Sinead and Shaver. Lunachicks and Lennon. Toscanini and trivia. Soul and EDM. Harburg and even a hip-hop colouring book. Grab you bookmark (or your crayons) and get to work:
Rememberings: Scenes from My Complicated Life
By Sinead O’Connor
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “From the acclaimed, controversial singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor comes a revelatory memoir of her fraught childhood, musical triumphs, fearless activism, and of the enduring power of song. Blessed with a singular voice and a fiery temperament, O’Connor rose to massive fame in the late 1980s and 1990s with a string of gold records. By the time she was 20, she was world famous — living a rock star life out loud. From her trademark shaved head to her 1992 appearance on Saturday Night Live when she tore up Pope John Paul II’s photograph, Sinéad has fascinated and outraged millions. In Rememberings, O’Connor recounts her painful tale of growing up in Dublin in a dysfunctional, abusive household. Inspired by a brother’s Bob Dylan records, she escaped into music. She relates her early forays with local Irish bands; we see Sinéad completing her first album while eight months pregnant, hanging with Rastas in the East Village, and soaring to unimaginable popularity with her cover of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2U. Intimate, replete with candid anecdotes and told in a singular form true to her unconventional career, Sinéad’s memoir is a remarkable chronicle of an enduring and influential artist.”
Fallopian Rhapsody: The Story of the Lunachicks
By The Lunachicks, Jeanne Fury
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dive into this no-holds-barred group autobiography of the critically acclaimed feminist punk group The Lunachicks — featuring never-before-seen materials from the band’s private archive. Fallopian Rhapsody: The Story of the Lunachicks is a coming-of-age tale about a band of N.Y.C. teenagers who forged a sisterhood, found salvation, and fervently crashed the gates of punk rock during the ’90s, accidentally becoming feminist icons along the way. More than that, this is a story about the enduring friendship among the book’s three central voices: Theo Kogan, Sydney Silver and Gina Volpe. They formed The Lunachicks at LaGuardia High School (of Fame fame) in the late ’80s and had a record deal with Blast First Records as teenagers, whisked into the studio by Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore. Over the course of 13-ish years, The Lunachicks brought their brand of outrageous hard-rockin’ rebelliousness around the world countless times, simultaneously scaring conservative onlookers and rescuing the souls of wayward freaks, queers, and outcasts.Their unforgettable costume-critiques of pop culture were as loud as their “Marsha[ll]” amps, their ferocious tenacity as lasting as their pre-internet mythology. They toured with bands like The Go-Go’s, Marilyn Manson, No Doubt, Rancid and The Offspring; played the Reading Festival with Nirvana; and rocked the main stage at the Warped Tour twice. Yet beneath all the makeup, wigs, and hilarious outfits were three women struggling to grow into adulthood under the most unorthodox of conditions. Together onstage they were invincible B-movie superheroes who kicked heaps of ass — but apart, not so much. Depression, addiction, and identity crises loomed overhead, not to mention the barrage of sexist nonsense they faced from the music industry. Filled with never-before-seen photos, illustrations, and ephemera from the band’s private archive, and featuring contributions from Lunachicks drummer Chip English, founding member Sindi B., and former bandmate Becky Wreck, Fallopian Rhapsody is a bawdy, gripping, warts-and-all account of how these city kids relied on their cosmic creative connection to overcome internal strife and external killjoys, all the while empowering legions of fans to shoot for the moon. Fallopian Rhapsody is the literary equivalent of diving headfirst into a moshpit and slowly but surely venturing up to the front of the stage.”
Live Forever: The Songwriting Legacy of Billy Joe Shaver
By Courtney S. Lennon
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Billy Joe Shaver wrote 10 of the 11 songs included on Waylon Jennings’ landmark album Honky Tonk Heroes and played a dominant role in the origins and development of the Outlaw Country movement of the 1970s. He has been named by Ray Wylie Hubbard, alongside Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, as a member of the ‘holy trinity’ of Texas songwriters. He has exerted a Texas-sized influence on Texas music and especially Texas singer-songwriters, and is cited as a chief inspiration by at least two generations of artists. But although his influence has been profound, Shaver has the dubious honor of becoming, according to author Courtney S. Lennon, ‘country music’s unsung hero. In Live Forever: The Songwriting Legacy of Billy Joe Shaver, Lennon seeks to give Shaver the recognition his prolific output deserves. She unfolds for readers the complexity and the simplicity of the artist who wrote the songs that Brian T. Atkinson, in his foreword, calls ‘peaceful and pure, complex and convoluted, mad and merciful’, the musician who wrote You Just Can’t Beat Jesus Christ and That’s What She Said Last Night, Honky Tonk Heroes, and Get Thee Behind Me Satan. Based on in-depth interviews with Shaver and a host of notable singer-songwriters, this book reveals and celebrates the saint and the sinner, the earthy intellectual and the hard-drinking commoner, the poet and the cowboy.”
