* (restored)
NEO
Milk ‘N’ Cookies
Blackfoot Sue
Jobriath
Jet
Mick Ronson
Hello
Brett Smiley
New York Dolls
Space Waltz
Mott the Hoople
Iron Virgin
Suzi Quatro
Smokey
Silverhead
Sparks
Cockney Rebel
Alice Cooper
Supernaut
Sweet
T. Rex
The Tubes
The Hollywood Brats
_____________
NEO Tran-sister (1976)
Neo’s first proper release was their “Trans-sister” single, released on Jet Records in November 1976, but Jet ultimately decided to drop the band from their roster before releasing their debut album. Then, Martin Gordon left to form the Radio Stars, and to complicate things further, North had to return to the States because his work visa had expired. Neo’s album ultimately did get issued on the UK’s Aura imprint in 1979 — as a North solo album titled Neo — but by that point North was already back in NYC, releasing music on his Neo Records imprint.
_____________
Milk ‘N’ Cookies (Dee, Dee You’re) Stuck On A Star (1975)
Milk ‘N’ Cookies were a band in the wrong place at the wrong time. If they’d shown up a few years later, they could have been part of the poppy end of the late-’70s/early-’80s punk/new wave explosion. If they’d made their name a year or two earlier, they could have been part of the glam explosion that inspired them. And if they’d been from Los Angeles or the U.K., they’d probably have found friendlier press. But it was their fate to emerge in Long Island, New York in 1974, where they didn’t fit in with the sound of the day. They had to settle for being an influential and revered cult item instead of achieving genuine rock stardom.
_____________
Blackfoot Sue Sing, Don’t Speak (1972)
Blackfoot Sue was a British pop/rock band, formed in 1970 by the twin brothers Tom and David Farmer and Eddie Golga. A single released in August 1972, “Standing in the Road” on the Jam label No. JAM 13, reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. Lack of further tangible success left them labelled as one-hit wonders. However, they did have another record enter the UK Singles Chart. “Sing Don’t Speak” reached number 36 in December 1972. Further unsuccessful singles appeared on the DJM and MCA labels. According to Allmusic, “they were written off as a teen sensation and broke up in 1977”.
______________
Jobriath Ecubyan (1973)
Bruce Wayne Campbell (December 14, 1946 – August 4, 1983), known by his stage name Jobriath, was an American rock musician and actor. He was the first openly gay rock musician to be signed to a major record label, and one of the first internationally famous musicians to die of AIDS.
______________
Jet Nothing To Do With Us (1975)
Jet were a glam rock band from London formed in 1974. They released one album in 1975 before splitting up, with the bulk of the band going on to become the punk/new wave band Radio Stars.
______________
Mick Ronson Only After Dark (1974)
For inspiration, Ronson relied on Annette Peacock’s 1972 album I’m the One; he used the title track and her arrangement of Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender”. Two songs were co-written by Ronson with Scott Richardson, who had been involved in the Ann Arbor music scene since the mid-’60s and came to prominence as lead singer of the SRC. Richardson was brought into the Bowie camp by Angie Bowie, who met him through Ron Asheton of the Stooges. During the recording of the album, Ronson considered putting together a new band with Richardson, Aynsley Dunbar, and Trevor Bolder, to be called the Fallen Angels, but plans fell through.
______________
Hello New York Groove (1975)
The band’s biggest success came in the UK and Germany in 1974. Their Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart were “Tell Him” (a cover of The Exciters 1963 hit) and “New York Groove”, the latter of which was written by Argent band member Russ Ballard. “New York Groove” was later covered to provide a solo Billboard Hot 100 chart hit in the U.S., for the rock guitarist Ace Frehley of the band Kiss. In Germany, their subsequent singles “Star Studded Sham” and “Love Stealer” reached the Top 20, but failed to chart in the UK where glam had fallen out of favour.
