OK will tackle when it hits these shores. Thanx!!!
― Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, 3 June 2011 22:32 (twelve years ago) link
As long as SR can explain to me why my complete remastered collection of every Twilight Zone episode ever produced sits lurking in my hard-drive, unwatched - the very thought of beginning it fills me with anxiety, yet not beginning it at all also fills me with anxiety - then I'll be pleased. No pressure.
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Friday, 3 June 2011 22:48 (twelve years ago) link
Honestly, now that I'm in my 30s there's just not enough time to be retro. Once I dug through crates. Now I bookmark reviews of books about digging through crates and forget I've bookmarked it. Actually maybe I'm in my 60s.
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Friday, 3 June 2011 22:51 (twelve years ago) link
yeah you are a fogey
― scott seward, Friday, 3 June 2011 22:52 (twelve years ago) link
Just wait'll the reissue of my 2006 bookmarks comes out, it's gonna be a must-read. I'll send you guys a review of it.
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Friday, 3 June 2011 22:55 (twelve years ago) link
i love you, tracer
― geeta, Friday, 3 June 2011 22:57 (twelve years ago) link
Ha -- that immediately reminds me of Patrick Farley's "The Guy I Almost Was":
http://www.electricsheepcomix.com/almostguy/
From 1998! About growing up in the seventies, envisioning a retreat to typewriters etc. as time goes on and then...discovering the Internet.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, June 3, 2011 1:09 PM (2 hours ago)
This was so great! I still get that fantasy a couple times a year, "I will forsake...phones. I will wear only...knapsacks."
― free inappropriate education (Abbbottt), Friday, 3 June 2011 22:59 (twelve years ago) link
I'm content with 2011. There's a lot of things IN 2011 that are crap, in the same way that much about life is crap, but it's still life and still 2011 so rah.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 3 June 2011 23:04 (twelve years ago) link
200+ houses destroyed by a tornado up the road from me in springfield the other day. i ain't complaining about nothing.
― scott seward, Friday, 3 June 2011 23:06 (twelve years ago) link
in fact if you ever hear me complain about anything just hit me.
but seriously my allergies are REALLY bad this season. oy, enough already.
― scott seward, Friday, 3 June 2011 23:19 (twelve years ago) link
if anyone needs anything new in their life, the new album by Rat Catching on the Fedora Corpse label is superb. a one woman show. roland juno-6, jen sx2000, korg monotron, casio vl-1. vinyl only though, i think. very cool.
― scott seward, Friday, 3 June 2011 23:28 (twelve years ago) link
Rat Catching on the Fedora Corpse label
laughted out loud
― orchestral pygnoeuvres in zee park (contenderizer), Friday, 3 June 2011 23:55 (twelve years ago) link
roland juno-6, jen sx2000, korg monotron, casio vl-1
did she buy her gear from you?
― orchestral pygnoeuvres in zee park (contenderizer), Friday, 3 June 2011 23:56 (twelve years ago) link
Vinyl only you say...
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 4 June 2011 09:17 (twelve years ago) link
"Honestly, now that I'm in my 30s there's just not enough time to be retro. Once I dug through crates. Now I bookmark reviews of books about digging through crates and forget I've bookmarked it. Actually maybe I'm in my 60s."
otm
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Sunday, 5 June 2011 09:45 (twelve years ago) link
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/daftsod.jpg
― banter panchali (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 5 June 2011 10:08 (twelve years ago) link
why did he name this pop cultures addiction rather than musics addiction? seems like a misnomer considering music is his main focus.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 09:33 (twelve years ago) link
Retromania is the sound of a pop critic’s midlife crisis.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 09:42 (twelve years ago) link
I've started reading this - so far it's more interesting than I expected.
― The Boy Who Can Go Inside The TV (dog latin), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 09:43 (twelve years ago) link
I think it's way more nuanced and varied than any extract or review would suggest. It's more an exploration than a manifesto and the autobiographical elements enrich the ambivalence. This bit in the Telegraph review made me lol:
I found myself reading it in a sushi restaurant, with Japanese food travelling around on a conveyor belt, while digital animations projected onto a wall and the British rapper Tinie Tempah’s number-one hit single Pass Out exploded from hidden speakers in a sonic fizz of bleeping hip hop, electro, drum and bass and dancehall.
Sushi on a conveyor belt? Slow down, spaceman.
― Strictly vote-splitting (DL), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 10:30 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, it's definitely more than a 450-page rant about pop-music-these-days. He gets that out his system in the intro and prologue and then uses that as a diving board to explore the history and documentation of pop culture as a whole in a fairly balanced way.
― The Boy Who Can Go Inside The TV (dog latin), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 10:34 (twelve years ago) link
Saw this is in Waterstone's the other day, reduced already, or do they do that to a lot of new books these days?
― Tom D has taken many months to run this thread to ground (Tom D.), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 11:01 (twelve years ago) link
I got my copy remarkably cheap from Amazon.
― The Boy Who Can Go Inside The TV (dog latin), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 11:05 (twelve years ago) link
I'll wait till it turns up in FOPP for £3, prob'ly three or four months from now, sorry Simon.
