It’s TERMINAL

August 23, 2024Books, Death, Fictionsincere corkscrew, Terminalricky

Finally, an explanation for why things have been quiet on this blog in recent times!

argonaut books x sincere corkscrew present Ricky Monhan Brown's TERMINAL book launch. September 20th, 7-9pm, 15-17 Leith Walk

My new book of short stories, TERMINAL, drops in the UK on 20 September, and is available for preorder from sincere corkscrew press NOW. As well as the Leith launch, we’re planning events in Glasgow and hopefully elsewhere in Scotland.

We’re looking to arrange some U.S. launch events and outlets, too, so please do stay tuned if you’re from that side of the Atlantic.

in the meantime, I’ll also be dropping additional content and drip feeding some snippets from the book here.

BUT FIRST, check out the early notices:

From visionary writer Ricky Monahan Brown comes Terminal: fourteen tales of ‘the end’. From the neo-Gothic to sci-fi, Leith to Brooklyn, this is vibrant short fiction which will shock, humour and astound in equal heady measure.

“Smart, trippy and irreverent”

"Terminal lives up to its titular promise of hurtling towards many different senses of ‘end’. Smart, trippy and irreverent, Monahan Brown’s narrative style is just as confident crawling under the bonnet of sci-fi as it is doing Celtic realism, moshing or luring us, fable-like, close to the wood wide web. What use is there for existentialism in an accelerated world of sex dolls, conceptual thanatos and perpetual technical difficulty? Drift on to find out" – Maria Sledmere, author of Midsummer Song

“Summons the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson and Poe”

“Tense, funny and original”

PRE-ORDER FOR U.K. DELIVERY HERE

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Mr Death

July 15, 2024Death, Pop MusicBill & Ted, death, Scott Walker, The Seventh Sealricky

Just as I typed that title, I heard Bill & Ted talking to the very man on the telly in the next room.

The character of Death in the Bill & Ted movies with his arm around the titular duo — Gets everywhere, doesn’t he?

I’m sure that Death must have been a regular spectre looming over the posts on this blog, and he seems particularly present as I return to it after another long absence.

Read on to find out why, and whether it might have anything to do with my next book.

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Edging Closer(s) I

March 12, 2023Nerd Bait, Pop MusicBuzzcocks, David Bowie, Foo Fighters, Jimi Hendrix, LCD Soundsystem, Lloyd Cole, Morrissey, Nirvana, Pavement, Pink Floyd, Pixies, Public Enemy, The Beatles, The Clash, The Cure, The Ververicky

In January, I took part in a Twitter thing where people nominated a different favourite album closing song for each day of the month.

Careful with that amazing 'do, Ron — *We’re going in*

Albums closers make for perfect playlists, because you’ve got a selection of tracks aiming to distill a closing statement for a full album. Play ’em on random, and the intensity should be unchanged and unabated.

My selections are on Apple Music and Spotify.

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Eight Tracks VI

January 7, 2023Composed Music, Lists, Pop MusicA$AP Rocky, Black Thought, Colin Stetson, Danger Mouse, Dot Allison, Heriot, LCD Soundsystem, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Orbital, Port Sulphur, Run The Jewels, Sleaford Mods, TVAMricky

I’m going to try to do monthly blog posts this year. Here’s the first – my annual round-up of the best popular music tracks of the year just ended.

DJ John Peel at his mixing desk. I can assure you I'm not joking about the saxophone thing. — “Now here’s 20 mins of the sound of Hell through the medium of bass saxophone and circular breathing”

You can also check this new list out on Apple Music or Spotify. And, check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter for a bonus track.

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Robot Love

September 17, 2022Antisyzygy, Pop Music, ScotsAlex Harvey, Dictionary of the Scots Language, The Sensational Alex Harvey Bandricky

I’m tentatively exploring the idea of the Caledonian antisyzygy. Does The Sensational Alex Harvey Band provide the right soundtrack for this blog post? Read on!

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Thirtysomething Yr

July 14, 2022Books, Pop Music, Sci-fi, ScienceJon Hopkins, Orbital, Webb space telescopericky

https://twitter.com/ricky_ballboy/status/1547735825437167617?s=20&t=CXeW2HdIkFq7Tc19e9LLcw

“I SAID, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE MAASTRICHT TREATY?!?!”

1992. Halcyon days. At least, if you like war in Europe and riots in America. Yep. So much has changed now. Better days.

One of the closing themes of my book, Stroke, is the subjective nature of time. So, it’s interesting to hear two remixes of Orbital’s Halcyon, thirty years on.