_______________
Brett Smiley Space Ace (1974)
Smiley began his career as a child actor, playing Oliver on Broadway. In 1974, Smiley—who, at the time, was managed and produced by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham—recorded an album, Breathlessly Brett. The album, which included the songs “Va Va Va Voom” and “Space Ace”, remained unreleased until 2004, when RPM Records included it as part of its Lipsmackin’ 70s collection. In 2004, rock biographer Nina Antonia published a book about Smiley, The Prettiest Star: Whatever Happened to Brett Smiley. Smiley still performed occasionally until 2015 in New York City, and was recording songs for a new CD. He died on January 8, 2016, after a lengthy battle with HIV and hepatitis.
_______________
New York Dolls Jet Boy (1973)
The New York Dolls created punk rock before there was a term for it. Building on the Rolling Stones’ dirty rock & roll, Mick Jagger’s androgyny, girl group pop, the Stooges’ anarchic noise, and the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, the New York Dolls created a new form of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal. Their drug-fueled, shambolic performances influenced a generation of musicians in New York and London, who all went on to form punk bands. And although they self-destructed quickly, the band’s first two albums remain among the most popular cult records in rock & roll history.
_______________
Space Waltz Fraulein Love (1974)
Space Waltz was a New Zealand glam rock band fronted by Alastair Riddell. In 1974, they had a no 1 hit in New Zealand with “Out on the Street”. In 1974, the group’s image created a bit of a stir when they appeared on Studio One’s New Faces. They went into the finals but were unsuccessful. However they were a hit with the rock fans. They were noticed by EMI and the label promptly signed up.
_______________
Mott The Hoople Marionette (1974)
David Bowie had long been a fan of the band. After learning from Watts that they were about to split, he persuaded them to stay together and offered them “Suffragette City” from his then yet-to-be-released Ziggy Stardust album. They turned it down. Bowie also penned “All the Young Dudes” for them and it became their biggest hit.
_______________
Iron Virgin Rebels Rule (1974)
Iron Virgin were a Scottish glam rock band. Their early stage garb has been compared to A Clockwork Orange, with their later stage costumes similar to American football uniforms, but with added iron chastity belts. The band formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1972 where they were discovered by Decca Records producer Nick Tauber and signed to the label’s “progressive” offshoot, Deram. Their first single was “Jet”, a cover from Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run album. Recorded in December 1973, the song was released in February 1974. It was getting exposure until McCartney himself issued his version as a single, effectively smothering Iron Virgin’s recording.
_______________
Suzi Quatro 48 Crash (1973)
In 1972, Quatro embarked as a support act on a UK tour with Thin Lizzy and headliners Slade. Rak arranged for her to use Thin Lizzy’s newly acquired PA system during this, incurring a charge of £300 per week that enabled the Irish band to effectively purchase it at no cost to themselves. In May 1973, her second single “Can the Can” (1973) – which Philip Auslander describes as having “seemingly nonsensical and virtually unintelligible lyrics” – was a No. 1 hit in parts of Europe and in Australia. “Can the Can” was followed by three further hits: “48 Crash” (1973), “Daytona Demon” (1973) and “Devil Gate Drive” (1974). “Can the Can”, “48 Crash” and “Devil Gate Drive” each sold over one million copies and were awarded gold discs, although they met with little success in her native United States, where she had toured as a support act for Alice Cooper.
_______________
Smokey DTNA (1976)
John “Smokey” Condon was a bewitchingly beautiful Baltimore transplant, himself no angel after spending his teenage years partying with the John Waters crowd. EJ Emmons was a budding record producer from New Jersey, already starting to work in small studios around Hollywood. Condon had marched in New York the night after the Stonewall Riots in 1969, and so by the time he and EJ created Smokey, they weren’t about to hold back. Released in 1974, first single Leather b/w Miss Ray wasn’t just openly gay, it was exultantly, unapologetically gay, examining front-on the newly-liberated leather and drag scenes thriving in America’s urban centres.
