33 1/3

Looking for Calvin and Hobbes

2009-07-13T21:12:00.002-04:00

One of our favourite upcoming new books for the fall is Nevin Martell's biography of Bill Watterson, the man behind Calvin and Hobbes. "Biography" can be a slippery word, of course. This book does indeed chronicle Watterson's life and career but it necessarily stops short and turns into something else - a detective story, of sorts, and a rumination on why some artists shun the limelight with such admirable determination.

If you want to read a PDF of the book's prologue, Nevin will happily oblige. Just send an email to lookingforcalvinandhobbes@gmail.com

The book will be published in October. Here's the copy about it:

For ten years, between 1985 and 1995, Calvin and Hobbes was one the world's most beloved comic strips. And then, on the last day of 1995, the strip ended. Its mercurial and reclusive creator, Bill Watterson, not only finished the strip but withdrew entirely from public life. There is no merchandising associated with Calvin and Hobbes: no movie franchise; no plush toys; no coffee mugs; no t-shirts (except a handful of illegal ones). There is only the strip itself, and the books in which it has been compiled - including The Complete Calvin and Hobbes: the heaviest book ever to hit the New York Times bestseller list.

In Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip, writer Nevin Martell traces the life and career of the extraordinary, influential, and intensely private man behind Calvin and Hobbes. With input from a wide range of artists and writers (including Dave Barry, Harvey Pekar, Jonathan Lethem, and Brad Bird) as well as some of Watterson's closest friends and professional colleagues, this is as close as we're ever likely to get to one of America's most ingenious and intriguing figures - and a fascinating detective story, at the same time.

Only 3,160 Calvin and Hobbes strips were ever produced, but Watterson has left behind an impressive legacy. Calvin and Hobbes references litter the pop culture landscape and his fans are as varied as they are numerable. Looking for Calvin and Hobbes is an affectionate and revealing book about uncovering the story behind this most uncommon trio – a man, a boy, and his tiger.

Watt's happening in NYC on the 25th of July

2009-07-13T14:47:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, July 25, 2009, at 8 pm, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the Minutemen's Double Nickels On the Dime. Be prepared for the extreme unusual, with spoken word renditions of songs on the album, musical tributes, rare videos and recordings, and special musical guest stars, including the bassist for the Minutemen, Mike Watt.

For more up to date info, check the BOWERY POETRY CLUB'S WEBSITE!

Performers confirmed so far include Michael T. Fournier (author of Double Nickels on the Dime (33-1/3), New Jersey experimental indie rock band Twede Kamer, Worcester, MA Minutemen cover band Pillowman, mystery punk bassist The Bass Player from Hand Job, electro-poetic mistress Jackie Sheeler, Jazz piano cabaret duo Peter Carlaftes & Kayo, Warhol scenester Ronnie Norpel and punkster poet Kat Georges (author of Punk Rock Journal).

Design contest winner

2009-07-10T10:10:00.004-04:00

Annnnd we have a winner:
Radiohead's Kid A, written by That Dude Who Wrote That Pitchfork Review of Kid A.

Todd, get in touch: jmboling@continuum-books.com

And to Jim A, who's flickr set inspired the contest, you get your pick of one copy of any 33 1/3. Send me an email and let me know.

Have a great weekend!

33 1/3 design contest finalists!

2009-07-09T16:56:00.007-04:00

I'll announce a winner tomorrow before I leave the office, promise... Feel free to let us know if you have strong feelings about any of these in the comments field.

And if you have any late entries into the game, put a link up in the comments as well. It's never too late.

So far the prize pile accumulating next to my printer contains:

One copy of Big Star's Radio City by Bruce Eaton (33 1/3)
One copy of Nas' Illmatic by Matthew Gastaier (33 1/3)
One copy of Elliott Smith's XO by Matthew LeMay (33 1/3)
One copy of Wire's Pink Flag by Wilson Neate (33 1/3)
One super-rare galley edition of Black Sabbath's Master of Reality by John Darnielle (33 1/3)
One copy of A Cultural Dictionary of Punk by Nick Rombes
And, very apropos, one copy of CelebrityVinyl by Tom Hamling, published by our friends at Mark Batty. Every single album in this particular book deserves it's very own 33 1/3. Go here and click the image to see some page samples.

