The Counterforce No. 30
Becky McAuley's Lost Indignation, Zerocalcare, Taxiway, Mulatu Astatke, and more...
Back in February, on the first of the Ballad Of Buttery Cake Ass tours (there would be at least three more tours and some further weekend trips after this), after the DC reading at the punk rock house, Rhizome, and catching up with my friend Lori who I hadn’t seen in 20+ years, I stopped into Joint Custody Records, determined to get my books into as many cool shops as possible. I had a great chat with Ambrose behind the counter, who knew a hell of a lot about Connecticut hardcore from the early 90s when I was growing up. Telling him the plot of Ballad Of Buttery Cake Ass, he said it reminded him of Lost Indignation by Becky McAuley, in that it’s the quest for an impossible to find demo. They had it on the shelf and, intrigued, I used the money from him buying my books to break my ‘no buying stuff on tour’ rule and pick up a copy. Now, it’s been a busy year. All those tours mentioned above, lots of difficulties, and just trying to keep my head above water, especially financially. So I didn’t get around to starting Lost Indignation until Thanksgiving evening. And wow. I really loved it. I would come home from work each night eager to pick up the story where I left off. It is indeed the quest for an impossible to find demo, and finding out the history of the band through tracking down folks associated with them, but nowhere near the ridiculousness of Buttery Cake Ass. At the center of it all is the death of Indignation founder Ryan Marnell and his complicated relationships with his childhood best friend, his ex-girlfriend, his former bandmates, and most of all himself. Mo McGraw is a 30-something hardcore kid working at an NYC PR firm who hears mention of Indignation on a message board and simply must track them down. A dubious videotape sold to her and her husband by an even more dubious character sets in motion a quest to be able to hear this band that only ever played three shows, and those in 1988. McAuley’s writing really makes these characters and all the incidental ones they will meet along the way come to life. Throughout, there’s the strong sense of what it’s like to have grown up but still have to navigate and negotiate the fact that one’s life and loves - namely music, art, and friends - don’t align with the demands of the real world, i.e. having an exhausting job so you can afford to do all the stuff you love. McAuley does a great job making these characters full-bodied human beings that we actually care about the fates of, especially the troubled Marnell, the narcissist David Eckley, and Mo herself, with her indefatigable obsessive nature. It’s a story that goes well beyond hardcore, but of course for most of the characters in the book, hardcore is their lives, and McAuley really shows how being involved in a scene is about so much more than the music, giving shape to essential parts of oneself. Obviously if you’re a hardcore kid, you’ll get more out of this - real life bands mix with the made-up, and there’s a lot of love for Supertouch in particular - but the story itself is for everyone. For me it particularly resonated as there’s lots of talk of Connecticut hardcore - where I grew up - and David Eckley goes to Boston University in the 90s and lives in Boston afterwards, just like I did. But of course it’s set in NY - Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Dobbs Ferry - close enough to that epicentre of East Coast hardcore, CBGB’s. There’s a cool interview with Becky here at the Shining Life Substack. I highly recommend Lost Indignation, one of the best books I’ve read in a while.
Another Substack I wanna recommend is Damon Krukowski’s Dada Drummer Almanach. In talking about Spotify’s penultimate awfulness (as in this was published before the layoffs were announced), he writes the incredible line - “Music that isn’t pop is actually a thing – it’s not just unpopular pop.” I can’t stand Spotify and the idea that people shouldn’t be fairly compensated for their work. There are other streaming services that pay better and allow you to purchase the music if you like it. Use those. The whole idea about artists getting that elusive ‘exposure’ from Spotify is total BS. Exposure so people can further listen for free doesn’t put food on the table or help with the costs of actually creating the music. I stopped using Amazon in February after I read How To Resist Amazon And Why. I just couldn’t justify it now that I’m making books and hoping to make money from selling them. With how Amazon treats books, it totally goes against what I’m trying to do, so why would I support that? It’s not that hard either. There are ways around this.
