the bathroom bible
my man and i, we both read in the bathroom.
i almost need to read something in order to relax, even for the quickest pee. if nothing else is available i will read the ingredients on the soap bottle or the blurb on the toothpaste tube, over and over.
one of the joys of our current house is furniture right in front of the bowl. you open a shutter and everything we could possibly want while sitting there is available: rolls and rolls of toilet paper, menstrual pads of all kinds and, of course, reading material. if something needs to be read by both, it is left there, and it will be probably discussed in the kitchen, over the dinner, or cited during brief relaxing moments throughout the day.
a book that recursively ends in the bathroom is a journalistic account of record label Creation's story, David Cavanagh's My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize.
it's a big book that works wonderfully as a random access read, since it is made up of bits and pieces, anecdotes, citations. you can start reading at the beginning of any paragraph, and it will mostly make sense and be enjoyable. the only drawback is the sheer amount of names, of characters, but those come and go at such speed that the lack of their exact placement in the whole picture won't nullify the pleasure of the pee-long read. you basically just need to know that Alan McGee is the man, the president of the Creation, an english independent record label that began in the mid-80's as a pop-psychedelia imprint and went on to launch the careers of Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, The Boo Radleys, Ride, The House of Love, Super Furry Animals, Oasis.
the tone of the book is dry, slightly sarcastic and very unsympathetic, dressed for maximum effect with rather charged quotes. it will give us tons of bits of unuseful information on people who made music we love and an ironic, funny thing to share when we walk out of the bathroom. it's the closest to reading gossip i ever went.
the last bit i read, i want to share it with you:
the House of Love made their first single, 'shine on', at Livingstone Studios. for the two-day recording, McGee took a co-producer's role with the band's singer and guitarist Guy Chadwick.as a producer, McGee knew only one trick: reverb, short for reverberation, a favourite effect of the [Jesus and] Mary Chain. 'More reverb... more,' McGee kept insisting until the definition of 'shine on' was blurred enough to appease his indie-tuned ears.
written by Chadwick, 'shine on' was a haunted allegory in the spirit of Blue Oyster Cult's 'don't fear the reaper'. even with so much reverb, Chadwick's deep voice and lead guitarist's Terry Bickers' tintinnabulary motifs surfaced effortlessly, interlocking four times on the cyclical, locomotive choruses. on the first evening, as everyone sat down to dinner in good humour, McGee made an announcement.
'Yvonne had cooked us lasagne' recalls bassist Chris Groothuizer, 'and as we start to eat, Alan looks at us and goes: "I have just signed the best band in the world." and we look at each other and think: wow, what a nice thing to say. and he goes: "they're called Blow Up." I honestly thought: you fucking twat. how can you, in the middle of our fist single, just announce that you've signed the best band in the world - and it's somebody else?'
i almost need to read something in order to relax, even for the quickest pee. if nothing else is available i will read the ingredients on the soap bottle or the blurb on the toothpaste tube, over and over.
one of the joys of our current house is furniture right in front of the bowl. you open a shutter and everything we could possibly want while sitting there is available: rolls and rolls of toilet paper, menstrual pads of all kinds and, of course, reading material. if something needs to be read by both, it is left there, and it will be probably discussed in the kitchen, over the dinner, or cited during brief relaxing moments throughout the day.
a book that recursively ends in the bathroom is a journalistic account of record label Creation's story, David Cavanagh's My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize.
it's a big book that works wonderfully as a random access read, since it is made up of bits and pieces, anecdotes, citations. you can start reading at the beginning of any paragraph, and it will mostly make sense and be enjoyable. the only drawback is the sheer amount of names, of characters, but those come and go at such speed that the lack of their exact placement in the whole picture won't nullify the pleasure of the pee-long read. you basically just need to know that Alan McGee is the man, the president of the Creation, an english independent record label that began in the mid-80's as a pop-psychedelia imprint and went on to launch the careers of Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, The Boo Radleys, Ride, The House of Love, Super Furry Animals, Oasis.
the tone of the book is dry, slightly sarcastic and very unsympathetic, dressed for maximum effect with rather charged quotes. it will give us tons of bits of unuseful information on people who made music we love and an ironic, funny thing to share when we walk out of the bathroom. it's the closest to reading gossip i ever went.
the last bit i read, i want to share it with you:
the House of Love made their first single, 'shine on', at Livingstone Studios. for the two-day recording, McGee took a co-producer's role with the band's singer and guitarist Guy Chadwick.as a producer, McGee knew only one trick: reverb, short for reverberation, a favourite effect of the [Jesus and] Mary Chain. 'More reverb... more,' McGee kept insisting until the definition of 'shine on' was blurred enough to appease his indie-tuned ears.
written by Chadwick, 'shine on' was a haunted allegory in the spirit of Blue Oyster Cult's 'don't fear the reaper'. even with so much reverb, Chadwick's deep voice and lead guitarist's Terry Bickers' tintinnabulary motifs surfaced effortlessly, interlocking four times on the cyclical, locomotive choruses. on the first evening, as everyone sat down to dinner in good humour, McGee made an announcement.
'Yvonne had cooked us lasagne' recalls bassist Chris Groothuizer, 'and as we start to eat, Alan looks at us and goes: "I have just signed the best band in the world." and we look at each other and think: wow, what a nice thing to say. and he goes: "they're called Blow Up." I honestly thought: you fucking twat. how can you, in the middle of our fist single, just announce that you've signed the best band in the world - and it's somebody else?'