Maybe some of you remember Poets Off Poetry, Jackie Clark‘s continuing mission to get poets to talk about something else for a change–namely music–which used to run on This Recording but then stopped. Well it didn’t die, it only moved to Coldfront, where it has been thriving. The latest installment features my–and Jackie’s–former teacher and much-esteemed buddy, the inimitable Mark Bibbins (whose website seems to be MIA at present, and whose forthcoming collection from Copper Canyon, The Dance of No Hard Feelings, doesn’t seem to have an Amazon page yet, so, uh, sit tight I guess). In his P.O.P., Bibbins talks about My Bloody Valentine, Goldfrapp, Portishead, The Verve (who are back, apparently), Stereolab, Deerhunter, and many more musicians you either have or haven’t heard of. Ample YouTube embeds for illustration make this a must-read and potentially a slow load, so why don’t you click on it now, go pour a coffee, then come back and settle in for a real good time. [JUSTIN: that last sentence begins as a question but ends with a period. What gives? -ED.  / BLAKE: By the end of the sentence I realized it was an imperative, not an interrogative, and I want the readers to experience that transformation with me. -JT] 

Read “Tatooine Sunset: An Assembly of Last Year’s Fantastic Things” by Mark Bibbins.

BONUS: MORE P.O.P.

Gina Myers: “You can run your whole life, but not go anywhere.” That’s Social D, dudes. And after the opening paean to Mike Ness et al she gets into Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, and more. Shit’s real.

Michael Schiavo: “WHEN HE WENT ELECTRIC” on Miles Davis. 

Jillian Weisse: “Mike Jones & Dirty Rap”

Sandra Simonds: “Music as the Suicide that Keeps You Living”.  >>We live in a world that tells us that the individual life is supreme—but that logic degrades human life—the collective life. There are, in fact, things worth dying for. Your life isn’t that important. In the modern world, we have already given up—the real life—the life that matters in favor of the sheen of what life could have been.<< Songs discussed include: “Sloop John B,” “I See A Darkness,” and “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys, plus Neil Young, Elliott Smith and more. Sandra, you have captured my attention. By the time you read this, I will have asked the internet all about you. 

DOUBLE BONUS: MORE MARK:

Read (and listen) to three Mark Bibbins poems from Cortland Review #6

Review of Mark’s first book, Sky Lounge, on the Verse! Blog

Hey, why don’t you buy a copy of Sky Lounge to tide yourself over until the new one comes out?

Read Mark’s poem “Continuity” at this dude’s blog.