I completed the Freak Scene Dream trilogy earlier this year. The Freak Scene Dream Trilogy consists of “True Love Scars,” “Days of the Crazy-Wild” and “Beautiful Dying.” The trilogy is a rock ‘n’ roll/coming-of-age story set in the late ’60s and early ’70s. On one level, it’s about two young men, Michael Stein and Jim Costello, and the difficulties they face in their relationships … Continue reading Michael Goldberg’s Freak Scene Dream Trilogy
This Is What We Talk About… … When We Talk About Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste. News, events and links to reviews and interviews. Discussion welcome! (Carl Wilson’s new book blog, on the occasion of its new edition) Continue reading Carl Wilson’s Book Blog
“Mr. Guralnick’s e-book project is a particularly ambitious example of what seems be a growing trend in the publishing world. As the technology for adding ‘enhanced content’ like music, video and documents to the electronic versions of books advances, publishers are incorporating more of that material into work about popular music, whether critical assessments like Mr. Guralnick’s or the autobiographies and memoirs written by musicians… … Continue reading Enhanced Guralnick Bios
Was planning to read Turn Around Bright Eyes (no, silly, not that Turn Around Bright Eyes, the one by Rob Sheffield) but for reasons too complicated to explain (it involves two Christmas gifts, one of which was embarrassingly last minute), I ended up not reading it but purchasing and listening, mostly in my car, to the audiobook version through iTunes instead (cashing out an iTunes … Continue reading Turn Around Bright Ears
MT: After release the book took on a life of its own, in terms of publicity and reach. Did that surprise you? CW: People have been wonderfully nice. But that’s always the hope. I would call it more of a relief and a pleasure than a surprise – if nothing like that had happened, it would have been a disappointment. I think the surprise is … Continue reading Carl Wilson Talks About Love (Not the Arthur Lee-led outfit)
Some extremely juicy thoughts on Steely Dan in Ian Penman’s lengthy review of Donald Fagen’s Eminent Hipsters (which I place near the top of the list of musician autobiographies I should read; granted, it’s an incredibly short list, maybe three or four tops which even interest me). I appreciate Penman’s placement of ’70s SD as an uneasy midpoint between Joni Mitchell and the Ramones (“pinup … Continue reading The Odd Critical Appeal of Steely Dan
“From the frantic birth of rock’n’roll to the rages of punk, these books capture the excitement of popular music.” (An excellent list in the Guardian by the author of Yeah Yeah Yeah.) Continue reading Bob Stanley’s 10 Best Music Books
As of yesterday (I think), the Expert Witness community went kaput: However, it appears (thanks to Steven for pointing this out) that the back and forths between commenters (or some of it? did someone actually edit this thing?) is being published in book form, via the self-publishing imprint, Lulu. (Sorry for the awful title pun. I’m tired, okay?) Continue reading Expert Witnesses Go Undercover
“But cultural history — well, that’s a whole other kettle of white whales, you might say. From figuratively tussling with Hemingway’s ghost and literally arm-wrestling Muhammad Ali to playing bull in the arena to women’s lib, Mailer conflated the roles of spectator and set-upon gladiator in a way that made him, for a while, the literary world’s answer to Bob Dylan. That Mailer saw no … Continue reading There Goes Norman
I came across a used copy of this 1987 book a couple years ago, and it’s one of those music books in my collection which I treasure most. Partly because it seems like the sort of book that will become harder to find (there’s precious little information about it online), but moreso because it’s actually proven to be a useful guide, especially for someone like … Continue reading John Schaefer’s ‘New Sounds’
“My nephew went to Download Festival recently and saw Iron Maiden and also was in the D&B room, consuming all different types of music that were fast and loud and had no other links. “There isn’t that tribalism anymore, if you like ‘A’ you can’t listen to ‘B’. It doesn’t exist anymore and it’s a good thing. Things rubbing up against each other can be … Continue reading Loving A and Loving B
“At some other show before then — CBGB maybe? — I remember [Wolcott] dismissively mentioning that publishers were already sounding him out about collecting his pieces. I have no idea why he apparently thought that was ridiculous; the green river of envy coursing through me had already knocked down houses and drowned cows. He wasn’t even thirty yet! If you want a measure of how … Continue reading Wolcott Gets His Nuggets
“The early 50s are the seldom-visited relative of modern pop. There are swathes of No 1 and major stars that are all but forgotten: Guy Mitchell, Dickie Valentine, Eddies Fisher and Calvert, all of whom were once household names. Joe Meek certainly nabbed a lot of ideas from the early 50s — it pained me slightly to discover that John Leyton’s Johnny Remember Me wasn’t … Continue reading Pop Music’s “seldom-visited relatives”
Ever wonder what happened to the “best music writing” series which (as noted here) went “indie” back in January 2012 via Kickstarter contributions, raising a not-exactly-measly sum of $17,000? Well, you would not be not alone in wondering such a thing. Continue reading Best Music Writing goes what-a-way?
Rob Sheffield on NPR, talking about his new book, Turn Around Bright Eyes: The Rituals of Love and Karaoke. Another one on my hit list. (I’ll try and post links to any interesting, substantive reviews here.) Continue reading Karaoke Wayward Son
RockCritics.com 