Books 160 Items

Shorty’s Ark is a book for young readers, a collaborative effort between singer Will Oldham and graphic artist Lori Damiano, based on work by Oldham and musician Matt Sweeney. Drawing inspiration from the story of Noah, Shorty’s Ark names and pictures a wild variety of species to inform and engage an equal variety of young minds with the diversity that can be found around this great planet of ours. The flood stands as metaphor for current impending changes in our planet, and the story works as a springboard for understanding concepts of interdependency, diversity and extinction. Colorfully illustrating as many creatures and their places as possible, Shorty’s Ark is an earth-affirmative vision meant to stimulate the curiosity and passion of those who encounter it.

After ten years, Deathbeds is finally available again as a paperback with the original cover. Deathbeds was first released in 2007, compiling the lyrical content of Wesley EISOLD’s work in renowned bands American Nightmare, Some Girls and the beginning of his current moniker, Cold Cave. Along with tour journals, poems and prose of early fanzines, Deathbeds is the comprehensive work of an artist in their twenties trying to connect with the outside world and their discontent, confusion and the existential within. The book celebrates the beauty that is the struggle of depression and growth in a poignant and foreword way that is rarely written down or documented coherently. These words came from a place of desperation and isolation but ended up inspiring others with how relatable not being able to relate is. First published in 2007, Heartworm has sold over 10,000 copies of this cult collection between three paperback and three hardcover editions. 3rd edition paperback.

Recent winners of Royal Photographic Society Award for Photographic Publishing. All books 36 pages, printed in England, staple bound, 14cm x 20cm.

Recent winners of Royal Photographic Society Award for Photographic Publishing. All books 36 pages, printed in England, staple bound, 14cm x 20cm.

The pearls of the Gulf have stoked the imagination and desire of people around the world for centuries their magnificence matched only by the courage of the divers who found them. This project aims to honor the memory of these valiant free-divers, their culture and their music by the means of a transmedia object including: A 240 pages art book (Arabic – English) featuring the contributions from artist, writers and experts in this tremendously rich theme such as Monira al Qadiri, Toufik Kerbage and Talal Mattar.

In the early ‘70s, Detroit was the musical hub of America. Everything from the chart-topping sounds of Motown Records to the vicious proto-punk of THE Stooges and MC5 was being brewed out there and it seemed like there was no end in sight. But by the early ‘80s, the city was both a physical and cultural wasteland due to major-label buyouts of the artists as well as the crippling drug habits of some of the others. Detroit’s most known musical export at the time was the vapid sounds of new wave heartthrobs THE Romantics; this wasn’t good. It took a gaggle of suburban skateboarders, a grade school teacher, and a census bureau clerk to wake this city up from its slumber and start one of the first hardcore punk scenes in America. Why Be Something That You’re Not chronicles the first wave of Detroit hardcore from its origins in the late ‘70s to its demise in the mid ‘80s. Through a combination of oral history and extensive imagery, the book proves that even though the Southern California beach towns might have created the look and style of hardcore punk, it was the Detroit scene— along with a handful of other cities across the country—that cultivated the music’s grassroots aesthetic before most cultural hot spots around the globe even knew what the music was about. The book includes interviews with members of THE FIX, Violent Apathy, Negative Approach, Necros, Pagans, Bored Youth, and L-seven, along with other people who had a hand in the early hardcore scene like Ian MacKaye (minor Threat), Tesco Vee, and Dave Stimson (Touch & Go Fanzine).

When Tim from Dagger Zine approached us about his book idea covering long-loved "spaces" held sacred for countless music fans, we knew it was a great project to get behind, Similar in its community effort to our last book release (The White Label Promo Preservation Society), Hinely organized an incredible list of contributors from all stripes of the underground music spectrum, each waxing their own warm recollections of wild nights seeing life-changing bands and/or terrible bathroom experiences. Chock full of photos, original newspaper ads, flyers, and long-lost monthly calendars of the pre-Internet age, Where The Wild Gigs Were illustrates how important these sacred spaces really are, and how much it's noticeable when we can't actually be AT these homes-away-from-home, spread all across the USA. From Stache's in Columbus, OH to Flynn's Ocean 71 in Miami, FL (the 'CBGB's on the beach'), back to The Brewery in Lansing MI (complete with previously unpublished Stooges photos!), to City Gardens in Trenton, NJ (staffed by Comedy Dentral's Jon Stewart) to Peter Aaron's sordid details on the mob-run Jockey Club in Newport, KY, you won't find many dull moments as each page bleeds into the next, oozing with recollections of blurry good times and endless excitement before the world changed, as we know it. Includes a foreword by Byron Coley and an afterword by Tesco VEE. 235 pages, paperback. First edition of 500 copies.

The first book from the French band Phoenix, who helped define the sound of an era.

With one foot in the French electronic music sound of the late 1990s and the other in the world of indie Rock, Phoenix have evolved from an edgy French band to one of the most influential and beloved indie acts of the last twenty years.

The book draws on the band's personal archives, including photography of everything from their instruments to the notebooks in which every lyric and chord change were carefully notated. Accompanying this is an oral history of the Phoenix's journey in their own words. The book is a superfan's chronicle of the evolution of a band.

