Category: Music

Order! Order! Book Retailer Defies Logic and Sends OCD Shoppers to the Edge

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I’ll admit that I’m prone to extreme pedantry and display many behaviours that are classic traits of the obsessive, the anally retentive. To be honest, I’m fine with that. I have a lot of books, records and CDs, and so storing them in alphabetical order by author or artist makes sense if I want to avoid having to spend hours rooting through haphazard piles of stuff. That I store items in order of publication or release date for those authors or artists I have multiple items by is also helpful, if not quite as essential, and that all of my records are stored with the A-side facing the front and records and CDs are kept with the labels the right way up is simply a preference. In a world where have very little control over anything, it’s comforting to maintain a sense of order in those aspects of my life where it actually benefits me. I choose the alphabetical by author / artist system because it’s ‘the standard’. Libraries, book stores, record stores… the simple fact id that it makes sense and is based on an indisputable logic.

Yesterday, for something to do and because, since they became a ‘media’ store rather than a music store (CDs now occupy less space than DVDs and are generally receive equal billing to console games), HMV have been known to stock some reasonable cult fiction at generously discounted prices. Burroughs, Palahniuk, Bukowski, Plath; all names I spotted amidst the predictable selection of music-related books, celebrity biographies and populist cack, and all with a decent whack off the RRP.

What perplexed me, however, was the arrangement of said books on the shelves. Stephen King books were interspersed throughout the display, which was some five shelves high and eight to ten feet wide. Burroughs’ The Place of Dead Roads was somewhere in the middle, while Kurt Vonnegut’s Armageddon in Retrospect was on the top shelf on the far left. What the fuck?

It actually took me a little while to realise that the books were arranged alphabetically by title. Apart from biographies, which were placed by order of the surname of their subject. And apart from books about a band, in which case the book’s placing was dictated by the name of the band. And apart from Frankie Boyle’s My Shit Life So Far, which appeared to be amongst the Cs.

On reflection, I suppose that’s probably right.

Of course, this begs the question, why aren’t the CDs arranged using the same system?

 

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Anti-Everything: A Blogger’s Dilemma

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I greatly admire Kathy Acker’s writing, and I greatly admire the attitudes she espoused. I admire her writing because it’s exciting and unconventional and bursting with ideas. I admire her attitudes because she was antagonistic, awkward, challenging and non-conformist. Acceptance for Acker was extremely hard-won. I recently revisited an interview with her, in which she explained her early motivation:

“I took a lot of writing courses when I was in college… They were just torture… I reacted in this kind of this radical anti-authority stance, anti-right rules of writing. I started off by saying ‘no’ to everything. My whole identity as a writer was in saying ‘no’, in reacting. So in my first books I refused to rewrite. I wrote as fast as possible. I refused to have any consideration for proper grammar or proper syntax.”

It’s possible to react without being ‘reactionary,’ and Acker’s opposition to all things ‘establishment’, all things ‘conventional’ is something I’ve long been able to identify with. The establishment and the conventional frustrates me. The world frustrates me. I abhor the herd mentality, the misguided and broadly accepted notion that something must be good because it’s popular, the fact that so much ‘culture’ and so many ‘norms’ are simply accepted because that’s what the masses get fed by the various agents of dissemination. Our education system is flawed because it teaches people what to think, rather than how to think for themselves. Or, as Acker contended, “universities have peculiar transmission problems: they transmit stupidity.” It’s a pretty radical view, but it’s not difficult to see what she was driving at. 

As I’ve grown older, my views haven’t softened: I’ve simply found more evidence to substantiate them, and more cogent ways to articulate them. I’m frustrated at every turn, and as such, my writing, in all its forms, is writing of protest, it’s anti-something, if not absolutely anti-everything. Am I a nihilist? No, because I think that such negativity can be channelled for positive ends.

To return to a favourite analogy of mine, that of literature being the new rock ‘n’ roll, I find it irritating (you’ll probably be seeing the pattern by now) when bands plead with the audience to buy their CD at the merch stall between every song. Sure, plug it by all means, but ramming it down people’s throats is bad form. It’s overkill. It stops the set being about the music, and becomes a sales pitch. The set is an advertisement for the CD in itself. Do writers give readings and break after every page to ask the audience to please please please buy their book so they can get the bus home? Well, perhaps, but it’s rare in the extreme.