On a much more positive note, Janelle Monáe shared this awesome vid on IG of her dancing to Mulatu Astatke’s ‘Tezeta’ (click on the photo to take you to the video), and it totally made my day. Such a gorgeous tune, such a gorgeous lady. And oh man, those Ethiopique compilations are so incredible. Some of the best music ever made, in my opinion. And with 30 comps now out, there’s still so much to explore. I’ve been way into Astatke’s work this past week, and check out the Seven Songs below for another of my all-time favourite grooves.
On the comics front, I finished Zerocalcare’s Tentacles At My Throat and am a quarter of the way through his Kobane Calling: Greetings From Northern Syria. I discovered the Italian cartoonist’s work last year when I reviewed Forget My Name for The Comics Journal. Love it. He rushes into each scene with a sackful of pop culture references and personal neuroses. And as fun as it is, and as self-centered as he portrays himself on the page, there are always wider truths at play. Tentacles is built around a school playground incident from when he was six, its effects reaching wide through the children involved, as the timeline jumps to their teens then early 30s when they reunite at the presiding teacher’s funeral. The battle between good and evil with Star Wars characters weighing in, truth and lies, and how they play on one’s conscience, portrayed of course by an octopus. Kobane Calling is great so far too, as Calcare travels to areas of Kurdish resistance in the Middle East and attempts to understand what’s going on, as well as his own motives for going.
And I want to give a shoutout to my friends Taxiway from Nashville who have just released their second album, This Is Permanent. It’s lovely dream pop and Americana-tinged shoegaze, and I recommend giving it a listen. I got to know the band through their drummer Emily G finding Nick Cave’s Bar at Grimey’s in Nashville and adding me on IG. Then they came to the Grimey’s reading last February and I ended up writing the press release for their new record. My faves are A Deeper Shade Of Blue, Sans Serif, and When The Polaroid Fades, and it was ace getting to hear these last month when I opened for them at Pete’s Candy Store. I then joined them for a cover of The Boys Next Door’s Shivers, which was extra special for me as Andy Shea and I used to listen to that all the time in our 20s, and Pete’s was the second-to-last place I ever saw him, when he came to my Nick Cave’s Bar show there. Singing that song with Taxiway was one of my favourite times playing music onstage, and I could feel Andy’s presence in the room.
Singing Shivers with Taxiway:
SEVEN SONGS
Wallias Band - ‘Muziqawi Silt’. One of the most awesome grooves I know. So bad ass. My fave Ethiopique recording so far
Deaf School - ‘Capaldi’s Café’. Saw that there’s a 50th anniversary shows in Liverpool and London next week. Another reason I should always be in the UK. ‘What A Way To End It All’ is the classic, but this is my favourite Deaf School song. Love these guitars.
Wings - ‘Go Now’. RIP Denny Laine. As I wrote last post, this song has been with me a lot lately. When Denny Laine passed, someone posted this on Twitter and it seemed perfect.
Moondog - ‘Distance’. Possibly my favourite hardcore song. Yes, the sound quality is poor but it was like that on the tape my friend Rob gave me of the Moondog demo and I would listen to it over and over again. Started life as a Gorilla Biscuits song and is on that Live In NYC 91 video . And here’s a cool version of Walter doing it acoustic.
The Breeders - ‘Divine Hammer’. I’m on my way to go see Dinosaur Jr. do 30 years of Where You Been and I saw that Kim Deal joined them the other night for this and ‘Gigantic’. I would’ve loved to have seen that. Always thought this was a perfect pop song
White Reaper - ‘Judy French’. This song is still stuck in my head after seeing it live back in July. Incredibly catchy
Janelle Monáe – ‘Make Me Feel’. One can never have enough Janelle Monáe.
I’m also collecting all these Seven Songs lists here on a monster Apple playlist
Lost Indignation looks great!