Motorpsycho: Blissard

Morgenbladet Topp 100 #25

by Johan Harstad

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

332 pages, Paperback

First published November 23, 2012

About the author

Johan Harstad is a Norwegian author, graphic designer, playwright, drummer, and international sensation. He is the winner of the 2008 Brage Award (Brageprisen), previously won by Per Petterson, and his books have been published in over 11 countries. In 2009, he was named the first ever in-house playwright at the National Theatre in Oslo. His first novel Buzz Aldrin, What Happened To You In All The Confusion, originally published in Norway by Gyldendal in 2005, was made into a TV series in 2009 starring The Wire’s Chad Coleman. Harstad lives in Oslo.

Reviews

[Marte]

Mine øyne er herved åpna for å betrakte blissard som et av motorpsychos sterkeste, selv om jeg for alltid vil være ei trust us-jente. I tillegg fører Johan Harstad en flott penn, og det var reine nostalgitrippen å lese skildringene av en 15/16-åring som er i gang med å finne seg sjæl gjennom musikken. Og om disse to trønderne fra svartlamon som gang på gang greide å løsrive seg fra sjangernes hypotetiske fengsel og skape sitt eget, kompromissløse univers. Råkk ‘n’ råll i eininga!

[Maarten Wagemakers · Rating 5 out of 5]

So is this really a five star book? Well, I guess it really depends on your affinity with the subject matter.
In this case, let's see what we've got here:
- a band, Motorpsycho, that ranks way up there in my list of all time favorites; that I have seen more times than I can count, playing wholly different sets yet still managing to destroy me each and every time, restlessly overhauling their sound on an almost album-to-album basis (and believe me, they've got a lot of them!);
- Blissard, one of my all time favourite albums, that's been massively influential on my musical taste and an album I must have heard dozens upon dozens of times, with notes and lyrics I can basically recite from my subconscious; that resonates deeply, immediately bringing up memories with its songs;
- and an author who writes from a very familiar perspective: that of a massive, massive fan that also fell for Blissard and has deeply personal memories attached to it. And also happens to be a huge Motorpsycho nerd writing about all those things you've always wanted to read about as a fellow massive fan, in a context that's completely familiar to you, but due to a lack of source material never could. Until now, that is.

So yes, you could say this book ticks all the right boxes for me - tenfold. Does that make this a objectively great book you say? I have no idea, I can't really think straight anymore. In the meantime though, thanks to this magnificent book, I'll be going through their entire back catalogue again, eating, sleeping and dreaming the Gospel of Motorpsycho all over again - just like in the old days.

[Knut Sigurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eg har gått i ganske stor detalj om kva eg synest her: http://www.lettvinsynsing.com/2013/07...