Design contest anyone?

2009-06-26T10:37:00.006-04:00

One thing I love about the series design is how easy it is for people to play around with. Last year, Tom Scharpling came up with this one on Kriss Kross (got the cropping wrong, though). And last year Hayden Childs, author of the 33 1/3 on Richard and Linda Thomson's Shoot Out The Lights came up with a series of great covers over on the Powell's blog. Now Jim A. has come up with some great covers for the best of the worst possible 33 1/3s. Click here for the full set (via NY Magazine's Vulture). I also really like the Prince idea.

How about this? Make your own hypothetical 33 1/3 cover, put a link to the image in the comments of this post, we'll pick a winner* some time after the July 4th holiday, and the winner will get some recent 33 1/3s, some doo-dads we have around the office, and maybe a copy of A Cultural Dictionary of Punk which is just off the press, and has already gotten plenty of compliments in the cover design department.

*Just so there is no confusion, this is a contest to make an amusing 33 1/3 book cover that will (most likely) never become a book, not an open call for proposals for new books in the series.

Elliott vs. Celine / Matt LeMay vs. Carl Wilson

2009-06-17T14:25:00.007-04:00

May I have your attention, Torontonians*!

I just wanted to take a break from watching old Cop Rock clips on youtube to bring your attention to the following event happening at

Soundscapes in Toronto
Sunday, June 28th at 2:00pm

Reading and discussion with two writers from the 33 1/3 series of short books about albums:

1. New York's Matthew LeMay, Pitchfork writer and author of "XO," a book about Elliott Smith's, arguably, greatest record and the myths and misunderstandings that surround his popular image.

2. Toronto's own Carl Wilson of Zoilus.com and The Globe and Mail, author of "Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste," a book about the Celine Dion album with that Titanic song on it, the deep and dubious reasons why people hate Celine Dion, and why Elliott Smith thought they shouldn't.

For more info, visit the Soundscapes website here.

*Abby, Continuum's resident Torontonian, assures me that this is in fact the correct term for a person from Toronto. She might be pulling my leg though.

33 1/3 audiobooks

2009-06-08T16:54:00.004-04:00

We probably don't mention it enough around here, but a number of 33 1/3s are available as audiobooks. 25 of them to be exact...

Big Star's Radio City
REM's Murmur
Dusty Springfield's Dusty in Memphis
Led Zeppelin's IV (or 'Runes,' or 'Old Guy with the Sticks and What Have You')
Beach Boys' Pet Sounds
Pink Floyd's Pipers at the Gates of Dawn
Flying Burrito Bros.'s Guilded Palace of Sin
Abba's Abba Gold
Jeff Buckley's Grace
Radiohead's OK Computer
The Beatles' Let It Be
Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street
Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited
David Bowie's Low
The Kinks - Village Green Preservation Society
Love's Forever Changes
Neil Young's Harvest
Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Nick Drake's Pink Moon
Nirvana's In Utero
The Smiths' Meat is Murder
Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life
The Velvet Underground's Velvet Underground & Nico
Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures
u2's Achtung Baby

You can either get these through Audible.com or go to your friendly neighborhood iTunes store and search for "33 1/3" and narrow that down to audiobooks. I've never been much of an audiobook person since I don't have a car and work requires me to be around talking people, but I can tear up some podcasts doing the laundry, so I'm giving it a shot and...so far so good. Like having someone read you bedtime stories, but for the laundry.

Free Stuff Alert:
The good folks at Audible are running a promotion in conjunction with Rolling Stone where you can download the 33 1/3 on Paul's Boutique for free. So try that out if you are so inclined. [note: some people complain in the comments about having to download software to get the free audiobook, but I didn't have this experience.] They are going to be doing another promo with the Beach Boys Pet Sounds book at some point. I'll keep you up to date on that.

Has anybody out there listened to any 33 1/3 audiobooks? Any suggestions on the best ones to start with?

