The Counterforce No. 16
Martin Amis, Thomas Pynchon, Charlie Higson, Ishmael Reed, Mikey Georgeson, The Melting Ice Caps, and more
This past week I headed down to Atlanta for two signings at Posman Books, breaking up the 14 hour drive with a reading at the excellent Epilogue Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I’d never been to Atlanta before so when I got the offer, I jumped at the chance, expanding the trip to visit Chris Razz in Athens yesterday as I started on my way back. Great to see Chris, he used to own Secret Sounds, one of the Connecticut record stores I pay tribute to with The Ballad Of Buttery Cake Ass. In fact, I mention him in Nick Cave’s Bar too. The story of how a couple days after I saw the Bad Seeds for the first time, I was down at his shop buying The Best Of with the bonus disc and he asked me if I’d gotten the new Saint Etienne yet, as he had the bonus disc edition of Good Humor just in too. It was 1998 and I had liked Saint Etienne when my friend Jon had played them for me years back. But I hadn’t yet bought the albums myself. Trusting Chris, I promptly picked that up too. I was off to Europe the next day and it was to be a month and a half before I could give it a listen. Instantly falling in love with it when I did, catching them live in Boston on that tour (where they played an amazing version of The Springfields’ ‘Are We Gonna Be Alright?’, written by Matthew Sweet) and thus a course for my life seemed to unfold. Going on as I would to record with Ian Catt many times over the years, interviewing the band on at least three occasions, and even collaborating with Pete on Young Southpaw’s ‘Infinite Shakespeare’. It was great to see Razz again, him walking me all over Athens, giving me all the early history from when he was making t-shirts for the B-52’s - pointing out the sites that still resonate with them, R.E.M., Pylon, and more, as well as the locations of the 40 Watt Club over the years
Still on a big Martin Amis kick, I’ve now listened to all the podcasts with or about him. I highly recommend the Backlisted episode about The Information (inspiring me to re-read it) and The Martin Chronicles. I listened to the audiobook of The Pregnant Widow on the first leg of this trip and I think it still holds up. I’ve mentioned before how this book renewed my love of Amis’ writing. Many of the recent tributes have pointed out that comedy is what he did best - James Wood in The New Yorker writing that it was P.G. Wodehouse to whom Amis was best aligned - and The Pregnant Widow definitely entertains. Not the over-the-top satire of Money, say, or The Information but very funny. And my friend Rick, at whose house I’m currently staying, has Amis’ Invasion Of The Space Invaders book that he apparently wrote when he needed some money during the writing of Money. Must crack this open before I leave tomorrow.
After finishing The Pregnant Widow, I had Anthony Burgess’ M/F lined up as my next listen. But with a half hour drive back to my Air BNB in Alpharetta, Georgia and, after so many hours in the car, I was too tired to embark on something new. So I opened up my Apple Books app and saw Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice. Thinking it a pleasant way to pass those thirty minutes, I threw it on, fully intending to start up the Burgess in the morning. But I was soon so enraptured by IV it became a near-constant companion for the next three days. Let me tell you, reading Inherent Vice for the third time is FREAKING AWESOME. I’ve always loved the book, but things have really been kicked up several notches now. Especially that after one read, one audiobook listen, and two viewings of the film, I’m familiar with what’s going on, and can notice so much more. The line “desert beneath the pavement” echoing the epigram of the Situationist “under the paving stones, the beach”. Laughing so hard that I was holding back tears at the scene where Doc first meets his lawyer, Sauncho Smilax, at the grocery store, and the stoned paranoia with which they fill their shopping cart. And of course I always love that arch Republican Crocker Fenway is said to live in a gated community inside a gated community. Little clues at the beginning to what comes up later such as the early mention of ‘Cadillacs carrying dentists to extramarital trysts’. Allusions to his earlier works like ‘engine sounds were not passing across the sky where they should have’, the word ‘inconvenience’, etc. Getting to know these wonderful characters, at once very strange and at the same time just humans living their lives. And let’s not forget those wonderful final pages with the fog, one of the best endings I’ve ever read. I so miss being wrapped up in this book now that I’ve finished it, I’m thinking of just starting it again. Inherent Vice is great.
As I mentioned last Counterforce, I had a whole other newsletter almost ready to go when I got the news about Martin Amis. So going back a few weeks now to the new Bond novel. Always greeted with excitement by me, especially as Horowitz’s Forever And A Day and Boyd’s Solo stand with the best of them. Higson, of course, has much experience with the Young Bond series, but how would he fare with the adult agent? Have no fear, Higson gets Bond just right. Which is hard to do, considering it’s not just present day, but rather an up-to-the-minute Bond he’s dealing with, the action taking place in the months leading up to the 2023 coronation. While the recent reboots have kept Bond placed in the 60s, Higson has the task of giving us Bond’s thoughts on modern life as we know it right now. And all are perfectly in tune with what we expect of the man. The story is tight, giving us everything we want out of a James Bond adventure, though I of course wanted it to be longer, enjoying it so much as I was. On His Majesty’s Secret Service joins the ranks of a Bond must-read.
