The Counterforce No. 32
Julian Cope & Metranil Vavin, Micky Greaney, Tony Cohen, John McGeoch, John Andrew Fredrick, Healy Guitars, & more
Happy New Year and Welcome Back! Amidst the holidays being so hectic, I was also looking for a new home for this newsletter when it came out about Substack’s views on hosting Nazi content. I’m very pleased to hear that they’ve changed their tune after so many of us were up in arms about it. I got the news about this from Damon Krukowski’s Dada Drummer Almanach Substack, one I highly recommend checking out and subscribing to, especially if you care about making the music industry a better place for those who actually make the music.
Another Substack I heartily recommend is Jim Ruland’s Message From The Underworld. In Jim’s round-up of what he read in 2023, I was struck by this line: “I’m trying to become someone who carries a book of poems around with me so that when the urge comes to pick up the phone, I read a poem instead.” What a great idea. And one I’m now actively trying to implement into practice. And which has led to a rather cool rabbit hole that I’m now going to tell you about. Paul Éluard piqued my interest lately and I’ve been looking for ideally a pocket-sized edition of his that I can substitute for my phone. No such luck yet. You see, I’m a big fan of finding things in bookstores and only like to use the internet for shopping as a last resort. In browsing both Grey Matter bookshops - New Haven, CT & Hadley, MA, great shops if you have the chance to go - I didn’t find any Éluard but I did see a number of Black Sparrow Press editions of works by Clayton Eshleman. The name and look of those paperbacks struck me as familiar, and within a minute I was once again regretting every book I ever sold from my collection. For back in 2006, I bought Eshleman’s The Gull Wall after some very cool detective work from a friend of a LiveJournal friend. Scythrop, the author of that piece, then became a n LJ friend themselves, and that was something I really dug about LiveJournal. It was a place one could connect better than on any of the social media sites we have now. But allow me to explain further about The Gull Wall! On page 180 of Julian Cope’s insanely good memoir Head On, he says: “My brother Joss had introduced me to nine poems by a Russian dwarf called Metranil Vavin. On leaving Leningrad for Paris, he had translated the poems into French. The versions which I knew were translated once more, from the French into English by the American poet Clayton Eschlemann (sic). The charm of these poems, besides the strange subject matter, was their unwieldy structure and archaic phrasing.”
A fan of the Teardrop Explodes song, this got me intrigued, and, per Scythrop’s deductions, I searched out The Gull Wall. Which is now back on my list. Feeling nostalgic, I picked up Eshleman’s Hotel Cro-Magnon, though unfortunately neither of these books is small enough to fit in my pocket.
Cope’s solo version on World Shut Your Mouth is completely different
Before I get to more books, I want to flag up a gorgeous song that entered my radar two days ago. I know nothing about Micky Greaney, but Seventeen Records’ Chris Coleman posted on Twitter about how David J recommends the forthcoming album, calling Greaney “an incredibly gifted songwriter”. The way his different vocal lines weave around each other, his jumps within the melodies, the timbre of his voice, this is hypnotizing stuff. One hardly notices the song is almost 8 minutes long, hitting repeat too when it draws to a close. I’ve heard the record now, due out in April, and it is very good indeed. I’ll be writing more about it closer to the time.
I read some really good books over the holidays. Tony Cohen’s autobiography, Half Deaf, Completely Mad: The Chaotic Genius Of Australia’s Most Legendary Producer. I’ve always been intrigued by Tony Cohen, ever since reading of his intensity in Ian Johnston’s Nick Cave bio, Bad Seed. Andy Shea, who joined me on the Nick Cave’s Bar adventure, was always so impressed with how Cohen got Live Seeds to sound so good. The book is an entertaining read, ultimately tragic as so much of his money was squandered away on drugs making his later years rough, but his recollections highlight a very passionate and obsessive nature to make things sound a certain way. There’s a Nick Cave quote on the cover - “The most obsessive, single-minded character I’ve ever seen, outside of the mirror.”
