Volcanic Tongue
A Time-Travelling Evangelist’s Guide to Late 20th-Century Underground Music
Author: David Keenan
A collection of multi-award-winning author David Keenan's best music writing
9th June 2025
Hardcover
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
A collection of multi-award-winning author David Keenan's best music writing
Description
Volcanic Tongue presents the first ever collection of multi-award-winning author David Keenan's music writings. Keenan has been writing about music since publishing his first fanzine, inspired by The Pastels and by Glasgow (and Airdrie's) DIY music scene, in 1988. Since then, he has written about music for Melody Maker, NME, Uncut, Mojo, The New York Times, Ugly Things, The Literary Review, The Social and, most consistently, The Wire. Volcanic Tongue was also the name of the record shop and mail order that Keenan ran with his partner, Heather Leigh, in Glasgow from 2005-2015.
Volcanic Tongue features the best of his reviews, interviews and think pieces, with exclusive in-depth conversations between Keenan and Nick Cave, members of legendary industrial bands Coil and Throbbing Gristle, krautrock legends like Faust, Shirley Collins, the first lady of English folk, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, German auto-destructives Einsturzende Neubauten, as well as discographical analysis of the back catalogues of groups like Sonic Youth and musicians like John Fahey, extensive writings on free jazz and obsessive in-depth digs into favourites like Pere Ubu, Metal Box-era Public Image Ltd, Sun Ra, guitarist and vocalist John Martyn and many more. It is an essential addition to any music fan's bookshelf.This first collection of his legendary criticism functions as an extended love letter to the revolutionary music of the 20th century and the incredible culture that sustained it.Critic Reviews
David Keenan is one of the few writers I know of who had to exist because we could never have invented him. His music writing helped change how I understand my own work. A wizard, a true star Bruce Russell (The Dead C)
David Keenan's books are just off-the-charts mind-bogglingly brilliant and I encourage everyone to read them all! William Basinski
David Keenan is a fabulous music writer - words zigzag off the page in magical trails that make you want to laugh and cry and remember why you fell in love with music in the first place. Most music books I want to say, stop explaining, stop researching - just stop full stop. Read something by David Keenan and then come back with something as good as that - if you can Stephen Pastel
Volcanic Tongue presents David Keenan as the progeny of Lester Bangs and more - Keenan punctures the world of underground music with a TV eye, and a Pandora's box of visceral magic pours on to the page. His descriptor for the musics match his writing with words that 'open on forever' Adele Bertei
Volcanic Tongue is a colossal triumph. This high-velocity love letter to the twentieth century avant-garde is thrillingly alive; the work of a true rock and roll evangelist, full of fire and delight. If you don't think that a book about late-twentieth century underground music is for you, I would ask you to reconsider. Because I predict that you'll be thrilled, energised even, by the sheer charge of these pages. You might even find yourself seeking out some of the music you have encountered. Volcanic Tongue is that precious and magical thing: joy in writing, joy in rock and roll Wendy Erskine
A thing of absolute beauty. If like me you love truly original voices evangelising about music and its profound effect on society, look no further than Mr Keenan. You will not be disappointed David Holmes
A celebration of obsessives, misfits and single-minded outsiders, itʼs a chunky tome that could make readers question their ideas of what good music is and what itʼs for, and give them the sense of a whole world of extraordinary sounds waiting to be discovered. The Herald
'Keenan is an insightful guide in breaching these hitherto impenetrable worlds . . . [his] mythopoeic gift is given free rein' The Wire
About the Author
David Keenan is the author of six critically-acclaimed novels; the cult classic This is Memorial Device, which won the London Magazine Prize; For the Good Times, which won the Gordon Burn Prize and was shortlisted for the Encore Award; The Towers The Fields The Transmitters, Xstabeth, which was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, Monument Maker, which was a Rough Trade Book of the Year and Industry of Magic & Light. He is also the author of England's Hidden Reverse, a history of the UK's post-punk and Industrial music scenes. He has been writing about music since he was seventeen years old, most consistently for The Wire, and between the years 2005-2015 he co-ran the cult Glasgow record shop Volcanic Tongue.
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9th June 2025
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