It’s a big week for music fans who know how to read — especially those who also happen to love CSNY, Kurt Cobain and Justin Bieber. Here’s the lowdown:
Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain
By Danny Goldberg
THE PRESS RELEASE: “On the 25th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death comes a new perspective on one of the most compelling icons of our time—and the only book written by someone who knew him. In early 1991, top music manager Danny Goldberg agreed to take on Nirvana, a critically acclaimed new band from the underground music scene in Seattle. He had no idea that the band’s leader, Kurt Cobain, would become a pop-culture icon with a legacy arguably at the level of that of John Lennon, Michael Jackson, or Elvis Presley. Danny worked with Kurt from 1990 to 1994, the most impactful period of Kurt’s life.”
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock’s Greatest Supergroup
By David Browne
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Longtime music journalist and Rolling Stone writer David Browne presents the ultimate deep dive into rock and roll’s most musical and turbulent brotherhood on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Featuring exclusive interviews with David Crosby and Graham Nash along with band members, colleagues, fellow superstars, former managers, employees, and lovers-and with access to unreleased music and documents — Browne takes readers backstage and onstage, into the musicians’ homes, recording studios, and psyches, to chronicle the creative and psychological ties that have bound these men together — and sometimes torn them apart. This is the sweeping story of rock’s longest-running, most dysfunctional, yet pre-eminent musical family, delivered with the epic feel their story rightly deserves.”
CSNY: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
By Peter Doggett
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Including full color photographs, CSNY: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young chronicles these four iconic musicians and the movement they came to represent, concentrating on their prime as a collective unit and a cultural force: the years between 1969, when Woodstock telegraphed their arrival to the world, and 1974, when their arch-enemy Richard Nixon was driven from office, and the band (to quote Graham Nash himself) lost it on the highway.”
Justin Bieber: Steps to Stardom
By John Kastner
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Are you a Belieber? Step inside the Justin Bieber museum exhibit in Stratford with Justin Bieber: Steps to Stardom. This visual journey through the exhibit and the life of Justin Bieber tells the story of his rise from busking on the steps of local theatres to performing at the largest and most well-known venues in the world.This book brings the museum to you, featuring 100 colour photos of some of the most iconic exhibit items, along with exclusive insights from Stratford Perth Museum general manager John Kastner. Read the never-before-revealed tales of the treasured display items, the story behind the creation of the exhibit itself, and the journeys of fans who have travelled from all over the globe to visit this homage to an icon. Justin Bieber: Steps to Stardom is a must-have collector’s item for Beliebers all over the world.”
The Shangri-Las’ Golden Hits of the Shangri-Las
By Ada Wolin
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Of the many girl-groups that came out of the 1960s, none is more idiosyncratic and influential than the Shangri-Las. They were together only five years, but within that time they subverted pop standards and foreshadowed a generation of tough women in music. This book examines the still-elusive validation of 1960s girl-groups as a whole, but also paradoxically aims to free the Shangri-Las from that category, viewing them instead with the sort of individuality traditionally afforded to rock groups. They were somehow able to challenge the status quo under the guise of sticky-sweet pop, a feat not many pop groups can achieve, but which they do fleetingly but not insubstantially in Golden Hits of the Shangri-Las.”
Odetta’s One Grain of Sand
By Matthew Frye Jacobson
THE PRESS RELEASE: “When 20-year-old Odetta Holmes — classically trained as a vocalist and poised to become “the next Marian Anderson” — veered away from both opera and musical theater in favor of performing politically charged field hollers, prison songs, work songs, and folk tunes before mixed-race audiences in 1950s coffee houses, she was making one of the most portentous decisions in the history of both American music and Civil Rights. Released the same year as her famous rendition of I’m on My Way at the March on Washington, One Grain of Sand captures the social justice project that was Odetta’s voice.”
Dirty Birdy Bible: Notes From the Road Perfect
By Hiro Tanaka
THE PRESS RELEASE: “While on tour as a photographer for numerous punk, hardcore, and indie bands (including Jeff Rosenstock, Minus the Bear, Cursive, Alkaline Trio, Har Mar Superstar, Lawrence Arms, Selby Tigers, Mike Park and more), Japanese photographer Hiro Tanaka spent 10 years compiling a naughty notebook filled with NSFW slang words and crude drawings. Tanaka was known to have a pen and notebook with him at all times that he filled from cover to cover with english colloquialisms, dirty phrases, slang, jokes, and drawings that he would learn from the bands, fans and other people he met travelling.”
Finding Medusa: The Making of an Unlikely Rock Star
By Donna F. Brown
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Donna F. Brown’s Finding Medusa takes you on a historical journey through the turbulent sixties in Chicago, the music, the drugs, as well as a personal journey through her darkest and brightest moments. From first co-founding the Chicago based rock group, Medusa, and waiting 40 years for the release of their LP, First Step Beyond, Medusa finally secured a place in music history. The second incarnation of Medusa produced the new album Rising From The Ashes, and led to several tours.”
EXO: K-Pop Superstars
By Adrian Besley
THE PRESS RELEASE: “A K-pop band like no other, EXO have been dominating charts and stealing hearts since they debuted in 2012. For the first time, this unofficial biography will tell their extraordinary story. Extensively researched, this book weaves in the backstories of each of the nine individual members with the story of the band as a whole, as well as detailing the support from their incredible fanbase, EXO-L.”
