Skip to main content

More about that book title . . .

I touched on the book's title in an earlier post, but I only really touched on the main title, Post, and not the second part, An Anthology of American Post-Hardcore/Whatever-You-Call-It-Core 1985-2005. Here's a breakdown of the second part:

An Anthology of
My book is not meant to be the only history of this genre, hence the 'an' and not a 'the' in the title. Maybe it's because of reading a lot of articles by this guy that I truly believe that there is no such thing as one historical account of things in the past. I'm not speaking for everyone involved; I'm seeing it through my own eyes, my own experiences and my research and relating them to what I feel is pertinent to talk about in the long run. Think of it as my view with a lot of other views but not law.

American Post-Hardcore/Whatever-You-Call-It-Core
This genre has many names: emo, spazz and math rock are just some of them. Since my book is more about the ideas of Do It Yourself that sprouted out of the '80s in the US and spread through the '90s, I feel it's best to leave out the dreaded 'e' word from the title. 'Post-hardcore' is a better and broader word to use. It doesn't sound cheesy and it's way more representative of where these bands and labels were coming from. The focus is on thinking for yourself, not crying your eyes out. 'Whatever-You-Call-It-Core' is thrown in there to show the open-ended interpretation of what the genre means. There are people that think Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, Weezer, Braid and Rites of Spring should all belong in the same sentence together. I disagree. Singing about your frustrations with people (friends, family, lovers) and longing for simpler times is nothing new. The Four Tops sang about this stuff; so did Roy Orbison and so did Air Supply. The list is endless and it knows no one genre or time in history.

1985-2005
1985 is essentially the starting year due to the so-called Revolution Summer in Washington DC. Bands like Rites of Spring, Embrace and Dag Nasty had something different with their interpretation of punk and hardcore. They weren't the only bands doing this but their influence was monumental in the coming years. I think 2005 is a good stopping point at twenty years: a whole generation (or two) has passed.

I know a lot of books on rock music have titles inspired by song lyrics, song titles or album titles, but I choose to stay away from that. I don't feel like it's really my title if it's from another title. Believe you me, I had considered titles like History I Don't Believe (from Jawbox's "Mirrorful"), Forever Got Shorter (from the Braid song of the same name) and No Division (from the Hot Water Music album of the same name) but I felt Post was the best all-emcompassing title.

Comments

Eric said…
Well said. Sounds like the book will be a smash hit. Good specific title. You know what you are getting into when you pick the book up. forever got Shorter woulda been good though.

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Best of 2021

  Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks.  (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do.  J