Music critic Eric Pfeil is in search of bliss. In the relentless struggle of everyday life, he finds pleasure and beauty in pop music – but it also drives him to despair. “Let’s throw the drum kit in the snow” is a congenial, quirky and clever book about man’s most important elixir in life, written by one of Germany’s most exciting music journalists.
On his 38th birthday, Eric Pfeil decides not only to reunite the “Band for Africa” but to start writing a pop diary in which he asks how someone who is almost 40 can keep alive his passion for pop music. The only thing that can prevent musical apathy, of course, is music itself. Rescue comes from god-like musicians and other outsiders: the elusive Kevin Ayers, Dylan, the bold destroyer of myths, the sexually confused such as Tom Jones and Devendra Banhart, wonderful pain-in-the-neck Adriano Celentano or the world-weary Robyn Hitchcock. And of course new artists such as Vampire Weekend, Bon Iver and the Black Lips.
Eric Pfeil has possibly the worst paid dream job in the world. And sometimes he is so busy procrastinating, he doesn’t even get round to working. But as long as he can indulge in the magic of a concert and young soundtrack composers still throw their drum kits in snow, he’ll put alternative career plans on hold. Thank goodness.
