Writing – Page 4

Links: Microsoft DRM, Brian Eno, Lou Reed and Revolver.

7 August, 201626 December, 2016 mp3, Rock, Writing 0

While I’m busy faffing with the new theme …

How to slum as a rock critic, like generations of rock critics before you.

1 August, 20163 May, 2017 Media, Opinion, Writing 0

Sometimes you see a piece of modern music journalism and you wonder why these people are allowed fingers.

Burning books is wrong. So we had it taken out and shot.

28 July, 20169 October, 2017 Writing 3

The above being a quote from Graham Clark, one of the literary assessors in question. He told me the story years ago (and I keep retelling it), but I finally found a decent writeup of this, from a 1994 interview with Iain (M.) Banks …

Links: cultural markets in late capitalism, Patricia Morrison, the 1938 synthesizer.

24 July, 201621 August, 2016 Goth, Links, Musician, Opinion, Writing 0

Consumer markets, a nice Patricia Morrison interview and the 1938 Novachord.

Links: Opinionated record nerds on Ringo Starr, Frank Zappa and Record Store Day.

9 July, 201624 September, 2016 Links, Writing 0

Ringo Starr, Frank Zappa and Record Store Day evaluated.

Links: Nirvana, fanzines, music as violence.

30 June, 201624 August, 2016 Punk, Writing 0

Apropos to sociological conditions in the early 1990s, here’s Nirvana just after Nevermind hit big.

Whatever happened to all the sociologists, anyway? Not like the ones we had in the ’90s.

24 June, 20166 May, 2017 Opinion, Writing 0

Back in the ‘90s, sociologists and students seemed desperate to find anything resembling a subculture to write about. I ran a fanzine, remember, and was fending off calls regularly. They were a plague. This was just before Nirvana hit big. It was blindingly obvious to everyone in indie rock that someone was going to hit super-big at some point.

J. G. Eccarius: The Last Days of Christ the Vampire (1988).

20 June, 201618 February, 2017 Opinion, Writing 0

If you’re going to suffer unresolved literary trauma, you should get it from a title like that, which you will be unsurprised to hear is far and away the best thing about the book.

The enduring popularity of bishonen: the Wraeththu Trilogies by Storm Constantine.

17 June, 201610 May, 2018 Goth, Opinion, Writing 0

I have unresolved literary trauma, so you can have some too. These books are “sexy gender-ambiguous goth boys ahoy” porn from Storm Constantine as early ‘80s goth girl. (Note the cover star’s hand stapled to his forehead.) Apparently originating in a short story she wrote in 1973 at age 17, so David Bowie’s in there too.

The Mark E. Smith Guide to Writing Guide.

3 June, 201620 May, 2017 Post-Punk, Radio, Writing 0

In 1983, Mark E. Smith of the Fall went on Greenwich Sound Radio and, between being interviewed and playing records, gave them his definitive guide on how to write.

False memories of feelings past.

2 June, 20169 May, 2018 Industrial, Opinion, Writing 1

Front Line Assembly “Mindphaser” just came up on Spotify. I first heard it in 1993 or 1994, in the front room of 20 Stuart Street in Perth. The “cyberpunk house” as it was known. I think I was hungover and possibly still drunk from the night before. Certainly everyone else was.

“Duncan” by Slim Dusty is now in Wikipedia.

30 May, 201625 August, 2016 Country, Writing 0

I was amazed to discover that Slim Dusty’s second-biggest hit wasn’t covered in Wikipedia. Well, now it is ‘cos I put it there.

My problematic favourite: William S. Burroughs.

29 May, 20169 May, 2018 Opinion, Post-Punk, Writing 1

I admire old Bill for all sorts of things, none of which are his personality, murdering his wife, fucking up his son or misogyny so jawdropping he literally made it into an artform. I wonder what signifiers wearing a Burroughs shirt would have in 2016 as opposed to 1996 (“yeah yeah you’re hip go away”) or 1986 (“who?”).

I threw up on Lux Interior.