Elliott Smith reading this Sunday in Brooklyn

2009-06-05T10:00:00.004-04:00

Sunday, June 7th at 7:00pm
33 1/3 READING SERIES
Barbès and Continuum present the last in a series of multimedia readings
MATTHEW LEMAY on ELLIOTT SMITH'S XO

The very name "Elliott Smith" often seems to conjure images of a drug-addled, powerless "sad sack," but Smith's 1998 major label debut XO masterfully defies these stereotypes in both content and execution. Matthew LeMay will read from his book, Elliott Smith's XO, and will supplement his reading with snippets from rare demo and live recordings, as well as video interviews from around the time of XO's release. In seeing and hearing these materials, one begins to get a clearer picture of Elliott Smith the confident and capable craftsman.

This should be a lot of fun. Come out and say hello, have a pint, and stick around afterward for some gypsy jazz ala Django Reinhart. This is the final installment of the multimedia reading series at Barbes, and we would like to thank Olivier, Jeff, Claire, and all of the staff at Barbes for being so patient and accommodating. If you are in NYC and haven't visited the bar before, be sure to check out the event schedule for the back room. On any given night, they are bound to be putting on some of the more interesting live music in the city... if only all reading venues had such a fine selection of beers on tap.

As a complement to the Stevie Wonder drum solo below, here's another one in technicolor times nine (with a "Prisoner" vibe) to take you through the weekend.

A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974-82

2009-05-20T15:24:00.002-04:00

We've just sent Nick Rombes' wonderful book off to the printers, so it should be on sale from early-mid July onwards.

And Publishers Weekly clearly enjoyed the book, too:

***

A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974–1982

Nicholas Rombes. Continuum, $24.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-8264-2779-3

At a cursory glance, Rombes’s compendium has the form of a dictionary, covering punk bands from the Adolescents to the Zeroes, but scratch the surface and you’ll discover a profoundly weird document, where the notion of “punk” expands to include discussions of Angela Carter, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo and Barry Hannah—although even Rombes (Ramones) admits the last is stretching the point. The tone veers from the academic to the confessional: “How can you hesitate about a song that has saved you more than once from the black depths you are prone to fall into?” Rombes asks in an entry concerning the British band Wire. There are several forays into the fictional, including stories about imagined versions of Patti Smith and Joey Ramone, as well as entries written by “Ephraim P. Noble,” who is almost certainly a fictional alter ego. If it were touted as a definitive guide to punk culture, the dictionary’s omissions would be glaring—but this is something altogether different: a personal investigation into the significance of punk rock, an attempt to inject critical studies with “a big dose of chaos and anarchy” and thereby create a compelling cultural narrative.

***

Happy Birthday, Brian!

2009-05-15T09:21:00.003-04:00

With her usual, uncanny sense of timing, Geeta Dayal delivered her manuscript for Another Green World this morning - on Brian Eno's 61st birthday.

We shall endeavour to get this book published, and into your hands, as soon as we possibly can.

All over the place

2009-05-12T17:03:00.008-04:00

Because that's where my head is at these days...and I lost a whole bunch of bookmarks I was saving up for an epic blog post.

It's Madness I Tell You!
Strange that I should hear from David that Terry Edwards' Madness - One Step Beyond manuscript is in on the same day that YepRoc sends me an email about preordering the Madness box set they are releasing in the US in June.

Big Star news
Bruce Eaton's most excellent treatment of Big Star's Radio City has been reviewed in Under the Radar's Winter 2009 issue:

"The 33 1/3 series is always a fun read for record obsessives and Bruce Eaton's coverage of THE GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME here is no exception. Eaton speaks to Alex Chilton, surviving bandmates, producer John Fry, Chris Bell's brother, and other regulars in the Ardent/Big Star crew, doing a good job of presenting different viewpoints on the who/what/why. You get background on those involved, their convergence at Ardent Studios, and a rundown of track particulars, There also some content for the geeks: amplifier details drum mic setup, etc.
Much has been mad of the drama and tragedy surrounding Big Star– and you can't escape some of it–but the focus here is music. It's clear everyone involved loved being in the studio, and would have been there, perfecting their craft, regardless of the other factors. Any fan of the album will find this a quick, worthwhile read..."

The good folks at Ardent Studios have also put a notice up on their blog. One of my favorite parts of the book was reading about John Fry and the early days of Ardent, which is a remarkable story by itself.

Bruce also has a blog up and running here. And Los Angeles' Book Soup has the Big Star(s) book charting at #7 on their bestseller list. Not quite a #1 record yet...beating Christopher Hitchens, and almost up to Spinal Tap.

