Spiritualized

Picked up Simon Reynolds - Rip It Up And Start Again for a steal the other day...he's already got me with these lines from the prologue

Simon Reynolds wrote:As i recall now, I never bought any old records. Why would you? There were so many new records that you had to have that there was simply no earthly reason to investigate the past.

What a wonderful time!

Also on the look out for a copy of Re/Search - Industrial Culture Handbook (not for anything like the money being asked currently!)

Best,

Stuart

Stuart X.Hunter wrote:Picked up Simon Reynolds - Rip It Up And Start Again for a steal the other day...

I've just read that recently.. a brilliant read. The bands at the time really were trying to make something new and carve out something truly independent (still not sure Throbbing Gristle or the like sound that appealing to listen to, though..).. Reynolds is great at tracing the lineage of bands and how scenes splinter into others.. great chapters on postpunk subgenres like Goth and Two Tone as well..

Reynolds is one of my favourite music writers and his blog is essential reading for me. http://blissout.blogspot.com/

Started reading "The Hippopotamus" by Stepehen Fry a while back. Not bad, not bad.

I am really looking forward to the sequel of "Moab is my Washpot", I bet it'll be just as good as the first part.

solarflarez wrote:

spzretent wrote:I am also reading this at the moment.
Irvine Welsh Porno is my bathroom reading. Juggling two books at the same time. Porno is way too full of Scottish slang it takes twice as long for me to read it.quote]
Its a good book, not as good as filth but its ok, and i have Scottish parents so i got on alright with it! ha ha

Ah yeah, the Scottish slang. Yeah, Filth was good. One of the best books I read last year. Actually, I guess it'd be in my top 3 of 2009, next to Homo Faber and Stephen Fry's autobiography.

Already There wrote:Started reading "The Hippopotamus" by Stepehen Fry a while back. Not bad, not bad.

I am really looking forward to the sequel of "Moab is my Washpot", I bet it'll be just as good as the first part.

"The Hippopotamus" oooh, now thats a weird book!

I bought The Road by Cormac McCarthy purely because of the good reviews of the film. Read it in a few days and I was blown away. A book so bleak (yet an utter page turner) is pretty rare. It's just one of those books that stays in your head for a while.

solarflarez wrote:

Already There wrote:Started reading "The Hippopotamus" by Stepehen Fry a while back. Not bad, not bad.

I am really looking forward to the sequel of "Moab is my Washpot", I bet it'll be just as good as the first part.

"The Hippopotamus" oooh, now thats a weird book!

Yeah, it is pretty weird.

angelsighs wrote:

Stuart X.Hunter wrote:Picked up Simon Reynolds - Rip It Up And Start Again for a steal the other day...

I've just read that recently.. a brilliant read. The bands at the time really were trying to make something new and carve out something truly independent (still not sure Throbbing Gristle or the like sound that appealing to listen to, though..).. Reynolds is great at tracing the lineage of bands and how scenes splinter into others.. great chapters on postpunk subgenres like Goth and Two Tone as well..

Reynolds is one of my favourite music writers and his blog is essential reading for me. http://blissout.blogspot.com/

Cheers angel and thankx for that link to the doves stuff you sent prior to chrimbo. Much appreciated.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the text at the minute...he writes with such enthusiasm and isn't scared to end chapters where they should end.

Best,

Stuart

no problem. glad you are enjoying the book. I really like Reynolds prose style- because he's not a musician he describes bands sounds in terms of textures/feelings etc which is how i listen to music. he's also one of the critics who can introduce intellectual ideas/cultural theory and they always usually ring true to me (unlike Paul Morley etc)

Stuart X.Hunter wrote:

angelsighs wrote:

Stuart X.Hunter wrote:Picked up Simon Reynolds - Rip It Up And Start Again for a steal the other day...

I've just read that recently.. a brilliant read. The bands at the time really were trying to make something new and carve out something truly independent (still not sure Throbbing Gristle or the like sound that appealing to listen to, though..).. Reynolds is great at tracing the lineage of bands and how scenes splinter into others.. great chapters on postpunk subgenres like Goth and Two Tone as well..

Reynolds is one of my favourite music writers and his blog is essential reading for me. http://blissout.blogspot.com/

Cheers angel and thankx for that link to the doves stuff you sent prior to chrimbo. Much appreciated.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the text at the minute...he writes with such enthusiasm and isn't scared to end chapters where they should end.

