Re: [microsound] hornby

[Joshua Maremont <thermal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 7:25 PM -0800 1/20/01, Philip Sherburne wrote:
> in a completely surreal maneuver, he argued that the album was music for
> teenagers because the track titles didn't seem to make any sense and the
> lyrics were so abstract and "experimental" - therefore, only teenagers have
> the time and inclination to sit around in their bedrooms puzzling over such
> things.  us grownups are too darned busy for those kinda shenanigans.

Having not read the "Kid A" review, I am not surprised at Hornby's 
hostility to the weird and wonderful new Radiohead, for after all the 
musical references in "High Fidelity" are overwhelmingly mainstream, 
pointing to musicians of whom few middle-aged accountants or 
attorneys living in Hornby's despised suburbs would not have at least 
heard.  Yes that Otis Redding 7" was a rare one, but, if only through 
its recent mutilation in a gruesome cover version, his "Sitting on 
the Dock of the Bay" could have escaped no-one.  And perhaps the only 
aspect of the excellent novel not ringing true for me is precisely 
this issue of extreme obscurity:  would not at least one of these 
record geeks be out-obscuring his fellow geek's namedrop of, for 
instance, the Cosmic Jokers, with a wilting reference to, maybe, East 
Bionic Symphonia?  Perhaps the covert conservatism of the tastes in 
the story has contributed to its seeming universality; most readers, 
after all, understand why the Peter Frampton cover song produces such 
an ambivalent response, whereas the same audience would simply be 
puzzled with a discussion of the relative merits of Xenakis and 
Britney Spears, as one might find here.  Well, I will take "Kid A" 
over The Boss any day (but I still wonder occasionally whether BOC 
stands for Blue Oyster Cult or for Boards of Canada).

np - Chris & Cosey "Heartbeat" + again the space heater
--
joshua maremont / thermal - mailto:thermal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
boxman studies label - http://www.boxmanstudies.com/