― Tom D has taken many months to run this thread to ground (Tom D.), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 11:08 (twelve years ago) link
don't think Waterstone's reduces new stuff per se, more knocks a wedge off the RRP because it can
― Beth Gibbons & Foreskin Man (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 11:15 (twelve years ago) link
and yeah I don't think I've paid more than a fiver for any of the SR books I own
― Beth Gibbons & Foreskin Man (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 11:16 (twelve years ago) link
I suspected that, to make you think you're getting a bargain
― Tom D has taken many months to run this thread to ground (Tom D.), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 11:17 (twelve years ago) link
how much cheaper? its 9 quid on amazon.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 13:50 (twelve years ago) link
those sushi on conveyor belt places generally have mediocre sushi
― sarahel, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 17:15 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011pph2#synopsis
Really good discussion of this on last night's edition of Night Waves (about 20 mins in). Simon is interviewed but they rope in the sceptics too.
Don't think he was too convincing, but no one was out there to get him or anything.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 18:27 (twelve years ago) link
guys just reminding you amazon is the devil ok carry on
― ogmor, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 23:15 (twelve years ago) link
Excellent interview at Thequietus, as usual: http://thequietus.com/articles/06386-simon-reynolds-retromania-interview
Can I just say Thequietus is the one music site I always keep up with aside from ILM?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 9 June 2011 00:05 (twelve years ago) link
It's profoundly frustrating and, frankly, delusional of the publisher that in this day and age of instant gratification/digital downloads/etc. that the release of this book is delayed by 6 weeks in the U.S.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Thursday, 9 June 2011 03:46 (twelve years ago) link
pdf/epub?
― Mark G, Thursday, 9 June 2011 09:29 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-retro-rock-20110710,0,3613794.story
― buzza, Saturday, 9 July 2011 06:37 (twelve years ago) link
Ahistorical bullshit.
Once upon a time, pop's metabolism buzzed with dynamic energy, creating the surging-into-the-future feel of periods such as the psychedelic '60s, the post-punk '70s, the hip-hop '80s and the rave '90s. The 2000s felt different. The sensation of moving forward grew fainter as the decade unfurled.
Oh you mean the psychedelic '60s that were built on the foundation of a folk revival, an interest in indian classical music, music hall, avant garde electronic music from 15 years prior? The hip-hop that was built almost entirely on sampling 20 year old records? The '90s rave music that basically just revived underground club music from the '80s?
― grey tambourine (wk), Saturday, 9 July 2011 18:40 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, that stuff.
― scott seward, Saturday, 9 July 2011 18:42 (twelve years ago) link
If anything killed pop-music's forward momentum it was the endless fracturing of music into meaningless sub-genres with a built-in expiration date. Which then leads to the tendency to drive one idea into the ground for a couple of years before some writer coins a new genre name and people change the sound up slightly and pretend it's something different.
― grey tambourine (wk), Saturday, 9 July 2011 18:47 (twelve years ago) link
i find that this essay does not get more interesting every time i read it
― also we’re divorced now and i hate this movie. (contenderizer), Saturday, 9 July 2011 22:37 (twelve years ago) link
That's because you're re-reading it, hence you're guilty of retromania!
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 9 July 2011 23:41 (twelve years ago) link
Anyone have further information on what the deal is between the UK and US versions of this book are? I am planning on purchasing it and want to know what the best version is and who I can direct my Twitter snark at regarding these differences.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Sunday, 10 July 2011 03:59 (twelve years ago) link
There are no differences other than the cover.
― Gukbe, Sunday, 10 July 2011 04:55 (twelve years ago) link
Cool thank you very much for the info!!!
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Sunday, 10 July 2011 06:51 (twelve years ago) link
why is the UK cover so FUCKING HORRIFIC.!!?>!???
― Darren Huckerby (Dwight Yorke), Sunday, 10 July 2011 13:35 (twelve years ago) link
i like the cover! also i think it kinda links back to the yellow and pink of Rip It Up's cover but maybe that's not the intention.
― piscesx, Sunday, 10 July 2011 13:52 (twelve years ago) link
just finished this. it was a great read, beautifully written, lots to think about, and achingly researched, and if it makes people think about the stasis of pop which i dont think most people would disagree with (though there have been exceptions as this board knows like juke, grime, dubstep etc) then thats great.
but despite the first and last chapters, this was more like an exploration of retro trends and fetishists. i expected it to be more of a larger manifesto about how we have gone wrong and how we can put it right, rather than an examination/exploration of retro culture/nostalgia industries etc over the years, fascinating as all that is/was.
the other thing i found a bit strange was that for all the talk of sci fi and how space programs inspired optimism for the future and sci-fi sonics in music and so on, i thought he missed a bit about not just wanting music to SOUND like the/a future, but for music to aspire for other things to be better, all the old big battles like equality, poverty, peace (dont lol) and so on. ideological optimism for the future (or disatisfaction with the present, but then most music around or at least thats popular isnt really about reflecting much to do with the now either). but i dont think there was much about anything like that. it was largely about the sci-fi dreaming slant. didnt seem much about the diminishing role music plays in a lot of peoples lives either, the way its been relegated to something less significant than it was, which is another factor in why it wont be going at full throttle speed as it once did, or not much mention of it in any case.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 27 July 2011 09:22 (twelve years ago) link
^^ this. all of this. I enjoyed the book, but you're raising some absolutely key points which do get hinted at but could've been explored in a little more detail.
― Post-Manpat Music (dog latin), Wednesday, 27 July 2011 10:04 (twelve years ago) link
I say enjoyed, although admittedly I haven't quite finished it yet. It's a good read and I like the way it certainly isn't all about yelling at clouds.
― Post-Manpat Music (dog latin), Wednesday, 27 July 2011 10:05 (twelve years ago) link
it was sort of like reading a great degree/masters dissertation
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 27 July 2011 10:10 (twelve years ago) link