books about pop
>>although mine isn't as intellectual as Eshun's and not as bulky
>>as Thompson's,
>can you tell us more about all these books, please.
The Kodwo Eshun book isn't indiepop in any sense - it's a very provocative
book by a British black intellectual music critic, who is influenced quite
considerably by ideas from 'cyber-culture'. It's very interesting and
thought-provoking, and occasionally funny - 'A Flock of Seagulls are the
Blind Lemon Jefferson of electronic music', but more a book for people into
The Wire and Wire type music, than indiepop.
Ben Thompson's book on the other hand is an excellent read for anyone -
again he's not specifically indiepop, but his style is more like one of
those humourous fanzines like Far Out & Fishy, as well as picking on all the
people we love to hate along the way. Musically it's more
Gorky's/Palace/Beck/Pavement/Super Furry Animals/Lambchop/Cornershop - the
mid-ground of musically interesting bands on medium sized labels.
>this is the only one I have, but to avoid confusion: it is not about
>Heavenly but entitled "Something Beginning with O" and was published
>by Heavenly Recordings. It is basically about Vic Godard, Paul Weller
>and Kevin Rowland, but I haven't read it yet.
Excellent book - still probably the best manifesto for a modern
'mod'/whatever outlook on music, and only 50% of it is really about those 3
artists. Alistair mentioned that he was meant to be following this up with a
book on the early 80s (Postcard and related artists). Did anything come of
this?