Writers do tend to be a lot less shameless by nature, to the extent that many come across as being quite apologetic. This can be similarly frustrating for audiences and people who meet them, for they seem shy, nervous or aloof. In the main, I’m no exception to this rule although I do try to speak confidently when reading in public.

This isn’t something I’ve done a great deal of. I have, so far, based a career on upping the anti, so to speak (yes, that’s wordplay, creative misprision, not a sign of limited literacy). I’ve refrained from using any mugshots on any social networking sites, and divulge very few personal details. I guard my privacy fiercely. I like to think it adds to the mystique, but it’s also a deliberate strategy. On one hand, it means my personal life remains just that, and on the other, it means I’m able to create a persona based around the invisible author. I’m the anti-author, if you like. I’ve done the anti-novel, in the form of THE PLAGIARIST, which is also a statement against originality, authorship and copyright. While producing music reviews ahead of release date, I’ve also written articles against music reviewing, and promoted the concept of retrospective reviewing as a means of combating the popular hyping processes. I’m against organised religion, I’m against CCTV and the countless infringements on personal freedoms. I’m against large corporations taking over the world and I’m against idiots cycling on the pavement. Yes, I’m pretty much anti-everything, to the extent that I’m quite averse to endlessly plugging my writing. Being anti-everything, I’m operating a strategy of anti-promotion.

After years of refusing to give public readings, I recently took a slot at an open mic night and read a couple of short stories, in the interests of (self) promotion. Only, I couldn’t bring myself to reiterate my name at the end of my performance, and I didn’t plug any of my books. Needless to say, I didn’t sell any.

Is this strategy of anti-promotion self-defeating? Perhaps. The trouble is, I get fed up of writers who post three blogs a week about their books, but never actually give anything away. Now, I have posted the odd snippet and link to my published works, but work on the premise that my blogs are separate from my fiction and other writing, and live in the hope that the blogs will pique the interest of readers sufficiently that they might feel compelled to investigate further. It works to an extent, but perhaps not as well as I would like. I’m so averse to plugging my work that many occasional readers probably won’t even realise I have books in print.

So, to redress this, for those who don’t know, I have a number of books out. Earlier this year, I edited Clinical, Brutal… An Anthology of Writing with Guts. It’s choc-full of brilliant works by some truly outstanding contemporary authors. A couple of months ago, Clinicality Press published my novella, From Destinations Set and a booklet, The Gimp. The former is conceivably one of the most progressive and innovative works of the last decade, while the latter is pure, unadulterated in your face (anti)literary filth. They’re all available from Clinicality Press at http://clinicalitypress.co.uk. Go buy ‘em.

(And yes, the title is a Mansun reference…)

And if you’re loving my work, there’s more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk.

Brainwash Festival, Leeds, 1st November 2009 Pt 4: Oceansize

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Oh dear. Oceansize have been running late, coming in from Germany this morning and then heading straight to Leeds to play Brainwash. This means that when they’re scheduled to begin playing, they’re actually soundchecking, in front of a packed auditorium, too. It’s uncomfortable for bands to do this, and uncomfortable – not to mention tedious – for the audience, too. The intro tape’s on a loop and people are getting restless. Still, what can you do?

Oceansize begin their set with a few bars of the long that’s been driving everyone crazy for the last however long – it feels like an eternity – before giving an expert demonstration in the magnificent and epic neo-prog that’s gained them such an ardent fanbase.

While they somehat disappointingly overlook the entirety their debut album, the masterpiece that is ‘Efflouresce,’ the set draws broadly from the rest of their career to date. A high point is, without doubt the truly raging rendition of ‘One Out of None,’ which is abrasive and jarring, and, frankly, brilliant. ‘Homage to a Shame,’ one of the most dynamic tracks from the slightly sub-par ‘Everyone into Position’ similarly serves as a sonic slap round the chops, in the best possible way.

There’s also new material, too: not only do they treat us to a track from the new EP, ‘Home & Minor,’ on which the band explore their softer side (in stark contrast to their other between-albums EP, ‘Music for Nurses,’ a tense and angular affair).

Time’s tight, but they also manage to squeeze in a new and as yet unreleased track from their forthcoming album, which they’re still in the process of recording. I didn’t catch the title, but it was a blistering high-speed assault, coming on like a juggernaut going full-throttle with no brakes. Not only does this auger well for the future, but it’s great to see a band who’ve been around for over ten years and built an established fanbase play like they’ve still got everything to prove. For me, Oceansize were worth the day’s ticket price alone.

