One posthumous bio of a rock legend. A few collections of photos, lyrics, poems and flyers. An examination of women in hip-hop. And a comic book — sorry, graphic novel — based on the scumdogs of the universe. That’s all they wrote this week. Hope it’s enough to tide you over. Read all about it:
Janis: Her Life and Music
zBy Holly George-Warren
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Janis Joplin’s first transgressive act was to be a white girl who gained an early sense of the power of the blues, music you could only find on obscure records and in roadhouses along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. But even before that, she stood out in her conservative oil town. She was a tomboy who was also intellectually curious and artistic. By the time she reached high school, she had drawn the scorn of her peers for her embrace of the Beats and her racially progressive views. Her parents doted on her in many ways, but were ultimately put off by her repeated acts of defiance. Janis Joplin has passed into legend as a brash, impassioned soul doomed by the pain that produced one of the most extraordinary voices in rock history. But in these pages, Holly George-Warren provides a revelatory and deeply satisfying portrait of a woman who wasn’t all about suffering. Janis was a perfectionist: a passionate, erudite musician who was born with talent but also worked exceptionally hard to develop it. She was a woman who pushed the boundaries of gender and sexuality long before it was socially acceptable. She was a sensitive seeker who wanted to marry and settle down — but couldn’t, or wouldn’t. She was a Texan who yearned to flee Texas but could never quite get away — even after becoming a countercultural icon in San Francisco. Written by one of the most highly regarded chroniclers of American music history, and based on unprecedented access to Janis Joplin’s family, friends, band mates, archives, and long-lost interviews, Janis is a complex, rewarding portrait of a remarkable artist finally getting her due.”
Another Day In The Life
By Ringo Starr
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Another Day In The Life is introduced and narrated by Ringo Starr, with forewords by legendary movie director David Lynch and rock photographer Henry Diltz. Ringo shows us the world as seen through a Starr’s eyes, in more than 500 observational photographs and rare images from the archives, and an original text of nearly 13,000 words. From Los Angeles to Tokyo and everywhere in between, Ringo’s photographs celebrate his life in music and offer a glimpse behind the scenes. Many are taken during historic events, such as Ringo’s acceptance of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and his return to New York’s Plaza Hotel, 50 years after The Beatles first visited the USA. Another Day In The Life, Ringo Starr’s 184-page monograph featuring Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh and a host of All-Starr friends, is captioned throughout with an original commentary. Meditative, witty and always engaging, Ringo reflects on a legendary life in music.”
Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings
By Joni Mitchell
THE PRESS RELEASE: “In 1971, as her album Blue topped charts around the world, Joni Mitchell crafted 100 copies of Morning Glory on the Vine as a holiday gift for her closest friends. For this stunningly beautiful book, Joni hand-wrote an exquisite selection of her own lyrics and poems and illustrated them with more than thirty of her original pictures. Handcrafted, signed, and numbered in Los Angeles, the existing copies of this labor of love have rarely been seen in the past half-century. Now, during Joni’s 75th year, Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings will be widely available for the first time. In this faithfully reproduced edition, Joni’s best-loved lyrics and poems spill across the pages in her own elegant script. The lively, full-color drawings depict a superb array of landscapes, still lifes, portraits of friends, self-portraits, innovative abstractions, and more. All the artwork from the original book is included, along with several additional pictures that Joni drew of her friends from the same period. Finally, the refreshed volume features an original introduction written by Joni. Morning Glory on the Vine is a gorgeous and intimate keepsake and an invitation to explore anew the dazzling, visionary world of Joni Mitchell.”
God Save the Queens: The Essential History of Women in Hip-Hop
By Kathy Iandoli
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Every history of hip-hop previously published, from Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop to Shea Serrano’s The Rap Yearbook, focuses primarily on men, glaringly omitting a thorough and respectful examination of the presence and contribution of the genre’s female artists. For far too long, women in hip-hop have been relegated to the shadows, viewed as the designated “First Lady” thrown a contract, a pawn in some beef, or even worse. But as Kathy Iandoli makes clear, the reality is very different. Today, hip-hop is dominated by successful women such as Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, yet there are scores of female artists whose influence continues to resonate. God Save the Queens pays tribute to the women of hip-hop — from the early work of Roxanne Shante, to hitmakers like Queen Latifah and Missy Elliot, to the superstars of today. Exploring issues of gender, money, sexuality, violence, body image, feuds, objectification and more, God Save the Queens is an important and monumental work of music journalism that at last gives these influential female artists the respect they have long deserved.”
GWAR: The Enormogantic Fail
By Matt Miner, Matt Maguire & Jeff Martin
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Master is at it again in a fierce battle against Cardinal Syn. To get into the Masters good graces, the Destructo brothers have trapped GWAR in order to interrogate them to find the key to destroying Cardinal Syn once and for all. Will Sawborg and Bozo Destructo get the answers they need? Can GWAR escape their clutches? Will Cardinal Syn destroy them all? And what really happened when GWAR were banished to earth? All will be revealed in GWAR: The Enormogantic Fail, a new 96 page graphic novel from legendary rock band GWAR and Renegade Arts Entertainment. Written by Matt Maguire and Matt Miner, with art by some of the greatest comic creators this side of Flab Quarv 7, hand-picked by GWAR themselves, including Matt Maguire, Liana Kangas, Lukasz Kowalczuk, Matt Lejeune, Katie Longua, Jeff Martin, Kelly Williams and Josh Jensen.”
The Flyer Vault: 150 Years of Toronto Concert History
By Daniel Tate & Rob Bowman
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Duke Ellington. Johnny Cash. David Bowie. Nirvana. Bob Marley. Wu-Tang Clan. Daft Punk. These are just some of the legendary names that played Toronto over the last century. Drawing from Daniel Tate’s extensive flyer collection, first archived on his Flyer Vault Instagram account, Tate and Rob Bowman have assembled a time capsule that captures a mesmerizing history of Toronto concert and club life, running the gamut of genres from vaudeville to rock, jazz to hip-hop, blues to electronica, and punk to country. The Flyer Vault: 150 Years of Toronto Concert History traces seminal live music moments in the city, including James Brown’s debut performance in the middle of a city-wide blackout, a then-unknown Jimi Hendrix backing up Wilson Pickett in 1966 — the year a new band from London named Led Zeppelin performed in Toronto six times — and the one and only show by the Notorious B.I.G., which almost caused a riot in the winter of 1995.”
