more reading matter

Had a fun chat with Lawrence of Mozart Estate / Go-Kart Mozart / Denim / Felt legend, condensed into this pithy Pitchfork Q+A 

Kieran on Kirkslop (it's what you think it is) for GQ

Did a bunch of interviews while in Argentina - this one by Romina Zanellato for Cenital is a good read (and can be easily flipped into English). 

Another one worth a look is Carlos Priego's for Le Tempestad but somewhere between AI doing the transcription and AI doing the translation (I'm guessing but I'd be surprised if wrong), somewhere between those processes and condensation of the conversation for space reasons, the most marvelous error has been generated. For during an explanation of the reasons for writing Retromania, I am said to have uttered these words:  

"I, in particular, had become addicted to U2, listening to all their albums and feeling like I was drowning in the past, so a lot of what I wrote had that feel."

It took me a while to realize what had happened - YouTube has been mis-transcribed as U2.

Except I wouldn't have said I had been addicted to YouTube. 

What I might have said is that I was addicted to downloading albums off blogs. There had been a long unhealthy phase of OCD / manic greed I got caught up in. To this day I have thousands and thousands of never-unzipped, never-played files stowed away….

LA events - Loop summit + Mark Fisher panel discussion

Busy week approaching, as I participate this weekend in all three days of the Loop summit - Ableton's annual gathering for musicians, producers, technologists, educators and pundits, which this year is being held in Los Angeles for the first time. Then, a few days later, I join a panel discussion in celebration of Mark Fisher's life and work, pegged to the publication of the massive Repeater anthology, K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher. That's at Stories Books & Cafe in Echo Park.


LOOP

Friday 9th November  -  "Rewind / Fast Forward"  - 2:15pm – 3:15pm

I'll be speaking about "the past, present and future of musical innovation" in a video-illustrated talk

Location: Montalban Theatre (Main Stage), Hollywood.

Saturday 10th November - Listening Session - 2:00pm – 3:30pm

I'll be commenting on tracks submitted by summit participants. Moderator is David Reid. 

Location: EastWest Studios (Lounge 2), Hollywood.

Sunday 11th Nov - "Sounds like tomorrow: making music for the future"  - 6:00pm – 7:00pm

I'll be joining  Equiknoxx and Coco Solid + moderator Craig Schuftan for a panel discussion 

Location: East/West Studios (Studio 1 Stage EWS)

Loop schedule 

Loop participants

Loop locations

MARK FISHER (Tuesday November 13 - 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm)

To mark the publication by Repeater Books of K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher - which includes a foreword by myself - I join Meagan Day (of Jacobin) and Geeta Dayal for a panel discussion in celebration of his life, work, and legacy.  Mark will be present not just in spirit but in video form. 

Location - Stories Books & Cafe, 1716 W Sunset BLVD, Los Angeles, CA  90026

Information - 213-413-3733

EUROPE TOUR APRIL 28 - MAY 12 : AUSTRIA, GERMANY, POLAND, U.K., SPAIN

SATURDAY APRIL 28  - KREMS an der DONAU, AUSTRIA

Donaufestival: endlose Gegenwart (endless now)
2pm - "Absent Futures, Present Past: Temporalities in Today’s Music" - panel discussion with Jens Balzer and Christian Höller 
Location: Kino im Kesselhaus 
information

THURSDAY MAY 3 – , WEIL am RHEIN, GERMANY / BASEL, SWITZERLAND

Vitra Design Museum

6.30 pm - talk about techno, rave, and electronic dance music
Location: Depot Deli, next to the Schaudepot 
Information

SATURDAY MAY 5  / SUNDAY MAY 6 - OBERHAUSEN, GERMANY

Internationale Kurzfilmtage 

Saturday 5th – 10 pm - jury member for announcement of prize-winning music videos at Muvi Screening & Award Ceremony 

Location;  Lichtburg Cinema

Sunday 6th - 10 AM - "After YouTube: Music Video after the Internet" - panel discussion with Marisa Olsen and Christian Höller

Location: Festival Space, Langemarkstr. 22, 46045 Oberhausen

Admission: Free

information

MONDAY MAY 7^TH – WARSZAWA, POLAND

publication of Retromania: ak popkultura żywi się własną przeszłością by Kosmos Kosmos

Launch event -  "a meeting with readers": discussion led by Jarek Szubrycht, with Filip Łobodziński (translator of Retromania), followed by Q+A

Time: 7pm

Location: Plac Zbawiciela (podium in front of Plan B Café) 

WEDNESDAY MAY 9 - WALTHAMSTOW, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

Rock 'n' Roll Book Club "My Life in Pop": video-illustrated talk on TV epiphanies + Q+ A. 

