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25. Episode 25: Anwen Crawford
01:00:24||Season 1, Ep. 25This month on The Allender Calendar I'm talking to the writer and visual artist Anwen Crawford. I met Anwen when she guested on The Clientele Podcast a few years ago and we stayed in touch. Anwen has such a precise and vivid way of writing, mixing personal biography with critical analysis. Her latest book, Morvern Callar, published by Fireflies Press, is about the 2002 film Morvern Callar, Lynne Ramsay's second feature film, which stars Samantha Morton. The film is based on the 1995 novel Morvern Callar by Alan Warner. These doublings/triplings (note Morton/Morvern!) are perhaps appropriate for a film that, as Anwen notes, contains 'eerie, impeded doublings – Morvern and the viewer, Morvern and the boyfriend, Morvern and herself'. The plot of Morvern Callar is decidedly gruesome, and yet the film is strangely hypnotic, moving, and darkly funny; a cinematic style that Anwen calls 'lyric realism'.We talk about how Anwen came to write the book, the differences between the film and the novel, and Samantha Morton's mesmeric performance as the title character.Content note: the plot of Morvern Callar hinges on a suicide, and we discuss that in this episode.You can buy the book from the Fireflies Press website here:https://firefliespress.com/Morvern-CallarAnwen's website:https://demandspopular.net/If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender
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24. Episode 24: Simon Reynolds
01:07:48||Season 1, Ep. 24This month on The Allender Calendar I'm delighted to be joined by the music journalist Simon Reynolds to discuss his new book Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994. Simon has previously written about music's obsession with the past (Retromania) and the future (Futuromania), as well as publishing acclaimed volumes on post-punk (the essential Rip it Up), glam rock and rave. Still in a Dream is different from Simon's other books in some ways because it's less about a specific genre or musical impulse, and more about a particular moment in musical history, when bands sought to reimagine guitar music and challenge and intoxicate listeners with ravishing sounds and pure noise, offering an escape from grim reality into a narcotic dream. And Simon, as a writer for Melody Maker, was there on the frontline, in a team of young journalists working symbiotically with the artists they put on the cover.You can get hold of Still in a Dream here:https://store.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/products/still-in-a-dreamSimon's blog:https://blissout.blogspot.com/If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender23. Episode 23 (Part 2): Cass McCombs's Wit's End with William Doyle
01:07:20||Season 1, Ep. 23In part two of my interview with William Doyle about Cass McCombs's Wit's End, we go through the album song-by-song. We even get the guitars out to play along.If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender23. Episode 23 (Part 1): Cass McCombs's Wit's End with William Doyle
49:40||Season 1, Ep. 23This month on The Allender Calendar, it's a two-part special as I (Robin Allender) talk to the musician William Doyle about Cass McCombs's beautifully morbid 2011 album, Wit's End. In the first part, we discuss Cass's extraordinary lyrics, what makes him such a unique (and underrated) songwrite, and where we were when we first heard the album.Interview with Cass McCombs from around the time of Wit's End:https://www.thefader.com/2011/12/05/cass-mccombs-scorpio-risingAlso in The Fader, this is my favourite interview with Cass from 2022:https://www.thefader.com/2022/08/17/cass-mccombs-heartmind-interview-new-album-2022Never Ending Stories podcast interview with Cass McCombs:https://shows.acast.com/never-ending-stories-pod/episodes/nes-068-the-cass-mccombs-interviewWe briefly mention Cass's song Bradley Manning which was recorded before Chelsea Manning transitioned. William Doyle's Bandcamp page:https://williamdoyle.bandcamp.com/If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender22. Episode 22: Guillermo Stitch's The Coast of Everything with David Collard
01:02:36||Season 1, Ep. 22Happy Bloomsday! This month I'm delighted to welcome back writer and top-tier Joycean David Collard to celebrate the publication (on 16 June, no less) of Guillermo Stitch's dazzling new novel The Coast of Everything.Guillermo Stitch's Substack:https://guillermostitch.substack.com/Support the podcast:https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender21. Episode 21: John Robins
01:22:08||Season 1, Ep. 21This month on The Allender Calendar I’m talking to comedian, broadcaster, and very good friend John Robins about his book Thirst: Twelve Drinks That Changed My Life. It's a beautifully written account of alcoholism and recovery – candid, profound and very funny. I’m positive it will help a lot of people. I’m extremely proud of John for writing this book, and for getting to the place he’s at now. It was great to talk to him about the writing process, and about addiction, spirituality and much more. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation!You can get hold of a copy of Thirst here:https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/465247/thirst-by-robins-john/9780241740040And, if you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee here:https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender20. Episode 20: Simon Love
01:09:40||Season 1, Ep. 20This month on the pod I'm joined by London-based Cardiff-born musician Simon Love! Simon is a superb songwriter with excellent pop smarts, an innate feeling for hooks, and a gift for Ray Davies-esque scene-setting. His lyrics are often very funny (in particular the bridge-burning bitterness of 'Green Man Blues'), but there's a noticeable air of melancholy to his new album The One True Prince of Wales (in exile after abdication), which contains songs about grief, nostalgia, exile and childhood.Simon's album was released on 3 April by Hurrah Musica, and you can buy it here (it's also on the streamers):https://hurrahmusica.bandcamp.com/album/the-one-true-prince-of-walesAnd you can find out more about Simon's previous records here:http://simonlove.org/Follow Simon on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/simonloverules/If you want to support the pod, you can buy me a coffee here:https://buymeacoffee.com/robinallender