Best,

Stuart

angelsighs wrote:no problem. glad you are enjoying the book. I really like Reynolds prose style- because he's not a musician he describes bands sounds in terms of textures/feelings etc which is how i listen to music. he's also one of the critics who can introduce intellectual ideas/cultural theory and they always usually ring true to me (unlike Paul Morley etc)

Exactly!
Yes, Morley book has been sent to the abyss that is the cellar.
Couldn't get past the overuse of Can't get you out of my head which is really not that good and a piece of music the authour had to recollect from memory i.e. never having owned a copy.
My attention span is too damaged for excessive narratives that Morley comes away with...where as Reynolds is SUCCINCT.

Best,

Stuart

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... arker.html

I heard the sad news that crime writer Robert B. Parker has died aged 77. In terms of his output I'd say he's probably my all time favourite writer. His main creation - the private eye Spenser - is the hardest, coolest, toughest character and most intriguing I've ever come across. Everything Parker wrote is worth reading - not so much for the story lines (which were, however, always good) but the writing style. Brief, stylish and witt - Spenser's comeback comments to, for instance, a gang of wannabe gangster youths or hardnut local police chief, are hilarious. The Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane influence is obvious but he carved out an area all of his own.

Seemed like a really decent guy too. I'll miss his books and I'll miss Spenser who is my favourite fictional literary character by miles.

Just read Bukowski's Post Office. Funny book written with his signature style. Highly recommended.

JPB wrote:I bought The Road by Cormac McCarthy purely because of the good reviews of the film. Read it in a few days and I was blown away. A book so bleak (yet an utter page turner) is pretty rare. It's just one of those books that stays in your head for a while.

I couldn't agree more - that one haunted me for a long time and was even infecting my dreams.

Haven't seen the film - I want to see it and yet I don't - i've got this vision of the whole thing in my head that I kind of don't want to see in reality... no matter how good it is.

toomilk wrote:Just read Bukowski's Post Office. Funny book written with his signature style. Highly recommended.

Again, such a great choice. I love Bukowski even when he tries to make himself so unlikeable...also one of the funniest writers ever, which is crazy as much of it is mostly brimming over with sadness. Really like his total spare, deadpan writing.

I'm reading Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: 2000-1887. It's about a man who, after being placed under sleep hypnosis in a soundless, fireproof chamber, awakes 113 years later. So far, it's pretty much a man from the 20th century telling a man from the 19th century about the drastic changes that have taken place - most of them being socio-economical. Written in 1887, it's someone's thoughts on how to move past the industrial era and into a time of social and economic prosperity and freedom for all. Bellamy's solution is a peaceful and politically-free socialist system. Everyone is educated until they are 21, then required to work until they are 45 (much like the Israel's universal military service, but not nearly as long). He makes some pretty chilling predictions (though I'm not one for Nostradamus-isms) that come in various forms. One of them is the home stereo system, where one can "adjust the volume of music in a room with the turn of the screw." While it does bring up some very valid points regarding politics, labor, and economics (some of which are still valid today), it is, alas, somewhat of a utopian novel.

I just hope my house isn't raided by Tea-baggers...

have only read 5o pages but it is a a fucking amazingly great book. And it costs only £1.48

Have you read the Mick Middles and Mark E Smith book "The Fall" or the newer one that Mark E Smith wrote?

I have the former, but was interested in what people thought was "the best" one....I'll probably end up reading all of them anyways...

The Fallen is the only The Fall book I've read. Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith may be the next.

Cannot recommend Renegade enough - some truly laugh out loud moments.
His views on the city of Brighton were spot on for example.

Hold on...what did he say about Brighton?

Ads wrote:Hold on...what did he say about Brighton?

something about if it had a sandy beach, it would be a perfect town!!!

i've just started tony blair's memoirs. it may be a fasinating read. already he's said how their victory in 1997 filled him with fear about how he could not control the expectation despite him wanting to keep it in context and he draws parallels to mr obama's victory in this sense. it reminds me of the old political cliche, everyone goes in victorious and then comes out defeated. think nixon, clinton, every labour government. hmm

Currently reading Nick Kent- Apathy For The Devil
on deck Keith Richards- Life.
How either of these two remembered enough to fill a book amazes me. Nick Kent's book is really riveting and a fast read.
If the Keith book is half as good as his interviews his will be the same.

spzretent wrote:Currently reading Nick Kent- Apathy For The Devil
on deck Keith Richards- Life.
How either of these two remembered enough to fill a book amazes me. Nick Kent's book is really riveting and a fast read.
If the Keith book is half as good as his interviews his will be the same.

half way through Keefs at the moment....so far, so good!

