Current Music Books

[steveeeeeeeee]

Started the Alex Chilton biography "A Man Called Destruction" this morning. 80 pages into it now, it's really good.

Only negative is the microscopic font used in the book, takes my eyes about 3 or 4 minutes to focus correctly each time I pick it up.

Past half-way now, it's still very good and it doesn't hover too much on Big Star, preferring to focus on Chilton's involvement and influence. Chris Bell is presented with very little sympathy, which is surprising because usually the focus is on his brief display of musical genius. However, the focus is on him being aggressive, gripped by alcohol and drug addiction, suffering from clinical depression and probably agoraphobic too. There really is little sentimental loss when he decides to quit as all members of the band had cut personal ties with him anyway, due to his erratic and aggressive behaviour.

[danielmak]

Final thing, it's yet another book in which Courtney Love comes off admirably.

Courtney was always about Courtney but she had an ear for talent and was supportive. She also knew how to market herself when most folks don't know what they're doing beyond following a script (send a song to radio, send an advance to writers, and hope something sticks). She was out front of clubs when Hole was just starting passing out flyers for Hole gigs and then probably her own publicist as the band garnered more attention.

I haven't read his book but I know Courtney, Curt, and Lanegan hung out a lot around the time the Screaming Trees were coming undone. And Lanegan's first two solo records were very good. She would have heard that and wanted to be in his orbit.

[steveeeeeeeee]

From anecdotes I've read, she pays for drug addicted musicians to go to rehab, so she's a bit like Elton John, I guess. I'm a big fan of Hole, would go so far to say that "Live Through This" is the best Grunge album, "Pretty on the Inside" would be in my top 10 too.

[danielmak]

I think there is a 33 1/3 book about one of the Hole albums. That series has been hit and miss for me, but I like the concept. I have a Melissa Rossi (I think that's her name) book about Courtney that I purchased 20 years ago. Still haven't cracked it but maybe I'll jump into that after I finish the book I'm reading now.

[Hot Pepsi]

I don’t think Hole is a grunge band.

[steveeeeeeeee]

"Pretty on the Inside" and "Live Through This" are as Grunge as it gets, from my point of view. But I struggle with bands like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains being lumped into the genre. "Superfuzz Bigmuff" by Mudhoney is the definitive Grunge release, imo, if a band sound like that, they're Grunge.

[danielmak]

"Pretty on the Inside" and "Live Through This" are as Grunge as it gets, from my point of view. But I struggle with bands like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains being lumped into the genre. "Superfuzz Bigmuff" by Mudhoney is the definitive Grunge release, imo, if a band sound like that, they're Grunge.

I agree 100% with all of this.

[Jah Womble]

Yes, ditto. Hole were also just as readily dubbed she-punk, garage, riot grrl, foxcore - their earlier releases easily fit with grunge, however.

[delicatemoth]

I'm sure it's likely been mentioned already, but Tracey Thorn's Bedsit Disco Queen is a terrific read. Her detailed account of how groups fall into their allotted positions in the music machine - getting worn down by constant negotiations with record companies on singles, artwork and all the other little things that make the whole - is fascinating. It's so well written, as I guess befits someone who read an MA in Literature on the side of being a pop star

I think I'm going to get into Everything But The Girl now. Previously I thought of them as 'what Tracey did after Marine Girls', but I would appear to have under-regarded her as an artist. I never realised it was her singing 'Protection' either.

[imp]

All four of her books are excellent, delicatemoth (as is Ben Watt's memoir about his parents, Romany and Tom, though I haven't read his account of his long illness). I was never much fond of EBTG because I so loved TT's mini solo-album, A Distant Shore (it was the soundtrack to my sixth form love misery), and I just wanted her to keep making records like that. A few years ago, though, I went back and really got into them. I'd bought Eden at the time, but only in later years came to properly love it. Each and Every One is such an outstanding and timeless pop song, I quite often whack it on the turntable to lift my mood. The re-mix of Missing was on Swiss radio all the time, every day, when I lived there, and I couldn't see the attraction because I was busy missing out on the entire 80s/90s electronic dance movement, and only came to it much later (though still have no clue what the difference is between most of its categories, or who takes the cultural credit).

