As a general rule of thumb my only criterion for pursuing a particular avenue of music is that I discover people enthusing over it. It's not that I'm incapable of drawing lines between disparate musics (well I have a good crack) but that tends to come afterwards. Enthusisasm is infectious. If you ask 10 people what their favourite record was, and you went out and hunted out those records, respective of genre you'd come back from safari with 10 great interesting records.
Which brings me to my colleague Jay at Agony Shorthand. Jay seems to occupy a parrallel universe to me. I dig many of his reference points: Wire, Crime, Minutemen, Pussy Galore, The Birthday Party, Numbers and the Blues. Jay has a very defined aesthetic, kind of Post-Rock without studio frippery. I can tell he's someone who is open-minded. Actually I bet he thinks the same of me, that I'm on some particular tip. I'd like to swallow Jay whole, that's to say engulf his influences in my own (guiltily: Isn't that what everyone does?), or write him off as anachronistic (I've too much respect for his passions to do so).
If we're going to break this down culturally I'd say that Jay is someone of the Joe Carducci school. I'll bet Jay has absolutely no truck with "Dance" music or its spawn. He'd probably disagree. I imagine he thinks I'm of the Simon Reynold's Academy. I'd have to completely disagree with that. Preposterous suggestion!
Posted by Woebot at May 8, 2003 08:03 AM