So anyway, that was the kind of mental baggage I brought along with me to the ATP festival. Being in that environment - the Butlins holiday camp in Minehead just south of Bristol - was not pleasant. I understood that it was supposed to be ironic, or could be understood to be tacky-cool. Read the rest of this entry »
Anyway here’s my main contention regarding rock music: rock music is at its best when it embraces both pop and experiment, both harmony and noise, both exciting rhythm and abstraction, both pop song and poetry. The best periods of the best bands have been when they have managed to embrace both the popular and the experimental impulse. Read the rest of this entry »
Something happened with Sonic Youth. Something that for many years made me feel very sad about Sonic Youth, that made me think that, contrary to what Glenn Branca states in the liner notes to last year’s reissue of their first EP, Sonic Youth did artistically sell out. Read the rest of this entry »
Some time around the start of November, I decided that I just had to make the ATP Festival - aka The Nightmare Before Christmas - curated by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. By then the whole thing was sold out and I didn’t have anyone to go with. Read the rest of this entry »
At last! I have received no letters at all requesting my favourite CDs of 2006, so I have managed to find the time to collate the zero votes that came in and here is how the list looks. It includes all CDs that I had not heard before 2006 and that I liked best. Read the rest of this entry »