This week, in case you haven’t noticed, is The Quietus’ 13th birthday – in fact, you might well not have noticed because the site, unchanged since 2008, keeps falling over. This is why we’re asking those of you who aren’t already subscribers if you would be able to help us out by signing up to one of our three subs tiers. If the joy of keeping our creaking apparatus going isn’t enough, then here’s one of the bits of bonus content you’d get as a Quietus Low Culture or Sound & Vision tier subscriber – the Low Culture Podcast. We usually ask one of our favourite artists on to discuss a cultural artefact that they love but feel hasn’t had enough attention, with past guests including Nicky Wire, Nadine Shah, Max Porter, Mariam Rezaei, John Higgs, Shirley Collins, Jeanie Finlay, Dale Cornish and Tariq Godard. For this month though we’ve done a special with just your tQ editors John Doran and Luke Turner discussing two contemporary Low Culture tips, before going deep on the past.
John recalls the afternoon in 1985 that he spent eating roast chicken and drinking fizzy pop as his mind was blown by the telly phenomenon that was Live Aid. We discuss Duran Duran, the moment that Queen crushed the rest of pop under Freddy Mercury’s heel, the particular power that music can have at a certain teenage moment… And what’s this, John is praising Bono and U2?! To get the full details of this remarkable volte-face, you’ll have to become a tQ subscriber and listen in. Luke’s choice is Guns n’Roses 1991 act of monumental hubris, the double album smasher of Use Your Illusion I and II. Turner argues that this while this was a record of appalling misogyny and dangerous music to be loved by nihilist teenage boys, it also was the “Ozymandias of poodle rock”, the ludicrous final act that caused that genre’s demise. It also, he claims, features many absolute killer tracks. To listen to The Quietus’ new Low Culture podcast, you’ll need to become a subscriber to the Low Culture or Sound & Vision tiers below or via Steady here. As well as this podcast, the Low Culture and Sound & Vision tiers get an exclusive essay and bonus newsletter (a buyers guide to niche genres) each month, and the the Sound & Vision tier gets an exclusive, tQ-commissioned musical release. Join via the Steady checkout below. The Low Culture podcast is produced by Alannah Chance.