_______________
Silverhead Hello New York (1973)
They recorded two studio albums, Silverhead (1972) and 16 and Savaged (1973), and were a part of the glam rock music scene of the 1970s. Though they had no real commercial success, Silverhead were serious role models for many sleaze bands in the 1980s. In the UK they played support to bands such as Nazareth at Finsbury Park and Osibisa at the Brixton Sundown, and were the lead band in the Dagenham Roundhouse. Work on a third studio album (working title ‘Brutiful’) started in 1974, but the group disbanded in July 1974 before it was finished.
_______________
Sparks In The Future (1975)
Sparks’ Indiscreet was released in October 1975, nearly a year after their previous album. It was not as successful as Kimono My House or Propaganda; reaching #18 on the UK Album Chart and #169 in the US. The group’s next two albums were even less successful in Europe and the US. They would not garner significant attention until 1979’s No. 1 In Heaven. “Get In The Swing” and “Looks, Looks, Looks” were released as singles. Like the parent album they were only moderately successful reaching #27 and #26 in the UK.
_______________
Zolar X Space Age Love (1974)
From 1973 to 1981 Zolar X became legendary on the west coast USA for dressing and acting like space-aliens 24 hours a day. They spoke ceaselessly in an “alien language” of their own invention, which would amuse, but often infuriate the public at large. They are referred to as “Los Angeles’ first glam rock band” in the 1998 book Glam by Barney Hoskyns.
_______________
Cockney Rebel Cavaliers (1974)
Steve Harley managed to irritate a significant segment of the music press with his self-aggrandisement, even as their music was getting rave reviews and gaining a wide audience. It was becoming clear that Harley regarded the band as little more than accompaniment to his own agenda, and already there were signs that things would not last, despite their having a big hit with their second single, “Judy Teen”. In May 1974, the British music magazine, NME reported that Cockney Rebel were to undertake their first British tour, with the highlight of the itinerary being a gig at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre on 23 June. There then followed the album The Psychomodo. Following the European single “Psychomodo”, a second single from the album, “Mr. Soft”, was also a hit. “Tumbling Down” was also issued in America as a promotional single. By this time the problems within the band had already reached a head, and all the musicians, with the exception of Elliott, quit at the end of a successful UK tour.
______________
Alice Cooper Reflected (1970)
Pretties for You is the debut studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper. The group had yet to develop the more concise hard rock sound that they would become famous for. Most of the tracks feature unusual time signatures and arrangements, jarring syncopation, expressive dynamics, sound effects, proto-glam attitude and flamboyance, and an eclectic range of music influences.
_______________
Supernaut I Like It Both Ways (1976)
This Perth, Australian band’s self-titled debut album was released in mid-November 1976 and peaked at No. 13, achieving double gold certification. By November they had supported gigs by “Lou Reed, Suzie Quatro and Sweet and wherever they play there is raging hysteria.” Julie Meldrum of The Canberra Times described their performance in Narrabundah, “trouble began when Perth rock group Supernaut, which thrives on ‘bopper’ appeal, came on stage. The crowd made a rush for the group and many had to be forcibly removed. Alter the group finished its set organisers had to appeal for the crowd to move back from the stage ‘or else someone will get hurt’.”
_______________
Sweet Sweet F.A. (1974)
The band was formed in London in 1968 and achieved their first hit, “Funny Funny”, in 1971 after teaming up with songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and record producer Phil Wainman. During 1971 and 1972, their musical style followed a marked progression from the Archies-like bubblegum style of “Funny Funny” to a Who-influenced hard rock style supplemented by a striking use of high-pitched backing vocals.
______________
T. Rex Sunken Rags (1972)
Marc Bolan was a huge star, but ‘Sunken Rags’ is a very obscure track. It was the B-side of the T.Rex hit ‘Children Of The Revolution’. Bolan had the best B-sides anybody has ever written: B-sides that should have been A-sides. And ‘Sunken Rags’ is just a great, driving rock song. I haven’t a clue what the title of the song means, or the lyrics. But I loved that stream-of-consciousness thing that Bolan was doing in his lyrics. He picked words not because they meant something, but because they sounded good.
