David Keenan on Volcanic Tongue
In this episode, recorded live at Edinburgh’s awesome Portobello Bookshop, we’re singing the praises of David Keenan’s latest mind-melding trip of a book - and they all are, incidentally - from his esoteric musical odyssey England’s Hidden Reverse, to the award-winning 1970s Belfast fever-dream For The Good Times - not to mention the iconic This Is Memorial Device - which a novel, theatre show, and online community devoted to post-punk, small towns, fanzines, mad dreams, and the infinite possibilities of - well, everything…
David’s latest thrill, Volcanic Tongue - a time-travelling evangelist’s guide to Late 20th Century Underground Music - collects his music writing for The Wire among other publications, including deep-dives into the worlds, and lives, and music, and alchemy, of Sun Ra, Sonic Youth, Faust, John Martyn and Throbbing Gristle.
It takes its title from the mythical Glasgow shop that David ran with his wife - the pedal steel phenomenon and musical visionary Heather Leigh - and it was also the title of a weekly newsletter - but we’ll come to that…
Volcanic Tongue (out now, via the fab White Rabbit Books) is a psychoactive love letter to underground music, literature, science fiction, and to life’s wild moments and miracles… its sonic booms and zodiac workshops, its 70s porn stars and new, old weird folk, its tangerine dreams and acid house reveries… the magic of our day-to-day…
But enough from me - let’s hear from David, and our lovely audience on a rainy and dark old night in deepest Portobello… Thanks so much again to Euan and everyone at their totally iconic shop - and thanks to you, if you came along - or asked a question…
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