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"In his debut collection, Nashville native and Iowa MFA Drew Bratcher writes musically about memory and memorably about music in uncommonly beautiful essays that announce the arrival of a major new voice. The title essay, a requiem in fragments, tells the story of a grandfather through his ear, comb, hands, El Camino, and clothes. With a descriptive precision redolent of John Berger and the literary portraiture of Annie Ernaux, Bratcher delivers a...
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"Spanning three decades worth of astute, acerbic, and overall astounding music writing, Kick Out the Jams is the first large-scale anthology of the work of renowned critic Dave Marsh. Ranging from Elvis Presley to Kurt Cobain, from Nina Simone to Ani DiFranco, from the Beatles to Green Day, the book gives an opinionated, eye-opening overview of 20th century popular music--offering a portrait not just of an era but of a writer wrestling with the American...
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Acclaimed rock critic Steven Hyden digs deep into the songs, history, legacy, and mystique of Radiohead's groundbreaking, controversial, epoch-defining album, Kid A, outlining the album's pervasive influence and impact on culture, in time for its 20th anniversary. Deploying a mix of criticism, journalism, and personal memoir, Hyden skillfully revisits this enigmatic, alluring LP and investigates the many ways in which Kid A shaped and foreshadowed...
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""Psycho Killer." "Take Me to the River." "Road to Nowhere." Few artists have had the lasting impact and relevance of Talking Heads. One of the foundational bands of downtown New York's 1970s music scene, Talking Heads have endured as a musical and cultural force for decades, their unique brand of transcendent, experimental rock a lingering influence on popular music-despite having disbanded over thirty years ago. Now on the 50th anniversary of the...
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In the mid-'70s four flamboyant bands reveled in revved-up anthems and flaunted a novel theatricality. Brod offers an eye- and ear-opening look at a crucial moment in music history, when rock became fun again and a gig became a show. He seamlessly interweaves the narratives of KISS, Cheap Trick, and Aerosmith with that of Starz, a criminally neglected band whose fate may have been sealed by a shocking act of violence. Brod shows how these distinctly...
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"Hip-hop (and other things) is about, as it were, rap, but also some other things. It spends the entirety of its time celebrating what has become the most dominant form of music these past two and a half decades. Tupac is in there. Jay Z is in there. Missy Elliott is in there. Drake is in there. Pretty much all of the big names are in there, as are a bunch of the smaller names, too. There's art from illustrator Arturo Torres, there are infographics...
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"Ben Wynne's "A Hound Dog Tale" is a detailed history of the rock-and-roll standard "Hound Dog." Citing its original release and reception as a turning point in American popular culture, he reveals how the song reflected American society through issues of race, gender, and generational conflict. The story is compelling. Two white Jewish teenagers from New York and Baltimore who fantasized about being Black wrote "Hound Dog." They gave it to Willie...
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Go behind the scenes with photography, original interviews with the cast, crew, Alanis Morissette, and Diablo Cody, and an introduction from Morissette herself on the album's genesis and journey from release to musical -- including details and anecdotes on her collaboration on the show. Including the full annotated libretto and a retrospective look at Alanis's artistic influences and the significance of the album within the cultural context of the...
12) Quantum criminals: ramblers, wild gamblers, and other sole survivors from the songs of Steely Dan
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"Steely Dan was a somewhat unusual band that still inspires unusually strong devotion in its fans. Formed in the late '60s in New York, they released seven albums between 1971 and 1981, two of which were nominated for a Grammy. Part of what's unusual about them is that each of those albums was made by a different group of musicians--founding members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had no issues swapping players from record to record in order to get...