Archive for October, 2006
Junior Boys
Of all the emotions which pop music can convey, the most difficult to mine is melancholy. You can get away with it for a song or two, but aim for more, and you risk becoming maudlin or outright silly. Occasionally, an exception comes along to prove the rule: such is the Junior Boys’ new album, So This Is Goodbye.
J.G. Ballard
Literary trends and cults come and go, but for 50 years now, James Graham Ballard has been one of the coolest authors on the planet. The artists he has influenced show the wide reach of his bizarre, provocative and unsettling work. They include fellow transgressive authors like Martin Amis and Will Self, as well as disparate directors David Cronenberg (who adapted Ballard’s 1973 novel Crash) and Steven Spielberg (who filmed the author’s 1987 book Empire of the Sun). Perhaps most fascinating, however, has been Ballard’s influence on modern music.
