We’ve redecorated! We don’t like it.

Skip to content

Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

10 Comments

  1. SpaceSquid
    January 22, 2016 @ 10:05 am

    Just to make an early bid at making the comments more goth (we are talking about Gillen, after all) this line absolutely battered me with Cure imagery. Molko is to “Running Up That Hill” as the Spiderman is to a terrified Robert Smith.

    (Also, will have to check out Meds, though based on singles output alone – I quit Placebo albums after their bitterly disappointing sophomore effort – I’d be surprised if I don’t end up siding with Gillen.)

    Reply

    • SpaceSquid
      January 22, 2016 @ 10:07 am

      Godsdammit! The line in question was He drapes himself lasciviously upon the untouchable with a love and fidelity that is unimpeachable.

      Reply

  2. encyclops
    January 22, 2016 @ 4:48 pm

    I can’t even recall what Meds sounds like at this moment apart from “Running Up That Hill” and “Pierrot the Clown,” so maybe it’s time to dust it off. Their first album is probably still my favorite, though, whether it’s their best or not, and for the obvious reasons of nostalgia: it dropped at exactly the time I needed a goth/glam bisexual band to slide onto my lap and it said almost all the right things. And actually I still like most of what came between the two, though they never felt so light on their feet again after that debut. Neither have I.

    Thank you for explaining Phonogram here: I bought The Singles Club a while back, I think the first time you were talking about it, and I had no idea what it was trying to achieve. I still find both it and WicDiv either too subtle or too abstract for my tiny brain to fully grasp, but McKelvie’s art plus the music references make me want to keep trying. This post leads me to suspect I’m not missing as much as I thought, which is encouraging.

    For strange Kate Bush covers, I highly recommend Icon and the Black Roses doing a love-metal “Running Up That Hill.” It should be horrible, and it sort of is, but I sort of love it anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U7Gf4M19B0

    Reply

  3. Shannon
    January 23, 2016 @ 3:13 am

    I randomly picked up Rue Britannia at a comic book store several years ago, before I ever heard of Kieron Gillen. I was browsing the “not superhero” titles and it was about British music. Then I saw it referenced my favorite band who is hopelessly obscure in the U.S. considering their past popularity in Britain (Manic Street Preachers) and I was forever sold.

    I can’t say that I really understood it the first time I read it, but I reread it recently when Immaterial Girl was announced and it resonated much more this time. I think having grown up quite a bit since the first time I read it helped a lot. As Phil says, it’s about growing up and understanding the role the music of your youth has in your life as an adult. What’s particularly interesting is that the character I relate the most to perhaps has the strongest emotional attachment to the actual music but no actual phonomancy. But that’s the point in a way – you don’t need magic if you have music because they’re one and the same.

    Reply

    • D.N.
      January 23, 2016 @ 3:17 am

      The Manics are the greatest band ever.

      Reply

    • Shannon
      January 24, 2016 @ 5:59 am

      To quote Phil, “self-evidently.”
      While I don’t actually mention Phonogram in it, a lot of my thoughts on that relationship between my youthful fondness bordering maybe a little on obsessions with the Manics and my recent relationship with them vis a vis their Holy Bible 20th anniversary tour are in this blog post: http://welleatyouupweloveyouso.com/2015/04/22/and-this-is-yesterday/ When I asked Kieron Gillen over Tumblr about how he felt about the Manics now, I was fascinated to see he had a similar sort of reaction.

      Reply

  4. Daru
    January 23, 2016 @ 2:40 pm

    Love Phonogram tons and probably perverse in the way I’ve not read the first two volumes, but love it anyways. will go back somepoint and read them.

    Reply

  5. Shannon
    January 24, 2016 @ 5:59 am

    To quote Phil, “self-evidently.”
    While I don’t actually mention Phonogram in it, a lot of my thoughts on that relationship between my youthful fondness bordering maybe a little on obsessions with the Manics and my recent relationship with them vis a vis their Holy Bible 20th anniversary tour are in this blog post: http://welleatyouupweloveyouso.com/2015/04/22/and-this-is-yesterday/ When I asked Kieron Gillen over Tumblr about how he felt about the Manics now, I was fascinated to see he had a similar sort of reaction.

    Reply

  6. Meredith
    January 30, 2016 @ 3:58 pm

    Thank you, strange friend. I’m making faces at you from far away.

    Reply

  7. alex
    January 30, 2016 @ 6:44 pm

    All commenters above are wrong about Placebo. The correct ordering of albums by quality, best to worst, is:

    Without You I’m Nothing
    Meds
    Sleeping With Ghosts
    Black Market Music
    –the drop here is precipitous–
    Placebo
    Loud Like Love
    Battle for the Sun

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from Eruditorum Press

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading