The Melt is a newsletter by, about and largely to entertain Jason Diamond. Hopefully, you also like it and will consider subscribing and sharing this post.
I’m currently reading Devil House by John Darnielle and maybe I’ll do a longer post about the book itself, but I will say I’m enjoying it and have enjoyed his writing in the past. He has this way of taking these ideas and themes that could easily veer into cliche or shameless pastiche and turns them into compelling stories. His songs and novels alike, in my humble opinion, have reached a place alongside somebody like David Lynch. He has this big body of work that stands out on its own, all these stories that tell dark American tales without being judgemental, but also you get the feeling he has truly seen the things and people he writes about. And, in some cases, he has maybe experienced things that pop up in his stories first-hand. He’s an Important American Artist and I’m glad we have him.
Reading Darnielle again got me thinking about the indie/punk/underground songwriter of the last 30 or so years. Darnielle is probably the best example given his crazy output, and also it doesn’t hurt that he has been critically acclaimed as both a novelist and a musician. But I’m often surprised at how little we appreciate some of his contemporaries as writers. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up listening to a lot of these people, but I think the Great American Punk Rock Songbook 1990-??? is filled with some incredible stuff. I started jotting down a few examples off the top of my head, and the first was pretty obvious: Blake Schwarzenbach. Will there ever be a Blake novel? The guy has (had?) been teaching writing at Hunter for some time now. And “Kiss the Bottle” is one of the greatest songs ever.
The other is also probably not surprising, but I’m still surprised by how many music people don’t know David Berman’s poetry is actually really well-respected among people in the literary world. Not a day goes by when I don’t feel a little crushed that he’s not with us anymore, but I’d also say that there isn’t a day when I don’t at least find myself thinking of a single line of his.
There are so many others: Liz Phair is an obvious one. Brendan Kelly has been steadily writing some of the best songs for over 20 years, and most Lawrence Arms tracks could probably be expanded into some sort of Raymond Carver in the Midwest short story collection. Jason Molina could slip in a line about big stars and dead moons into a song and it doesn’t come off as corny; when she isn’t interpreting other peoples songs, I think Chan Marshall has given us some bangers of her own (“Lived in Bars” kills me); people are obsessed with the Weakerthans because John K. Samson makes loneliness sound incredibly beautiful; I know “All tracks are written by Superchunk” means I can’t single out one member, but to do something like “Driveway to Driveway” in 1993 and then write what I consider the best summation of the Trump era with the title track off 2018’s What a Time to be Alive is a feat, and Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers collaborating on Better Oblivion Community Center makes sense to me because what they do feels very connected to me. Both are great writers.
Other little bits:
“Brooks Brothers, in other words, is perfectly primed for the non-reinvention-reinvention” at GQ.
If you haven’t read the weird saga of Filippo Bernardini stealing manuscripts then Alex Shephard has you covered.
I still haven’t been to the Ace Hotel in Brooklyn. I remember when the Ace opened up in Manhattan and I’d go there for coffee and it was like “Oh, Questlove is hanging out” or “Oh, Jenna Lyons is hanging out” or “Oh, every writer wants to get drinks there now.” I’m curious to see if the new one ends up being like that over time. There’s a piece on the new Ace at Monocle that got me thinking about it.