Don’t forget, there’s always more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk!

Brainwash Festival, Leeds, 1st November 2009 Pt 3: Vessels

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That there’s a superabundance of instrumental post-rock, and instrumental rock, is perhaps something of an understatement. The Leeds scene is a veritable hotbed of post-rock instrumentalism, and I’ve lost count of the number of bands I’ve seen doing this sort of thing on my manifold nights spent in the Brudenell and the Packhorse. However, Vessels are undoubtedly amongst the pick of the crop, creating immense, swirling soundscapes that emerge from quiet, semi-ambient noodlings.

The use of synthesisers to produce spacious and space-age sounds is one of the factors in Vessels’ multidimensionality, but the fact the band pack the stage with a forest of guitars is what really creates their dense, layered sound as they trade intricacies before launching into explosive, soaring – and searing – bursts of noise. Guitars and basses are swapped and exchanged, allowing for the different playing styles to subtly alter the moods throughout the set.

Ok, so on this outing, the sound wasn’t as good – or as loud, or as dense – as when I saw them headline at the Brudenell a while back, but then, accommodating so many bands during a single afternoon must be a technical nightmare, and soundchecks subject to rigid time constraints in order to keep things running to time. Besides, the sound in the Brudenell is both consistently well above average in terms of both quality and volume, so I guess I’ve been spoiled rather. That said, Vessels turn in a set that’s got energy, variety and dynamic range, and serves to illustrate perfectly just what a fine band they are.

Don’t forget, there’s always more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk!

Brainwash Festival, Leeds, 1st November 2009 Pt 2: Maybeshewill

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Maybeshewill produce an unusual hybridised racket, too rock to be post-rock, but not as metal as, say, And So I Watch You From Afar. That isn’t to say that their songs lack the gentler or more intricate elements common to many post-rock acts, but that they’re not as given to the fragility common to the genre. And when Maybeshewill rock out – which is often – they really do rock it, with big, heavy, ballsy, grungy riffs.

They apologise on a number of occasions through the course of the set about the technical difficulties they’re having, but from the front it sound just fine, not to mention abundantly loud. Samples fire off to provide narrative and texture to This Time Last Year and there are no shortage of twists, turns, tempo and volume changes to hold the attention through a punchy and powerful little set.



Don’t forget, there’s always more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk!

 

Brainwash Festival, Leeds, 1st November 2009 Pt 1: Her Name is Calla

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You could be forgiven for expecting that their recent European tour might have left Her Name is Calla a little weary of performing and of the material, particularly the songs that were being played live before the recording of ‘The Heritage.’ But then, Her Name is Calla aren’t a band who are happy to churn out the songs and declare them finished, which is why tonight’s opener, ‘Motherfucker! It’s Alive and Bleeding’ sounds rather different from both the record and previous live shows. The new arrangement sees the composition twist and turn and explore new directions en route to an exhilarating climax.

The rest of the five-track set also suggests the band is, if anything, tighter than ever and reinvigorated. There’s even a new song, ‘Pour More Oil.’ Although it appeared in demo form on the ultra-limited ‘A Blood Promise’ CD / DVD set, the bones of the track have been fleshed out in spectacular fashion. It’s when the band are producing these monumental walls of noise that it becomes evident just how each member contributes something essential to the overall sound, from the low-slung bass sound to the textured strings and brass.

They close with a devastating rendition of ‘New England,’ and while the battery of percussion that used to feature has been reduced to Thom battering tribal rhythms  on a floor tom, the sonic assault is as forceful as ever, with everything collapsing into a speaker-shredding squall of feedback.

Ultimately, a triumphant performance that reminded me exactly what it was that made me like Her Name is Calla in the first place.

Don’t forget, there’s always more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk.

We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful

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‘White Noise,’ the debut single by Viewer, has just been played on Radio 1 by Huw Stephens, who’s making very enthusiastic noises. The video is racking up the hits on YouTube by the second. Nothing so unusual about that in itself. New bands get airplay all the time, get masses of hits on YouTube. Some get tipped as the next big thing, others just get a song played and that’s it. The difference is, I don’t normally know the artists.

