If you’re into quantity, this is not your week — there are only two music-related tomes coming in for a landing. But if you’re into quality, you’ve definitely come to the right place. Read on:
Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion
By Bad Religion
& Jim Ruland
THE PRESS RELEASE: “From their beginnings as teenagers experimenting in a San Fernando Valley garage dubbed The Hell Hole to headlining major music festivals around the world, Do What You Want tells the whole story of Bad Religion’s 40-year career in irreverent style. While Do What You Want tracks down nearly all of Bad Religion’s members past and present, the chief storytellers are the four voices that define Bad Religion: Greg Graffin, a Wisconsin kid who sang in the choir and became an L.A. punk rock icon while he was still a teenager; Brett Gurewitz, a high school dropout who founded the independent punk label Epitaph Records and went on to become a record mogul; Jay Bentley, a surfer and skater who gained recognition as much for his bass skills as for his onstage antics; and Brian Baker, a founding member of Minor Threat who joined the band in 1994 and brings a fresh perspective as an intimate outsider. With a unique blend of melodic hardcore and thought-provoking lyrics, Bad Religion paved the way for the punk rock explosion of the 1990s, opening the door for bands like NOFX, The Offspring, Rancid, Green Day, and Blink-182 to reach wider audiences. They showed the world what punk could be, and they continue to spread their message one song, one show, one tour at a time — with no signs of stopping.”
Car Ma
By Alison Mosshart
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Car Ma is artist and musician Alison Mosshart’s first printed collection of paintings, photographs, short stories, and poetry. It is a book about cars, rock ’n’ roll, and love. It’s a book about America, performance, and life on the road. It’s a book about fender bender portraiture, story tellin’ tire tracks, and the never-ending search for the spirit under the hood. Mosshart imagines the auto body shop like some other Coney Island. And America’s highways as the last great roller coasters. Shows us that the engine on fire is connected to the guitar feeding back since birth. And the sensation of walking on stage and facing an audience is like the laugh before the scream in a car without brakes. She ruminates that automobiles — with their doors and mirrors and windows, engines and wheels and radios — portray us. Mirror our need to be in or to exit, our inward reflections and outward visions, our lifetimes of tinkering with the mysterious heart. That which runs until it doesn’t. Throughout history the car has been a symbol of freedom and hopeful adventure. It stands to reason it is also a symbol of our subsequent spinning out… over things we never thought could happen during a song that fucking good with the volume up that fucking loud. If you’ve ever found yourself feeling holy, pulling out of the gas station with a full tank, like the last beautiful free soul on this planet — This book is for you. In fact it’s probably about you.”
