DocMcCoy Appreciation Thread
day
9,611 Posts
Dude is one of the most level headed, articulate and knowledgeable people on here.
Get like him.
Get like him.
Comments
Doc rules.
Dude has seriously been continually dropping gems of good knowledge/opinion on here for years. A true asset to this board.
b/w
The Brits in general have been killing it. The "take that shit to the brits.com" thread is full of comedy.
Also, I'm quite hungover from last night. Damn.
Anyway, yeah Doc's the dude. He's also responsible for one of the smartest sites on the internet (no hyperbole0)
Seriously: his poasts prompt reflection and thought, and i've learned about either new music or new details about music i already knew from him. appreciated.
Awww, you guys!
Jokes aside, I've gained a vast amount in terms of knowledge, wisdom and perspective through participating in this little community during the last eight years or so, and of course, I've been put up on more great music of all stripes than I can possibly recall. If anything, it ought to be me doing a SS appreciation thread. I never feel terribly comfortable about drawing attention to myself, which can be a bit of a disadvantage sometimes, so when others choose to do so unprompted, it genuinely means a lot to me. This place provides a home to a lot - a lot - of truly talented folks, as well as plenty of people who have made and continue to make some remarkable real world moves. I'm just happy to get in where I fit in.
The rest is for my folks with some time on their hands (I don't know, maybe you can't sleep, maybe you're incarcerated [and over some bullshit, too, man!--total fucking bullshit!], maybe you're taking a well-deserved break from digitizing all your many Flipmode Squad vinyls, maybe you're chilling on the terlet with your laptop like my man JRoot... Whatever--I'm not here to judge):
For the last few weeks, I've been playing the hell out of this live recording of Soul II Soul vs. the Wild Bunch/Massive Attack from New Year's Eve 1987. Absolutely phenomenal shit. On the one hand it's like a Harlem World tape or something: You can tell the place is just packed, the sound is sketchy, there's all this crowd noise, snatches of nearby conversation, dudes are fucking up the intros, stopping shit to big-up their man and plug their record, people are blowing whistles--everything's swimming in this kind of dark, electric murk that's just crackling with energy. It is engaging and thrilling and undeniable in the way that only a dubiously recorded live dj tape can be. But on the other hand, at the same time that it's pumping all that party and bullshit and joyous turbulence, there's also a real clarity to the whole thing: Pretty much every one of the songs on both sides of the mix--in addition to sounding fucking enormous--has a sonic identity that's potent enough to ride atop that urgent, necessary churn and get its idea across and unify perfectly with the whole of the set. It's all wild at heart, but manages comes out crystalline.
So it makes sense, then, that I first became aware of this mix when it got posted it here a few years back by the one Doc McCoy.
The music writing I like best--shit, the writing I like best--does two things: It conveys with some skill and grace a clear idea or a truth about the thing, while also keeping present something of the energy at the heart of the thing--what makes it important, why it's exciting, why you care about it, or why anyone else should. A lot of charged, enthusiastic writers fall down on the former--they can't figure out how to bottle their lightning and really say what they're trying to say; and a lot of smart, thoughtful writers fall down on the latter--they know what they know, but they just can't make you feel what they're feeling. It's an incredibly tough balance to strike (and mostly a thankless one--folks usually want either the dry scholarship or the howling-weirdo shit, and tend to be impatient with anything in between), but it's beautiful to see it done by someone who knows what they're doing, and very few people can work that balance like Doc does.
I remember clearly reading his early (first?) posts on soulstrut several years back--about American hip-hop's late-eighties arrival in the UK--and how concisely and thoroughly he got down the facts of those ground-level happenings, but did so with writing that practically vibrated off the page. I was amazed and intimidated. Oh, and jealous--very, very jealous. Those posts had such a rush to them, and ended up feeling all energized and hectic and beside themselves (which is to say, they felt very much like what I would imagine American hip-hop's late-eighties arrival in the UK must have felt like), but then I'd read them back, and they made this perfect little history lesson--academic, even. I kept reading them over and over to figure out how he did it, and where the seams and the holes were (I think on some level I probably kinda wanted to go at him [I was saltier back then]), but I came up empty-handed on all counts. And in reading some of his more recent stuff on his blog, and of course checking fastidiously for him here on soulstrut, I am elated/depressed to see that he keeps working that magic.
Like I've said of Doc previously: I stand in line. Dude is one of the best.
and
plaese to post
Plus his facial hair game is type ill.
You're that dude, all day, everyday!!! You hold things down lovely over there across the pond. This place would not be the same without your immense contribution.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Here it is.
To clarify: Doc's perspective is not unique because it is informed, although informed perspectives tend to fall into the "hen's teeth" category around these parts more and more. But this is not a Depreciate and Grouse thread; it is an Appreciate the Scouse thread.
And please keep us posted on the release date for your autobiography. Is it really titled Been Around The Wirral And I, I, I?
Still determined to get him along to one of the London meet ups in the future as he'd have a fair few pints stacked up on the bar for the help he's offered in the past.