Edit - meant to mention The Marine Girls. I bought their second album when it came out, but was never that keen on it either. Years later, I bought the debut LP second hand and realised how brilliant they were too. The best indie music was made by people who had no clue what they were doing, and didn't care.

[caja-dglh]

I never realised it was her singing 'Protection' either.

I love this. I don't quite understand how you achieved it but that is such a great thing to discover after such a long time.

[elguapo4]

All four of her books are excellent, delicatemoth (as is Ben Watt's memoir about his parents, Romany and Tom, though I haven't read his account of his long illness). I was never much fond of EBTG because I so loved TT's mini solo-album, A Distant Shore (it was the soundtrack to my sixth form love misery), and I just wanted her to keep making records like that. A few years ago, though, I went back and really got into them. I'd bought Eden at the time, but only in later years came to properly love it. Each and Every One is such an outstanding and timeless pop song, I quite often whack it on the turntable to lift my mood. The re-mix of Missing was on Swiss radio all the time, every day, when I lived there, and I couldn't see the attraction because I was busy missing out on the entire 80s/90s electronic dance movement, and only came to it much later (though still have no clue what the difference is between most of its categories, or who takes the cultural credit).

Edit - meant to mention The Marine Girls. I bought their second album when it came out, but was never that keen on it either. Years later, I bought the debut LP second hand and realised how brilliant they were too. The best indie music was made by people who had no clue what they were doing, and didn't care.

Patient by Ben Watt is excellent as well Imp. I can send it to you if you want, send me a PM if you're interested.

[Jobi1]

Currently approaching the end of the Chemical Brothers book Paused in Cosmic Reflections – it's a beautifully put together thing, a big, chunky hardback full of amazing photography of the band and related artifacts, with the story told through (new) interviews with Tom and Ed as well as many associated friends and collaborators. Must admit it's rather lost me at times when they (well, Tom mainly) get into the really technical aspects of how they create the music, but overall I've found it really interesting and just nice to put a bit more colour to the people behind some of my favourite music of all time. There are some fun behind-the-scenes stories too – Bernard Sumner and his laddy mates trying to bully their way into a student house party at Tom and Ed's uni digs; the Chems using what turned out to be the script for the film Fight Club as a doorstop in their studio without really realising what it was (they had been asked if they'd be interested in doing the soundtrack but they dismissed it without really reading it because they heard it was about boxing, which they weren't interested in). Definitely one for the bigger fans, but that's me, so I've really enjoyed it.

[steveeeeeeeee]

I finished the Alex Chilton biography "A Man Called Destruction" last night. The last hundred pages or so were a bit of a slog and the final years of his life are skirted over very quickly. The author was a friend of his and apparently began work on the book in the 1990s, but there is very little input from Chilton at all, I imagine she only got her act together after he died.

As with many biographies I've read lately, the subject of it comes across as a total wanker, but I guess that's what makes the subject interesting. Chilton was never happy with what he had, whether it be the music he played, the women he slept with or the friends he kept. The only thing that probably satisfied him were the drugs and drink he guzzled down until the early 80s, when he decided to get clean. He did awful things to basically everyone he crossed, his mother probably being the one exception. There are some alarming stories of him being a borderline paedophile, waiting outside schools as teenage girls came out, also allegations of homophobia towards Chris Bell and antisemitism. But he wrote some great songs!

I get the impression he and Chris Bell never got over the failure of Big Star. Bell had a mental breakdown and Chilton just decided to self destruct and be as awkward and incompatible as possible. The book only briefly mentions Teenage Fanclub, who along with The Cramps and The Residents are the only bands Chilton was happy to work with and didn't look down on.

[Felicity, I guess so]

I already had Jarvis (Cocker, the pop singer)'s book from a 99p kindle binge but Ms F bought me a physical copy for my birthday which is worth it for the pics. She was driven to buy it by me constantly playing Pulp's last album in the car and talking about it a lot. The power of suggestion.