On the face of it, he’s an unlikely up-and-coming pop star. Yet at 33, Andy Johnson, the voice of Viewer and a man with a face that looks like it’s seen some living, is standing on the verge of something big. And it’s all a little strange. As he tells it, though, it’s life as usual for him (even if he doesn’t bust moves outside his local Indian takeaway as a rule – as he does in the video), and what’s strange is the way those around him are getting hyped – rather like his record.

So when we meet up for a drink, as we do every few weeks, and as we have been doing off and on for years, of course we talk about the latest events in his life, but mostly we ramble on about books and music and current affairs and the state of society and popular culture – same as ever. It’s definitely a good sign, and it’s clear that these early hints of success aren’t going to his head. But then, why would they? He’s hardly having to do heavy press or being called up by MTV or the NME, and he’s not exactly getting rich off it. At least not yet. It’s not all about the money, of course – although as he’ll be the first to admit, some money would be nice, and he’s chuffed that the early airplay will at least pay something in royalties.

Perhaps it’s his age, or perhaps it’s that he’s generally pretty well grounded and cynical. Andy’s been making music for years. Up to now, his projects have broadly reflected his listening tastes: guitar-based pop with a quirky edge, given to lyrical wordplay and clever rhymes (the press release for the single refers to ‘his witty kitchen-sink commentary) has, to now, been his forte, drawing influence from bands like Sparks, Pulp, The Divine Comedy. However, this latest venture couldn’t be more different. In many ways, the same is true of his collaborator, the quiet and rather enigmatic Tim Wright, who’s been in the industry producing electronic music since the 90s under various guises such as Tube Jerk (by which he’s produced not only a substantial back-catalogue, but also earned considerable respect in the techno world), Germ, and Pin. This is, however, perhaps his most overtly commercial project. After all, the guy does list Bauhaus, Swans and Throbbing Gristle amongst his influences, alongside Led Zeppelin, Butthole Surfers, The Fall and Killing Joke. Not yer average technohead’s fodder.

I’ve actually known Andy for a good number of years, and so in some respects it’s strange for me to witness this change in fortune. But no, I don’t begrudge him this taste of success, not least of all because I have immense respect for him as an artist, and as a person. It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say he’s worked hard for this, because his involvement in Viewer was quite a chance event in many ways, and he’s one of the least fame-hungry people you could ever meet. However, he has most definitely lived it, and he’s endured a succession of mind-numbing admin jobs and years of skintness while honing his craft as a lyricist. While some may consider his refusal to pursue a career, I personally applaud his policy of no sell-out. That’s what’s meant by keeping it real.

The single is a rant against nanny state politics, and in many ways isn’t all that different from a night in the pub with Andy, as he swipes against the smoking ban (it’s not just the ban he has issues with, but its application and the strange details – not to mention the contradiction of a government reliant on the taxes on tobacco for funds, and not just to the NHS) and the relentless erosion of personal freedoms in the interest of ‘protection.’

Another future classic that’s been tearing up the dancefloors is ‘Sunrise,’ which opens with the lyric ‘Hell is a nightclub.’ It’s not only an even better cut than ‘White Noise,’ but also perfectly encapsulates the contradictions that make Viewer such an interesting proposition. Yes, a dance track that features lyrics that berate the inherent shitness of club culture, going down a storm with the very people it’s pointing the finger at. That’s what I call subversion. Yet another track, ‘Dumb it Down,’ is a fairly savage attack on popular culture and lowest-common-denominator media.

Writing the lyrics, in particular to ‘Dumb it Down,’ is a challenge he relishes. Sue, he can spout, but keeping things succinct and fitting them to a dance beat is a whole other discipline, even from indie-pop lyric writing. He tells me how he had a whole set of lyrics penned for ‘Dumb it Down,’ then realised that for the song to work, he had to really strip it back: to dumb it down. Having had a preview of the track, I have to say he’s done a brilliant – and in places hilarious – job.

The world needs articulate lyricists right now more than ever. What’s more, in a time when music is becoming evermore specialist, and the polarity between mainstream chart music and everything else increasingly marked, bands with such immense crossover potential and broad appeal – while retaining credibility – are rare indeed. Viewer: ones to watch.

Sounds Like… # 1 in a very occasional series (when I can be bothered)

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Ok so I’m something of a trainspotter when it comes to music I like. Perhaps not as anoraky at some who can tell you that the guitar fades out 2 seconds earlier on one version of a song on which the drum also pan slightly differently during the fill at the end of the middle eight, but pretty nerdy nevertheless. I don’t see any shame in this, and sometimes my ability to retain large quantities of apparently useless information can come in handy. I’m not too shabby in the music round of pub quizzes, for example.

