I noticed a few months ago that a momentous occasion was coming in a few months. Today marks the 3000th post here at Post-Punk Monk. Sure, sure. We’re bending the rules a little bit as I’ve had a handful of guess postings, mainly from dear friend chasinvictoria and the WareWolf; youthful scion of another dear friend, Mr. Ware. And it must be said that this entire enchilada was down to a friend no longer with us.
SECRET ORIGINS OF PPM
All of the people in the paragraph above were also friend with Ron Kane. He was a record collecting force to be reckoned with. He both showed me what was possible and also served as a warning of sorts. The one time I visited his home it was filed with so many records [they were in every room] that there was only a small path to walk through some of the living room. But Ron had stared blogging by the new millennium. I thought “that might be interesting.” After all, in the early 90s a friend and I published a music fanzine called R Magazine and that was a brief year or two of fitful self-published issues. But it was fun, and we connected with people, believe it or not.
Even so, I never imagined that I would have the time to do this. I’m a working guy. I spend eight hours, plus a lunch hour at work, Monday to Friday. I’m also married and a homeowner. And I sort of had a hobby of digitizing/remastering my records and making as near as I could to full-fledged CD-Rs out of them. Any and all of these things were probably the best uses of any [hah!] free time I might have. So no thank you. I was content to read Ron’s blog at my desk during lunch. Sometimes I would leave comments if he was writing about something that stirred me up.
It was a few years into this when I realized that many times, my comments were two to three times the length of his posts. And then the light bulb went off. I had an hour at my desk every day that was mine alone and there was nothing better that I could be doing with it. I recognized the obvious: I was sort of de facto blogging on Ron’s post every few days with my long winded commentary.
Given that I could generate long-winded commentary on many topics, I made the leap to conclude that this blogging thing could work! At my desk at lunch every weekday. And it could be a passion project that gave my life some lift in ways that my job certainly didn’t [at the time]. The thought then came…what would I call it? Thanks to a comment from chasinvictoria regarding one of my BSOG’s [boxed sets of god] that I had sent him which showed me the way fairly quickly in my reflection. Yes, manually declicking and denoising audio files from records was grueling, tedious work. Just like making an illuminated manuscript… and then the phrase “Post-Punk Monk” came to me in an instant. And that shoe certainly fit.
DOWN GOOGLE! UP WORDPRESS!
I quickly hacked together the site graphics and opened my doors on the Blogger platform from Google on June 24th, 2010. And within a month, Google was throwing its weight around on the wrong side of the net neutrality issue so nuts to them! I switched to WordPress and haven’t looked back. At first using their free platform, but after a few years the ads that were apparently being served to visitors irritated me [once I became aware of them – in Admin you do not see these ads] so I immediately switched to a commercial domain and viola – Postpunkmonk.com became a thing. Sure, sure. It costs a little bit each year, but it’s a small price to pay to keep the place free from obnoxious advertising for any visitors.
And the site hasn’t changed much since it began. About five years in I thought of changing the theme and graphics, but thought the better of it. Some of the hand-coded HTML features on certain pages seemed to break when testing new themes and I also felt that the security of visitors coming and finding everything right where they thought they should be was worth more than the price of “improving” for the sake of it. Post-Punk Monk… the comfortable sweat shirt of Post-Punk music blogs.
With 3000 posts in 15 years and one month, that balances out to about 200 posts a year. The word count here shows that we’ve got 2,789,000 words filling the thousands of pages. Averaging out to 930 words per post. Very close to the average I’ve seen it at over the years. The first year was a little scanty, it’s true, but by year two, I knew how I was going to accomplish this blog. And then I just stuck with it.
Since the blog is written at my desk at lunch hour, there are times when for one reason or another, this does not happen. I can get very busy some times, and lunch hours fall by the wayside. Personal appointments eat into the work week and I have to shift hours around to compensate. I enjoy vacations! After 20 years of service, I get four weeks of paid vacation…I’m practically European on that score! [though it took me at least 15 years go get there] These mean no blogging. If I have the time to remember to do it, I may run old blogs in those times, but time is usually too tight to graze over the past and pick some re-runs.
CONNECTING WITH OTHER FANS…AND MORE
While my love and enthusiasm for music is boundless, that’s not where the biggest joy in this blog comes from. That joy comes from meeting other music fans and in many cases, fostering actual bonds of friendship with people who may be hundreds to thousands of miles away from the mountain hamlet I call my home. The list of people I’ve “met” here grows annually, but in the best case scenarios, I have actually spent time with and have even broken bread with people who were once commenters here at PPM but are now something more. Actual friends.
Just next weekend I’ll be seeing a show with old friend The RAHB [who I’ve known since 1980] and new friend Todd, who releases music with his band Fluid Japan. And I treasure that I can have that happen. If I had more money and time I’d like to see great shows or to shop at great stores with scads of people on this blog who were first commenters, and then presences in the email inbox. Believe it or not, we talk offline about more than music.
And then there are the times, of late, where we have gotten to interview musicians who fall into the purview of PPM and I try my very best to make it worth the artists’ while. I was initially cool to interviewing since it represents a lot of work on the hidden back end. But when the first opportunity manifested, just four years ago with David Kendrick of Gleaming Spires/Sparks/DEVO [who could turn that offer down, right?] it opened a door that I felt was well worth the effort. Since then I’ve gotten to have quality time and discussion with artists who are even deeply represented in Ye Olde Record Cell such as Robert Howard of Blow Monkeys and Barry Andrews of Shriekback. One hopes that I didn’t collapse into a mewling fanboy puddle and embarrass myself on these or any other occasions.