Published to coincide with a series of anniversaries for the band -- thirty years since their formation as teenagers in 1989; twenty since the release of their debut record in 1999; and ten since Grammy Award-winning Best Alternative Album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, in 2009 -- and with original interviews conducted with the band throughout, this book is an intimate celebration of a group whose particular brand of indie rock has struck a chord on both sides of the Atlantic.

For fans, Boxer is a profound personal meditation. Life decisions have been based on it. Relationships have been created and dissolved by it. For the band that recorded it, Boxer symbolizes a do-or-die moment; a final, give-it-everything-you've-got effort to make it work.

Released in May 2007, The National's fourth full-length is the album that saved them. It's where the Ohio-via-Brooklyn five-piece found the sound, success, and spiritual growth to become one of the most critically acclaimed bands of their time. Obsessively researched and featuring intimate interviews with the fighters who were there in the ring, Ryan Pinkard captures a transformative chapter in The National's story, revealing how their breakthrough album is deeply intertwined with their personal lives, the New York indie rock renaissance of the early aughts, and a generational experience in America.

The Jesus and Mary Chain's swooning debut Psychocandy seared through the underground and through the pop charts, shifting the role of noise within pop music forever. Post-punk and pro-confusion, Psychocandy became the sound of a generation poised on the brink of revolution, establishing Creation Records as a tastemaking entity in the process. The Scottish band's notorious live performances were both punishingly loud and riot-spurring, inevitably acting as socio-political commentary on tensions emergent in mid-1980s Britain. Through caustic clangs and feedback channeling the rage of the working-class who'd had enough, Psychocandy gestures toward the perverse pleasure in having your eardrums exploded and loudness as a politics within itself.

Yet Psychocandy's blackened candy heart center – calling out to phantoms Candy and Honey with an unsettling charm – makes it a pop album to the core, and not unlike the sugarcoated sounds the Ronettes became famous for in the 1960s. The Jesus and Mary Chain expertly carved out a place where depravity and sweetness entwined, emerging from the isolating underground of suburban Scotland grasping the distinct sound of a generation, apathetic and uncertain. The irresistible Psychocandy emerged as a clairvoyant account of struggle and sweetness that still causes us to grapple with pop music's relation to ourselves.

Recent winners of Royal Photographic Society Award for Photographic Publishing. All books 36 pages, printed in England, staple bound, 14cm x 20cm. Between 1976 and 1981 Rock Against Racism and the youth of Britain unleashed the explosive rebel chemistry of Punk and Reggae bands in a five year festival of multi culturalism. Under the slogan ‘Love Music, Hate Racism’, Rock Against Racism took on the orthodoxy through 5 Carnivals, and over 500 gigs throughout the UK. In those five years the National Front went from a serious electoral threat into political oblivion.

New York City in the 1970s was an urban nightmare: destitute, dirty, and dangerous. As the country collectively turned its back on the Big Apple, two musical vigilantes rose out of the miasma. Armed only with amplified AC current, Suicide's Alan Vega and Marty Rev set out to save America's soul. Their weaponized noise terrorized unsuspecting audiences. Suicide could start a riot on a lack of guitar alone. Those who braved their live shows often fled in fear--or formed bands (sometimes both). This book attempts to give the reader a front-row seat to a Suicide show.

Suicide is one of the most original, most misunderstood, and most influential bands of the last century. While Suicide has always had a dedicated cult following, the band is still relatively unknown outside their musical coterie. Arguing against the idea of the band's niche musical history, this book looks at parallels between Marvel Comics' antiheroes in the 1970s and Suicide's groundbreaking first album. Andi Coulter tells the origin story of two musical Ghost Riders learning to harness their sonic superpower, using noise like a clarion call for a better future.

From the ashes of Nirvana, Dave Grohl rose as a one-man band with a self-titled album: The Foo Fighters. Now, 25 years on, and with a rock solid outfit that includes Nate Mendel (bass), Taylor Hawkins (drums), Chris Shiflett (guitar), Pat Smear (rhythm guitar) and latest addition, Rami Jaffee (keyboards) – The Foo Fighters are revelling in the success of their ninth studio album, Concrete and Gold. Paying homage to the band‘s enduring longevity, The Foo Fighters: The Band that Dave Made is a comprehensive look at a career that boasts six, million-selling albums, eleven Grammies and hit stadium rock anthems such as „Learn to Fly“, „Best of You“ and „Everlong“. Fully Illustrated, this handsome biography from acclaimed rock writer, Stevie Chick, is a fitting tribute to a band born out of the „nicest guy in rock‘s“ single-minded vision and now one of the planet‘s biggest rock groups.

A Field Guide to ... delves into music’s most influential genres to uncover the innovators and agitators who changed music history forever. In A Field Guide to Britpop, Steve Wide explores a scene fueled by north–south rivalries, tribal fashion and a good cup of tea. Uncover the artists and albums, the who’s who and hangabouts that defined the era. From Blur’s jaunty pop, Pulp’s working-class poetry and Suede’s dark tales of the elegantly wasted, to the pub sing-alongs of Oasis.

Recent winners of Royal Photographic Society Award for Photographic Publishing. All books 36 pages, printed in England, staple bound, 14cm x 20cm.

