All Entries in the "Books" Category
PUSSY, KING OF THE PIRATES by Kathy Acker; Grove Press, 1996
The events which happen between the covers of Kathy Acker’s latest novel could be spelled out in one sentence or maybe even in a word or two. The form of the novel could also be explained succinctly. Damned be the downsizers, I say. A brief synopsis is not a reliable method of deciding how much [...]
CRY: THE JOHNNIE RAY STORY by Jonny Whiteside
Whiteside, longtime L.A. Weekly music scribe, has written an exhaustive bio on the 1950s cry baby king, Mr. Johnnie Ray, crooner of such slit your wrists classics as “Coffee and Cigarettes,” “Little White Cloud,” and of course, “Cry.” The author takes you through the childhood hearing loss, the singer’s start in the R&B black and [...]
NEIL DIAMOND IS FOREVER… by Jon Bream
NEIL DIAMOND IS FOREVER: The Illustrated Story of the Man and His Music by Jon Bream; Voyageur Press, 2009 Compiled and released no doubt to abet 12 Songs and Home Before Dark, Diamond’s two Rick Rubin-produced projects released in 2005 and 2008 respectively, Neil Diamond is Forever makes a case for legacy for someone thought [...]
Jim DeRogatis’s VELVET UNDERGROUND
Famously dismissed and ignored in their time, the subsequent almost four decades since their break up has been witness to a slow, yet ever increasing appreciation. As was the direction printed on the front of their first album, “peel slowly and see.”
Invisible Republic reviewed by Lord Ouch
In 1975 all-American music critic Greil Marcus scripted the liner notes for Bob Dylan and the Band’s
KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE by Horace McCoy
Classic is right. Though almost fifty years old, this is the best book of its kind that I’ve read all year.
Mason & Dixon reviewed by David B. Livingstone
Book Reviews Mason & Dixon reviewed by David B. Livingstone Aug 10, 2009, 16:29 MASON & DIXON: A NOVEL by Thomas Pynchon; Henry Holt, 1997 Brevity, the aphorism has it, is the soul of wit. So where does that leave Thomas Pynchon, whose current offering Mason & Dixon: A Novel weighs in at close to [...]
MICK FARREN: The 1997 Your Flesh Profile
Book Features MICK FARREN: The 1997 Your Flesh Profile Mar 6, 2009, 19:32 –> If rock ‘n’ roll and literature are usually considered mutually exclusive arenas, nobody bothered to tell Mick Farren. For the past thirty years his creative muse has swerved between the two on an increasingly contorted trajectory. “It’s always been sort of [...]
Kurt Cobain reviewed by Bo Pogue
Book Reviews Kurt Cobain reviewed by Bo Pogue Mar 2, 2009, 12:06 KURT COBAIN by Christopher Sandford; Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1995 I remember the moment I first found out Kurt had passed. Driving along a rural stretch of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, my reaction upon hearing the somber cut-in on Seattle’s KNDD radio was, “Wow! [...]
The Marabou Stork Nightmare reviewed by David B. Livingstone
Book Reviews The Marabou Stork Nightmare reviewed by David B. Livingstone By Mar 2, 2009, 12:10 –> THE MARABOU STORK NIGHTMARES by Irvine Welsh; W.W. Norton, 1997 In the wake of the surprise stateside success of the film adaptation of his Trainspotting—a sickly, strangely funny slice of life amidst Edinburough’s heroin subculture—Irvine Welsh has emerged [...]
