Diumraid
Active Member
John 'Drumbo' French: Beefheart - Through the Eyes of Magic
I expected to be unable to listen to the Magic Band again after the reports I was getting on this book. It certainly does cast a certain light over the catalogue but James Brown's personality defects (for one example) never stopped me listening to HIS music so ... hey! The book is pretty exhaustive on detail but even the endless minutae has a rhythm of its own. There's a slather of self-pity and born again Christian zeal in the writing that clangs badly with the weirdo rock'n'roll but otherwise a great read
Clinton Heylin: Babylon's Burning (From Punk to Grunge)
Any music writer who praises the Ruts while damning Crass and slobbers over Maria McKee while lambasting Throbbing Gristle should be dumped in an open sewer with a sack of his own books tied around his neck. Terrible
Rob Young: Electric Eden - Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music
Just about every section of this book could have been a book unto itself - from the folk revival of the 19th century to the eccentrics of the 80's and 90's (K Bush, Talk Talk etc.) Electric Eden delves into a mystical vision of Britain and its culture / history that is pretty much the opposite of jingoism. The thread becomes a bit stretched after the 70's and the weight and obvious passion the author has for the earlier material is somewhat lacking, while giving remarkably little attention to the loose association of acts on the World Serpent label that very much carried that torch.
Aside from that overall feeling of wanting much much more on so many of the topics, I really recommend this.
David Browne: Goodbye 20th Century - A Biography of Sonic Youth
This was pretty much as expected - the stories from the 80's had me mad with envy (SY and Swans touring together playing to half a dozen people every night), the whole downtown scene ...
The early Geffen years are as depressing as you might fear, then they get some autonomy (SYR records etc.), Jim O'Rourke is a freak.
The writing is a bit twee and stutters through endless non-events in order to paint pictures of the various times. Enjoyable all the same.
I expected to be unable to listen to the Magic Band again after the reports I was getting on this book. It certainly does cast a certain light over the catalogue but James Brown's personality defects (for one example) never stopped me listening to HIS music so ... hey! The book is pretty exhaustive on detail but even the endless minutae has a rhythm of its own. There's a slather of self-pity and born again Christian zeal in the writing that clangs badly with the weirdo rock'n'roll but otherwise a great read
Clinton Heylin: Babylon's Burning (From Punk to Grunge)
Any music writer who praises the Ruts while damning Crass and slobbers over Maria McKee while lambasting Throbbing Gristle should be dumped in an open sewer with a sack of his own books tied around his neck. Terrible
Rob Young: Electric Eden - Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music
Just about every section of this book could have been a book unto itself - from the folk revival of the 19th century to the eccentrics of the 80's and 90's (K Bush, Talk Talk etc.) Electric Eden delves into a mystical vision of Britain and its culture / history that is pretty much the opposite of jingoism. The thread becomes a bit stretched after the 70's and the weight and obvious passion the author has for the earlier material is somewhat lacking, while giving remarkably little attention to the loose association of acts on the World Serpent label that very much carried that torch.
Aside from that overall feeling of wanting much much more on so many of the topics, I really recommend this.
David Browne: Goodbye 20th Century - A Biography of Sonic Youth
This was pretty much as expected - the stories from the 80's had me mad with envy (SY and Swans touring together playing to half a dozen people every night), the whole downtown scene ...
The early Geffen years are as depressing as you might fear, then they get some autonomy (SYR records etc.), Jim O'Rourke is a freak.
The writing is a bit twee and stutters through endless non-events in order to paint pictures of the various times. Enjoyable all the same.