So fifteen years and 3000 posts is a lot of time spent writing. In spite of a life in the graphic arts, I now think of myself as primarily a writer. Egads! What other changes await us in the coming years? Will I be able to stick around for another fifteen years? I certainly hope so! There’s too much fascinating and excellent music being released in this period, and of course, there are always older records that deserve to be kept in the public spotlight lest they be forgotten entirely in the turmoil. We’ll try to keep abreast of both the forward and backward looking threads here at PPM as we press on with diligence.
-30-
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Post-Punk Monk 
Cheers!
Your blog is one of the very few I subscribe to!
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Congratulations – consistency and quality over time – outstanding. Here’s to 15 more years! But only if you want it ;-) Retirement can be mighty nice, too.
Now for t-shirts 8!!!! :-)
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Congratulations on 3000 posts Monk.
I don’t remember how I first came across your writings but I’m glad I did. They are informative as well as entertaining. Your passion for music certainly shines through.
I’ll look forward to reading many more of your posts for as long as you continue to have the passion and the time.
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Andy B – There are a lot of loose threads out there after 15 years that point towards PPM. It’s true that I might have three times the community that we have currently [700-1500 hits/day] if I were to use Social Media to grow the blog, but then Social Media would be using me in return. And I never liked or grasped why I should like Social Media and that was years before the profound damage it has made to society was apparent! I’ve been happy to have this blog’s growth be gradual and genuine. With people who enjoy what happens here and contribute in return.
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Wow! 3000th blog. Congrats, Monk! You always surprise me with your articles, and whom you’ve listened to. I thought Fluid Japan was a well kept secret, and there it is. Keep on doing the good stuff, I really appreciate your articles. Well done sir!
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Right on Mr Monk, and keep on Monking!
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Big Mark – Cue the Eddie Kendricks!
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Congratulations and thank you for sharing your vast collection and brilliant musings on all things music :-)
Monachus in aeternum vivat!
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The original and the best.
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Congrats. PPM is a daily must-check for me, long may you have the desire and time to continue blogging. I truly thank you for your dedication to sharing all things post-punk. Here’s to the music, and to you.
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Blimey 3000! Awesome job. I think I stumbled across you when you were commenting on another’s blog. Never change eh?
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eurotrash – Welcome to the comments! I wish I had more time to comment on more blogs but time is tight! Maybe if I [HAH!] retire one day I can get out of my Record Cell a little more.
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Congratulations sir. Your passion has always proved enjoyable. A shame we are on different coasts.
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Congrats, Monk! Your lunchtime endeavors have certainly brightened up many of my lunch hours! Here’s to the next 3000. If you’re ever in northern California shoot me a line and i’ll buy you the beverage of your choosing.
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jsd – We like Northern California a LOT. You just may see us one time. Maybe more! If we can cross state lines without too much hassle. And the beverage would be sparkling water since I don’t imbibe.
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Thanks Monk!
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SimonH – You’re most welcome!
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Hurrah for PPM!
I have thoroughly enjoyed this blog for many years now and of course have had the great pleasure of meeting you in person.
How I wish we could attend gigs together, rifle through our record collections and enjoy profound conversations about John Foxx etc but sadly an eternity of land and sea separates us.
I have learned a great deal thorough this blog, made some great connections and increased my knowledge tremendously. For that I thank you.
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gavinthemetamorph – Still, we managed to do all of that in a memorable week!! At least we rifled through your record collection… it’s true. Knowing you and yours has been a true enhancement of my world and I’m so glad we crossed paths here.
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Absolute congrats on the milestone/anniversary! And, thank you for the spotlights you’ve given my indie musical sermons these past couple of years! Do you mind if I craft a post to this on my social feeds? It could increase your readership!
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René – It’s been a pleasure to find another of “The Tribe” when you started commenting here. That you also made cool music of your own was merely icing on the cake. And I’ll say that “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” If you’ve got the [gasp] spare time to post about here on your social feed, then have at it. I don’t play in that sandbox.
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I echo everyone’s congratulations, certainly well deserved, and JSD’s invite for a beverage of your choice (sparkling water in both of our cases!) if you ever find yourself in Northern California. I am the fellow who was going to meet you in Ashville last year but whose plans were regretfully scuppered by the ongoing impacts of the Hurricane in your lovely city.
Keep up the great work, Monk. Looking forward to 3,001 and beyond!
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drskridlow – Thanks for the good thoughts. We’ve not been to Northern Cali since 2014, but we loved the trip. If you get to AVL before we get out there, then you must look us up! If I don’t see Southern California again I’m fine with that. And for the record, I was born in Santa Monica.
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Congratulations Monk. 3000 posts over 15 years. I check in nearly everyday with PPM. Well done and keep it up as long as you can/ want to.
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Mann, I love your blog. The stuff you write about and the stuff I write about seldom overlap. And when they do, I genuinely dance a little jig. Because you’re writing amazes me and it does things that my writing can only report to try and do but I dig what you do. I dig how you write it best of all I dig finding new or old bands that would never really have out of my sphere in your words in your presentation. I think you know what I’ll give that a go and suddenly I am Wallet deep in some repress website Buying classic punk singles put out on a jazz label because you posted the link. Thanks, Monk.
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steveforthedeaf – I know! The Venn diagram of our tastes is mostly unaligned, but where the overlap does occur it’s like a kind of magic where we can share the sandbox! I’m always hanging on for that post where I can comment on your blog. And without your blog I never would have known about Iggy’s awesome Sly Stone cover!! And don’t sell yourself short! Your voice in prose really conveys your being and that is the fizz that only good writing delivers.
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Thanks Mate
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