I don’t find writing about music very fun any more.

Quite possibly I burned myself out by trying to pump out so many reviews. 172 reviews over the course of two and a bit years is a lot, especially when you consider that they tend to be 500-1,000 words each. Call it an average of 700 and that’s 120,000 words, which is the length of a fairly chunky novel. Most of those reviews were pretty hard to write, too. It usually takes me a while to figure out an angle to come at a record from.

This is not to rule out my writing about music ever again. PRs and bands are still sending me stuff and on the off chance that I’m struck by a desire to write about a particular thing, I will do so. In the future I may even get past my burnout and start enjoying it again, as I did with writing about books. Hell, if I ever find myself going the freelance writing route, it might even be a way to earn some money for my writing. But now we’re getting into pipe dream territory and there are plumbers and goombas everywhere.

NFI as a music site ain’t dead. Like old punks, it just smells that way.

I do have a few things coming up in the near future. I’ll be posting my picks from 2011′s fine crop of music soon and I should also have a short review of the late 70s punk rock doc’ Shellshock Rock for you too. I may dabble in quickfire shortform music roundup reviews; I still listen to loads of new records every month and I like to recommend things to people. I will continue to post things here, though they will be more intermittent.

For the most part, however, I’ve decided that I want to focus on what I find most fun, namely writing for Arcadian Rhythms and playing music with my band, Wrecktheplacefantastic. Writing about games has turned out to be an immense source of pleasure and has generated more interesting conversations than any of my writing about music ever has. Similarly playing music in front of people, getting up on stage, travelling around and meeting people, writing and learning new songs, hitting the studio – all of this is also a lot more enjoyable and creative than writing about records made by other people. So I’m going to focus on these things and get better at them… or at least that’s the plan.

Put another way, the route to happiness is to do what you enjoy most. Since I no longer particularly enjoy writing about music, I’m no longer going to force myself to do so. Since I enjoy doing other stuff instead, I’m going to go and do that. The only real source of sadness is firstly that this feels a bit like the end of an era, and secondly that I feel like I’m letting down the folks who read my reviews regularly (I know there are a few of you out there). I hope you find something to like in my other projects.

1. Take classic hardcore punk song from 80s
2. Have it covered by a squeaky clean pop singer
• (Bonus points if he/she is cuter than most punk rockers)
3. Fill entire cover band with guys from 80s hardcore punk bands
4. Get quote from original singer approving of the cover version

In the meantime, I hope yr 2012 has gotten off to a good start. It’s a year with a lot to live up to, huh? 2011 was such a nice, inoffensive, pleasant year all round.

* = 2/3 reviews a week, and towards the end I really started running out of ways to say effectively the same thing in a different, exciting way. I had fun trying, though!

“Now, up until today, most Americans have never heard of the combat Lord’s Resistance Army. And here we are at war with them. Have you ever heard of Lord’s Resistance Army, Dawn? How about you, Brian? Snerdley, have you? You never heard of Lord’s Resistance Army? Well, proves my contention, most Americans have never heard of it, and here we are at war with them. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. It means God.”

Overlooking the detailed record of their brutality and bizarre practices, Mr. Limbaugh then added: “They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops, to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda.”

Now it’s possibly a bit much to be surprised by opportunistic, hypocritical wilful ignorance from that man at this point.

Still, my initial thoughts on reading this were that I wished freedom of the press was coupled with responsibility of the press.

Although that way lies disaster, I know, because who defines nebulous concepts like responsibility? Most likely the very people you wouldn’t want doing so.

So let me rephrase: I do wish freedom of the press was coupled with Rush Limbaugh being on fire.

There have been no genocides targeting people who like Dungeons & Dragons. Liking comic books does not mean you are at a vastly higher statistical risk of domestic violence or rape. Playing video games will not result in your being legally disallowed to marry your partner, and nobody has suggested a constitutional amendment restricting the rights of people who read fantasy paperbacks. Nobody has ever murdered a sexual partner and subsequently given, as the legal defense for said murder, “I found out that he liked Doctor Who.” America is not built on a history of enslaving people because they attended Comic-Con.

