Archive for August, 2007
Rockhaunter: Your No. 1 Site for Hauntiquarianism Not Hauntology!
All available issues of my musical newsletter, Rockhunter, are now ready to read. You’ll find them under Rockhunter on the Writing page.
Read loads of reviews of records you’ve never heard of! Hear all about the C86 revival that happened without anyone noticing! Wince at pop chauvinism in the past (through Creation Records spearheading a British backlash to US college rock)!! Sneer at my location of Al-Andalus as home of the blues!!! Tut at my evocation of the sublimity of repetition through repeated listening to generic psych!!!! And pin back yer eyelids to take in the interplay between antiquarianism, popular music, fictional history and tradition.
Any thoughts and comments welcome.
The latest issue, No. 37, is now available here for free. In this episode, I’m arguing for space and simultaneity, seeking a way beyond antiquarianism, while retaining the vital amateurism of independent research, and beyond Hauntology, which sounds fine but is a reinvention of historicism without the science. Issue No. 37 is a special edition introducing Hauntiquarianism and establishing Rockhunter as a hauntiquarian publication.
Having discovered I’m a hauntiquarian, via contemporary discussions of hauntology, I’m arguing the case for an approach to the sublimity of repetition that finds a space for the completed arguments of people in the past. Let’s let the voices through. Do we really want return to the ventriloquism of high modernism?
Basically, I’m taking issue with hauntology, which, in its current phase, discusses cultural artefacts and cultural trends as spectral ciphers of iteration. I’m concerned that hauntologists are doing a lot of regarding landscapes and worrying about the sublimity of repetition and not much else. It’s time to offer them a way out of their existemporal quandary. Hence Hauntiquarianism!
Yes, I am a hauntiquarian. Next time you want to read this publication, search for “Rockhaunter”.
The Editor
Read Rockhunter, Issue 37, 31 August 2007. Out now.
Posted by Neil
on August 31, 2007 at 8:31 am
Tags: Music, hauntiquarianism, hauntology
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Site update
The first stage of creating viewable pages is complete. The next step will be a slight redesign of the layout, not least because my great idea of having grey text on white is not as classy as I thought it’d be.
Primarily, though, from now on this home page is where you’ll find my blog, with very occasional and very unobtrusive site update information.
All the best
Neil
Posted by Neil
on August 30, 2007 at 10:19 am
Tags: site update
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Fire Dept: hidden history and forgotten knowledge
Last week I finally wrote a Wikipedia entry for Fire Dept, this punk rock band I used to be in. With hindsight, we weren’t as unpopular at the time as we thought; it just seemed that way due to playing to silent huddles of individuals, rather than cheering crowds.
If you go here, you’ll be able to download all the Fire Dept’s tunes for free for the time being.
Posted by Neil
on August 12, 2007 at 10:40 am
Tags: Fire Dept, Music, antiquarianism
1 comment | Permalink