A few items on books and music for your perusal:
Those guys at That Truncheon Thing tell me that A Capella books, the indie book store in Atlanta’s Little Five Points, has started their own publishing arm, everthemore books. If the name of the store doesn’t give it away, it quickly becomes apparent when you’re there that these guys love books about music. Their publishing catalog includes: As Far as You Can Get Without a Passport by Peter Case, musician and former front man of the Plimsouls; Party Out of Bounds: The B-52’s, R.E.M., and the Kids who Rocked Athens, Georgia by Rodger Lyle Brown; and The Nashville Sound by Paul Hemphill.
Heather at the spectacular music blog I Am Fuel, You Are Friends has nice things to say about Every Day is Saturday by Peter Ellenby. The book is a collection of Ellenby’s photographs of indie rock bands in glorious action. Heather hosted a contest with the winner getting a copy of the book. The winner was chosen from the best submissions of favorite pieces of rock photography. See the favorites here.
Kerry at the Pickle-Me-This blog was the first to hip me to Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield. Since reading her post, I seem to be seeing things about the book everywhere. Several here at BGB have had mix tapes and CDs foisted on them by me for 20 years or more. Good heavens. Anyway, this book is very much up my alley is what I’m saying.
Yesterday Terry Gross interviewed Colin Meloy of the Decemberists on NPR. The Decemberists, if you don’t know them, are often referred to as a”hyper-literate” band. Their music often uses Victorian and other historical imagery (often of the dark variety) as reference points. They have the prettiest song that you’ll ever hear about the Shankill Butchers. If you’re literate and like music, do yourself a favor and check them out. You can hear a few samples of their music at their web site (click on the birdie). And listen to Terry’s interview for some hyper-literate banter.
January 30th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Thanks for the shout out, Tim. Those Everthemore titles are all excellent. The Peter Case volume is just the first installment of a LONG memoir that hopefully a larger publisher will decide to pick up — it’s a great, gritty read. I happened to hear the interview with Colin Meloy yesterday, also, and it’s a good listen, but did you notice that Meloy was sort of a tough interview for Terry?
January 30th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I know what you mean about the Meloy interview. How many different ways could she ask the question, “So, you use a lot of big words in your songs. What’s that all about?”.
January 30th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
“Mixed” tape? Since when? I’ve always known them as “mix” tapes — anyone else? But then, as a lad, I always heard “for all intents and purposes” as “for all intensive purposes,” so I’ll concede I may be wrong here. Even though I’m not.
January 30th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Checked out the photos. Dang, who knew PJ Harvey had such a rockin’ little… mind?
January 30th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Flav: Thanks for pointing out my mistake (both instances were my error). For your efforts, you may experience some further delays on your copy of this year’s year-end MIX CD to arrive at your door.
January 31st, 2007 at 2:11 am
“Further delays”? Uh-oh. It’s gonna be 17 Sufjan Stevens songs, isn’t it? I hate you.
January 31st, 2007 at 9:37 am
For you, I’ve worked up something special. Just one song, Morrissey’s “Life is a Pig Sty,” played over and over and coupled with my new anti-eject technology. You’re going to love it.