_____________
The Tubes White Punks on Dope (1975)
The Tubes live show was once compared to the ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’, mainly for its numerous satirical routines, as they included choreography by, a then unknown, Kenny Ortega, comedian Jane Dornacker and her band Lelia and the Snakes, as well as a video operator providing live video feeds for each song. A huge undertaking, the amount of people involved in putting on a show limited the band’s ability to tour regularly – making it even cooler to get a chance to see them live.
_____________
The Hollywood Brats Then He Kissed Me (1975)
Formed in 1972, the band harnessed the New York Dolls’ trashy punk aesthetic and cranked it up to 11. Decked out like a pack of tacky trannies, the band played street rock ’n’ roll, with a twisted sense of humor. The Brats’ look was pop metal way before the likes of Mötley Crüe, while their sound was straight-up punk filtered through the feedback of garage guitars. With the strength of their live set, and the patronage of The Who’s Keith Moon, the band struck a deal and recorded its eponymous debut in 1973. But when things went awry behind the scenes, the finished product wouldn’t get put out until 1975, when Mercury Records Norway released the material as Grown Up Wrong.
*
p.s. Hey. ** Laura, Hi! Stockholm was fun, yes, indeed. Very good audience, yes. Bakfickan … no. But I don’t like drinking or bars, so it’s just as well. Relieved that your migraine is decelerating at least. I hope the weekend is its death knell. I’ve heard of Eid. I’ll look it up. You’re probably a muse. Muses don’t often know they are, do they? Or not until it’s too late? Here’s hoping your Monday is a world premiere. ** jay, They did. I mean ABBA dark isn’t like Nico dark, but, relatively speaking, they did get grim and fatalistic. Oh, gosh, you’ve joined the Proust People. I feel ever more isolated in my resistance. But I’m sure you’re right. And I’m happy for you, dude. And I even appreciate the kind of seeming religiosity of it all. Fare thee well til soon. ** Steeqhen, Hi Oh, yeah, when I lived in Holland the alcohol sellers closed very early there too. It didn’t stop the drinkers though. I guess you learn to think ahead and horde. It is 33 1/3, nice. Great series obviously. Amazing that it’s still going. Do you know Boss Fight Books, the video game equivalent of 33 1/3 publisher? They’ve published some very cool, smart books a la33 1/3. The person who 33 1/3 eventually got to do the ‘Bee Thousand’ did a pretty good job. ** _Black_Acrylic, My pleasure. From what I read, there’ll be no Season 4, but there is a new movie in the works that will function as a kind of compressed Season 4. Or that’s what I read. ** Thom, Hi. So happy you liked the Pinget. He’s so under recognised relative to his awesomeness. ‘The Golden Fruits’ is one of my very favorite novels, so … great! It’s a bit bewildering why it hasn’t been reprinted. Some kind of rights issue, I guess. I’m going to pick up Steinbeck book when I next go to the English language bookstore near me and kind of fish through the prose and see if I taste it pleasurably. It’d be interesting/weird to read him now. Has your friend delivered his verdict on ‘Above The Trees’? If you’ve stuck the ending, you’re there, and then it’s just fiddling with the body. Nice! And cool about the zine too, of course! I tend to get kind of mumbly and introverted about things I really love, so a book about ‘Bee Thousand’ by me wouldn’t have helped. I met Pollard once, and I could hardly speak. ** Charalampos, I’m deciding myself whether to read more Hawkes, so I don’t know. Probably. I love every song on ‘Under the Bushes’, I think. I think ‘Don’t Stop Now’ is in the running for the greatest GbV song. ** Carsten, The next RT screening where we will be in attendance is Iowa City on the 7th, although we’ll be there from the 2nd to the 9th. Obviously I agree with you and Hawkes. Oh, your guest-post will launch here a week