Ken Kesey was a local Oregon boy so he is much loved up here in the Pacific Northwest. Could he have become the greatest American writer of the 20th century had he not decided to invest so much energy in tripping? Perhaps. Many believe so (and not just Oregonians). Nevertheless, a new bio has finally been published and it is getting much hype here. I have yet to read it but plan on picking it up this weekend.

Here's a decent article on the book from our local rag:

http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.s ... hrist.html

amazing thread! i never looked at it before but i just bought a kindle and thought i'd check out what you guys were reading. by a strange coincidence i was reading post office last night (half way through) and have the road up next. i've never read ...cuckoo's nest but will soon change that too. also, having read the post about robert b parker i'm gonna track down some of his stuff. cheers, people!

Cuckoo's Nest is a great book and I have read 3-4 times but I was most impressed with 'Sometimes A Great Notion' - a great American novel. There was another set in Alaska, the name escapes me for now, which never seemed to get good reviews but I quite enjoyed it. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is also well worth the read.

Started reading "Manchester Pieces" by Paul Driver a couple of days ago. A good read. More entertaining than a lot of other stuff I have read.

solarflarez wrote:half way through Keefs at the moment....so far, so good!

Keiths "Life" was a good and fast read. I had no idea but it was #1 on the NY Times Nonfiction bestseller list last week. Its got me on a total Stones binge. Just finished a book about the recording of Let It Bleed and am now onto Up & Down With The Rolling Stones written by their drug dealer. Which I read in the 80's at some point.

Finally found a copy of Mark E Smith's Renegade in Hollywood. Really cheap too. Can't wait to read it.

Meanwhile, my mind is being constantly blown by John Ashbery's poetry in Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror.

i'm reading bob dylan in america. it shows how dylan's 'phases' are actually just part of american culture. at the moment it is setting the secne by showing how copland was the trail blazer that dylan inadvertnantly followed at the beggining

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bob-Dylan-Amer ... 482&sr=8-1

I finally finished The Count of Monte Cristo just before Christmas. It is such an amazing book! As I read the last page I had a tear in my eye. for those who haven't read it I strongly advice you to check it out.

Keith's "Life" and re-reading The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda

purespace wrote:Keith's "Life" and re-reading The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda

From memory i think i preferred the second of those books, 'A Separate Reality', to the first. If you havent read that you might want to give it a go too.

Also, strangely related, I recently read Terence McKenna's 'True Hallucinations'. Incredible stuff! Honestly, the most entertaining and powerful book I've read in a long time. More inventive than most fiction, and with drug stories that make Keef and Carlos look like amateurs. Whatever you think about the guy's more out-there notions, the world is definitely a poorer place without him...

McKenna's love of James Joyce is making me want to finally read 'Ulysees'... I'm building up to that though...

Right now I'm reading Bukowski's 'Women'. Also great so far, but for very different reasons.

I've said it before, but i'll say it again, I love this thread!

moop wrote:Right now I'm reading Bukowski's 'Women'. Also great so far, but for very different reasons.

Haha. I love that book. I'm reading The Most Beautiful Women in Town right now. My favorite Bukowski is definitely Hot Water Music. Love, LOVE, his short stories.

I recently purchased Our Band Could Be Your Life and Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling with a gift card I got for xmas. I've wanted to read both for quite some time now. The first is an overview of about 14 bands from the "american underground" between '81 and 91', including Husker Du, Black Flag, Fugazi, Minutemen, Dinosaur Jr, etc. I've only read the foreward (because of the aforementioned Bukowski), but it seems like a nice, "scholarly" review of these bands. Then the second is an entire book devoted to London Calling, which is one of my favorite albums. I figured it would be hard to go wrong with it...

toomilk wrote: I'm reading The Most Beautiful Women in Town right now. My favorite Bukowski is definitely Hot Water Music. Love, LOVE, his short stories.

haha, sold! let me know how 'the most beautiful women in town' turns out too. I've not read any of Bukowski's short stories yet, but can really see why his style would be well suited to such a format.

those other music books sound potentially great too, but it's hard to tell with music books until you actually read them..

(Whoops, it's The Most Beautiful Woman in town...but i can see where the mistake came from).

I'm just about done with it and it's good so far. It's a collection of short stories and a majority of them have surreal/fantasy elements to them. For instance, one story has a woman with magical powers who starts shrinking Bukowski until he's the "perfect size" ala Gulliver's Travels. Some stories work better with the surreal stuff than others, but since I have read a lot of Bukowski and haven't come across many other stories with these elements it's interesting to read. In the end it's still the same ol' Bukowski with his incredible writing style.

