The sad fact of the writing & publishing world now is that the enormous investment of time and effort it takes to write a book can lead to a great big nothing in terms of publisher uptake, sales, reviews and all the other good things you daydream about on the long journey to the completion of a manuscript. So Bill “Not Bored” Brown has put together his second book and Colossal Books of Cincinatti Ohio have published it, a slick, professional collection of previews and reviews from the years 81-84 when Bill wrote for the Ann Arbor News, The Metro Times & The Michigan Voice called You Should’ve Heard What I Just Seen and its of potential interest/enjoyment to anyone anywhere who’s into punk, 80’s pop, or just about any style of contemporary or recent music you might care to name. Personally I found as much interest and entertainment in his responses to the disposable and nearly forgotten or nowadays underrated likes of Patrice Rushen, The Gap Band & Prince as the still feted punk, post-punk & Hardcore likes of The Gang Of Four, The Ramones, Talking Heads & the Replacements etc. Given the format of daily/weekly publication, there’s nothing quite as stunning or as deeply insightful as you’ll find on the Not Bored website (cf. Bills’ Nirvana essay), but there are hints of his more recent obsessions/activities - a namecheck & recommendation to track down Vaneigem's Revolution Of Everyday Life as well as quite sweet, sympathetic reviews of lesbian-feminist (but not seperatist) artists & old style folkies. All in all a pleasant & richly textured read. Highly recommended.
Ultra-151, 4 November 2010.
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