The excellent anthology, Da Capo’s Best Music Writing 2010 has given the nod to Swells for the last piece he wrote for The Quietus.
This year’s edition, edited by Ann Powers with Daphne Carr, chose to single out Thom Yorke: My Autobiography. By Steven Wells.
Billy Bragg’s moving obituary of Swells for The Philadelphia Weekly was also mentioned.
Elsewhere Wyndham Wallace (Vic Chesnutt RIP) and John Doran (The xx: From Les Paul’s Pick Up To The Akai MPC2000) both got the thumbs up.
Other Quietus writers/friends/colleagues who are mentioned in the anthology include Melissa Bradshaw (How Big Is Paul White’s Ego? for Decks And The City), Joe Muggs (Boom! At The Top, for Mix), Simon Reynolds (The Cult Of J Dilla, for The Guardian), Barney Hoskyns (Dark Angel: The Genius Of Laura Nyro, for MOJO), Mark Fisher (When The Groove Is Dead And Gone, for K-Punk) and J Bennett (Gylve and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, for Decibel).
We’ve not read our copy yet (our next door neibours just brought it round and said, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve had this for about a month… soz!’) but it looks like an embarrassment of riches with Michelle Tea on Beth Ditto; Chris Weingarten on twitter and the death of rock crit and a tantalizing piece entitled ‘Lady Gaga In Hell’.