from today. Weekend, mine … finish the final (or close to final, at least) draft of the new film script, see a film or two, maybe see art, hopefully finish setting up an RT screening in Amsterdam, the usual sort of stuff. You? ** kenley, Hi. I’ll have to remember/look up the ramen place’s name. It’s a little hole in the wall that seats, like 8 people. Yeah, the Swedish reviews were really sweet. Or they sure looked to be. I’ve meant to read Darnielle’s Sabbath book. I’m going to finally do that. How was the one day fest? What kind of fest? I just laid out my weekend up above. Normal busy-making stuff. Never heard anyone say that l’hexagone thing, no. But they might say it quickly in their heavy French accents and I don’t catch it. I have heard people say ‘Welcome to the Danger Zone’. ** HaRpEr //, He’s very good, or that book is at least. Thanks for the fill-in about your SCAB piece. It’s wonderful! Tweaking can definitely cause that, in my experience. What you wrote makes sense. Amazing that you can articulate that. I feel you. ** ⋆˚꩜｡darbbzz⋆˚꩜｡, Hey! No, Stockholm is in the same time zone as Paris, so no jet lag thank god. But I go to Iowa City in a week and a half, and that’s going to be jet lag hell. I guess I read a lot in my early 20s. But it’s what you read not how many things you read. Most of whatever I read back then just went right through me. So sorry about the thing with that guy. I think you know, or at least from what you’ve read of my work, that objectification of attractive people is something that horrifies and compels me at the same time. The disconnect between the objectifier, who sees doing that as an act of generosity or something, and the objectified person who just happens to live under that fetishised surface, is scary. ‘I would love to water my new body from the earth with my tears from a skeleton’s lacrimal bone’: you should use that in something more than just a comment. ** Bill, Hi! Cool. Never been to Tinguely Museum, but I would love to. My limited experience with Basel tells me it’s a place that’s more like a stopover location on a trip to somewhere else. ** Okay. For whatever reason I have restored an old Glam Rock-tilted gig for you to do your inimitable things with this weekend. And I will see you when it’s over (Monday).
Now available in North America 
Major fan of Glam here! A precursor of Punk in all sorts of ways. In the UK, disciples of that genre were referred to as being “brickies with lipstick” and I do have a lot of time for that kind of self-reinvention happening.
Although now thoroughly disgraced, I do reckon Gary Glitter’s name still deserves a place on any such list. The guy’s at Death’s door in prison these days, and word is that he may not last much beyond this weekend. Get your RIP ready!
Hi!!
Welcome back!!
I’m so glad the Stockholm trip went well! And I’m so, so happy you like the new SCAB! It was an absolute pleasure to put it together.
Did your birth certificate arrive yesterday? And how is/was your weekend?
We’re planning to help our plants on the balcony come back to life after the winter, but we’ll see if we actually get there, haha.
I’m so honored – thank you, love! Love making all those spam emails about receiving a huge inheritance from long-lost relatives come true, Od.
Sorry for drifting into slow-poke mode, even with the Stockholm blog pause (speaking of, what are your thoughts on the city? I always liked it a lot, and then went back last year and thought it was nice but not mind-blowing). This week I was in a sort of mild, vague version of a headspace that’s unpleasant but at least conducive to writing — so I was fine-ish, but not conduced. Plus a whole drama about the cat having fleas and two of my housemates freaking out like it’s bubonic plague and wanting to bug-bomb the entire house.
I can take social smokers at face value, it’s more I just don’t get how their brains work at all. Anyone with any genuine self-control around any substance seems like a Martian to me.