I'll need to check that one out, Bukowski doing short stories sounds like a great thing!

As far as Women goes, it may be the proper novel (or novel sized) work of his I liked the least. Although I only read it once a few years ago my lingering memory of it is that its a really sad book. There are moments of dark, messed up humour but mostly it was pretty depressing and full of jaded and cynical...losers, basically, including the ageing Chinaski himself.

I think I prefer the hapless and eternally 'between-jobs' character in the likes of Ham And Rye, Factotum etc. A lot of real laugh out loud moments.

...the last stuff I read by him incidentally were the volumes of letters he wrote. The early years, fighting to be published anywhere are amazing. Most letters begin with a short greeting and the almost standard "I'm drinking beer..."

Also got a good biography about him which I'm still working through periodically.

And bizarrely enough I recently found out Glasgow happens to have a pub named Chinaski's in honour of you-know-who...

http://www.list.co.uk/place/102735-chinaskis/

I'll need to visit it at some point should I decide to start drinking again...

http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/51WPxSrDI ... AA300_.jpg

Very very endearing and quite a couple of interesting and amusing passages. The cover artwork is very... XD I don't know... It seems like a pretty interesting book. And it made me smile several times. <3

Just finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,have to admit I watched the film first ,but the second book is sitting on the bedside table ready to go ,had to resist the dvd in the shop today ,gonna read the book first ,but I`ll have to wait till I finish a book first, Ian Glassper -The Day The Country Died ,A History Of Anarcho Punk 1980-1984,a bit dry but if you`ve any interest the scene ,worth a look ,a chapter on a band ,Political Asylum ,that a band I was in back in the early 80`s used to play gigs ,which was a bit of a surprise ,and no I wasn`t an Anarcho Punk.

incidentally ,my parents were just announcing that they were of on another one of their seemingly endless holidays last week ,and I recommended The Dragon Girl as a good holiday read to pops who informed me he`d just finished it ,have to get him to rec. books to me.

I just finished Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. Quietly harrowing is the best way I can describe it.

The Savage Detectives - Robert Bolano

&

Contented Dementia - Oliver James

both on the go right now and both pretty good. Bolano is very Bolano and James is slightly less James than normal.

finished In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan today.
funny, creepy, strange and inspiring. i imagine 99% of the population would hate it, hehe..

runcible wrote:Has anyone read 'Kill Your Friends' by John Niven? It's the most cynical look at working in the music industry imaginable and is set in 1997 with a blizzard of cocaine, booze etc. as a backdrop. The main guy hates every band he signs, every song he hears and everyone he encounters and is interested in nothing bar making money, taking drugs and fucking women. Pretty gratuitous in places but utterly hilarious throughout as he continually spouts his warped viewpoint about everything and everyone. Not to be missed...

Just finishing it. What an asshole this guy is. Riveting stuff. Finished in 3 days.

Brilliant book. Got it bought for me for a birthday a couple of years back and devoured it in a few days. Totally fucked up but hilarious with it.

Yeah it's a cracking read. Coincidentally I am currently reading another of his books ' The Amateurs' which is a little different but really excellent so far. The story of a hopelessly unskilled golf addict who gets hit by a golf ball and turns into a major golfer overnight. Sounds simple but it's absolutely hilarious and contains several set pieces that are so well written they made me laugh out loud. One near the beginning when the hero has a massive 'morning glory' and tries to satisfy it with appalling consequences. Not finished it yet but on the evidence so far it's recommended.

As is the last Matthew Stokoe book 'Empty Mile' - massively different to the gratuitous books he wrote before I should say. It's so beautifully written yet threw me into a dour mood the entire time I was reading it such was the desperate nature of the story and endless feeling that it would all end in unhappiness. It totally took me over while I read it and despite its bleak nature I'd list it as one of the best books I've ever read.

The Amateurs is on deck.
I also picked up Stamping Grounds- Lichtenstein's Quest For The World Cup by Charlie Connelly. Bought it based on title alone. So far(20 pages in) the writer is just sarcastic enough to keep the wit flowing.

I've been reading through "The Lives of John Lennon" by Albert Goldman, which I picked up in a second hand bookshop in Sydney recently. I cannot understand how anybody could pen an 846 page piece of non-fiction in such a negative fashion. It appears to me that Goldman dislikes his subject matter intensely as he never seems to have anything good to say about anyone who enters the script. I'm almost ashamed to say that no matter how unpleasant I find the book, I return to it after putting it aside in disgust.

spzretent wrote:The Amateurs is on deck.

