Paul Schiernecker

Category: Reviews

  • My first Hemingway.

    I don’t know why it has taken me so long to read anything by dear Ernest, he fits perfectly into what I consider a great writer to be, he’s frank and courteous and at times poor and angry at the world. He is of the same school as Fitzgerald and Orwell in so far as he was impoverished in Paris at a quarter past the last century. I’ve just finished A Moveable Feast, and can’t wait to try and get hold of some more.

    From what I can gather this book is a lot more autobiographical than any of his other work (but I should really do some more research). I just wanted to share how much I appreciated the novel. I always find it astounding how contemporary some writers who have long since left us managed to be. I guess that explains the appeal that stretches for generations.

    A Moveable Feast is Hemingway’s love letter to Paris, written in the late fifties but set in the mid twenties it details the places he would head to write and the struggle to find his own voice as a writer whilst dealing with touches of poverty as he tried to cut his teeth having quit journalism proper. It’s astounding to believe the man had any doubts and that he once inspected Fitzgerald’s penis in a bathroom.

    All I can say is put down whatever trash or pulp is currently on the reading list and get hold of a copy, it’s the way writing should be.

  • Warpaint; a much belated album review.

    I was updating my music on my phone last night and decided to try and give Warpaint’s album another listen. At the time it was released they were very much dubbed as being the new something or other and I find it very hard to get into something when everyone is telling me just how fantastic it is.

    Months on I can listen to the album and appreciate it for what it is, there’s nothing worse than all the hype, it’s like all the scenesters are just waiting for you to discredit yourself in indie circles by not going along with the crowd, or the sheep. I didn’t like the album when I first heard it, I could take Undertow because it reminded me of Polly but that was about it.

    It is only now that everyone has stopped going on about it, and found something else to describe as ‘the new sound of…’ that I can actually listen to it, and thoroughly enjoy it. There are elements of Florence in there (which is probably how they got signed) combined with Massive Attack, Bjork, Portishead. It really is a good album and it’s a damn shame that I had to overlook it for so long.

  • Arcade Fire; Hyde Park 2011.

    So I’ve managed to find the full set from Arcade Fire at Hyde Park last Summer, and I’m sat listening to it with a cup of tea and I’m thinking to myself: why wasn’t I there again?

    At the moment I really can’t fathom it. I fell in love with the band on my first trip to Reading festival in 2007 and I haven’t looked back. I can remember coming out of the Carling tent having seen Seasick Steve and just being drawn in by this incredible band on the main stage. There was something almost spiritual about it, which I guess they would be quite proud of considering they were touring Neon Bible at the time. I remember just seeing all these kids dancing around like they were convulsing, people just lost in their enjoyment of the music and you look beyond that, catch a glimpse of the stage and exactly the same thing is going on. You’re talking about a bunch of friends who really love music, who appreciate and understand and enjoy music, and to which them play is pure enjoyment. They get so wrapped up in it, I’ve seen them twice since then and it hasn’t faded for either party. I listen to one of their albums on a daily basis and in my eyes they can do no wrong. I nearly came to blows with my own mother when she told me they ruined the end of Rebellion (Lies).

    If you aren’t a fan then you obviously haven’t heard them, there really is something for everyone in there, and once you’re in, that is it.

    Arcade Fire played:

    Ready To Start.
    Wake Up.
    No Cars Go.
    Haiti.
    Intervention.
    Rococo.
    Speaking In Tongues.
    Crown Of Love.
    The Suburbs.
    The Suburbs (Continued).
    Month Of May.
    Rebellion (Lies).
    Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)
    We Used To Wait.
    Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)

    Encore:
    Keep The Car Running.
    Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)
    Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)