I could go on here, but you get the point. Social snottiness is all over; there are jokes about nerds, there are jokes about hipsters (and whole blogs based around goofy pictures or mean blog posts about hipsters), there are jokes about frat-boys and bros and Dave Matthews fans, there are jokes about Goths and metal doodz and everyone else. People judge each other on grounds of taste. That’s life. But — crucially — these are jokes based on choices. Nobody chooses to have a marginalized, oppressed identity. And the historical consequences of having a marginalized, oppressed identity are far more serious than belonging to a subculture that people make jokes about.

(From the comments)

TigerBeatdown.com is my new favourite blog. It is the best. I cannot get enough of funny, right-on feminist writers.

That is all, thanks for reading.

As the astute will have probably gathered from the above, I’m wrapping up my music reviewing. It’s been an absolute blast over the last couple of years, not only in flexing my writing muscles and thinking about ways to articulate my feelings on a ton of different records, but also in listening to some fine music, hearing some fantastic new bands (a number of whom have become firm favourites) and chatting with some great people from various bands, labels and PR companies.

At the time of writing I’ve got about 130 record reviews (albums, EPs, singles and splits) up on NFI, with a bunch more queued and about 50 more records that have been sent to me that I’ve yet to write about. And if your record is among these then don’t worry, I’ll be honouring everything I’ve been sent up until today unless I really can’t think of anything to say about it, which going by past precedent is unlikely as I am an opinionated and rambling son of a bitch. If you’re a fan of reading my record reviews, they’ll still be going up regularly (two or three a week as usual) pretty much until the end of 2011.

I won’t be accepting anything more for review, however. The submissions page has been updated to reflect this.

I have a number of reasons for hanging up my guitar-shaped novelty pen. The first, and most important, is that I want to focus my time and energy on other projects. I want to spend more time getting better at guitar and writing songs for my own band, Wrecktheplacefantasic. I also want to turn my efforts at writing elsewhere; not only a renewed focus on the younger project that is Arcadian Rhythms but also getting back into writing some fiction. Not only that, it would be nice to have more of a social life again. I’ve been hanging on in there – I do regularly enjoy a pint or four and a sprawling conversation with friends – but you’d be surprised how much of your free time music reviewing takes up. I can’t remember the last time I spent a day off from the day job that didn’t involve a few hours of writing-related activities of some kind.

A slightly more shameful reason is that I’ve increasingly found myself with a sensation that I’m beginning to repeat myself, which I suspect is the inevitable result of writing in-depth about a lot of music that faithfully follows in the footsteps of what inspired it. Now, it should be patently obvious from my prior body of writing that I am quite far from having a problem with this. I am not an innovation-or-bust critic and have always tried to engage with music on its own terms or to at least explain why I couldn’t. However, whilst I am quite comfortable with holding this opinion I’m less comfortable with repeatedly restating when I’m supposedly writing about a particular collection of music. It becomes a little dull to essentially repeat yourself, even if you do have an excellent soundtrack at the time.

Anyway, those are my reasons, and I figure I owe it to my readers and my, ahem, suppliers to explain them rather than just stop replying to emails and allow the post schedule to decline as so many blogs and review sites do.

For the record NFI itself will continue going strong (I will inevitably write about whatever I’m up to and continue to post original material here too), and I may even decide to write about records or shows that I have something in particular to say about, but they’ll be sourced by yours truly and written on my whims.

That’s it… goodbye. For now.

It’s the male band members who don’t take you seriously, and when you get upset with how you’re treated, ask you if you’re menstruating. It’s the promoters and planners who screw you, then call you a diva when you assert yourself.  It’s the kids who don’t talk to you after your set, but talk to your male bandmates because they assume you’re only there for show.  It’s the people who think you’re sleeping with the guitarist, the people who assume you’re queer,  or the journalists who mention your weight in reviews.  It’s every single time a producer has told me I can’t play guitar on my own record because “sweetie, you’re not a studio musician” or “sing it again, but naked.”