Time: 6pm to 8 pm
Location: Walthamstow Library
Tickets:  Eventbrite. 




Spain mini-tour for Como Un Golpe de Rayo (published by Caja Negra)

THURSDAY MAY 10 – MADRID, SPAIN 

Primera Persona Festival 

21.00 horas - talk about glam rock and its legacy with videos + Q+A
Location: La Casa Encendida 
Information

FRIDAY MAY 11 –  Málaga, Spain  

451: La Noche De Los Libros Festival 

21:00 horas | talk about glam rock and its legacy with videos + Q+A

Sala 001

La Térmica

Avda. de los Guindos, 48

information

SATURDAY MAY 12 – BARCELONA, SPAIN  

Primera Persona Festival

21:00 horas | talk about glam rock and its legacy with videos + Q+A
Location: El Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona 
Information

book news

The new expanded / updated edition of Energy Flash is out now.

Check here for further information about a London E-Flash event (Monday June 24, Rough Trade East) and a Bristol E-Flash event (Thursday June 27th, Rise).

I'll also be in Glasgow Saturday June 22 to give the keynote speech at Tomorrow Never Knows: 'The Future' Symposium. More information to follow.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

In other book news:

Energy Flash is coming out in a Spanish translation via the Barcelona based publishing house Contra.

Rip It Up and Start Again is coming out in a Spanish translation via the Buenos Aires based publishing house Caja Negra Editora.

Rip It Up and Start Again is coming out in a Polish translation via the publishing wing of Krytyka.

Retromania is coming out in a Russian translation via White Label Publishing.

Retromania is coming out in a Korean translation via the Seoul publisher Workroom.

^^^^^^^^^^^

Awesome controlled rant by Neil Kulkarni about Peace, the "guitar music" resurgence, and the odd phenomenon of rave reviews that takes the form of a preemptive defense

So many quoteables...

"Don't be fooled by the protectors of Peace that to hate them is to look back. It's not the likes of me or you, but groups like Peace that do nothing but look back, that have relegated the now to an endless slavish deference to an ancient past, the flattening down of edges to make the past ever-more palatable, the breaking down of rock to a smooth paste, spread thin"

"No accident that Peace appeal back to those 90s because it was those 90s where apologetics became the internal bloodstream, and arrogance thus became the blaring facade, of what was served up as alternative/independent".

(My own thoughts on Peace - and also Savages - over at the other place)

Neil's angle of attack reminded me of a great line in Paul Morley's recent Stones-at-Glastonbury column, which argued that the spectacle of Jagger's Viagra Swagger on the main stage this summer might actually  have more integrity and cool than the other headliners, Arctic Monkeys and Mumford & Sons, for all their lack of liver spots:  


"For better or worse, [The Stones] are old men playing young music, not young people playing old music. The Monkeys and the Mumfords are the dutiful archivists; the Stones are the bloody archive."

^^^^^^^

While we're on this topic, I note with fascination and disorientation that the Top Ten of the UK Singles Chart contains not one, not two, but four different kinds of retro-dance:

*  disco time travel: Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" at #1

* drum & bass coated with pop gloss: Rudimental's "Waiting All Night" at #2

* house (80s-90s model with a lick of digital polish) : Duke Dumont's "Need U (100%)" at #9, on the way down from being #1

* 2step revival : Disclosure's "You & Me" straight in at #10. (And "White Noise", which peaked at #2, is still hanging on at #24)

In the latest issue of The Point, the Chicago-based print journal, there's a great essay by Ben Jeffery about Retromania. Now the piece has gone online. 

Seldom have I felt so well understood. Actually, after reading it,  I felt like I understood the book better myself. Which is saying something, considering I'm the bleeding author.

Retromania Lesetour Mittel Europa updated information

Oktober 16 to 26, the Retromania tour takes in 11 cities across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Here's the schedule with more information on times and venue addresses. Please note the Munich event has moved to a different venue.
The events involve a new talk + readings from the book + Q/A with the audience.

16. Oktober: Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzber, 20-30 Uhr

skalitzerstr. 130, 10999 berlin

tel  +49 30-61656003  www.festsaal-kreuzberg.de

                                                           

17. Oktober: Hamburg, Golem, 20.15 Uhr 
Große Elbstraße 14, S-Bahn Reeperbahn (Ausgang Nobistor)
www.golem.kr

18. Oktober: Köln, King Georg Klubbar, 21 Uhr
Sudermanstraße 2, 50670 Köln,
www.kinggeorg.de 

with Olaf Karnik
                                       

19. Oktober: St. Gallen, Palace St.Gallen,20.00 uhr doors/21.30 event 
Zwinglistr. 3, 9000 St.Gallen, 

tel: + 41 71 222 21 23  www.palace.sg) 
after the talk the Nightingales perform

20. Oktober: München, Milla, evening (info tk)
^^^^note: event at a different (and larger) venue than previously listed^^^ 
Milla, holzstr. 28 
info: shop.optimal-records.de

with support from  a band comprising ralf summer (zündfunk), didi neidhart (skug/vorwort der deutschen ausgaben) und christos (optimal-records)

21. Oktober: Wien, Phil, 20.00 Uhr 

Gumpendorfer Straße 10-12

www.phil.info

22. Oktober: Wels, Alter Schlachthof Wels, evening (info tk) 
Dragonerstraße 22, 4600 Wels

Tel: +43 (0) 7242 67284  www.youki.at

23. Oktober: Nürnberg, Musikverein,einlass: 20 uhr / beginn: 20:30 uhr

festsaal im künstlerhaus (k4), königstr. 93, 90402 
www.musikverein-concerts.de

24. Oktober: Marburg, Trauma, evening (info tk)
Affoellerwiesen 3a
www.cafetrauma.de

25. Oktober: Frankfurt, Orange Peel, 8.30 uhr

Orange Peel

Kaiserstraße 39  

www.orange-peel.de

talk + dialogue with Klaus Walter 

26. Oktober: Luxemburg, Exit07,  evening (info tk)
1, rue de l'Aciere
www.rotondes.lu)

Retromania translator Chris Wilpert will be present for all but the last date of the tour. 

Retromania is out now on Ventil Verlag 

 

Retromania tour Germany / Austria / Switzerland / Luxembourg

The German translation of Retromania is out now on Ventil Verlag. And next week I start a book tour taking in 11 cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg.

Lesetour zu Retromania

16. Oktober: Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzberg (Skalitzer Str. 130, www.festsaal-kreuzberg.de).

                                                           

17. Oktober: Hamburg, Golem (Grosse Elbstr. 14, www.golem.kr) 

18. Oktober: Köln, King Georg (Sudermannstr. 2, www.kinggeorg.de)  

                                        

19. Oktober: St. Gallen, Palace (Zwinglistr. 3, www.palace.sg) 

20. Oktober: München, Optimal-Records (Kolosseumstr. 6)

21. Oktober: Wien, Phil (Gumpendorfer Str. 10-12, www.phil.info) 

22. Oktober: Wels, Schlachthof, (Dragonerstr. 22, www.youki.at) 

23. Oktober: Nürnberg, Musikverein, (Königstr. 93, www.musikverein-concerts.de) 

24. Oktober: Marburg, Trauma (Affoellerwiesen 3a, www.cafetrauma.de) 

25. Oktober: Frankfurt, Orange Peel (Kaiserstr. 39, www.orange-peel.de) 

26. Oktober: Luxemburg, Exit07 (1, rue de l'Aciere, www.rotondes.lu)

The events take place in the evening (more info to follow). Most events involve a new talk + readings from the book + Q/A with the audience, but the Frankfurt event is an onstage dialogue with autor und DJ Klaus Walter. Retromania translator Chris Wilpert will be present for all but the last date of the tour.