June 25th, 2009
Famous hardass music reviewer Steven Wells passed away of cancer last night. Of all the strange turns his life had taken, surely one of the oddest is that atheist punk rock anarchist Wells took several shots at the knitting community, yanking the chains of the knitters with wild, delighted, and delightful abandon.
Wells was a troll in the best and purest sense of the word. His music reviews for the NME are the stuff of legend. Wells made a career of stepping on people’s toes, pouring himself into his vitriol-fueled writing like no one else.
He will be missed.
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August 19th, 2008
Steven Wells has published a new article, taking aim at knitting during the Olympics.
With this, his third article (see also: 1st, 2nd) taking the piss out of knitters, Wells has elevated trolling to performance art. Knitters around the world are taking offense to Wells’ snipes and jabs. Although so far, said offense is largely confined to the inevitably-epic Ravelry thread.
“Pretending to take offense at the inoffensive” has long been a comedy standard [nsfw]. It’s difficult to fault Wells for continuing to hit the same note, considering how effective it’s been at exposing the knitting community as largely humorless.
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July 6th, 2008
Steven Wells of the Philadelphia Weekly decided to drop in on a WWKIP meeting. Hilarity ensues! Sorta.
You may recall Steven Wells as the man who railed against “punk knitting” and Godwinned himself in one fell swoop with his earlier article, The Rise of Adolf Knitler. Many knitters didn’t catch the main thrust of the article – Wells’ frustration at the punk ethos being co-opted by the mainstream – and Were Not Amused.
Steven Wells is a British writer, best known for being an early proponent of American hardcore bands like Black Flag. His later works include an outstanding Philadelphia Weekly article “The English Patient,” about his experience with the American health care system.
Yarn Scoop understands that Wells is an aging punk, and his “Adolf Knitler” article was more “You kids get off my lawn!” than “Knitters suck!” Although we can’t help but point out that few things are less punk rock than railing against the American health care system. Fully justified, sure – but not very punk rock. Tsk!
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