|
|
Welcome to No Clout, home to all the precious nothings that I have done in three decades of involvement with the underground Metal and Hardcore Punk scene.
Just another excuse I guess for a middle-aged man to stop and reminisce about them good old days... Born of my growing dissatisfaction with the way social networks are offered all of our data (without giving much in return), I bought this domain name around 2018, after toying with the idea of doing a printed fanzine first. I quickly realized that, although paper will forever be my medium of choice, the archival nature of a good website was something worth getting into, hence the BANDS and ZINES section where I will - eventually, I'm in this for the long run - scan and upload all music and written papers I've been involved with up to now. No Clout also hosts the #MetalPunkTapeExchange FAQ. Metal Punk Tape Exchange (or MPTX) is a fun thing we started with my old friend Luc, it's a European mixtape trading ring that takes place every 4 weeks in physical life and on social networks. (Yes, we trade mixtapes on actual cassette tapes). I hope one day we'll be able to lift it off Instagram and facebook but, so far, it's been the most convenient way of having between 40 and 50 people each month or so trading tapes all across the European Union. It's one of my proudest achievement, to be honest. Luc and I are also doing a Metal/Punk podcast together called Poison Beats, which is a continuation of Beats Killing People (BKP) and Poison Waves, two podcasts that we initially started on our own. Poison Beats was done on a weekly basis during the early months of the 2020 lockdown and is currently on hold, but we'll catch up soon. |
"Get the idea? Clout is used to circumvent the law, not to enforce it.
It is used to bend rules, not follow them."
Mike Royko, "What 'clout' is and isn't" (last column for The Chicago Tribune, 1997)
|
The most active section of this website is DRY RETCH ('digesting the drivel'), a daily blog of sorts which allow me to talk at length about any kind of stuff that caught my fancy or I feel like sharing, without doing it on social networks the way I have been for the last 10 years or so.
Think of it as 'reinventing the wheel', or 'rediscovering blogs' if you will. Only with absolutely zero readers, haha. Can't say I miss the echo chamber, though. Other blog sections include a few interviews I made with friends (planning on doing more in the future!), 'bargain bin reviews' where I plan on reviewing all the cheap 1-euro CDs I keep buying for no reason other than their price, and 're-reviews' which will be about revisiting glorious albums that impressed me a lot in my teenage years. My annual 'best of' lists will also go there, as well as a movie review section powered by Letterboxd. Saving the best for last, my friend Philippe agreed to do a 'Great comic books you've never heard of' column a looong time ago, in a moment of drunken nostalgia - of which I hope there will be more (not the moments of drunken nostalgia, the comics column!) No Clout also has a WORK header, where I've put my Resume and a long video playlist of TV series trailers I was associated with in the past, in my previous tenure as art director for CANAL+, before embarking on a new professional adventure - screenwriting -, of which I'll be telling more soon. After all, this place will be my main online presence for the foreseeable future, so why not make the most of it? The only social network I'm on at the moment is MeWe, where I hope all the great people I was virtually interacting with eventually migrate to. It's a simpler version of the nightmare factory that fb has turned into (or has always been and I failed to see it). The creators of MeWe promise not to screw with your feed, creed or data. So far so good, although, admittedly, things are a bit quiet on that front as contacts are few and far between. Last for now, I live near Paris and if gigs start happening again or if we meet in real life, come up to me and let's have a chat! I hope you recognize me from my badge of honour! -- Maximilien Michiels AKA 'Don Karv', oct. 2020 |
"Shut up you talk too loud Lemmy Kilmister, No Class, 1979
|