Logic 1000 strips it back and makes an asthmatic middle-aged stroke survivor think he could still rave it up in a sweaty whitewashed cube of a room somewhere in Edinburgh – if such a place still exists, Grandad.

John Hopkins makes some concessions to the passing of time and makes an A.M-a.S.S. think he could really dig it after the Wee Man’s gone to sleep, on a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones.

None of it convinces me that 17-year-old Ricky was right in his conviction that time’s arrow was dragging us into a future that could only get better [sic].

On the other hand, Long-sufferingreaderoftheblogpaul introduced me today to a trilogy of science fiction books which opens with Earth awaiting an invasion from the closest star system. So, things aren’t necessarily all bad.

*“One of these days, we’re going to cut you up into little pieces”*

Cheery-bye!!!

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Embra Calling

July 4, 2022Books, Edinburgh, Politics, Pop MusicGutterblood, Joe Strummer, Public Enemy, RTJ, Run The Jewels, Sleaford Mods, The Clashricky

I went to @Lighthousebks to hear @leftacademic talk about his book, The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer.

Now I'm thinking about politically charged music of more recent vintage I've been listening to – https://t.co/UeWLwas2kh

Yeah. I’m blogging again (in a shorter format). pic.twitter.com/j74VdWzFjp
— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) July 4, 2022

Or maybe it was Michael Howard? "Peepil, peepil who need peepil" — *I’m pretty sure that was Barbra Streisand, wasn’t it?*

The conversation got to the author remarking that he hadn’t listened to much more-or-less-political music with the impact of Strummer’s work (with and without The Clash) since the late punk’s death.

Conversely, I don’t seem to be able to listen to anything that isn’t angry about something right now. Not least since, now he’s five, the Wee Man is all

Public Enemy, the Bee Gees or die, Sucker!
My son, every day (not really (but yeah, kinda))

Maybe by the end of the month, I can expand his palette to include Run The Jewels, Sleaford Mods and the great new(ish) Leith/Peebles band I checked out at the Banshee Labyrinth last month, Gutterblood.

Poor wee sod.

Oh yeah, and Mrs Stroke Bloke stumbled across an article about Killer Mike from Run The Jewels in the paper today.

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Eight Tracks V

December 17, 2021Coronavirus, Lists, Pop MusicAngel Olsen, Arab Strap, Meg Ward, Mogwai, Sharon Van Etten, Sleater-Kinney, Spencer Cullum, Wet Leg, Working Men's Clubricky

Well, of course apoplectic.me is back for my favourite post of every year – a round-up of the best popular music tracks of 2021. I wonder if the list will reflect the nature of the year…?

When we thought 2020 was terrible? [John Oliver detonates a huge explosion of the number 2020] — *Remember the good old days?*

You know, my tracks of 2020 did tend towards the distressingly fey and shoegaze-y. Well, not this year. This year’s better. You can also check this new list out on Apple Music or Spotify.

[Check out the Apoplexy Tiny Letter for a bonus track.]

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A Personal History Of Creation

March 24, 2021Current Affairs, Lists, Pop MusicCreation Records, My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, Ride, Super Furry Animals, Teenage Fanclub, Trainspottingricky

After King Rocker the other week, Mrs Stroke Bloke indulged me by sitting through Creation Stories, a biopic of sorts about Creation Records main man, Alan McGee.

Creation Records plays a big part in my, er, origin story, as indirectly noted by an old school friend.

A youthful @ricky_ballboy on the left there. https://t.co/wY8xf3Z1yV
— Allan Tanner (@weesandy) January 4, 2021

[The Apoplexy Tiny Letter is hiding the best song associated with Creation Stories]

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Disappointment

March 16, 2021Current Affairs, Dr. Who, Great British Strokes, Movies, Pop Music, StrokeArab Strap, Doctor Who, King Rocker, Robert Lloyd, Stuart Lee, The Clash, The Nightingales, The Prefectsricky

The Wee Man objects to my musical taste. Fair enough. If your three-year-old is waxing lyrical about Arab Strap’s marvellous return, he’s got problems. But not as many as he’s got in store for you.

So, when I’m listening to 6Music/something from 1991/Britain’s slide into fascism*, the demands from the back seat begin.

“80s MUSIC!!!”
The Wee Man, 2021

[Check out the reliably disappointing Apoplexy Tiny Letter]

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Apoplectic Me

the scribblings of a bloke who had a stroke…

It’s TERMINAL

Mr Death

Edging Closer(s) I

Eight Tracks VI

Robot Love

Thirtysomething Yr

Embra Calling

Eight Tracks V

A Personal History Of Creation

Disappointment