Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.


Category: Sound

Joe Carducci and Mugger talk SST and things at a bookstore in Brooklyn. So curmudgeonly on Carducci’s part, but he’s an avowed romanticist for the (or rather, an) American working class mythos, so adjust your filters for his insight. #video

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The Grunge Gold Rush

On the fates of Jawbox, the Meat Puppets and others swallowed, then thrown up my the music industry in the post-Nirvana fervour for the Next Big Thing. #link

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The Fractured series may have come to a close, but John Mulvaney’s not done with his engaging profiles of bands in their creative milieu — this time across the Irish Sea with British doom metal crew Solstice. #video

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New Directions in Grindcore

My second feature for Bandcamp Daily and one I still can’t believe I was commissioned to write — but that is the point of the site, to surface and celebrate smaller genres and scenes, no matter how far from the mainstream they might be. (Also, the overlap with that other article on Belfast music was inadvertent.) #link

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The Guardian’s series on Underground Music in 2017

“Does the underground still exist in a world where everything is visible online?” That’s a silly question, in that the answer is an obvious ‘YES’ and that it also presupposes that everything is visible online, when it patently isn’t. But it’s still good to see an august paper like The Guardian dive in and share what it's found. #link

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Adam Savage geeks out as he cuts a record at Jack White’s Third Man headquarters in Detroit. Whatever your opinion on Black, one can’t doubt he’s a genuine nerd about the craft of recorded music. #video

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The Meat Puppets play ‘Swimming Ground’ and ‘Maiden’s Milk’ on Phoenix local TV while promoting Up On The Sun. Still astounded at how fast Cris plays those bass melodies. #video

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Mark Korven composed the soundtrack of The Witch, and created that film’s eerie music with the Apprehension Engine, a device he envisaged along the lines of an acoustic Author & Punisher. [c/o Lowbrowculture] #video

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The church hall that became contemporary music’s hottest venue

The Guardian on Eamonn Quinn and his Louth Contemporary Music Society, which has brought some of the biggest names in new music right here to Dundalk. This summer he hosted the Silenzio festival, which I sadly missed despite the performances being a short walk from my house. Meanwhile, I can’t get over the notion of Philip Glass having a curry at a restaurant I pass by on my bicycle a few times a week. #link

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Grant Hart - All Of My Old Friends Are Assholes

A repost for my interview with Grant from late 2012; as linked from NPR’s obit on Thursday. He wasn’t one for nostalgia, as his comments attest, but like the best musicians he could take his old material and bring it to life on stage, as new. As sad as it is that he's gone, and can no longer make his music live, the heart sings to see so many share their love for what he did, or for the man himself; ILX's tribute thread is particularly heartfelt. See also: Bob Mould’s remembrance/tribute, and Ken Shipley of the Numero Group label, which is putting out the new Hüsker Dü box, shares his memories of the man. #link

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Hüsker Dü, ‘Savage Young Dü’

I’ll admit I’m a tiny bit disappointed this isn’t the start of a confirmed reissue campaign (“Never say never,” says Greg Norton…) but you better believe I’m getting it. So many previously unreleased tracks! See also: Do You Remember?, a new documentary podcast on the band and their legacy. #link

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On Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell@P&L

Soundgarden were my band. ‘Black Hole Sun’ came on MTV some time in the early summer of 1994 and I was transfixed. Before that moment, ‘rock’ was a big ugly thing to me, for older kids who drank in the park or hung out at the Wellington Monument with candles and baggy clothes when Kurt Cobain topped himself. So this was a strange feeling, hearing that song, with Chris Cornell’s soulful voice and Kim Thayil’s colourful guitar lines, alluring and scary at the same time. I didn’t even hear the album Superunknown till months later, when I got a CD player for Christmas. I’ve probably played it hundreds if not thousands of times since then. I still have the original CD. More…

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Towards a Poetics of Audio: The Importance of Criticism

The academic tone meant I really only skimmed this (lo, the spectre of TL;DR!) but I thought it still worth a link: as the format matures with the freedom accorded by the availability of the necessary technology (for production and distribution alike) we’ll need deeper critical studies of some kind to grow along with it. [c/o 5it] #link

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How many SST artists are still going today?

SST Records sign at the label's final LA location in Long Beach

A few days ago on Twitter, I wondered out loud how many artists from the classic era of SST Records (from 1980 to 1997, though some would cut it off at 1989 or earlier) are still going today. By still going, I meant still active as a performing and recording entity, whether as an ensemble or solo artist, that released records under the same name (or as essentially the same entity) on SST.

For all the relatively big-name acts who did their time on the label, there are few intact in 2017, and pretty much all of them took a break at some point between recording for SST and now. Indeed, if Sonic Youth hadn’t broken up a few years ago, they would have been the only career band still actively recording and touring straight through from their SST days.

More…

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Midori Takada’s 1983 LP Through The Looking Glass. Prompted by this short profile in the Guardian upon its recent reissue, which has promptly sold out. And it isn’t available digitally, for some stupid reason. So here you go. #video

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Noises On! #4: It’s catching up

Late with this owing to a busy week: a long-delayed round-up some of my favourite sounds from the last couple of years. Emphasis on the ‘some’, mind you, as all I can think of now are the records I forgot to include. Such is life. #link

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The myth of Tokyo’s PSF Records

An audio tribute by Tristan Bath upon the death of label founder Hideo Ikeezumi. Some beautiful noise here, my favourites being acoustic bass solo improviser Motoharu Yoshizawa and the ghostly Shizuka’s ‘Bloodspattered Blossom’. #link

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Rolling Stone profiles death metal veterans Obituary

Since Rolling Stone is all about embracing subcultures now, whether it be wrestling or whatever, it’s about time they paid tribute to a genre that’s, I don’t know, about 30 years old by my calendar? (Seriously, though, this is a nice sit-down-and-chat, and the new album I’m spinning now is worth a listen.) #link

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The latest episode of Fractured “gets down and dirty" with Limerick-based death metallers Zealot Cult. #video

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The AV Club on metal’s Nazi problem

The headline is unfortunate (the problem is hardly unaddressed; it’s a perennial topic of discussion among metalheads) though the article is a good one. Ah, the moral quandary of separating the art from the artist! But seriously, aside from metal's propensity for permitting transgressive ideas without the attendant responsibility, the article points out the blatant hypocrisy that arises when artists use their art as a platform for their political agenda, even if the art doesn’t relate to it directly. How do you feel about your Burzum records now? #link

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