2 April, 201628 August, 2016 Drugs, Live, Rock, Writing 11

It was mid-1986, at the Red Parrot in Perth (name and logo blatantly nicked from the New York club of the same name) in Perth. I was nineteen and had been going out to see bands and drinking in earnest for six months. The Cramps had played (the Canterbury Court Friday 22 August 1986 show, I think) and went there for after-show drinks.

LA punk zines Slash and NoMag scanned, courtesy Circulation Zero.

1 December, 20154 September, 2016 Writing 0

Ryan Richardson has put up lots of old archival material before, and his latest is Circulation Zero, on which he plans to make available the complete runs (or, at worst, the complete interesting runs) of ancient punk rock history.

I don’t want to shock you or anything, but pop music is an industry.

30 November, 20153 November, 2016 Pop, Writing 0

The Atlantic is perturbed and depressed that pop music is created by an industrial process and wants you to be too.

Dammit Yahoo, stop giving the game away.

28 November, 20153 November, 2016 Media, Writing 0

Yahoo posted their writeup on Rihanna’s Anti just a little early.

The James L. “Rusty” Hevelin Collection of fanzines (the SF sort).

2 July, 20156 May, 2017 Writing 0

Of course, the first zines were science fiction zines, and they sprung up in the 1930s just about as soon as mimeographs were physically

Steve Albini: How The Internet Solved The Problem with Music.

11 January, 201521 August, 2016 Industry, Writing 1

Steve Albini’s 1993 classic “The Problem with Music”, written at the height of the grunge era, when post-hardcore punk bands were getting gobbled up

What it feels like to lose the ability to perceive music.

3 July, 20146 May, 2017 Writing 0

Quite possibly the scariest thing you will read this year.

Helvete, an open-access peer-reviewed journal of black metal theory.

6 May, 20144 September, 2016 Metal, Writing 0

“Helvete is a new open-access electronic and print journal of black metal theory.” Conceived after Melancology, the second Black Metal Theory Symposium, in 2011,

A librarian reviews her husband’s “Stupid Record Collection.” All of it.

19 April, 20144 December, 2016 Record, Writing 0

In which a relatively normal person decides to sit down and review her husband’s entire vinyl LP collection. In alphabetical order. “I can’t believe

Playing to the demographic that actually has money.

11 April, 201417 June, 2018 Rock, Writing 0

Pete Farnan of Boom Crash Opera writes about playing A Day On The Green, to the most irony-free audience possible. “The Hunters and Collectors

New Wu-Tang Clan album available only as no copies at all.

2 April, 201428 April, 2017 R'n'B, Writing 0

JOHN CAGE MATCH, Praxis, Wednesday (NTN) — The Wu-Tang Clan has announced the nonrelease of their new album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,

You didn’t know you wanted a robot J. G. Ballard until this moment.

18 March, 201429 November, 2016 Writing 0

Courtesy Mike Bonsall on the jgb list. “It took months to painstakingly analyse 7,000 answers JG Ballard made in over 300 interviews and turn

Why we love repetition in music.

14 March, 20146 May, 2017 Esoterica, Writing 0

Why do we listen to our favourite music over and over again? Because repeated sounds work magic in our brains. Do anything repeatedly and

The levels of musical appreciation.

5 February, 20146 May, 2017 Esoterica, Writing 0

From The Dark Side Of The Room. I’ll note that Rocknerd has already reached the later levels. HT Ms45.

Deaf from birth, Austin Chapman hears music for the first time.

13 January, 20146 May, 2017 Audio, Writing 0

Filmmaker Austin Chapman was largely deaf from birth until, a year or so ago, he finally got hearing aids that didn’t suck. “It was

Kim Jong-Il was the North Korean Roger Ebert.

9 January, 20146 May, 2017 Film, Writing 0

Amongst his stupendously many literary achievements, Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il was an accomplished film critic. LET US CREATE MORE REVOLUTIONARY FILMS BASED ON SOCIALIST

The trouble with actually learning how to write.

7 January, 20146 May, 2017 Writing 0

This is entirely and horrifyingly accurate. Chris Bucholz, Cracked: 4 weird side effects of learning how to write.