This Was Toscanini: The Maestro, My Father, and Me
By Samuel Antek, Lucy Antek Johnson
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Arturo Toscanini is widely considered the greatest conductor of the modern age and remains a towering figure in the world of classical music. His explosive passions, dynamic music making, and legendary leadership continue to inspire and influence today’s musicians while still captivating new generations of enthusiastic fans as well. This Was Toscanini is an intimate, firsthand, behind-the-scenes musical portrait of the Maestro, told from the unique perspective of first violinist Samuel Antek, who was fortunate to play under Toscanini’s baton for 17 years in the famed NBC Symphony Orchestra. In this expanded second edition of This Was Toscanini: The Maestro, My Father, and Me, Antek’s reflections on playing with the Maestro gain sparkling new facets of insight from his daughter, Lucy Antek Johnson, as she enlightens readers with vivid recollections about her father and his most memorable musical partnership. With a foreword from acclaimed author and music historian Harvey Sachs and featuring Robert Hupka’s iconic photographs throughout, this shining new edition will bring back the wonder of Toscanini’s powerful style and his singular pursuit to make beautiful music.”
Hold On World: The Lasting Impact of John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band, 50 Years On
By John Kruth
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hold On World revisits Lennon and Ono’s love affair and startling collaborations. John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band was arguably the most emotionally honest album ever made. It wasn’t merely another record but more like a sonic exorcism, a spiritual, public bloodletting. Lennon’s album drove a stake through the heart of the Beatles’ myth while confronting everything else in John’s life, from Bob Dylan to God to his glorified status as a Working Class Hero. Determined to rid himself of past traumas — abandonment by his father and the death of his mother, Julia — Lennon wrote the most powerful song cycle of his career, confronting fear, disappointment, and illusion, all the while espousing his love for Yoko Ono. Released simultaneously, Ono’s album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band is emotionally raw and challenging. It inspired bands like The B-52s and Yo La Tengo to employ pure sound, whether shrieking vocals or guitar feedback, to express their deepest feelings.”
The Last Legacy of E.Y. Yip Harburg
By Tamar Springer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Last Legacy of E.Y. Yip Harburg is a collection of songs and stories co-written by Wizard Of Oz lyricist E.Y. Harburg and Santa Baby composer Philip Springer. Reviewing the songs they wrote together, many years after Yip’s death, Springer realized how masterful and poetic Yip’s lyrics were and how special the songs they wrote together were. This set of songs was selected by Springer himself as an interesting and entertaining showcase of their collaboration. For the first time, Springer tells the undocumented back story to his creative partnership with Harburg and how each of these songs took shape, giving a unique insight into the very nature of collaborative songwriting. Following their first meeting when Springer was just 24, Yip brought Springer into his inner circle and they remained loyal friends throughout the decades. Along with photos and memorabilia, Springer depicts the camaraderie between himself and Harburg during Harburg’s last years. Yip Harburg spent the last night of his life at Springer’s home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., which Springer recounts in this special project.”
The Evolution of Electronic Dance Music
By Ewa Mazierska, Tony Rigg, Les Gillon
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Evolution of Electronic Dance Music establishes EDM’s place on the map of popular music. The book accounts for various ambiguities, variations, transformations, and manifestations of EDM, pertaining to its generic fragmentation, large geographical spread, modes of consumption and, changes in technology. It focuses especially on its current state, its future, and its borders — between EDM and other forms of electronic music, as well as other forms of popular music. It accounts for the rise of EDM in places that are overlooked by the existing literature, such as Russia and Eastern Europe, and examines the multi-media and visual aspects such as the way EDM events music are staged and the specificity of EDM music videos. Divided into four parts — concepts, technology, celebrity, and consumption — this book takes a holistic look at the many sides of EDM culture.”