On the note of the Proust discussion, I have Clarissa in my bag on the way to help a friend with final exams prep. I hope that fucking thing has a cultural renaissance so I can get some more use out of all the hours I sunk into it for my degree. I dunno if I’d call it life-changing, but it’s pretty fascinating for how skilfully and ruthlessly it shuts down anything other than the Christian-redemption-narrative interpretation it wants to impose on the reader, at least in my opinion. It’s like a 1,300-page fuck-you to ‘death of the author.’
As far as the whole Paris launch thing, I’m oscillating between a kind of reserved excitement and intense, pummelling self-consciousness (which is not a great match for how the writing world works in London, or probably anywhere). Let’s see how it goes. You might be able to meet Charlotte there if the stars align.
Great post. Do you know this song? I think you’d dig it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KXea2GR96E
More about Grudge aka Laurice here: http://www.lauricenow.com/
hi Dennis!
omfg so many favs here, i’m v into Glam lol. i think Jobriath is p underrated, he seems like a curiosity at first but then the songs have these interesting structures and modulations and stuff. whether he was shaky re: his circle of 5ths or actually experimental idk, but he’s def got my interest and he was also for real, which, good man.
you eat at Bakfickan! well i’m sure you can also drink but the point is the food. place is just v fucking small but they always have smth vegetarian worth ordering, and the area is nice for a walk before or after. oh and there’s also just the one bathroom which locks p poorly and leads to a bunch of tragicomedy (i once had to hug a guy w a baby bc he walked in on me peeing and started crying, he felt so bad lol). so next time you should go 😀
my migraine has def improved! and i’m chuffed you’re relieved about it. ^_^ hopefully done by the end of the weekend indeed, tho i wish it would go faster, ugh.
anyway i know i’m less bad off bc i just finished putting together a 13 hour playlist on the subject of the apocalypse, probably in hopes that intercontinental travel may become a thing for me sometime this century. =)
i’d also been meaning to change literally two words in this chapter i thought was p well rounded up but i ended up taking a weird turn instead and now the chapter has totally mutated and i’m like… it’s for the better…? fr idk why i had to go and destabilise the whole thing but i really had to and maybe Eid made me. did you look it up? it basically amounts to no crumbs left now we can eat lol
related to which, if i’m a muse i wanna know in real time! ^_^ my namesake probably found out too late, i hear she was buried w all of those poems written for her so she must have known, but she either ran a super tight ship or she didn’t get to enjoy the fruits of her rizz mogging, pauvre petite.
i think you’re a muse btw. like i’m quite sure. ^_^
are you still going through a no poetry phase? i’m writing a bunch of poetry in Russian lately, like totally at random. obvi writing stuff is much easier than saying it at a conversational pace but there’s also smth freeing about working w super restricted linguistic options, it both focuses intent and changes perspective, it’s p fun.
what’s in store now you’re back from your trip? if monday is any sort of a world premiere then you’ve got to pop by obvi.
love!
Glam rock is not my thing but I’ll sample through the line-up above over the course of the weekend & see if something wins me over.
I’m curious: after you lock in the final draft of the new script, how much time passes on average before you get to shoot? I imagine the logistics of finding funding etc. vary from project to project, but what’s your expectation based on the previous films?
Let me know what art & films you ended up seeing. My weekend: today (Saturday) I viewed an apartment that’s a possible rental after the current lease ends, & then some new local friends had me over for a BBQ. Which was great, a very welcome break from the depressing news onslaught, just good food, music & company under the sky. Interesting observation I made: culturally the various regions of Spain are extremely independent, or more so than expected. I mean Germany strikes me as a very homogenous culture by comparison. Example: I talked about some of the Andalusian music I’m into, & old flamenco singers who I expected everyone to know here. My friends are from the North (Galicia & Bilbao) & to them this kind of hardcore Andalusian roots music is as foreign as it gets. Not that they don’t like it, it’s just not in the ether up there.
Sunday I usually hit one of the little towns up in the hills for some food & a hike out in the green. I might also play around with this little project, where I pair photos with lines of poetry for a sort of mental movie. Whether that kind of photo-&-poem collage is interesting on its own or a template for a film I’m not sure about, but I enjoy patching it together right now.