Words like "inspiring," "expansive," and "moving" are
regularly used to describe Sigur Rós's ( ), and yet the
only words heard on the record itself are a handful of
meaningless nonsense syllables. The album has no
title—or rather, its title is no title: just an empty pair
of parentheses. The intention being that listeners will
fill in the parentheses with their own title, their own
interpretation of the sounds on the record. The CD
sleeve consists of twelve pages that are essentially blank, lacking song
titles, liner notes or production credits. Instead, it contains only semitranslucent
frosted images of abstract natural scenes (tree branches,
clouds, etc.), on which the listener is free to inscribe their own notes—
or no notes at all. And then there are the lyrics, sung in a deliberately
unintelligible tongue called "Hopelandic" which the band invites listeners
to interpret freely.
Ethan Hayden's book doesn't try to fill in the gaps between the album's
parentheses, but instead explores the ways in which listeners might
attempt to do so. Examining the communicative powers of asemantic
language, the book asks whether music can bring sense to nonsense.
What happens to the voice when it stops singing conventional
language: does it simply become another musical instrument, or is it
somehow more "human"? What role does space play on ( )? And how do
we interpret music that we cannot possibly understand, but feel very
deeply that we do?

168 pages, paperback.

Written in Japanese!

Story of CAN / Stockhausen and WDR Studio / Postwar German landscape that nurtured krautrock / Euro Free Jazz Mixture / CAN's Constituent molecules / CAN's DNA / Long interview for members / Disc Guide.

Eat Volume 19: 240 page full color journal of Robert POLLARD’s gorgeous collage art.

A collection of Guided BY Voices frontman Robert POLLARD’s fantastic collage art in a perfect bound book. 235 pages. The man never stops creating.

EAT 17 is a beautiful 237 page, perfect bound book filled with the brilliant collage art of Robert Pollard.

Recent winners of Royal Photographic Society Award for Photographic Publishing. All books 36 pages, printed in England, staple bound, 14cm x 20cm. Late 80s live and candid shots of Nirvana, Mudhoney, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Psychic TV, Nick Cave, Godflesh, Gun Club, Bjork (The Sugarcubes) and more

I've encountered a lot of people who assume touring is chaotic, or worse, glamorous. Most of the time it's neither. Being on tour means being suspended between two worlds, between different versions of home. Like color, people can see the same tour differently.

—Rachel Demy, from Between, Everywhere



Photographer Rachel Demy knows every detail of what it takes to move instruments, cases and crews across the country and around the world to bring musicians and audiences together for a few precious hours. After a decade on the logistics side of managing tours, she laid down her spreadsheets and 16-channel Motorola radio to spend more time with her camera, capturing the liminal moments she had long been observing.

The photographs comprising Between, Everywhere were made over a five-year period touring with Death Cab for Cutie, a band she met first as a fan, and eventually joined as family. Demy’s wry and poignant photographs take viewers behind the scenes and on a journey full of the quiet, the beauty, the monotony and the exhilaration of a veteran band on tour.

Phill Savidge orchestrated the Britpop assizes, all the while coming on like a cross between Jean Baudrillard and Eva Peron. You will laugh until your septum falls out. Luke Haines, author of Bad Vibes: Britpop & My Part In Its Downfall

As co-founder and head of legendary public relations company Savage & Best, Phill Savidge is widely credited as being the main instigator of the Britpop musical movement that swept the UK in the mid 1990s. During this period, Savidge won four PR awards and, together with Savage & Best, represented most of the artists associated with the scene – including Suede, Pulp, The Verve, Elastica, Longpigs, Kula Shaker, ­Spiritualized, Menswear, ­Marion, Ultrasound, Echo­belly, The Auteurs, and Black Box Recorder – and had the kind of fun that is now banned by the Proper Job Authorities.

Vs. is the sound of a band on fire. The same confluence of talent, passion, timing, and fate that made “grunge” the world's soundtrack also lit a short fuse beneath Pearl Jam. The band combusted between late 1992 and mid-1994, the span during which they planned, recorded, and supported their sophomore record. The spotlight, the pressure, the pace-it all nearly turned the thriving act to ash. Eddie Vedder, the reluctant public face of the band, responded by lashing out lyrically. Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Stone Gossard, who beheld success with varying degrees of anxious satisfaction, attacked their instruments in solidarity. Dave Abbruzzese welcomed the rock-star lifestyle, and left his mark on the record with more than just potent percussion. Vs. roils with fury-and at times, gently steams-over the trappings of fame, human faults, and societal injustice. The record is a thrashing testament to Pearl Jam's urgent creativity and greater-good interests, and the band's logistical calculations behind it drew a career-defining line in the sand. It promised the world that Pearl Jam would neither burn out nor fade away. This book weaves research, little-known details, and band members' memories into a definitive account of how Vs. set them on a path toward enduring integrity and relevance.

Join the author as he journeys back to those mutant rockin’, venue wreckin’, snakebite sodden days of the Psychobilly/neo-Rockabilly scene of the 80’s. His fanzine ‘The Crazed’ was right there, reporting on the scene as it grew and writing about bands such as The Meteors, GuanaBatz, Demented Are Go, King Kurt, Long Tall Texans and Restless.

Travel back through those articles and interviews and revisit the experience. Enjoy noisy nights at The Klub Foot, mecca of all things Psychobilly, where many of these interviews were conducted after sweaty gigs. Read the bands own words, full of enthusiasm, excitement and optimism about what the future might hold, and discover what it was like to produce and edit a fanzine back then.