Soul in Print: A History Of Soul Music Fanzines And Magazines
By Iain McCartney
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Soul music remains the biggest underground music scene in the world with each weekend, pre-Covid, seeing countless soul nights and weekenders fill the diaries. Records, on often obscure labels, change hands regularly for four figure sums, while many artists come to Britain countless years after they first stepped into a recording studio to sing tracks that they had to re-learn the words to as it had been so long since they last sung it to an appreciative audience. But for many to learn about those ‘four-figure’ tracks and those who recorded them, they have had to rely on countless diehards on the scene, the ‘anoraks’ so to speak. Those who seek out details of an artist’s career and compile discographies of the labels on which they recorded and then take the time to put it all into print in the form of a fanzine, or if finances allow, a fully-fledged magazine. Some of those publications failed to last beyond one issue, others slightly longer, and although they do not command the same monetary value as the records, many will fetch considerably more than the music publications found on magazine shelves today. There have been books on the artists, the record labels and the venues and now Soul In Print fills a gap, covering the fanzines and magazines which did much to keep the scene alive and maintain the interest which continues today?”
Mondo: The Art of Soundtracks
By Mondo
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following the success of The Art of Mondo comes another visually stunning and deliciously “pop” collection of art inspired by the soundtracks of films, video games, and more. Mondo: The Art of Soundtracks highlights the all original art created exclusively for Mondo’s vinyl releases by world renowned artists for soundtracks to films, tv, and video games. Featuring stunning new takes on classic and modern material, this collection reinvigorates the bygone era of unique and collectible vinyl record artwork. From vintage re-creations to new interpretations, from digital and painterly to photographic and abstract, the record art compiled in this volume captures the spirit of the record label that reinvigorated the soundtrack industry, in a beautiful mash-up fit for a book — or record — shelf.”
Berkmann’s Pop Miscellany: Sex, Drugs and Cars in Swimming Pools
By Marcus Berkmann
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Marcus Berkmann was for many years the pop critic of The Spectator, waiting like most freelances to get fired. He’s also the author of the bestselling Berkmann’s Cricket Miscellany, concentrating on the ridiculous true stories and the weird characters of that most eccentric of sports. Here he combines the two, in a wildly entertaining ride through the galloping absurdities of pop, from Elvis Presley’s real hair colour, through Janet Jackson’s more intimate piercings, to Courtney Love’s hatred of cheese. Why does Bono always wear sunglasses? Did Ozzy Osbourne really urinate on the Alamo? What actually happened at Keith Moon’s 21st birthday party at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Mich? There’s sex, there’s drugs, there’s violence, there’s even a little rock ’n’ roll from time to time. But mainly there are vital questions, now finally answered. Which notable guitarist has unfeasibly tiny hands? Which Britpop star was forced to wear lederhosen as a child? Who said, ‘The majority of pop stars are compete idiots in every respect’? And was she wrong?”
Orbit: Icons of Rock and Roll: Volume #3: Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy and George Harrison
By Michael Frizell
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Arguably, the 1980s were defined by its unique music, exemplified by ex-Beatle George Harrison, the trendsetters of Mötley Crüe, the bad boys of Metallica, and the perennial heavy metal icon, Ozzy Osbourne. Icons of Rock #3 explores the origins of those who helped defined the decade where style mattered and everyone’s life had a soundtrack.”
Hip Hop Coloring Book: West Coast Edition
By Mark 563
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The sun rises in the East but it sets in the West! After the overwhelmingly popular Hip Hop Coloring Book, Hip Hop Journal and Hip Hop Coloring Book: East Coast Edition, Mark 563 is back with Hip Hop Coloring Book: West Coast Edition. It’s a fun activity book for kids and adults. The book features a selection of Mark 563’s own illustrative takes on some of Hip Hop’s most important figures — from early electro pioneers like Egyptian Lover to G-funk and mega stars like Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube and newer rappers like Tyler, the Creator. The 50 pages are packed with legendary West Coast rappers, spanning from the Golden Era through to today’s rap superstars. A perfect gift for anyone interested in Hip Hop and popular culture. Hip Hop Coloring Book: West Coast Edition is marker friendly! Use your favorite markers without the risk of ruining the illustration on the other side of the paper.”
