson's writing above so many once-&-future snarkmeisters is the way that he always holds onto his down-&-dirty Ilini roots. Check out this pithy measure of an infectiously catchy slice of wimp rock: 'It's a great tune to hum while squeezing the day-old Twinkies at the Sunbeam thrift shop.' It's funny because it's apt."

For the whole Pop Culture Gadabout review and Experience, check it out here: http://oakhaus.blogspot.com/2007/03/buy-it-or-grow-up-am-i-gonna-have-to.html