Also A Band with Hate Built-in - The Who: from pop art to punk

[Benjm]

I'm going to see Jah Wobble do a reading and Q&A at the Social tomorrow, plugging the updated reissue of his autobiography. Interestingly, Memoirs of a Geezer, the original title, has been relegated to a subtitle with Dark Luminosity the new headline. I've read the original so wonder how much more the new version will add. He's a very droll interviewee though so tomorrow should be fun.

[diggedy derek]

Jah Wobble's book is great.

Matthew Collin is about to release a book Dream Machines: Electronic Music From Doctor Who To Acid House. It's great, somehow doing the enormous remit justice

[imp]

You can tell us here in all confidence, dd. Is it better than wingco's book?

[Benjm]

You can tell us here in all confidence, dd. Is it better than wingco's book?

Tell me that you are an author without telling me that you are an author.

[diggedy derek]

Lol. In all seriousness, it's a fairly different book. The focus on the UK of Collin's books means it starts with the Radiophonic Workshop, then The Beatles and Pink Floyd, through to Hawkwind, to Cabaret Voltaire to Depeche Mode and Stock Aitken Waterman... it's quite a different role call of artists.

[imp]

Very well answered (smiley-winky emoji).

[MsD]

I'm going to see Jah Wobble do a reading and Q&A at the Social tomorrow, plugging the updated reissue of his autobiography. Interestingly, Memoirs of a Geezer, the original title, has been relegated to a subtitle with Dark Luminosity the new headline. I've read the original so wonder how much more the new version will add. He's a very droll interviewee though so tomorrow should be fun.

Thanks to Benjm for his spare ticket. I managed to get lost and so we had to sit near the back.
But it was fun. Wobble just talks and talks.
I didn’t buy the book (yet), as I have the original and have a stack of other books needing reading.
I think we agreed his talking about music more interesting than anecdotes about pranks and drinking. I mean, who hasn’t set fire to furniture? But we haven’t all taught ourselves bass and made interesting shapes with it.

[Benjm]

It was very entertaining. I felt a bit sorry for Ted Kessler, the interviewer, as trying to keep Wobble on subject must have been like trying to water a bonsai tree with a firehose. There were about six final questions for the road from the crowd, with JW giving the impression of just getting going. The final question was whether he minds being asked to talk about PiL so much, given his varied and copious output since. He fielded it gamely and, while there was a lot more we would have liked to hear about, the event could have lasted days rather than a couple of hours and still not covered everything.

An unusual fashion note is that JW was wearing a battery powered heated gilet, which might well be a first in the evolution of post punk style.

[imp]

Just started the second Viv Albertine book, To Throw Away Unopened - never a dull sentence. Just read the bit where she douses some over-loud twats at a solo gig in York in their own pints for failing to heed her requests to quieten down while she was playing. It's the kind of scenario where most of us would say afterwards that we wished we'd done it, or that someone had done it, but we would never actually do it. But she did, without apologies.

[imp]

The Albertine book's not really a music book, it's a book about her relationships with men and her family (mother, father, sister, daughter) but as I've flagged it on here I'll keep discussing it because in 'current reading' it'll just get lost. Here's a striking passage I read this morning:

"You have no idea how grief will take you. The same with severe illness, motherhood, and profound experience. You don't know yourself. Others don't know you. Those events show you who you are. And you'll be surprised, shocked even. You'll feel the way you've done when you've done a particularly offensive-smelling shit - that couldn't possibly have been me - and start to rationalise it - must be that whole bag of pistachios I ate earlier, or perhaps I'm unwell. You can't believe you could do something so foul and unrecognisable. Something so outside of yourself."

She's talking about physically attacking her sister literally on their mother's deathbed, because her sister wouldn't let Albertine's 15-year-old daughter have a few final minutes in the seat right next to her grandmother. Albertine asks nicely, and her sister tells her to fuck off. So she loses it and grabs her sister by the hair, "bunched up in my fists, twisted round her fingers and clamped between my knuckles". Fucking hell.