Most importantly, it’s the baggage I have to carry that my male bandmates don’t. I have to worry about walking to the car alone to grab my guitar; I have to worry about where we are staying and if the strangers who own the floor I’m sleeping on will assault me in the middle of the night, even though it’s unlikely. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve clung to the side of my male bandmates when we’re sleeping, just to feel safe. I can’t drink too much or take a drink from a stranger at an after-party wherever we are staying, because I can’t be out of control.

I’m quoting this bit because it’s among the most immediate and powerful, but I should emphasise that a big part of this article is about not wanting to present oneself as, or be perceived as, a victim. Read the whole thing here. It’s written by Mariel Loveland, who sings and plays guitar in Candy Hearts (reviewed at the tail end of last year, here).

If you’re new to I live sweat… then you may also be interested in this piece by Lauren Denitzio, ex-The Measure [SA] (I think ex-that band, since I read that they were splitting up – which saddened me. They were one of the first bands I reviewed here, all the way back in March 2009). Here’s an excerpt:

I’ll start off by saying that I’m a white cis-female in her late 20’s who identifies as queer, feminist, radical and punk.  I’m speaking from my experiences being a part of a largely DIY poppunk scene for the majority of my life and in a touring band for over six years. A large part of the time, I feel welcomed, supported and accepted within the “punk” circles that I’m a part of.  However, nothing makes me more angry then hearing someone, men specifically, say that the scene isn’t sexist, “because we’re all punks and obviously that’s not cool.” I am far from the only woman-identified person in the room who would like to call bullshit on that statement.  While yes, most of my friends and the spaces I go to do not tolerate obviously sexist, homophobic, racist, able-ist, etc. speech, saying those concepts do not exist in our community is just flat out wrong.  What offends me is not always just the action itself, but the excuse that if you wear the “punk” label that you’re absolved of having done anything wrong because you “didn’t mean it that way.”  I can’t think of a rationale so unproductive.

Both pieces should be read by every punk, whether you’re an arsehole or an ally. There’s always more to learn, more you can do, to make punk rock better for everyone. You dig?

“Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it. God, it was a magical, magical time.”

Yes, and Bon Jovi himself missed out on the magical experience of the family gathering around the piano and sticking on the latest roll.

It’s called “nostalgia”, you pillock. We may be full of it here at NFI but are at least able to recognise it for the rose-tinted bullshit it so often is.

The video is pretty cool and fits the tone of the song really well in my view. Enjoy! It’s embedded below but you may want to click through for an embiggened version, yes?

That Fucking Tank: ‘Mr Blood’ from JakoMat on Vimeo.

On December 1st 2010, Angry Robot will be launching “Nano Editions”. Exclusive to the publisher’s own webstore at angryrobotstore.com, Nanos are digital short stories by Angry Robot novelists, sold at sensible prices in ePub format, ready to load onto the world’s most popular eBook readers.

Most Nanos will be in the 5,000 – 15,000 word range. Shorter works than that will be automatically bundled with another story to ensure value for money.

Talking of which – stories will cost just 59p each (approximately US $0.95). Readers can bundle a collection of any 10 by any combination of authors, for only £3.49 (US$5.59). The files will be DRM-free and available worldwide. If demand for the stories takes off, AR plan to also sell them via eBook retailers.

Okay, I’m sure that Amazon et al are already operating something similar, but I like that this exists. The short story form has the potential to be one of the most exciting literary mediums, but its level of exposure outside of existing -zine fans and established-name collections is not great. Anything that pushes for a reversal of that trend is good news in my book (sorry, my Nano).

Obviously a small imprint with a small number of staff won’t want to start offering too many short stories through their store – it would take too much staff time away from other areas, they obviously want to boost exposure of their own authors and try to cross-sell other fiction, etcetera – but it’s a promising step forwards and I look forward to seeing where the next footstep falls.