Last night I dreamt about Mark. We were 17 years old. He showed me two Magazine albums he owned. One was Real Life, the other a compilation. In my dream I referred to Real Life as Definitive Gaze, the opening song of Real Life and still one of my favourite Magazine songs. The second album…
Give me back my man – Remembering Ricky Wilson
This piece is not about The B-52s. It’s not even about Ricky Wilson. For those who don’t know, Ricky Wilson was the original guitar player of the B-52s. He died from AIDS in 1985, at the age of 32. I love the B-52s. I always had a soft spot for them. Their ridiculous mix of…
Saint George
2016, Annus Horribilis, the year that brought the first installment of Donald Trump, the year that completely upset the natural order with the death of David Bowie, later followed by Prince and Leonard Cohen, the year I would very much like to forget, or pretend never happened, contained one strange anomaly, a Christmas event I…
Adolf´s Autobahn
I´m sitting next to Florian Schneider, who is driving an electric version of the classic Volkswagen Beetle. ´I´ve kept the original sound, even though it´s artificial, there is no engine producing it´. He is visibly excited and can barely keep his eyes on the road. ´In a way it doesn´t even have an engine. It…
Culture at War
Dear God, I had a dream last night. It made me smile. In my dream I witnessed: Serious academics debating the respective merits and legacy of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Miles Davis Streets erupting with violent clashes between Tonality supporters and militant defenders of Atonality Millions of Twitter users sharing beautiful lyrics, and shredding…
Best Musicians Ever…
‘Three women, four people of colour, one from a continent other than Europe or North-America. It is a beginning, and for now I will accept it, but next year I expect different numbers. Next year I expect at least a 50/50 split in terms of gender and race, and at least four artists from Asia,…
Down this tunnel of love
Queer before queer was really a thing. No, not true, but something was missing until Poly screamed ‘Oh, Bondage up yours!’ and Bowie’s ‘Boys keep swinging’ hit the television channels and one could see, in real time and full colour (but no slow motion), how words and music crashed spectacularly against a wall of stereotype….
The syllogism of musical identity
People’s sense of identity is very closely related to the music they likePeople stop listening to new (categories of) music after the age of 33 It can therefore be argued that the identity formation process gradually slows down and almost completely stops after the age of 33. This crude syllogism of (musical) identity bothers me….
Did vulgarism kill the voice of the outsider?
Journalists, police officers, scientists, they investigate everything, and still, sometimes they just forget or ignore the obvious, the phenomenon right in front of them, hiding in plain sight. The rise of vulgarism didn’t start in 2016, but it did gain momentum in that horrible year, the same year beauty and empathy lost its voice, maybe…
These memories can’t wait
Sunday afternoon. I browse through my collection of audio tapes. Yesterday I finished Rob Sheffield’s ‘Love is a mix tape’, today I wonder how much love my old tapes express. It’s not a fair comparison, Sheffield tells a love story supported by mix tapes, my old tapes just demonstrate a utilitarian drive to collect as…
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