(Speaking of Aussie music, how awesome was ‘If You Want Blood (You Got It)’ in that episode of The Bear?)
And speaking of legends, I also read Rory Sullivan-Burke’s The Light Pours Out Of Me: the authorized biography of John McGeoch. Contemplating McGeoch’s career always astounds me. It was freaking unbelievable - three iconic bands, three albums with each, over a ten year span. Magazine, Siouxsie & The Banshees, and PiL. The mind reels. And that guitar work, oh man. ‘Into The Light’ is still one of the most crazy guitar sounds I’ve ever heard, blows me away every time I listen to it. Juju, man, what an album! A very good read, with input on McGeoch’s genius from lots of other legends - Siouxsie, Johnny Marr, John Frusciante…
And John Andrew Fredrick’s The King Of Good Intentions (Part One). I had started this years ago and it got lost while I was moving cross-country. Awesome to have it come back into my life, especially as JAF recently released Part Three. John writes ecstatically, it is wonderful to get caught up in the prose, which is often as hilarious as it is exhilarating. The story details getting a band going in LA in the early 90s, whilst working shit jobs, falling in love, and having to deal with all manner of difficult personalities. I am very much looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.
I want to give a shout-out to my friend Trevor Healey, who I grew up with and who was always a fine guitarist and musician, and is now a successful luthier in Easthampton, MA. Wanting my guitars set up properly, I drove them up last week to Trevor, and was really impressed with his shop and how things have been going for him. He’s worked on guitars for J Mascis, Thurston Moore, and Black Francis, amongst many others. I finally got to play his signature model, The Healer, and it was a beauty. Very light, with a chambered body, and a really nice neck. Popped into Feeding Tube Records and Grey Matter Books while he was setting mine up, so a really nice day overall.
Excited that yesterday I got the first bit of press for Sporting Moustaches, in Boston Groupie News:
SEVEN SONGS
Tian QiYi featuring Jah Wobble - ‘Li Jing Liang’. Tian QiYi are Jah Wobble’s sons, and their collaboration with their father from last year, Red Mist, is one of my favourite things Wobble has ever done. Combining dub, traditional Chinese music, 70s-esque jazz-funk, and post-punk, there’s a lot to appreciate and draw you in on this record.
The Black Watch - ‘Terrific’. John Andrew Fredrick’s band, with something like 21 albums under their belt, including the brilliantly named Led Zeppelin V. Here they are at their most poppy.
Mercury Rev - ‘Car Wash Hair’. A wonderful tune that’s been stuck in my head lately. I remember catching the video for this back in 1992 and seeking out the album immediately, where it was the unnamed bonus track (#99) at the end of the cd. Such an evocative phrase too
Magazine - ‘A Song From Under The Floorboards’. Classic McGeoch arppeggiated chord voicing, leading into Magazine at their most Roxy Music. Apparently they thought this would be the tune to take them to greater heights, and were all gutted when it didn’t. Can’t see why it wasn’t huge, this is an incredible song
Siouxsie & The Banshees - ‘Into The Light’. Such a great song. That guitar sound blows my mind every time I hear it.
John Frusciante - ‘Lever Pulled’. Lovely stuff, one of my favourites of solo JF. A lot of emotion here, esp in the vocals. And there’s that gnarly fuzz too
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - ‘New Morning (Live)’. Speaking of Live Seeds, I love this version of ‘New Morning’. I’ve always been partial to gospel chords, and this is really miles above the take on Tender Prey. I’ve always felt that Tender Prey was where Cave began to unapologetically use more traditional forms and with catchier songs. To great effect, I must add. This mode of songwriting wasn’t fully there yet, but you can see its beginnings with this song and ‘Deanna’.
As always, these Seven Songs lists are collected here on a monster Apple playlist
Thanks, Aug! I need to read that McGeoch bio!