Once more the Manifesto of Bliss is teaming up with White Rabbit Books at McChuills to bring you the launch of Volcanic Tongue, the first ever collection of multi-award-winning author David Keenans music writing. Keenan has been writing about music since he was seventeen, when he published his first fanzine, inspired by The Pastels and Glasgows (and Airdries) underground music scene. Since then he has written for Spiral Scratch, MXPress, Melody Maker, NME, Mojo, Uncut, The New York Times, Ugly Things and, most consistently, The Wire.
Volcanic Tongue features the best of his reviews, interviews and think pieces, with exclusive in-depth conversations between Keenan and Nick Cave, members of revered industrial bands Coil and Throbbing Gristle, krautrock legends like Faust, Shirley Collins, the first lady of English folk, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, German auto-destructives Einstürzende Neubauten, as well as discographical analysis of the back catalogues of Sonic Youth and John Fahey, extensive writings on free jazz and obsessive in-depth digs into favourites like Pere Ubu, Metal Box-era Public Image Ltd, Sun Ra, John Martyn, Captain Beefheart, 13th Floor Elevators and many more. It is an essential addition to any music fan's bookshelf and a primer for the crème-de-la-crème of avant-garde listening.
This first collection of his much-vaunted criticism functions as an extended love letter to the revolutionary music of the 20th century and the incredible culture that sustained it.
Author, David Keenan, said: Volcanic Tongue is a book about my own personal adventure in modern music and spans the whole of my adult existence, starting from my first musical epiphany when I saw The Pastels live in Glasgow at the age of sixteen in 1987 and was inspired to become a writer, and running up to 2015, when I left The Wire to become a full-time novelist. More than a collection of my music writing from over the years, I hope it functions as a guide to what was one of the most exciting but still relatively undocumented periods of musical revolution, specifically the underground music explosion of the 1990s and early 2000s, while reaching back to join the dots between various vanguard manifestations of folk, blues, psychedelia, industrial music, rock n roll and free jazz. My world was permanently changed when I encountered the writings of the late rock critic Lester Bangs, through the posthumously issued collection of his work, Psychotic Reactions & Carburetor Dung, specifically Greil Marcuss formulation of Bangs writing as being rock n roll as literature and literature as rock n roll, a formula that I dedicated my life to. Volcanic Tongue, then, is the result of that lifelong quest.
Joining David on the night will be long-term friend and collaborator Stephen Pastel, who will be hosting an in-conversation about their combined love of music and DIY art and their experiences over four decades in the underground. Another long-term collaborator and a key player in the Volcanic Tongue universe is Richard Youngs, one of the most defiantly avant garde performers of his generation. Richard will be playing one of his rare and highly unpredictable solo concerts. Stephen Pastel will also drop a DJ set, as will Ribeka, best known for her fearless radio show on NTS and for being a major Volcanic Tongue head. Monorail Music will also be there in person, running a stall where you can get signed copies of the Volcanic Tongue book on the very day of its release.
Steven Gribbin provides the classic MoB visuals on the night.