A mesmerizing record such as My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" deserves a far better chronicling than Mike McGonigal's entry to the "33 1/3" series. With so much time, money, and effort having gone into the writing and recording of the album discussed herein, one would think that a fan or aficionado of said piece might deserve substantially more than a few personal anecdotes strung together with some text gleaned from "soft-ball question" interviews. One would, apparently, be wrong.
McGonigal's major folly has been duly noted in several user reviews on this site that appeared prior to this one; if I'm not mistaken, the headline below mine screams, "Too much McGonigal, not enough MBV." That's a pretty succinct summation. To be more specific, though, this book reads like a report written by an over-enthusiastic high-school senior who has just discovered the work of Lester Bangs, and it's pretty obvious that the author of this piece is excited to be writing something that he knows SOMEONE will be reading. Thus, it seems he lets his own ego gets the better of him.
Between gratitous and blatant name-dropping (bands/artists referenced on pages 6-8: Dinosaur Jr, Flipper, G.G. Allin, Throbbing Gristle, Charlie Patton, Lou Reed, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Maryanne Amacher, and the Sun City Girls; we get it dude, you like indie rock) and superfluous personal anecdotes (if you want to know what drugs the author was using or selling and when, check out page 17, which falls in the middle of a four-page "chapter" that's supposed to name and describe each of the individual tracks that comprise "Loveless"), McGonigal's narrative is a big, sloppy mess. Had I been the editor to whom the manuscript for this book was entrusted, I'd have told this kid to get himself a LiveJournal and forget the idea of ever seeing his words in print outside of the blogosphere. The most ingenuitive thing happening throughout the course of this text is the author's decision to name each chapter after a My Bloody Valentine song. Cosmic, man!
The second problem I encountered when reading this frustrating excuse for a book was McGonigal's frequent and mostly baseless statements of opinion. The author states early on that he can't think of another band "that went from sucking so incredibly hard to being so flat-out great," with no apparent verification or validation of such judgement. For what it's worth, I happen to think that two of the tracks from the "Strawberry Wine" EP and many of those that comprise the "Ecstacy" EP are, if not the stuff of greatness, then certainly very pleasant indicators of what would soon follow. Does my opposing view give me the last word on the subject? No, without some sort of supporting statements or evidence, it rings as hollow as McGonigal's pointless "I was there, man" assertions.
The only valuable portions of this book are the direct quotes taken from interviews conducted by the author and three quarters of the band sometime in 2005(drummer/composer Colm O'Coisig was apparently unavailable for comment). Admittedly, given the typical silence from the MBV camp, fans from around the globe should be grateful that such candid remarks were ever made public. However, even those remarks should probably have been edited and structured in a meaningful way. As it stands, the book often allows Kevin Shields' somewhat stream-of-consciousness rambling to occupy page after self-contradictory page. It's not that I think the man is a liar or a fool; far from it, I think (as is often the case) that the artist's current assessment of his own work is as valid as that of a major fan's, due largely to the state he was in at the time he made the record. (For further reference, see anything Keith Richards has to say about "Exile on Main Street" or Neil Young's comments regarding "Tonight's the Night.")
Let's hope that someone else reads this 118 pages of damn-near-nonsense and, possessed by as much anger as me but four times as much ambition, decides to PROPERLY write down for posterity the story of this band and the creation of their undeniable meisterwerk, the eternally beautiful and enigmatic "Loveless." Honestly, I'd rather gaze at my shoes...
McGonigal's major folly has been duly noted in several user reviews on this site that appeared prior to this one; if I'm not mistaken, the headline below mine screams, "Too much McGonigal, not enough MBV." That's a pretty succinct summation. To be more specific, though, this book reads like a report written by an over-enthusiastic high-school senior who has just discovered the work of Lester Bangs, and it's pretty obvious that the author of this piece is excited to be writing something that he knows SOMEONE will be reading. Thus, it seems he lets his own ego gets the better of him.
Between gratitous and blatant name-dropping (bands/artists referenced on pages 6-8: Dinosaur Jr, Flipper, G.G. Allin, Throbbing Gristle, Charlie Patton, Lou Reed, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Maryanne Amacher, and the Sun City Girls; we get it dude, you like indie rock) and superfluous personal anecdotes (if you want to know what drugs the author was using or selling and when, check out page 17, which falls in the middle of a four-page "chapter" that's supposed to name and describe each of the individual tracks that comprise "Loveless"), McGonigal's narrative is a big, sloppy mess. Had I been the editor to whom the manuscript for this book was entrusted, I'd have told this kid to get himself a LiveJournal and forget the idea of ever seeing his words in print outside of the blogosphere. The most ingenuitive thing happening throughout the course of this text is the author's decision to name each chapter after a My Bloody Valentine song. Cosmic, man!
The second problem I encountered when reading this frustrating excuse for a book was McGonigal's frequent and mostly baseless statements of opinion. The author states early on that he can't think of another band "that went from sucking so incredibly hard to being so flat-out great," with no apparent verification or validation of such judgement. For what it's worth, I happen to think that two of the tracks from the "Strawberry Wine" EP and many of those that comprise the "Ecstacy" EP are, if not the stuff of greatness, then certainly very pleasant indicators of what would soon follow. Does my opposing view give me the last word on the subject? No, without some sort of supporting statements or evidence, it rings as hollow as McGonigal's pointless "I was there, man" assertions.
The only valuable portions of this book are the direct quotes taken from interviews conducted by the author and three quarters of the band sometime in 2005(drummer/composer Colm O'Coisig was apparently unavailable for comment). Admittedly, given the typical silence from the MBV camp, fans from around the globe should be grateful that such candid remarks were ever made public. However, even those remarks should probably have been edited and structured in a meaningful way. As it stands, the book often allows Kevin Shields' somewhat stream-of-consciousness rambling to occupy page after self-contradictory page. It's not that I think the man is a liar or a fool; far from it, I think (as is often the case) that the artist's current assessment of his own work is as valid as that of a major fan's, due largely to the state he was in at the time he made the record. (For further reference, see anything Keith Richards has to say about "Exile on Main Street" or Neil Young's comments regarding "Tonight's the Night.")
Let's hope that someone else reads this 118 pages of damn-near-nonsense and, possessed by as much anger as me but four times as much ambition, decides to PROPERLY write down for posterity the story of this band and the creation of their undeniable meisterwerk, the eternally beautiful and enigmatic "Loveless." Honestly, I'd rather gaze at my shoes...
