Keenan, David – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk Henley-on-Thames Mon, 14 Jul 2025 09:57:10 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Bell-Background-Blue-32x32.png Keenan, David – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk 32 32 Volcanic tongue https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/volcanic-tongue/ Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=46134 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 Einstürzende 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.

]]> Xstabeth https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/xstabeth/ Tue, 23 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=18400 INCLUDES ‘PREQUEL’ THE TOWER THE FIELDS THE TRANSMITTERS

‘This book spoke, it said “read me” from the very first sentence as if it were alive, it gave me visceral joy’ Kim Gordon

‘Reading [Xstabeth] feels like being cut open to the accompanying sound of ecstatic music’ Edna O’Brien

‘Prepare for more of that inimitable Keenan narrative voodoo brilliance’ Wendy Erskine

In St Petersburg, Russia, Aneliya is torn between the love of her father and her father’s best friend. Her father dreams of becoming a great musician but suffers with a naivete that means he will never be taken seriously. Her father’s best friend has a penchant for vodka, strip clubs and moral philosophy.

When an angelic presence named Xstabeth enters their lives – a presence who simultaneously fulfils and disappears those she touches – Aneliya and her father’s world is transformed.

Moving from Russia to St Andrews, Scotland, Xstabeth tackles the metaphysics of golf, the mindset of classic Russian novels and the power of art and music to re-wire reality. Charged with a consuming intensity and a torrential rhythm that pulses with music, it is an offering of transcendence and a love letter to the books of Chandler, Nabokov and Dostoevsky, by a writer who is rewriting the rulebook of contemporary fiction.

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