I’ve never been able to get into the Tubes, but there’s a tremendous amount of footage of their early live shows on YouTube. They do seem more like a cabaret act than a rock band.
He came along later than these bands, but the Bowie-gone-punk Australian singer Duffo did some entertaining British TV performances around 1979.
Did you do much over the weekend? The weather’s very nice, so I went for a walk. I’ll be seeing Jerry Lewis’ THE FAMILY JEWELS tonight.
My first anniversary “Radio Not Radio” show is out now: https://www.mixcloud.com/callinamagician/3212026-radio-not-radio/. This one features Denzel Curry, DJ Medmessiah & Morobeats, Chrisman & Lebon BLS, dalek, Da Brat, Quelle Chris, KJade, dj mitsu the beats, Roxanne Shante, BunnaB, Paul Marrmota, 2AT & Nixss, Brenda, Eisabelle, Two Daughters, the Residents, Genre Is Death, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, The Mon, Lard Free, Gnod, Bill Orcutt & Mabe Fratti, Tamikrest, Takaat, Praed, Radwan Ghazi Mounmeh & Frédéric D. Oberland, Pep Llopis and Idjah Hadidjah.
Gotta love the glam! T-Rex is def a band I need to get into on a b-side level… the main album stuff is obviously imortal… Curious if you have any thoughts on the early ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex’ stuff given yr history with prog folk or psych folk… that stuff is still my bread and butter… I think the switch from folk to rock n roll wasnt actually that drastic, given that Bolan was still doing this ultra-concise structure thing with “sound over meaning” type lyrics. I remember one of those early acoustic songs stopping halfway thru and playing back in reverse… that kinda shit makes me levitate…
Checking out Steinbeck could be an interesting uh, experiment… haha. He tends to be a “content over form” writer in my mind, which is perhaps antithetical to your typical reading habbits… just go for a short one. Cannery Row or Tortilla Flat are sorta chill even tho the characters are intense, some nice lyrical prose about California landscapes is usually in there… the best is To A God Unknown tho for me, less popular but it’s clearly a tortured work that takes “lust for the land” into a paranoid, kinda menacing place. In any case.. fascinated to see if his stuff hits you nicely at all!
Darnielle’s Sabbath book seems like it worked out nicely for his style, still need to read. Obviously he is a genius with a certain type of ultra-compact minimal storytelling, although the last decade of Mountain Goats stuff has been kinda spotty i think… he’s a decent enough novelist tho, or at least, I enjoyed Wolf in White Van…
Still waiting for feedback on my short haha, but it’s OK, I always have plenty to tinker with. Been enjoying the latest SCAB issue, so perhaps I will poke at something that might be fit to submit there… much to consider as usual! Also have some music to work on, got someone to drum for a couple old Trees And Flowers songs that I never released, kinda fun to work in “pop” mode again here..
Weekend is gonna be more Pinget for me, gonna read That Voice, I think it’s called… gonna keep preaching Nouveau Roman to my friends and hope at least SOMEONE bites haha. Also finally got My Life from the library, so that should be a cozy weekend read too.
Stay fascinated, and enjoy!
Hey Dennis,
I had not heard of Boss Fight Books, but wow that is totally up my alley! Do you know if they accept pitches? I’m not sure what I’d write about just yet, though I skimmed through and saw there’s not entry for Silent Hill 3, and I have a lot to say about that game. Though part of me feels like not the right voice to speak about a lot of games, due to being too young to truly have experienced a lot of the classic games. I’m sure there’s game I grew up with (or even only played recently) that I could write about… perhaps a Pokemon game from Gens 3-5. I’ve been growing increasingly more confident in my pitch for 33 1/3, both with my abilities and with my knowledge about the album I want to write about… I basically have a seal of approval from Charli herself from when she quote tweeted me talking about the album, so I’m definitely going to bring that up!