Anyway, while I accept that certain chord sequences are common simply because they are (how many songs can you think of that use the same three chord descending sequence that’s the main riff on the Stooges track ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ for example?), some songs bear more than a passing resemblance to others that came before, and it’s unlikely to be entirely coincidental.

Try playing ‘Mrs Jones’ from the first Hole album alongside Bauhaus’ ‘Dark Entries’ and tell me honestly you don’t think the former appropriates in any way from the latter.

Anyway, one soundalike that’s long gnawed at me is the bassline to ‘Blah, Blah, Blah’ by Hüsker Dü, which is to all intents and purposes identical to that of ‘The Damage Done’ by The Sisters of Mercy. The Sisters single was released in 1980, two years before Mr Mould and co. recorded the tracks for ‘Everything Falls Apart,’ which was released January ‘83. Obviously, I’m not about to go on a big rant about plagiarism or anything, I’m just putting the observation regarding their similarity out there…


Manic Street Preachers in Cover Controversy… or Censorship?

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I was rather astonished to read that the UK’s leading supermarket chains, Asda, Morrison’s, Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s have ‘banned’ the new Manic Street Preachers album on account of it’s ‘inappropriate’ artwork.

http://new.uk.music.yahoo.com/blogs/snapcrackleandpop/8314/manic-street-preachers-banned/

Well, ok, so further reading reveals that they haven’t actually banned it (as Kerrang reported, and supported with a quote from bassist Nicky Wire “Supermarkets won’t accept the album cover, which I am really startled at. You can have the Pussycat Dolls poledancing, but you can’t have our album cover.”) and aren’t refusing to stock it. They’re simply refusing to carry its original artwork, and will instead display the CD in a plain slipcase.
‘Journal for Plague Lovers’ features a painting by Jenny Saville of a boy, who may (or may not, depending on your interpretation) have a bloodied face. Whether or not I think it’s a ‘good’ painting isn’t the point. But does the fact it doesn’t shock me in any way make me desensitized?

I can’t help but agree with the band’s bewilderment at the decision, and the point made by James Dean Bradfield: “You can have lovely shiny buttocks and guns everywhere in the supermarket on covers of magazines and CDs, but you show a piece of art and people just freak out”

While the Guardian ran a music blog by Jonathan Jones that contended that this ‘raises the interesting possibility that hand-made, painterly images now have more power to shock than conceptual artworks’ (and he may have a point), I would also say that it reinforces the depressing – rather than interesting – possibility that the world’s gone mad and is riddled with hypocrisy.

To unpack this a little, the supermarkets in question aren’t making any kind of judgement regarding the contents of the CD. Fair enough, it’s certainly innocuous and harmless enough compared to the wall-to-wall misogyny and glorifications of violence that proliferate across many of the rap albums in the charts, but then, by the same token, if the problem with the cover is that it’s thought-provoking and hints at darker aspects of life, then surely the album should be subject to the same kind of scrutiny. But that, of course, would require some actual interrogation, rather than an immediate and not very rational knee-jerk reaction that surrounds anything to do with children, the likes of which saw Chris Morris’ truly brilliant ‘Brasseye’ and Channel 4 subject to a mass of moral outrage for daring to parody a subject as grave as paedophilia. And, more saliently, I believe, to refuse to stock an album that’s guaranteed to be a top 10 hit and probable number 1 on the week of release won’t send a message to anyone and will simply mean that the supermarkets won’t be getting a cut of the sales profits. And that would never do: the shareholders would have a fit. I daresay the record company might have something to say too. As it stands, however, the controversy is more likely than not to boost sales, for all sorts of reasons.

Ironically, the supermarkets that are, by their actions, giving the band some free promotion (there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right? Just ask Jonathon Ross: a furore, a few weeks of vilification and a three-months suspension and a BAFTA at the end of it all) are the kind of corporate giants that the Manics railed against at the start of their career, back when they were full of bile and were all about political sloganeering against the system rather than being a part of it.

Are these supermarket chains guilty of uneven censorship, or simply reactionary hypersensitivity in a climate already rife with moral indignation over the most trivial of things? Either way, the end result is the same, and the latter leads to censorship however you look at it. It’s a slippery slope, alright, and people need to speak up and to take action. Because if you tolerate this, your children will be next….