The scene meant so much to so many and ‘The Crazed’ was there to document it. This book recaptures how it felt at the time. After lying dormant for over 30 years ‘The Crazed’ has now been resurrected.

Foreword by Craig ‘Bracko’ Brackenridge of Vintage Rock magazine. Klub Foot cover art by Paskal Millet.

The history of India’s first electronic music studio founded in 1969 at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad by David Tudor.

A book companion to the compilation album The NID Tapes: Electronic Music in India 1969-1972 released by State51.

Subcontinental Synthesis explores the history of India’s first electronic music studio, founded in 1969 at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad with the support of the composer David Tudor. The essays and writings unravel the narrative and context surrounding the studio as well as the work of the Indian composers who created groundbreaking recordings during its four years of activity.

The texts reflect on the role of electronic music within a post-independence India, considering its interconnections with experimental design, radical pedagogies, and the international avant-garde, as well as the encircling conditions of Western ideological soft power within the global expansion of Modernism.

The world of hardcore is renowned for the preservation of its own history. The history has been well-documented in records that have all been reissued, websites devoted to its preservation, an oral history that has been passed down through generations of show-goers, and now, through books that explore even the most minute and obscure details of underground hardcore culture.
This book documents an incredibly important aspect of hardcore’s culture that has, until now, not been documented in any print format: hardcore band T-shirts through the diligent collecting and cataloging of hardcore enthusiast Orhun Öner. The 200 pages of Life.Love.Shirts. - A Collection Of Hardcore
Clothing features the colorful T-shirts that were bought and sold in the sweaty clubs of the ’80s and ’90s, many of which are extremely rare and fetch astronomical sums on the collector’s market. Many of the shirt photos are accompanied by stories from the bands, labels, and those who had a hand in the production and distribution, a glimpse of the rich tradition of hardcore band T-shirt production that continues on to this day!

A meditation on faith, art, music, grief and much more - from cultural icon and bestselling author Nick Cave Faith, Hope and Carnage is a book about Nick Cave's inner life. Created from over forty hours of intimate conversations with Sean O'Hagan, it is a profoundly thoughtful exploration, in Cave's own words, of what really drives his life and creativity. The book examines questions of faith, art, music, freedom, grief and love. It draws candidly on Cave's life, from his early childhood to the present day, his loves, his work ethic and his dramatic transformation in recent years. From a place of considered reflection, Faith, Hope and Carnage offers ladders of hope and inspiration from a true creative visionary.

In a bar called The Bucket of Blood, a man shoots the bartender four times in the head. In the small town of Millhaven, a teenage girl secretly and gleefully murders her neighbors. A serial killer travels from home to home, quoting John Milton in his victims' blood.

Murder Ballads, the ninth studio album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, is a gruesome, blood-splattered reimagining of English ballads, American folk and blues music, and classic literature. Most of the stories told on Murder Ballads have been interpreted many times, but never before had they been so graphic or profane. Though earning the band their first Parental Advisory warning label, Murder Ballads, released in 1996, brought Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds their biggest critical and commercial success, thanks in part to the award-winning single, “Where the Wild Roses Grow,” an unlikely duet with Australian pop singer, Kylie Minogue.

Closely examining each of the ten songs on the album, Santi Elijah Holley investigates the stories behind the songs, and the numerous ways these ballads have been interpreted through the years. Murder Ballads is a tour through the evolution of folk music, and a journey into the dark secrets of American history.

A fascinating oral history of one of American indie rock's most enduring and influential acts. Slow, deliberate and deceptively simple, the music of Boston-based band Galaxie 500 was wonderfully at odds with the prevailing underground sounds of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Formed in 1987, the band split up in 1991 after releasing three acclaimed albums—Today, On Fire and This Is Our Music—as well as a Peel Sessions recording. The primary contributors to this long unavailable history of the band are the three band members—bassist/vocalist Naomi Yang, drummer Damon Krukowski and guitarist/vocalist Dean WAREHAM—but dozens of people were interviewed in all, including fellow musicians, record business folks, music critics and scenesters. Galaxie 500: Temperature’s Rising provides a complex, sometimes contentious account of the band’s rise to indie stardom and their acrimonious breakup. It also includes dozens of rare and never-before-seen photographs, as well as posters and other ephemera from the personal collection of Naomi Yang, who provides a running commentary to the images. This is the definitive book about Galaxie 500, and a crucial chapter in the story of indie rock.

The great British-American-male-female-old-new-blues-rock-ballad band: Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks‘ arrival to Fleetwood Mac, which transformed a British blues band into a major rock force, selling more than 100 million albums. The books captures the early blues era with founder Peter Green and the magic of Buckingham‘s and Nick‘s personalities, Mick Fleetwood‘s creativity, and John and Christine McVie‘s musicianship.One of the enduring rock bands in music history, Fleetwood Mac has been entertaining fans at sold-out performances for decades. Since their early days as a blues band, Fleetwood Mac propelled itself to pop relevance with the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks in 1974. In Fleetwood Mac: Everywhere, musician and writer, Mike Evans, explores the story of the band and offers a celebration of their success with over 150 photos, song reviews, and interviews from over five decades of coverage.

