Description
Chatty, devouring, circuit-bent and tenderhearted, David Roeder’s music writing creates the perfect atmosphere for thinking about the things he’s asking us to think about. Like what happens when many people love the same record for wildly different reasons, different enough reasons that it feels like an argument? Or what happens after we know enough biographical details about a songwriter to concretise their songs? Is there a way to measure the impact of simple surprise when gauging our enjoyment of a record? And what exactly is the purpose of music writing? I think the most telling and enjoyable parts of this book are the pages where Roeder keeps insisting he cannot figure out how to write about Grouper. That could feel like a trick, or a strategy, but here it just feels like generosity, a cool shelter for thinking about music in another way. Roeder writes about favorites only – Alice Coltrane, David Berman, Alex Chilton, Sleater-Kinney – these are all artists that I, for example, have strong opinions about. Maybe I would even consider them unshakable opinions? But Roeder asks questions and builds contexts with such warmth and breadth of thinking that Watercolor of Jandek Debut has given me all these new thoughts, taught me all these new things to admire.
9.75 inches x 8 inches, 116 pages, perfect bound. Includes a fold out poster. First edition of 200 copies.
Published by The Grass Is Green In The Fields For You, Glasgow
