Charlie Tolnay died a few days ago. Here’s a career rundown and a long bit from a 1990 Party Fears about my very favourite record of his. The correct hideous racket from freaks.
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Category: Rock
Links: The failed hi-res audio of the 1990s, the risks of piracy, Simon Reynolds’ glam faves.
And the Blockchain Robot!
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Links: Denuvo suck and are thieves, Andrew Hickey’s Beach Boys books, Jimmy Webb.
DRM bad, classic rock vastly better.
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Ringo Starr is a dick.
“But thanks julian lennon for stopping me from becoming a supervillain hellbent on destroying the entire nation of britain for good.”
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Links: Frank Zappa 1967, audiobook recording, Jim Jarmusch’s Sqürl.
Today is all about the listening, now that I can listen to things again.
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Links: a critic turned artist, the soothing power of noise, Kim Dotcom outdone, Herman’s Hermits.
A pretty chill selection on the joy of art. And some schadenfreude for Kim Dotcom.
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Alixandrea Corvyn, Amongst Animals, Near Death Experience, Tangerinecat — Dublin Castle, Camden, Thu 4 May 2017.
I automatically staked out my life-long spot at stage right, leaning on the PA. I grabbed this spot in 1985 and shall not relinquish it.
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The Glass Eyes: Prime Record (2016); The Oceans Over There (2017).
Folky songwriter guitar rock that’s excessively fond of Neil Young and knows it.
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Links: Spotify to reduce convenience, the Velvets’ banana, Cosey Fanni Tutti goes establishment.
Never interrupt the music industry when it is making a mistake.
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Followups: laser-burnt records, that Beatles live album, Depeche Mode vs the Nazis.
Further on previous stories. Reach out and punch face.
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Reviews: 5TimesZero, Post War Glamour Girls, Vassals (2017).
Record reviews at last! Synthpop, shouty post-punk and grungy ’90s guitar pop. Some good stuff coming out over the next month.
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Reviews: Artefact, Ritual Howls, La Orden (2016, 2017).
Guitar post-punk in black and grey.
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John Cale: Music For A New Society/M:FANS (1982, 2016).
Music For A New Society was written and recorded over a few weeks in 1982. Cale basically pulled out handfuls of his guts and shoved them into the piano and the vocal mic as hard as he could. It’s a perfectly captured moment, and one of the best things Cale ever did.
The 2016 rerecording is … completely different.
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Reviews: Gnu Reunion, Treasureseason, Shijo X (2017).
A cheering selection, from old and new bands.
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The Celibate Rifles: Merry Xmas Blues (1983).
Then give ’em all the turkey and tell ’em to get stuffed.
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Links: Stoner metal, Stevie Wonder, Bill Drummond on punk.
Essays on aesthetics.
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Ganser: relentlessness by guitar.
Taut indie guitar rock, sparse but weighty; machine music by a guitar band with the proper relentlessness.
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Reviews: Diversant:13, La Vogue vol. 1, Ambrasive, DrawnSword (2016).
’90s style industrial, early ’70s style songwriting, two dance non-reviews.
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Links: High-resolution consumer audio, London for music sales, the worst Beach Boys album.
Audio snake oil, London still the centre of the universe, Summer in Paradise.
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Links: Burroughs on the presidency, American Pie, Blood on the Tracks.
A beautiful and apposite William S. Burroughs reading, and some classic rock faff.
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Reviews: The Royal They, Unity One, Graveyard Love (2016).
Pre-grunge-style indie rock, EBM synthpop and disorienting synthesizer-guitar landscapes.
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A note on A. C. Temple.
Who else remembers late ’80s Blast First band A. C. Temple?
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Theodor Adorno wrote all the Beatles’ songs as a Cultural Marxist assault on America. Possibly.
One of the finest conspiracy theories in popular culture is the claim that Theodor Adorno, a main figure in the Frankfurt School of “cultural Marxism” fame, secretly wrote all the Beatles’ songs.
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The overwhelming historical importance of the Beatles, and why Live At The Hollywood Bowl is revelatory.
The trouble with the Beatles is not that they aren’t mindbogglingly important (they are) or indeed actually good (they are), it’s that you can’t get away from them even in 2016. They are actually so famous and so important that it’s almost impossible in the present day to understand how and why.
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Reviews: Arsia Line, The Primary Colors, Lindy Vision (2016).
Black Native angular post-punk, psychedelic garage and some straight-up witch house.
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Links: Beatles, Prince Buster, Freddie Mercury age 12, Freddie Nietzsche.
The Beatles’ Live At The Hollywood Bowl recovered, Prince Buster obituary, Freddie Mercury aged 12, Nietzsche the composer.
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Links: Microsoft DRM, Brian Eno, Lou Reed and Revolver.
While I’m busy faffing with the new theme …
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Mos Generator: Abyssinia (2016).
“doom heavy stoner metal band”, the press release bluntly announces.
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I was right at the time. Nineties indie rock sucked. Except Dave Graney, of course.
Just rereading the Dave Graney interview I did in late 1992 for Party Fears. This was when no fucker cared about Dave Graney, after his indie hipness fronting the Moodists in the 1980s and his artier cowboy rock’n’roll in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
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