I had a nice combination of not at all/surprised when I found out Matmos moved to Baltimore, probably mostly spurred by Drew Daniel finally getting his doctorate and becoming faculty at Johns Hopkins University. A haven for recent music trends and obvious character, it dawned on me that what Baltimore needed was a couple of gay sound artists to make me like it more. What ended up being more intensely not at all/surprising was when I read that Dr. Drew wrote an installment of the 33 1/3 series of books, published by Continuum, for Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats. From the 33 1/3 blog:
“On 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Throbbing Gristle modeled a critically new and highly promiscuous way of relating to or inhabiting musical genre - where punk rock was passionate and direct, TG were arch and mysterious, perverse and cold. Including original interviews with all the members of the band, this is a fascinating study of a highly unusual and enduringly influential group.”
With other volumes of 33 1/3 including tributes to Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis, Pixies’ Doolittle, and MC5’s Kick Out the Jams (there have been 59 so far) and a who’s who of music critics including J. Niimi and Colin Meloy, this has become a pretty compelling analysis of critical obsession.
–Stinky Pinky
Filed under: queer books, queer music | Tagged: 33 1/3, books, series, drew daniel, matmos, continuum, throbbing gristle
