14
Dec
2004
'Tis the season to shake off the cold and retreat under the comfort of hot chocolate, lots of blankets, and a good book. An armload of cool new selections are worth snuggling up with, aiming to feed your head and pop-culture addictions.
• In 1987 Paul Grushkin crafted the ultimate rock-and-roll coffee-table book in The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk. A joyous celebration and evolutionary study of the lowly rock poster, this 11-by-13-inch monster was truly "heavy, man" - requiring two hands to pick up and solid footing when the waves of psychedelia hit. With more than 1,500 reproductions documenting the simple beauty of R&B touring posters of the 1950s, the acid art of the Haight-Ashbury culture, and the stark black photocopies of the punk and new-wave scene, who would think that such an effort could ever be topped? Well, Grushkin himself, who with co-author Dennis King has just published an equally hefty evil twin sister, Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion. At nearly 500 glossy pages boasting more than 1,800 color posters, this sequel sinks its teeth into the new generation of poster artists of the past 15 years, either erupting alongside, or boldly influenced by, the punchy visual soup hand-pulled by screen-print titans Kozik, Coop, and Uncle Charlie. Featuring a foreword by Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips (an experienced silkscreen artist himself), this new volume showcases the new school of kinetic graphic designers, trying to capture the delicious buzz of an upcoming concert event with personal tornados of images, nightmares, and dreams. And while the electric, in-your-face, and frequently sexual imagery is often harsh and jarring, there's a calming and tactile experience when viewing these posters, because like wood-cut or block prints, the silkscreen process is beautifully slow, organic, and unique in their limited, hand-pulled runs. Perhaps you'll see a poster you own inside, what influenced the piece, and how many were printed. Highlights include the personal stories of the artists themselves, who serendipitously rode the alterative-music scenes brewing in cities such as Chicago, Austin, and Minneapolis. Also featured are bands such as Phish and Pearl Jam that commission an individual poster for every tour date, and work from other countries, including Israel, the Netherlands, Croatia, and Japan. Highly recommended, but eat your Wheaties before putting this Chronicle Books mind-bender in your backpack.
• It's been a while since the last state-of-the-union address on record-collecting and current dollar values; Goldmine magazine printed the fifth edition of its price guide in 1996. Considered the "bible" of the LP collectors' market, even in its latest incarnation the book seemed a little out of touch as it mysteriously left out anything remotely alternative or punk, while those genres were the only ones at the time producing any new vinyl or lifting up vinyl fandom. This month a competing imprint, House of Collectables, is issuing the 17th edition of its Price Guide to Records and filling in a lot of those blanks. With the Internet exchanging rare records between collectors at incredible prices, this guide documents forgotten pockets of obsession, including privately pressed garage and psych LPs from the 1960s and 1970s, commanding some of the highest bidding wars on record. Interested in rare SST and Touch & Go seven-inch 45s from the early 1980s, Clash 12-inch singles, or the homegrown release from 10,000 Maniacs? All sorts of modern-rock touchstones are listed here. Instead of dreaming of LP treasures in grandma's attic, maybe Uncle Ian's vinyl stash in Seattle is where the new gems are hiding. Also new from the House of Collectables line is an impressive Price Guide to KISS Collectables by German über-collector Ingo Floren. Featuring a color section and hundreds of black-and-white photographs, this obsessively researched 460-page book is a dizzy ride through the licensed propaganda of the KISS money-making machine. Everything ever officially produced is here, including KISS Colorforms (remember those?), bobble-heads, tour programs, guitar picks, T-shirts, press kits, and board games - not to mention every seven-inch, LP, cassette, and CD from every country that ever rocked to the "hottest band in the land." Highlights include German pressings that shun the Nazi lightning-bolt "SS" in the group's logo, the original pencil study for the Rock & Roll Over album, and the very first promotional poster from Casablanca Records in 1974. Shout it out loud! I found the bronze belt buckle I wore in '77, and the Donruss trading cards I collected in 1980!
• The headiest trip of the bunch is John Leland's fantastic new Hip: The History, published by Harper Collins' Ecco imprint. A historical search for the roots, paths, and sinewy tethers of "cool," Leland muses intellectually on the defiant counterculture that binds both the black and white American experience, from Emerson and Thoreau to wiggas and the genius of Afrika Bambaataa. Like a serpentine story that bubbles outside the official report, the journey is a rush with secrets to search out further at every turn - the original riot grrrls of jazz and blues, DJ culture, William S. Burroughs and the original Jack Black, Madison Avenue and the question of selling out to The Man, and the new digital tribes migrating to Portland and Chapel Hill. For a nation raised on the E! True Hollywood Story and VH1 Behind the Music lessons of history, this delicious essay of almost 400 pages connects the dots in a most definitely, well, hip way.
• NPR radio and the Perigee/Grand Central Press have teamed up for a new book series under the "NPR Curious Listener's Guide to" banner. With a World Music Guide bearing a foreword by Youssou N'Dour and an American Folk Guide with a foreword by Linda Ronstadt, every volume is in good company. Whether you think you know it all, or are just reaching into new musical exploration, each volume contains something new to learn, including an A-to-Z glossary of terms, a list of essential CDs currently available, all the major figures, and stylistic variations within the genre. Most fascinating is the American Folk Guide's story behind 52 treasured songs, including "In the Jailhouse Now" from the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" and "Midnight Special."
