My last update to this site was three years ago. This is partly because no one really reads blogs anymore, and author websites are only really useful for active authors. This second part is relevant because I do actually have a new book on the way, which means I've also remembered this website exists.
I've also remained active in my other writing work over the past few years, primarily for Ele-king magazine. Some of them are available online, while others were published only in the paper edition, but here's a rundown of what has been published, with links to the articles where possible:
ELE-KING MAGAZINE
COLUMN: Class, Politics, Sleaford Mods and Idles
Written at a time when there was a certain amount of backbiting between two of Britain's most popular alternative bands, both in the press and not-so-subtly in their lyrics, this article was an
attempt to get into some of the reasons why two groups who appeal to similar musical sensibilities might piss each other off in such a way. It's something a lot of Japanese readers probably found
baffling.
COLUMN: My Bloody Valentine and dissolving the teenage ego
REVIEW: Isn't anything by My Bloody Valentine
(PRINT VERSION ONLY)
Two only articles for an Ele-king MBV special edition. Shoegaze was my teenage crybaby music, and I' think it's interesting that, rather than functioning like emo as an amping up of emotions, shoegaze worked more to burn the troubled spirit clean of all feeling. I can't remember much about the article now, but I probably connected it to Eno (not emo) in some way. The review is of my favourite MBV album, which predates any real identification of shoegaze as a thing, and in many ways has more in common with contemporary US alternative albums by Sinic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. than what we really understand as shoegaze now.
COLUMN: The changing meanings of "British Sea Power"
When British Sea Power changed their name to just Sea Power, I wrote this article discussing the relationship between British rock/pop and the country's imperial past, and how a band name always intended with a certain amount of irony got crushed between a Britain that has lost its grip on the reality of its imperial decline while the rest of the world woke up to the ugliness of both the Empire's legacy and the post-Brexit nationalism that rules the roost today.
My thoughts on what I didn't realise at the time would be Low's final album. R.I.P. Mimi.
INTERVIEW: Black Midi
(PRINT VERSION ONLY)
I spoke to these nice young lads around the time of their second album Cavalcade, although they were already hard at work on its very good follow-up Hellfire, and the interview sort of points the way to where they were going a little bit.
REVIEW: Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road
Ele-king published two reviews of this album from two different writers, with one of them being mine. To be honest, I preferred their first album, but this second was undeniably impressive.
COLUMN: Brian Eno's life in the sea of ghosts
REVIEW: Here Come the Warm Jets by Brian Eno
REVIEW: Before And After Science by Brian Eno
(PRINT VERSION ONLY)
I think this Brian Eno special edition of the magazine was to coincide with the Ambient Kyoto exhibition (which I didn't get to see because Kyoto's too far and exhibitions stress me out). The column really goes into my views on ambient music and Eno's recurring themes of water as a political and philosophical mode of living in the face of the chaos of the modern world. With the two reviews, I don't really remember what they were about, but I remember I touched on the notion of Eno as part of this alternative history of pop and the importance of fringes and interzones in that sort of music.
REVIEW: Skinty Fia by Fontaines D.C.
Fontaines D.C. are always a solid band, if not exactly the sort of thing I usually hunt down. What attracted my interest with this one in particular, though, were the themes of the album relating to feelings of connection/disconnection with Ireland and the Irish diaspora, both being a British person long away from the UK, and also this ghostly presence of Ireland from my father's side.
Because they're so popular, the band were split into two groups, so I didn't get to speak to the vocalist and drummer, but the guitarist and bassist were a pleasure to speak to and I enjoyed getting into the nitty gritty of this fantastic band's process with them.
COLUMN: Gilla Band, girl bands, and musical discomfort
This one started out as a review of Gilla Band's album Most Normal, but I ended up going down a slightly divergent path into the meaning of the all-male band called Girl Band changing their name to Gilla Band. I get into issues like the value of making people feel uncomfortable, the way words resonate differently in different spheres, things like that.
REVIEW: This Stupid World by Yo La Tengo
A smashing album by one of my favourite bands, and the opportunity to gush about it for money. Yes!
REVIEW (kind of): Dream in Dream by Cornelius
(PRINT VERSION ONLY)
This was a really difficult one, because much as I like and admire Cornelius, this was also the first album that he'd put out since the international flare-up of the bullying scandal that engulfed him around the time of the Olympics, resulting in him being removed from the opening ceremony plans and cancelling a lot of festival appearances. I didn't want to revive the criticisms so much as talk about how, as a fan, that information affects my listening, even when it's a story from a whole other world from the present. I ended up getting into the way ghosts of the past inhabit music, constantly affecting its meaning in one way or another.
COLUMN: The problem with Noel Gallagher (and why he’s good)
I really enjoyed writing this one. It's another one that started out as a review (of Council Skies by the Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds) but became a larger discussion about why I hate him so much. I tried to be as sympathetic a listener as I could be, working on the assumption that he must be good, trying to pin down how he is, and then why it is that I just don't like him.
COLUMN: The triumph and death of Generation X
(PRINT VERSION ONLY)
This was for a special issue looking back on the years 2010-2020, now that enough time has passed to see them as a discrete block of time, separated from the present. I focused on the way Generation X (which I've defined more loosely around what I see as "Gen-X music culture" than the strict bracket of 1965-1980 births) stopped being a driving force in music culture. This is a personal one, because by default this means it's also my own growing irrelevance that I'm talking about. I get in some harsh swipes about the embarrassing way so many artists of my generation glommed onto idol culture in the 2010s and what a worthless chalice any benefits they (and alternative music culture in general) accrued from it were.
LIVE REVIEW: Squid at Shibuya WWWX
I don't write live reviews very often at all, so this was unfamiliar territory for me. The gig was fantastic and I did my usual thing of trying to dig out some snappy and illuminating observations that probably come across as a but desperate and pretentious. Hopefully it turned out OK.
PODCAST STUFF
Over the past few years, I've been a sporadic guest on a YouTube vlog/podcast called Blown Speakers, hosted by the writer David Hoenigman. Every episode takes the form of a deep dive into one specific album of the guest's choice. As I say, I've been on several times, either alone or with someone else. If you fancy hearing me blather on about old indie rock and post-punk for hours on end, here's where you can do it:
Alien Lanes by Guided By Voices
Probably my favourite album by one of my very favourite bands. Robert Pollard is a poet.
Speak Kindly of your Volunteer Fire Department by Robert Pollard & Doug Gillard
The best of Pollard's non-GBV albums. I was joined by Carl Freire, who plays the Doug role in Voided By Geysers, the GBV tribute band we do in Tokyo (and who knows Doug from back in the day in the Cleveland scene). As you might see from the video, we did this around Christmastime, kicking off an annual tradition of me doing an episode every Christmas.
His'n'Hers by Pulp
I was joined for this by my friend Julien, who I've known for years, starting with his old band Lo-shi and continuing through various projects we've done together. From this point, Julien became my regular Christmas pod-partner.
Three Into One by Ultravox
Rather than pick any individual one of Ultravox's three albums with John Foxx, I went for this compilation covering the whole period in order to get into my theories about 70s/80s Britain, European identity, the past and the future, things like that.
Blueberry Boat by The Fiery Furnaces
Merry Christmas again!
Hex Enduction Hour by The Fall
Me and Ed Chan go off about The Fall. Mark E. Smith is also a poet.
Ambient 4: On Land by Brian Eno
Merry Christmas! This was a major one for me and Julien. Talking about ambient music is difficult, but Julien and I have a lot of opinions about it.
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