Between 1978 and 1983, Great Britain spawned a DIY uprising of over 500 heavy metal bands. Many soon became the household names of the 1980s metal invasion…many others did not. For the first time, author Michael Hann captures the whole nose-to-tail story of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in all its power and glory, exploring the bands, clubs, radio, magazines, festivals, and the majesty and misfires of the Nwobhm in over 100 interviews with members of Venom, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Diamond Head, Angel Witch, Samson, UFO, Tygers of Pan Tang, Vardis, Judas Priest, Saxon, Whitesnake, Girlschool, Witchfynde, Demon, Thin Lizzy, Rainbow, Gillan, Led Zeppelin, and more. 432 lavishly illustrated pages plus 16pp glossy color section.

Zwölf Tocotronic-Alben, zehn Künstler, zehn Songs. Titel wie Slogans für Häuserwände, harte aber melo­dische Gitarren, live noch energetischer und intensiver. Seit über 25 Jahren haben Tocotronic die deutschsprachige Popkultur geprägt wie kaum eine andere Band. Und das ohne musikalische oder politische Kompromisse. Statt den immer gleichen Sound zu bedienen, hat die Band sich immer wieder verwandelt, neue Konzepte und Ästhetik erprobt und politisch immer klar Position bezogen, gegen Deutschtümelei, Nationalismus oder die europäische Abschottungspolitik.

»Sie wollen uns erzählen« fängt die zahlreichen Facetten von Tocotronic ein: Zehn Songs aus der gesamten Schaffensphase werden von ausgewählten Comic­künstler*innen und Illustrator*innen interpretiert. Im gezeichneten Songbook von Tocotronic haben sich Jim Avignon, Julia Bernhard, Tine Fetz, Eva Feuchter, Anna Haifisch, Sascha Hommer, Katja Klengel/Piwi, Moni Port, Jan Schmelcher und Philip Waechter je einem Tocotronic-Song angenähert, mal mehr Comic-Strip, mal mehr im illustrativen Stil. Herausgeber Michael Büsselberg, selbst Musikkenner und Comicfan, hat die die Idee des illustrierten Band-Songbooks aus der angloamerikanischen und französischen Popkultur »importiert« und kongenial auf seine liebste deutschsprachige Band adaptiert.

Als Zugabe hat Tocotronic-Schlagzeuger Arne Zank einen Comic-Strip über das Kennenlernen der Band-Mitglieder beigesteuert. Und Sänger Dirk von Lowtzow hat die ausgewählten Songs mit exklusiven Statements und Anmerkungen versehen.

The first ever book of its kind on the history of the artwork of The Residents and their label Ralph Records. The life of Ralph Records and The Residents has always been cloaked in obscure mysteries, woven by the anonymous Cryptic Corporation, around which many luminaries have revolved; painters, graphic artists, cartoonists, musicians, film-makers, and writers. All have been channeled together by a powerful creative synergy that helped champion a new, mercurial and thoroughly multi-faceted artifact. Buy Or Die!, for the very first time, brings together a collection of images that represented the sounds of Ralph from 1972 to the present. A historical journey that traces the path of one of the most innovative record labels of the last fifty years. A collection of original, rare, and remarkable images drawn from record covers, fan catalogs, posters, and a wide variety of promotional material, demonstrating the technological and stylistic adaptations undergone through the arc of half a century.

Marty Perez is a Chicago-based photographer who has been documenting the parallels between the worlds of underground rock as well as some of the biggest stars of pop music, from 1976 to the present. This is the first collection of his images from the last five decades of rock’n roll decadence, from the wild, unhinged crowds of unruly and footloose teenagers to the incredible juxtaposition of both house-hold names with the sub-obscure underground bands that didn’t see the bright lights as close, yet still hold that certain magic of the era."—Jim De Rogatis

Original English Edition, translated from the Italian.
192 pp., with over 250 pictures in color and b/w.
Hardcover with extra strong boards. 16,5 x 24 cm

Marco Crescenzi, an expert about everything concerning the story of the Fab Four, traces the first years of the most famous band in the world, a period often missing in official biographies. He explores the Beatles path of fate and fortune, their struggles and inspired talent. This journey is enriched by an impressive mosaic of rare photos, rediscovered documents, and many details of concerts and appearances of these early days.The Beatles, the most renowned band in the history of music, didn‘t just spring into existence. Their journey began in the mid1950s when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best formed a group known as the Silver Beatles. They were simply four teenagers from Liverpool with a shared enthusiasm for American music and a dream to make it big.

Before they became the Beatles, they were the Quarrymen, a band started by John Lennon in 1956. The name change to „The Beetles“ was suggested by Sutcliffe, in honor of Buddy Holly‘s band, The Crickets. By August 1960, they had evolved into The Beatles we know and love today.

Their early years were filled with struggles and moments of both luck and genius. Playing gigs in places like Liverpool‘s Cavern Club and Hamburg‘s red-light district, they worked tirelessly, honing their craft. Their break came when they met Brian Epstein, who would become their manager, leading them to a contract with EMI.

This is the extraordinary story of the Beatles before they became The Beatles - a tale of determination, passion, and the will to succeed against all odds. As we mark the 60th anniversary of their first explosive hit „Love Me Do“, we celebrate not just the success they achieved, but the journey they took to get there.