I just finished it. Enormously amusing with some really neat moments and a thoroughly satisfying ending. Looking forward to Mr. Niven's next effort with gusto.

I'm about 1/3 thru it. he just woke from his coma.

The bit about him being caught wanking by the postman made me laugh out loud.

spzretent wrote:

runcible wrote:Has anyone read 'Kill Your Friends' by John Niven?...

Just finishing it. What an asshole this guy is. Riveting stuff. Finished in 3 days.

Ha ha... probably the best book I read last year!

I found it unputdownable. Also inappropriately, blindingly hilarious!

"Things went crackers after that..."

Loved the references to Ultrasound and that. Realistic? Bet it was, in the Britpop years.

BzaInSpace wrote:

spzretent wrote:

runcible wrote:Has anyone read 'Kill Your Friends' by John Niven?...

Just finishing it. What an asshole this guy is. Riveting stuff. Finished in 3 days.

Ha ha... probably the best book I read last year!

I found it unputdownable. Also inappropriately, blindingly hilarious!

"Things went crackers after that..."

Loved the references to Ultrasound and that. Realistic? Bet it was, in the Britpop years.

saw Ulrtasound a few times , good live band if you like rock`n`roll histrionics, a big f8cking guy singing and an older gal on bass giving it the "woaah bodyform!!! backing singing.

runcible wrote:Has anyone read 'Kill Your Friends' by John Niven?

Thanks for this recommendation. Jesus, what a colossal dick the main character is. His vacant, emotionless disregard and disrespect to anybody or anything was captivating but at the same time, sickening. Sadly, I am sure Niven's has based his tale on some elements of truth in the music industry.

Next up...Hornby's 'Juliet, Naked'

redcloud wrote:Next up...Hornby's 'Juliet, Naked'

This is a really good book. Anyone who is in any way obsessed with their musical heroes should read it. I find a lot of Hornby's books intensely annoying ('How To Be Good', 'A Long Way Down', 'Slam') but the good ones ('High Fidelity', 'Fever Pitch', 'About A Boy') are highly rewarding.

Agreed. Its a fast read. And a good read.
How To Be Good is under the counter at the shop. I started it. Months ago.
I am currently reading Pies & Prejudice by Stuart Maconie. Plenty is lost in translation from British slang to what I understand.
Some funny bits. Like the Lancashire vs Yorkshire divide. And everyone ganging up on Liverpool.

white bicycles - joe boyd

runcible wrote:

redcloud wrote:Next up...Hornby's 'Juliet, Naked'

This is a really good book. Anyone who is in any way obsessed with their musical heroes should read it. I find a lot of Hornby's books intensely annoying ('How To Be Good', 'A Long Way Down', 'Slam') but the good ones ('High Fidelity', 'Fever Pitch', 'About A Boy') are highly rewarding.

I am reading A Long Way Down right now. What is it that you find intensely annoying? I am quite into it.

That book drove me mad. It was so ridiculous I found it amazing he thought it a decent plotline. I know it's implausible but I just found it so far fetched it made me want to tear the thing up as the characters were so thin. Hornby seems to either write great books or books that I find really awful. A Long Way Down, Slam and How To Be Good all fall into the latter category.

He aint no John Niven! I'll say that.

But 'Juliet, Naked' was really excellent! A return to form!

the end sucked.

Perhaps a little. But you can bet that this is roughly what might have taken place with such a figure.

I'm a fiend for music bios, and I've battered through quite a few recently.

My recent weapon of choice I started last night and honestly I was rolling about at his turn of phrase - Lemmy, White Line Fever. Within 30 odd pages I was gutted that I had to go to work. Will report back with my findings (although, there has already been a story about his one armed pal getting caught humping a someone and getting beaten with it... gonna take some beating, pardon the pun)

runcible wrote:Perhaps a little. But you can bet that this is roughly what might have taken place with such a figure.

End ofAll the Way Down I meant.
Next up, Sweet & Low. Story of a dysfunctional jewish Brooklyn Family. And sugar substitute.

spzretent wrote:

runcible wrote:Perhaps a little. But you can bet that this is roughly what might have taken place with such a figure.

End ofAll the Way Down I meant.

Man that book annoyed me all the way through - really hated it.

bisonheed wrote:My recent weapon of choice I started last night and honestly I was rolling about at his turn of phrase - Lemmy, White Line Fever. Within 30 odd pages I was gutted that I had to go to work...

at

This is a great book! One of the few rock bios that is not full of egotistical bullshit. Mr Kilminster is very humble and self-depreciating and yes, hilarious as well! Highly recommended,