THE ONLY WAY WE KNEW HOW TO DO IT WAS THE WAY THAT WE DID IT – AN INTERVIEW WITH THE BELLRAYS

Posted on March 21, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Community, Music That Matters and tagged Alternative Tentacles, America, Black Lightning, blues, bob dylan, Bob Vennum, country, featured, Fireballs of Freedom, Fuzzy Vox, genre, independent, jazz, LA, Lisa Kelaula, live music, lyrics, MC5, mission statement, MTM, music, music review, music that matters, music venue, norwich, Norwich Arts Centre, political music, politics, Punk Fuck Rock Soul Vol 1, Punk Fuck Rock Soul Vol 2, Riverside, rock and roll, rock n roll, self published, Staple Singers, Strokes, The 45s, The BellRays, up and coming, Upper Cut, White Stripes.

by Rowan Gavin

Since their formation in the early ‘90s, Californian Rock & Rollers The BellRays have befuddled the expectations of music media and the industry, just as much as they have thrilled audiences. They’ve taken an open-minded approach to the genre that has defined American music for the past seven decades, and they’ve been an independent outfit that whole time.

The BellRays have self-published their nine albums through a variety of independent labels, including Upper Cut and Alternative Tentacles. 2017 saw the release of EP Punk Funk Rock Soul vol 1, the long-awaited follow up to 2010’s Black Lightning, and last month gave us the album-length Punk Funk Rock Soul vol 2. I caught up with Lisa Kelaula & Bob Vennum, the band’s permanent members, before they went on stage at Norwich Arts Centre last Friday.Continue Reading

GEORGE OF THE DEAD: THE RADICAL CINEMA OF GEORGE A. ROMERO

Posted on July 19, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged 28 Days Later, arts, Bill Hinzman, capitalism, cinema, Dawn of the Dead, director, Duane Jones, film, folklore, frankenstein, genre, George A Romero, George Romero, Haiti, horde, horror, In the Flesh, Land of the Dead, legend, Martin, mary schelley, message, monsters, movie, Night of the Living Dead, Reagan, Richard Matheson, shuffle, story, supernatural, The Crazies, the walking dead, Train to Busan., Trump, undead, vampire, z-movie, zombie, zombies.

by Jack Brindelli

George A. Romero passed away in his sleep on 16th of June 2017, after a short battle with cancer, at the age of 77. Over a long, incredible career spanning five decades, Romero rightly earned his reputation as a, perhaps the, Master of Horror.

Through films like bio-weapon conspiracy The Crazies (1973) and Martin (1978) – a film where a young man whom today’s media would undoubtedly call a ‘disturbed loner’ indulged his patriarchal privilege, through vampiric acts of sexual violence – Romero drew out the political unconscious that underpins so much of our societal mythology. While he did branch out however, he devoted the majority of his best years to the sub-genre which made his career, and which will undoubtedly see him immortalised.Continue Reading

REVIEW: BUTTERFLIES, THE DEBUT ALBUM FROM ZAIA

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged 21st century, album, Amy MacKown, Back to My Get Out, Barrington Levy, bass, brass, Butterflies, Challenge 145, choral, Chronixx, dancehall, Dark Days, David Rodigan, David Tomlinson, drum and bass, drums, dub, Fire in My Heart, folk, genre, Gentleman's Dub Club, gospal, Gregory Isaacs, guitar, James Bolton, Josh Hughes, keyboards, Letter from an Old Friend, live music, Marcia Richards, mastering, music, My House Grows in the Sun, new testament, Nubiyan Twist, Oxford, pop, reggae, review, rhythm, rock, roots, Simple Tune, Sister Nancy, spiritual, summer, The Ethiopians, The Skints, trance, Under the Tree, vocals, ZAIA.

By Rowan Gavin and Liam Hawkes

“We break the rules”

So says lead singer Amy MacKown on Simple Tune, the penultimate track of the debut album from Oxford’s current premiere Reggae outfit, ZAIA. We wouldn’t say they break the rules so much as blend and bend them, juggling genres and playing with preconceptions throughout this fascinating and infectious summertime record.