I’ve been spending a lot more time out and about — most weekends I’ve just spent gaming and listening to podcasts or youtube videos, but this weekend I made sure to spend at least an hour or more in the city. I’m really starting to recover mentally, though not fully. I’m starting to question a full move in September, what with the potential recession incoming and all the disability services I’ll be giving up if I move… it could be what I need but it also could be terrible timing. I’m not trying to think too much about it lest I drive myself into a frenzy, and I’m still saving and living as if I’m moving. But I’ll have to speak with my friend about it when she’s back in Ireland so she isn’t blindsided if I decide not to move.
Speaking of working myself into a frenzy, I did just do that for the past few hours over a health issue I have. Or potentially have. It’s something I’ve done for years on and off and I’m only realizing now how textbook OCD it actually is… I just scroll online looking for any and all info, every variation and possibilities, trying to soothe myself with forums and videos and images, until I’m just watching videos of surgery and read every post on a subreddit… At least I’ve become aware that it’s a bad habit haha.
Haha, thanks about that line I wrote yesterday. You probably can tell ive been enthralled by Genet lately by the sentimental way I wrote that.
On the word “Sentimental” when my boss was telling me how I have to pick up the pace to roll out the dough for breadsticks and the pizza, they would say “Your treating it too sentimental Darby, It dont gotta be perfect!” Hahaha
I got back from a “jazz jam” with my crush ya know Marty. We had very deep conversation, mediated by this lady who was originally from Greece. It made me really happy when they corrected them about misgendering me, and of course, from her open-mindedness she was very receptive. Notihng else for now.
OH! whats your thoughts on Edgar Winters? Not glam rock, but quite a swaggy eccentric dude. Actually maybe he did dabble in it a bit.
Have a good one friend.
Oh, was watching an intersting video on how “American food” is recreated by different countries n stuff. Apparently France has something called “American sandwich” or “Pain Américain” which is a beef and french fry sandwich they sell in France? Dont eat meat, and neither do you, hahah but have you seen that advertised before?
Hello. I actually don’t know what I’m talking about when I verbalize my writing process. I think I’m just spitballing and if I ever say something that someone interprets as smart it’s because I somehow managed to manipulate some words into an order that makes sense, but that probably only ever happens once every calendar month.
I’m a total glam rock obsessive! Glam is what I love the most, re-invention is sort of my favourite thing and should be worshipped. And I love when glam intersected with power pop or proto-punk.
So many great picks! Brett Smiley is great, he was a recent discovery for me. And long live Jobriath. Such a sad story there. His Midnight Special show is so great and apparently very confusing at the time. They really dropped the ball there with the marketing and putting the money into the wrong things. Being sold as the American Bowie was never going to work. In the UK a bit of theatrical cross-dressing was never exactly viewed as queer per se due to the pantomime tradition, but in the US that was clearly too subversive.
I read ‘Dark Rides’ today. The sentences are insanely good.
In writing school they tell you to try to ‘do a lot with very little’, and this takes that philosophy and warps it until it’s a beautiful monster. It does do a lot with very little, but not remotely in the same way. It’s actually genius how it’s both extravagant and precise at the same time.
I think my favourite story was the one about the boy who wants to be Caligula. And I love the illustrations in the new Pilot Press edition.
Hey friend!!!
Meant to reply last week but things have been predictably chaotic pre-trip. So bummed we can’t meet :(((( was really looking forward to it. Technically I’ll be in Paris for some hours this Friday but pretty sure I won’t be able to leave the airport. I’m sure it’ll happen for us eventually though. I just don’t see how it wouldn’t. Any exhibitions, bookstores, cafes you currently recommend in the city??? I’m sure you can point me to the good stuff.
About Ira. I’ll make sure to hit you up for his contact info as soon as I am told to by the literary powers that be.
Love
Minet