Also listened to the audiobook of Ishmael Reed’s Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down. I first came to Reed through the mention in Gravity’s Rainbow - “Well, and keep in mind where those Masonic Mysteries came from in the first place. (Check out Ishmael Reed. He knows more about it than you will ever find here.)” - pointing to Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo, about a voodoo priest being hassled by The Man for practising his religion in Harlem. Papa LaBas being one of my favourite names in fiction, and perfect for such a character (LaBas = “over there”). Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down is Reed’s second novel, a voodoo-filled Western whose timeframe, seemingly late 19th century, also hops ahead and behind at points to take in elements of the past three hundred years. Some really great lines in there: “When you need more power play poker with the dead.”, “I fired so fast the lake bounced up and down and the fish had to go to some kind of neptune analyst the next day, they couldn't believe it.”, and “The cowpokes were pretending to be in a dentist’s office of the mind” all being favourites of mine.
Music-wise, I’m thrilled that Mikey Georgeson’s Mr. Mikey album, Simply The Best, has been reworked into his Mr. Solo guise and is now up on Bandcamp. You’ve probably heard me bang on about how Mikey is one of our greatest living songwriters, and I’m not going to stop anytime soon. Do yourself a favor and listen to those David Devant & His Spirit Wife and Mr. Solo albums. ‘Russian Dolls’ here is gorgeous, I can’t recommend this song enough. I even did a cover of it. There’s a shoegazey version of Nat King Cole’s ‘Smile’. I love the pause right before the title in “Scatter Brained’.
And there’s a bunch of new stuff as well, making it different from Simply The Best. Mikey and I have often talked about synchronicities - you can listen/watch us here talking about them with Mikey dressed in Admiral cap and aviator shades - and it truly bugged me out to see the song title ‘I went down to Davy Down’. Davey Down being the bass player in Buttery Cake Ass. And although I do research names for all possible significances, I must’ve missed this English park. Making it all the more ‘meaningfully coincidental’ as I fashioned the character Cookie in The Ballad Of Buttery Cake Ass after a combination of the Devant songs ‘Cookie’ and ‘Ginger’. And Mikey provided me with a great blurb for the back cover of the book.
And my old partner-in-pop from The Soft Close-Ups, David Shah, is back with a new Melting Ice Caps album, Signals. David’s earliest TMIC songs were very POP and I’ve been trying to convince him to get them all up online again, which will hopefully happen soon. What I’ve loved about where David has gone after that is that the songs became less obviously catchy but circle around that area in some quite wonderful unexpected ways. And of course there’s his lovely, lovely voice. My fave off this newest one is ‘Fair Play’.
One final note, check out this wonderful review Adam Hammond gave The Ballad Of Buttery Cake Ass at the Isolation site. “Stone's writing comes alive when he describes music…If you love records, or if you have a fascination with the absurd, you will enjoy this book. The detailed discography at its end is in itself a work of joy. For many of us Stone is saying, this is your life.” And the comparison to Graham Chapman really made my day, such a comedy hero of mine.
SEVEN SONGS
Winter (featuring Hatchie) - ‘atonement’. Since I had started shopping at Secret Sounds in 1992, I was telling Razz about Hatchie and Winter. And how I would assume this collaboration, if I didn’t know any better, came out in 1993. My Quietus review of the Winter’s What Kind Of Blue Are You? album here. Highly recommended if you like fuzzy dreampop with female vocals, which to me sounds pretty much the ultimate
Kimaya Diggs - ‘Follow Me’. Sadie Dupuis tweeted about Ms. Diggs recently so I put on this album and have been pretty obsessed with the smooth R&B of this tune
The Springfields - ‘Are We Gonna Be Alright?’. As mentioned above, written by Matthew Sweet and later covered by Saint Etienne
Robyn Hitchcock - ‘Listening To The Higsons’. I always like it when bands namedrop other bands in their lyrics, and of course with Robyn Hitchcock it’s bound to go in more intriguing directions than a mere mention
John Barry - ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. The best Bond theme? It’s certainly up there. It’s just so BAD ASS. Instrumental too, every part seething with cool and danger
Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt - ‘Red Sails In The Sunset’. As I’m thinking which songs to include this week, this tune keeps insisting itself to me. Lovely rendition of the standard. My best friend growing up, Brian, to whom The Ballad Of Buttery Cake Ass is dedicated, bought me this cd and life always seems good whenever I put it on.
The Trashmen - ‘Surfin’ Bird’. As mentioned in Inherent Vice. I was unaware of the history of the song until I just looked it up, it being a combination of two songs by The Rivingtons. Even after knowing this song for over 40 years, I still listen with wonder at its insanity whenever it comes on. A wildness further exacerbated by covers from Pee Wee Herman in Back To The Beach and The Ramones.
I’m also collecting all these Seven Songs lists here on a monster Apple playlist
I love Inherent Vice! It's the key to everything, I tell you, everything!