THINGS ONLY WOMEN WRITERS HEAR AND THE TROUBLE WITH TWITTER

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged #everydaysexism, #readwomen, #thingsonlywomenwritershear, #whatwocwritershear, chocolat, comments, echo chamber, family, gender, genre, harassment, Joanne Harris, Laura Bates, misogyny, online, online community, Paul Friere, publishing, rolling stones, sharing, social media, trolling, trolls, twitter, Virginia Woolf, wombles, women writers, writers, writing.

by Hannah Rose

Virginia Woolf stated in her 1929 seminal essay A Room of One’s Own that, because women remain unequal to men in society, they are less likely to succeed as writers. A writer has two basic requirements in order to write productively: an independent income which provides basic necessities—food and shelter— and uninterrupted writing time. In 1929, the majority of British women were either working to provide the basic necessities for others, and did not have a private space in which to pursue a creative life or an independent income. This, says Wolf, is why the literary canon is dominated by men. “Intellectual freedom,” she writes, “depends upon material things.”

Almost a century later, some women are still having to argue their right to a creative life.Continue Reading

CONSTELLATIONS

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged #readwomen, analysis, astronomy, chemistry, constellation, creative writing, genre, Gilda Musa, humanity, humans, italian, italian women in translation, physics, poem, poetry, sci-fi, science, science fiction, space, stars, translation, universe, women, women writers, words, writing, xl8.

by Alex Valente

Original Italian by Gilda Musa (1922-1999), ‘Costellazioni’

Coppering of stars, gold
illuminated designs, visible flashing
vanguards of a thousand million invisibiles,
sigils of a space that’s close and signs
of remote spacesContinue Reading

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 2)

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged academia, Angela Carter, art, Arthur Krystal, books, China Miéville, commercial, Connie Willis, criticism, Docx, Don Winslow, fantasy, form, genre, Girl with all the gifts, guest, high brow, horror, Jonathan Jones, Kurt Vonnegut, literary fiction, literature, Lord Dunsany, low brow, Melanie, Mervyn Peake, metaphor, mike carey, money, mr carey, myth, novel, Oliver Burkeman, pandora, politics, Pulp, Ray Bradbury, Raymond Chandler, reading, school, sci-fi, smart, study, Ted Chiang, Ursula LeGuin, writer, writing, zombie.

by Mike Carey

Continued from part one, published on The Norwich Radical two weeks ago.

I hate to rake up ancient history, but here’s another example from a little further back – dredged up because in this case it is a writer of literary novels (Edward Docx, in the Observer in 2010) who’s saying this, so the agenda is maybe a little more naked.

Even good genre… is by definition a constrained form of writing. There are conventions and these limit the material. That’s the way writing works and lots of people who don’t write novels don’t seem to get this: if you need a detective, if you need your hero to shoot the badass CIA chief, if you need faux-feminist shopping jokes, then great; but the correlative of these decisions is a curtailment in other areas. If you are following conventions, then a significant percentage of the thinking and imagining has been taken out of the exercise. Lots of decisions are already made.

Considering that Docx rails against “a fundamental dishonesty” in the way this subject is usually discussed, I’m going to pick my words with care.

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 1)

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged academia, art, Arthur Krystal, books, commercial, criticism, fantasy, form, genre, guest, high brow, horror, Jonathan Jones, Kidd and Castano, literary fiction, literature, low brow, Mark Liberman, mike carey, money, mr carey, novel, Oliver Burkeman, politics, Pulp, reading, sci-fi, smart, study, Terry Pratchett, writer, writing.

by Mike Carey

The argument about the relative merits of literary and genre fictions just keeps running and running. There’ll be periods of decorous silence, and then it will break out again, usually in the form of some egregious statement in a broadsheet or magazine, and it will be like it never left.

One thing you tend to notice after a while, though: it’s almost never writers of genre fiction who are picking the fight. To be fair, it’s often not “literary” writers either – it’s academics taking up the cudgels on their behalf; considerately telling us which stories are worth serious consideration and which aren’t. And I guess we appreciate the help, right? Because it’s a bewildering fictional landscape out there and an innocent young seeker after truth could easily go astray.Continue Reading

genre

THE ONLY WAY WE KNEW HOW TO DO IT WAS THE WAY THAT WE DID IT – AN INTERVIEW WITH THE BELLRAYS

GEORGE OF THE DEAD: THE RADICAL CINEMA OF GEORGE A. ROMERO

REVIEW: BUTTERFLIES, THE DEBUT ALBUM FROM ZAIA

CONSTELLATIONS

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 2)

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 1)

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