As of today, The Beatles continue to make headlines, with the release of their final song ‚Now And Then‘ and a documentary shedding light on the full story behind it.

About the author:
Marco Crescenzi is an obsessive collector of anything concerning The Beatles. He currently works with the official Italian fan club “The Official Beatles Fan Club Pepperland”. He is also a contributor to its official publication, the magazine “Nothing’s Gonna Change Our Feeling”. The author has also written for the music collector’s magazine “RARO” and acted as consultant on many occasions to television programmes.

Transformer, Lou Reed's most enduringly popular album, is described with varying labels: it's often called a glam rock album, a proto-punk album, a commercial breakthrough for Lou Reed, and an album about being gay. And yet, it doesn't neatly fit into any of these descriptors. Buried underneath the radio-friendly exterior lie coded confessions of the subversive, wounded intelligence that gives this album its staying power as a work of art. Here Lou Reed managed to make a fun, accessible rock'n'roll record that is also a troubled meditation on the ambiguities-sexual, musical and otherwise-that defined his public persona and helped make him one of the most fascinating and influential figures in rock history. Through close listening and personal reflections, songwriter Ezra Furman explores Reed's and Transformer's unstable identities, and the secrets the songs challenge us to uncover.

What a beautiful book...a great presentation and wonderful insight into these historic guitars." -Nils Lofgren on 108 Rock Star Guitars From the photographer of the critically acclaimed 108 Rock Star Guitars comes a new collection of guitar photos, including B.B. King, Kurt Cobain, and Prince as well as more than one hundred legendary rock icons. Lisa S. Johnson's journey into the world of rock and roll photography began more than seventeen years ago when she photographed the legendary Les Paul and his beloved Gibson during one of his famed.

Koji Takahashi, who loves The Clash, shares his love on the Clash and over 250 items from his vast collection of items from around the world! This is a book that can be enjoyed as a reading material, a buyer's guide, or a collection book, all wrapped up in the love of The Clash! Koji Takahashi says, "I always liked to collect movie flyers, so I had a habit of collecting them," but it is obvious that he is no longer at that level. The contents are overwhelming just looking at the photos of these items, including original albums, singles, country-specific discs, merchandise, apparel, posters, and more. Some of the items are one-of-a-kind.

An edgy and evocative visual self-portrait by musician and artist Kim Gordon, indie-underground cultural icon and muse of style for four decades.

As cofounder of legendary rock band Sonic Youth, best-selling author, and celebrated artist, Kim Gordon is one of the most singular and influential figures of the modern era.

This personally curated scrapbook includes a foreword by Carrie Brownstein and is an edgy and evocative portrait of Gordon's life, art, and style. Spanning from her childhood on Californian surf beaches in the '60s and '70s to New York's downtown art and music scene in the '80s and '90s where Sonic Youth was born. Through unpublished personal photographs, magazine and newspaper clippings, fashion editorials, and advertising campaigns, interspersed with Gordon's song lyrics, writings, artworks, private objects, and ephemera, this book demonstrates how Kim Gordon has been a role model for generations of women and men.

Very limited edition document to accompany the Various Artists - Noho EP: Turning THE Crank EP. 68 page, A5 size 'Zine' Printed with Risograph in grey scale.

Northampton, Massachusetts. The Five Colleges. Hampshire College. Forward-thinking education. Electronic Music studies. A vast student population created and sustained a vibrant cultural scene. This is but a snapshot of a fraction, but a fertile and significant one that impacted the lives of many who came in contact with it. The book follows a tight group of people who got together, made music, promoted and released it, created the conditions for others to record and release music, booked bands and then scattered throughout the Midwest and East Coast.

First person memories and memorabilia from Christopher Vine, Craig O'Donnell, Elliott Sharp, James Whittemore, Nicholas Brown, Sean Elias and others, patch up a story of joyous action, firm and enthusiastic DIY endeavours to make things happen as they would like them to happen. It is about a local scene and some key protagonists and it communicates values and methods that are still current — and probably will always be in some form or another among young people with a serious drive to act upon their artistic inclinations. This is also a depiction of what was in fact a model of a music scene. A complete ecosystem was in place during this period. Northampton, sure, but extended across the whole of Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts. Bars, music and record stores, live music, College radio, electronic music studios, written press and a lot of energy going into creative work. The immediate "punk effect" motivated the appearance of numerous bands, many short lived, others evolving into New Wave / Power Pop territory, eventually crossing into Post-Punk experimentation.

Turning The Crank is also a companion to an EP of the same title, including music played, produced and recorded in Northampton between decades (1970s going into the 1980s) by different combinations of individuals resulting in The Higher Primates, The Scientific Americans and Human Error. Music in turns mechanical and austere, gorgeously loose, in love with Dub.

Black & White & Weird ALL Over Highlights Rare Glimpses OF ''Weird Al'' Yankovic's Comic Genius

Book Featuring Unreleased Black-And-White Photographs Taken By Yankovic Drummer Jon ''Bermuda” Schwartz Due From 1984 Publishing October 27, 2020

''See funny music's greatest star as he bursts into fame! Weird Al's drummer takes you into the studio, backstage, and offstage for the making of a superstar. Hey, I was there too-but Bermuda brought his camera!'' - Dr. Demento

''This book will undoubtedly appeal to both Weird Al completists and those who enjoy black-and-white photographs taken by drummers.'' - ''Weird Al'' Yankovic

''Weird Al'' Yankovic is one of music's most beloved figures. A skilled accordion player and songwriter, the California native is known for his meticulous parodies of popular songs, hilarious originals, and, of course, for upbeat polkas!

