David Keenan - Volcanic Tongue: A Time-Travelling Evangelist's Guide to Late 20th Century Underground Music

Hardback book. Signed by the author.

Back again for another attempt at my Oprah/Dua Lipa book club spiel, this time with a weighty collection of music critic-cum-novelist David Keenan’s music writing.

Co-proprietor of the Volcanic Tongue store (from which this book draws its name) with his partner Heather Leigh Murray, Keenan would write about every release they stocked for the shop newsletter, relying on words rather than listening samples to do the selling (a slight note… it appears to me that the bulk of this collection is comprised of Keenan’s features and interviews for magazines such as Wire rather than the VT newsletter).

To be fully honest, I am yet to finish reading this tome. However, I have enjoyed the deep dives that it has offered so far into such underground characters as Brotzmann and Jandek, and into the worlds of New Weird America (and looking forward to such genre-defining passages as Keenan’s writing on hypnogocic pop). Keenan does as all music writers should (and don’t always achieve): to tease apart the music in a manner that makes want to listen to the yet to be listened to and to reach to old favourites for a new perspective.

What this book seems to represent and illustrate is primarily how the worlds and activities Keenan describes must be actively continued. In the decade or so following the period that this collection covers, the scenes and characters he documents have become increasingly difficult to sustain (precarity of work, cost of living, gradual erosion of a sustainable touring economy for those sitting left of field - just try imagining a Brotzmann that emerges in the 2020s, the conditions that allowed for him to be such a touring figure of avant-garde music are just no longer there).

As far as I’ve read, Keenan does not exactly address this but you can feel it lurking between the lines of some stories, a kind of nostalgia for what was (and for the optimists among us, a hope for what could be). Maybe this feels even more apparent to me after trying in vein to secure copies of accompanying compilation LP/CD set from a major local distributor who a responsible for releases on this particular essentially decided they were not going to provide copies to Australia (even though the comp collects an Australian artist in Elli & Bev).

What I’m getting at here is that this book is not merely a nostalgia trip or a victory lap. Rather, it’s a reminder that while conditions may have shifted, a sustainable underground is still possible through a direct engagement with weirdos, oddballs, and visionaries outside of industry forces. –Mitch

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Volcanic Tongue presents the first ever collection of multi-award-winning author David Keenan's music writings. Keenan has been writing about music since publishing his first fanzine, inspired by The Pastels and by Glasgow (and Airdrie's) DIY music scene, in 1988. Since then, he has written about music for Melody Maker, NME, Uncut, Mojo, The New York Times, Ugly Things, The Literary Review, The Social and, most consistently, The Wire. Volcanic Tongue was also the name of the record shop and mail order that Keenan ran with his partner, Heather Leigh, in Glasgow from 2005-2015.

Volcanic Tongue features the best of his reviews, interviews and think pieces, with exclusive in-depth conversations between Keenan and Nick Cave, members of legendary 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 groups like Sonic Youth and musicians like 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, guitarist and vocalist John Martyn and many more. It is an essential addition to any music fan's bookshelf.

This first collection of his legendary criticism functions as an extended love letter to the revolutionary music of the 20th century and the incredible culture that sustained it.