• In 1987 Paul Grushkin crafted the ultimate rock-and-roll coffee-table book in The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk. A joyous celebration and evolutionary study of the lowly rock poster, this 11-by-13-inch monster was truly "heavy, man" - requiring two hands to pick up and solid footing when the waves of psychedelia hit. With more than 1,500 reproductions documenting the simple beauty of R&B touring posters of the 1950s, the acid art of the Haight-Ashbury culture, and the stark black photocopies of the punk and new-wave scene, who would think that such an effort could ever be topped? Well, Grushkin himself, who with co-author Dennis King has just published an equally hefty evil twin sister, Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion. At nearly 500 glossy pages boasting more than 1,800 color posters, this sequel sinks its teeth into the new generation of poster artists of the past 15 years, either erupting alongside, or boldly influenced by, the punchy visual soup hand-pulled by screen-print titans Kozik, Coop, and Uncle Charlie. Featuring a foreword by Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips (an experienced silkscreen artist himself), this new volume showcases the new school of kinetic graphic designers, trying to capture the delicious buzz of an upcoming concert event with personal tornados of images, nightmares, and dreams. And while the electric, in-your-face, and frequently sexual imagery is often harsh and jarring, there's a calming and tactile experience when viewing these posters, because like wood-cut or block prints, the silkscreen process is beautifully slow, organic, and unique in their limited, hand-pulled runs. Perhaps you'll see a poster you own inside, what influenced the piece, and how many were printed. Highlights include the personal stories of the artists themselves, who serendipitously rode the alterative-music scenes brewing in cities such as Chicago, Austin, and Minneapolis. Also featured are bands such as Phish and Pearl Jam that commission an individual poster for every tour date, and work from other countries, including Israel, the Netherlands, Croatia, and Japan. Highly recommended, but eat your Wheaties before putting this Chronicle Books mind-bender in your backpack.
• It's been a while since the last state-of-the-union address on record-collecting and current dollar values; Goldmine magazine printed the fifth edition of its price guide in 1996. Considered the "bible" of the LP collectors' market, even in its latest incarnation the book seemed a little out of touch as it mysteriously left out anything remotely alternative or punk, while those genres were the only ones at the time producing any new vinyl or lifting up vinyl fandom. This month a competing imprint, House of Collectables, is issuing the 17th edition of its Price Guide to Records and filling in a lot of those blanks. With the Internet exchanging rare records between collectors at incredible prices, this guide documents forgotten pockets of obsession, including privately pressed garage and psych LPs from the 1960s and 1970s, commanding some of the highest bidding wars on record. Interested in rare SST and Touch & Go seven-inch 45s from the early 1980s, Clash 12-inch singles, or the homegrown release from 10,000 Maniacs? All sorts of modern-rock touchstones are listed here. Instead of dreaming of LP treasures in grandma's attic, maybe Uncle Ian's vinyl stash in Seattle is where the new gems are hiding. Also new from the House of Collectables line is an impressive Price Guide to KISS Collectables by German über-collector Ingo Floren. Featuring a color section and hundreds of black-and-white photographs, this obsessively researched 460-page book is a dizzy ride through the licensed propaganda of the KISS money-making machine. Everything ever officially produced is here, including KISS Colorforms (remember those?), bobble-heads, tour programs, guitar picks, T-shirts, press kits, and board games - not to mention every seven-inch, LP, cassette, and CD from every country that ever rocked to the "hottest band in the land." Highlights include German pressings that shun the Nazi lightning-bolt "SS" in the group's logo, the original pencil study for the Rock & Roll Over album, and the very first promotional poster from Casablanca Records in 1974. Shout it out loud! I found the bronze belt buckle I wore in '77, and the Donruss trading cards I collected in 1980!
• The headiest trip of the bunch is John Leland's fantastic new Hip: The History, published by Harper Collins' Ecco imprint. A historical search for the roots, paths, and sinewy tethers of "cool," Leland muses intellectually on the defiant counterculture that binds both the black and white American experience, from Emerson and Thoreau to wiggas and the genius of Afrika Bambaataa. Like a serpentine story that bubbles outside the official report, the journey is a rush with secrets to search out further at every turn - the original riot grrrls of jazz and blues, DJ culture, William S. Burroughs and the original Jack Black, Madison Avenue and the question of selling out to The Man, and the new digital tribes migrating to Portland and Chapel Hill. For a nation raised on the E! True Hollywood Story and VH1 Behind the Music lessons of history, this delicious essay of almost 400 pages connects the dots in a most definitely, well, hip way.
• NPR radio and the Perigee/Grand Central Press have teamed up for a new book series under the "NPR Curious Listener's Guide to" banner. With a World Music Guide bearing a foreword by Youssou N'Dour and an American Folk Guide with a foreword by Linda Ronstadt, every volume is in good company. Whether you think you know it all, or are just reaching into new musical exploration, each volume contains something new to learn, including an A-to-Z glossary of terms, a list of essential CDs currently available, all the major figures, and stylistic variations within the genre. Most fascinating is the American Folk Guide's story behind 52 treasured songs, including "In the Jailhouse Now" from the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" and "Midnight Special."