For much of Al's career, one man has been by his side, photographing and documenting the fun and weirdness: longtime drummer Jon ''Bermuda'' Schwartz. Since meeting Al in 1980, Jon has taken more than 20,000 images of Al in his element: on tour, in the studio, and on video sets.

Black & White & Weird All Over presents hundreds of images of Al, culled from Jon's personal collection of black-and-white photography. These photos only existed on contact sheets - out of mind and out of sight - until now! From behind-the-scenes shots taken on the sets of Al 's iconic videos for ''Ricky,'' ''I Love Rocky Road,'' ''Eat It,'' and ''Living With A Hernia,'' to studio sessions for Al's Dare to Be Stupid and Polka Party! LPs, Black & White & Weird All Over is the ultimate photographic essay of Weird Al 's undisputed comedic genius.

Biographies Jon ''Bermuda'' Schwartz (author I photographer) has been the drummer with ''Weird Al'' Yankovic since 1980 and is seen and heard on all of Weird Al's albums, videos, and concert and television performances. He is also the group's archivist with an unmatched collection of memorabilia, audio & video releases from around the world, and photos.

''Weird Al'' Yankovic (foreword) is an American comedian and actor who is known for his music parodies and original songs that make light of popular culture. He has sold more than 12 million albums, performed more than 1,000 live shows, and earned five Grammy Awards. His last LP, Mandatory Fun, went to #1 on the Billboard 200, the first comedy album to do so since 1963.

He is known as the Mark Twain of American songwriting, a man who transformed the everyday happenings of regular people into plainly profound statements on war, industrialization, religion, and the human condition. Marking the 50th anniversary of the album's release, John Prine chronicles the legendary singer-songwriter's Middle American provenance, and his remarkable ascent from singing mailman to celebrated son of Chicago.“Illegal Smile,” “Hello in There,” “Sam Stone,” “Paradise,” “Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” “Far from Me,” “Donald and Lydia,” and “Angel from Montgomery” are considered standards in the American Songbook, covered by legions of Prine's peers and admirers. Through original interviews, exhaustive research, and incisive commentary, author Erin Osmon paints an in-depth portrait of the people, places, and experiences that inspired Prine's landmark debut.

After exploring his roots in rural Western Kentucky and suburban Maywood, Illinois, the book takes readers on an evocative journey through John Prine's Chicago. Its neighborhoods, characters, and clubs of the 1960s and 70s proved a formative and magical period in Prine's life, before he was a figurehead of the new Nashville scene. It's both a journalistic inquiry and a love letter: to Prine's self-titled debut and the Midwestern city that made him.

Longtime music icon John Mellencamp’s artistic expression has never been limited to song.

The acclaimed singer-songwriter John Mellencamp has been an accomplished painter for more than four decades. This definitive survey—curated by Mellencamp himself—of his large-scale oil portraits and mixed-media assemblages documents America’s heart and soul, revealing unsettling but beautiful truths with an antiestablishment frown and a rich sense of narrative. “Although we may primarily know Mellencamp as a rock star, one of the highest-selling of all time and a Hall of Famer, he is also a great painter, as this book shows. Not a musician who also paints... No, John legitimately belongs in the modern art pantheon,” says Bob Guccione Jr. in his essay that delineates the connection of Mellencamp’s music and art, both imbued with the earnest voice of America’s heartland.

Presented for the public’s perusal, a coffee table collection of film photos from 2009-2013 by Oh Sees frontman, Castle Face co-conspirator, and all around restless artistic presence John Dwyer. Dwyer seemed to always be pulling out a camera around then and these flicks function as a technicolor joyride through his universe in San Francisco and beyond, with his jackal’s smirk from behind the lens all but palpable in these pages. Tour snaps, blackmail fodder, candid camaraderie, and the ringing echo of maniacal laughter await one within. Originally printed in a limited quantity by San Francisco clothing shop and live music incubator Vacation, Castle Face has dusted it off for a wider release for those that never got the chance.

Lennon and McCartney – Together Alone This is the definitive book on the solo recordings of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, two of popular music’s greatest writers and performers.

The story is told chronologically, starting with their first work outside The Beatles: McCartney’s soundtrack for The Family Way film and Lennon’s Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins with Yoko Ono. The book details Lennon and McCartney’s creative highs and lows in an authoritative, complete, and engagingly critical fashion. Information for collectors includes release dates, catalogue numbers, composer credits, recording personnel, recording studio, and producer credits, and there is a keyed index to help trace each song and the albums it appears on. Blaney’s perceptive style makes this a fascinating read as well as a work of reference, and the book includes illuminating archive quotes from Lennon, McCartney, and others. Together Alone tells the stories behind the songs of two giants of modern music. John Blaney is a passionate fan of The Beatles who brings to his writing the expertise and rigor of a professional historian. Born in Devon, England, he trained as a graphic designer before starting a career in music retail. He subsequently studied History of Art at Camberwell College of Arts and Goldsmith College (both in London) before taking up his present post as curator of a museum of technology. He is the author and publisher of previous books on both Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

