don't forget to dance

don't forget to dance - front and badges, originally uploaded by unpop.

So yes, I made a fanzine. Real paper and everything. With a badge. Natch. I don’t know why really. Maybe just because and there can be no better reason than that after all. I don’t know how it stands up. I doubt anyone will be interested. There are no interviews with indiepop bands, after all, just ramblings from me, much the same as you’ll find here. And not to speak ill of any other fanzines, but it’s just… just, well you see that was never what I liked in fanzines anyway. I mean, I’ve written about all this to death in the past, and there is nothing to add really except that the fanzines I always loved were the ones that didn’t want to talk to groups. Were the ones that had a startling, singular voice. The ones that just wheeled out interviews? Lost in the pile, man, lost in the pile.

Other people feel the opposite of course, as they should. No right and wrong. Except they are wrong and I’m right. Obviously.

There is a froth of interest in fanzines again it seems. That’s nice. I like the fact that there are people wanting to make things, people who want to hold things. Are we entering a phase where the digital and the analogue are coming together in some kind of self-supportive nature? I don’t know. Maybe it’s just fashion. I liked what Pil and Galia said in Plan B about that book which celebrates the (death of) the independent record store. How they consider that perhaps the very thing that has killed the independent record store (the digital download) is the very thing that has saved the independent record label. Perhaps that is true. We shall see.

All I know is I mourn the death of the old Binary Star record store in my fanzine, just as I did on Leigh’s radio show the other month. More than that though I despair of the culture of specialism, of ever increasing compartmentalisation. Will we ever emerge from this period where ever-smaller micro-genres are defined by the ever-decreasing areas that mark the cross-pollination between other ever-smaller micro-genres on the Venn diagram of Popular Culture? And does anyone really care?

Well, whatever, I’m ready to stand up and fight for the right to remain resolutely unpopular and outside of the hipster crowd whilst embracing a multititude of interests, influence, loves and hates. Shouldn’t be too hard a fight, should it? (And if by doing that ironically I paint myself into one of those aforementioned micro-genres, well, maybe that’s the way it’s got to be)

Still, should you want to buy a copy of the fanzine (or anything else that’s up for grabs) you should check out the new ‘things to buy’ page of this blog. There should be a link on the left there, right above the Last.FM ‘recently played’ widget. From there you can go to the Etsy or Folksy stores and buy, buy, buy.

Comments

[Stu]

What is the title of that book that celebrates independent record stores?

[me]

That would be 'Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop' published by Black Dog Publishing.