David Keenan

David Keenan (born April 1971) is a Scottish writer and author of four novels.

For the sportsman, see David Keenan (Gaelic footballer).
For the Irish musician, see David Keenan (musician).

David Keenan
Keenan in 2019
Keenan in 2019
Born (1971-04-21) 21 April 1971
Scotland
Occupationauthor
Notable worksThis Is Memorial Device, For the Good Times, Xstabeth, Monument Maker
Notable awardsGordon Burn Prize

Career

He used to run the Glasgow record shop, distribution company and record label Volcanic Tongue.

Journalism

His work for The Wire (who he wrote for from 1996 to 2015) was highly influential, helping to focus the magazine more towards coverage of new experimental rock, noise, folk, industrial and psychedelic music. His most frequently cited article is a cover story that appeared in the August 2003 issue entitled "New Weird America", where Keenan coined the phrase "free folk", later bastardised to include "freak folk" and "wyrd folk" and used to describe everyone from Jack Rose and Charalambides through Devendra Banhart.

In an August 2009 piece for The Wire, Keenan coined "hypnagogic pop" to describe a group of musicians whose work resembled "pop music refracted through the memory of a memory". His article incited a slew of hate mail that derided hypnagogic pop as the "worst genre created by a journalist".[1] Keenan became disenchanted with the movement once it homogenized with the mainstream.[2]

A 2009 quote of Keenan cited by Karl Shaw, reproduced in his article in the Wall Street Journal (Review, 24–25 Sept 2011), on the Beatles: "The Beatles are the absolute curse of modern Indie music...my favorite Beatle is Yoko Ono; without Yoko's influence, I don't think there would be any Beatles music I could listen to."[3]

Novels

His debut novel, This Is Memorial Device (Faber, 2017),[4] won the Collyer Bristow Award for Debut Fiction[5] and was shortlisted for the 2017 Gordon Burn Prize.[6] His second novel, For the Good Times (Faber, 2019),[7] won the 2019 Gordon Burn Prize.[8] Edna O'Brien described reading his third novel, Xstabeth (White Rabbit, 2020), as 'feel[ing] like being cut open to the accompanying sound of ecstatic music’.[9][10] His fourth novel, Monument Maker, was published by White Rabbit in 2021.[11][12]

He is also the author of England's Hidden Reverse, a biography of Coil, Current 93 and Nurse with Wound.[13]

References
  1. Hinkes-Jones, Llewellyn (15 July 2010). "Downtempo Pop: When Good Music Gets a Bad Name". The Atlantic.
  2. Friedlader, Emilie (21 August 2019). "Chillwave: a momentary microgenre that ushered in the age of nostalgia". The Guardian.
  3. Shaw, Karl (2011). 10 Ways to Recycle a Corpse: and 100 More Dreadfully Distasteful Lists. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-307-72040-5.
  4. "This Is Memorial Device". Public Store View. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  5. "Winners Announced! The London Magazine & Collyer Bristow Award For Debut Fiction". www.thelondonmagazine.org. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  6. "Books". Gordon Burn Prize. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  7. "For The Good Times". Public Store View. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  8. Flood, Alison (11 October 2019). "David Keenan's Troubles novel For the Good Times wins Gordon Burn prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  9. Xstabeth. 11 May 2020.
  10. O'Grady, Carrie (10 December 2020). "Xstabeth by David Keenan review – the mystical power of music". the Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  11. Monument Maker. 10 December 2020.
  12. Kelly, Stuart (7 August 2021). "Monument Maker by David Keenan review – an experimental compendium". the Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  13. Tuffrey, Laurie (9 July 2015). "The Quietus | News | England's Hidden Reverse Republished". The Quietus. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
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