The first book to chronicle the alternative music, art, and club scenes of a particularly amazing time and place: the 1980s in South Florida. Comprehensive in its approach, Punk Under the Sun documents the bands, venues, galleries, and scenesters who started and sustained the groundswell of activity that made Miami and nearby beaches a progressive hotspot, setting the stage for South Florida to become the international cultural destination it is today. Authors Joey Seeman and Chris Potash were there, participating in and documenting the first, second, and subsequent waves of musicians, indie labels, DJs, retail stores, publications, and players who came together to create a unique cultural moment and movement in South Florida history. This essential document of a powerfully expressive decade features never-before-seen photographs by Jill Kahn, Debbie Baylis Sunshine, Laurie Alaimo, and others, plus dozens of fliers, posters, and other souvenirs from that heady time. Punk Under the Sun includes a discography of 1980s albums and singles, along with an 11-page index that’s a valuable Who’s Who of people and places that created South Florida’s alternative culture. First edition of 600 copies. 224 pages.

To Live is to Die — The Life And Death Of Metallica’s Cliff Burton This is the revised and updated new edition. Metallica, the seventh-biggest recording act in American history, are consummate musicians—but it wasn’t always that way. A significant proportion of their playing expertise was acquired from a pivotal three-year period in their history—1983 to 1986—during which their music, a potent variant of thrash metal, evolved from garage level to sophisticated, progressive heights thanks to the teachings of their bass player, Cliff Burton.

The year 1972 brought together two legends of rock 'n' roll at the peaks of their careers: Jim Marshall and the Rolling Stones. Selected by Life magazine to photograph the Stones' Exile ON Main ST. tour, Marshall had a week of unlimited access. The results are his now-iconic images of the band, onstage in their full glory and backstage in moments of unguarded camaraderie. Marshall's ability to capture the essential spirit of an artist and the transformative power of music is matched only by the Stones' largerthan- life.

The story of Jackson C. Frank is tragic. The victim of a school fire in his youth, struggling with homelessness and mental illness throughout his life, half-blinded in old age before his death in 1999, Frank met continuous obstacles. And yet he enjoyed a shining moment with the release of Jackson C. Frank on Columbia Records in 1965. The album would go on to be seen as one of the greatest folk albums of the decade—maybe of all time—and its opening track “Blues Run the Game” has become a standard covered by hundreds. Jim Abbott’s book is the result of years of research piecing together evidence, relations and apocryphal stories from Frank’s life. It is also part memoir, as Abbott cared for Frank through the final decade of his life. Their friendship was fraught with difficulties, which Abbott portrays with the honesty of a journalist. In doing so, he draws a portrait of a uniquely gifted songwriter, blessed with talent and besotted by demons. At 250 pages, Abbott’s memoir shows a flawed and caring individual whose struggle was best depicted in his songs. Following the release of Jackson C. Frank: The Clear, Hard Light of Genius, Ba Da Bing will release three volumes of Jackson C. Frank: The Complete Recordings in early 2015, compiling work from throughout his life, including unreleased material.

Jeff Drake has led an extraordinary life... and believe me, that’s a vast understatement. I say this with confidence, because we’ve known each other for four decades. His band the Joneses, co-founded with skateboard champion Steve Olson, was the shining light of the 1980’s Southern California underground rock scene, ages before the term ‘alternative music’ was bandied about by MTV and rock critics. The Joneses were the damn bomb. A louche, sloppy, outlaw amalgam of punk, pop and Don’t Give A Fuck attitude, they played thrashy, trashy rock’n roll that owed as much to The New York Dolls as it did to the Rolling Stones. Jeff’s songwriting was pure, catchy pop, even though the lyrics were riddled with sex and drug references. It was as though he mixed up a potion from the blood and brain cells of Little Richard and The Ramones, came up with a perfect formula, ingested it, and made his own unique creation. The Joneses’ live shows were off the hook, as were their off-stage antics. Though neither of us can remember the exact moment we met, we became fast friends in 1983. We hung out constantly back then and he was a regular at my infamous punk rock crash pad, Disgraceland. Hollywood in the 1980’s was an ungentrified wasteland; the streets were ruled by delinquent twenty-somethings, most of whom were in bands. My own band The Screaming Sirens played numerous times with the Joneses. During the time, the Joneses were being courted by a number of major labels, though the record execs were absolutely clueless and cautious back then. If one of them would’ve taken a gamble, Jeff would’ve become a huge star. Instead, living out his own song ‘Criminals,’ he robbed a bank to feed his heroin habit. On a personal note: in the course of my life I’ve somehow known seven bank robbers, but hands down, Jeff is my favorite.There’s so much more to his story though, as you’ll see in the following pages. It’s a confessional told in a direct, honest, engaging way, in his own words with a touch of dark humor; it’s exactly the way he speaks in real life. You, dear reader, will be extremely happy that Jeff didn’t join the 27 Club, the coterie of rock stars who passed away at that young age. Luckily, he’s still with us to tell his own personal story of sin and redemption. After all, what could possibly be more subversively rock’n roll than living to tell all the salacious details?”—Pleasant Gehman, March, 2022.