Miscellany
Here's a guy who is going back and re-designing all of Wu-Tang Clan's LP covers taking cues from old Blue Note sleeve designs. Awesome.

And this fellow has been nice enough to collect original versions of songs covered by The Fall. Be sure to read the paragraph following the playlist, which contains this choice quote from Mark E. Smith, "A lot of people say I'd be a really good dad."

I had more, but ah well, so it goes....

UPDATE:
Stevie Wonder drum solo. Enjoy it.

Announcing Vol 65: Big Star's Radio City, by Bruce Eaton

2009-05-11T20:41:00.003-04:00

Bruce Eaton's really excellent book about Big Star is now fully available throughout North America. It's a great combination of power pop history and in-depth interviews with all of the main players, as I hope you can tell from this extract...

***

At a time when record company promotions knew few limits - whether financial or legal - the Rock Writers Convention, held in Memphis on May 25 and 26, 1973 still stands out as one of the most unique and colorful events of the era. Over 150 rock critics and record company representatives were flown into Memphis and put up at the Holiday Inn. While a few made an earnest effort to organize a trade association for rock writers - the ostensible reason for the gathering - most found it more worthwhile to avail themselves of the free-flowing hospitality and the local sites than to figure out how to protect their future interests from the likes of Jann Wenner.

If there were ever to be such a thing as a Rock Writer's Hall of Fame (and let's pray there never is - a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is bad enough) the list of inductees would overlap quite a bit with the guest list for the Rock Writers Convention, which included Vince Aletti, Lester Bangs, Ken Barnes, Alan Betrock, Stanley Booth, Marty Cerf, Richard Cromelin, Cameron Crowe, Ben Edmonds, Chet Flippo, Pete Frame, Simon Frith, Robot Hull, Lenny Kaye, Richard Meltzer, Richard Robinson, Bud Scoppa, Gene Sculatti, Greg Shaw, Steve Simels, Nick Tosches, and Ed Ward. Also among the attendees was one David Gest, the future ex-Mr. Liza Minelli. The Encino, California resident evidently liked Memphis well enough to establish a residence there and to this day John King is jokingly referred to as "the man who brought David Gest to town."

Big Star performed on the last night of the convention at Lafayette's Music Room. Today one might imagine a band virtually trembling in fear at the prospect of playing in front of Lester Bangs, let alone the entire assemblage, but Big Star approached the gig with a casual nothing-to-lose attitude.

Jody Stephens: I don't remember that much about anyone's personality - it was all so low-key and their writings had been so complimentary, there was nothing other than the usual intimidation of going onstage. It was also my perception, right or wrong, that we really weren't the feature band. Stax had just signed an English band called Skin Alley and there was Larry Raspberry and those were the folks that they still had a business interest in or had more recent releases. It made it easy for me anyway to step up and perform. We weren't featured - we were the underdog. Just go up and play and have a good time.

Andy Hummel: I didn't know any of those people. I didn't associate with them. It was something King said we needed to go do so we did it.

Alex Chilton: When I lived in New York I'd known a bunch of them or a few of them. Anyway, some of these people I knew fairly well. It was a gig. I don't know who preceded us on stage that night but apparently it wasn't much. We just played, did the best we could and that was that.

John King: I remember Alex was just in a particularly good mood which means everything. Everybody's playing in key. They were just happy. They were interacting with the writers and the writers were dancing even. It energized them, gave them something to go on with - some reason to put the record out and go tour.

Andy Hummel: It was far and away the most real gig we'd ever played - with real people who were there to listen to us. We didn't play out much but we played a lot - I'm guessing that we'd gotten pretty good. When you think about the progression of the band...We'd played all the way through the first LP. We'd played practice sessions for that first tour thing. We did the four-track demo so we knew how to play some songs. From a musicianship standpoint and playing together standpoint - which is extremely important - we were about as good as a band to play out as we ever were. So it was very timely that it occurred when it occurred. Jody had started singing quite a bit - he was singing backup with Alex on quite a few songs.

Richard Rosebrough: It was the gig of their lives - like watching Marc Bolan. And they were partly terrible, too. They were falling over their amplifiers and pulling their guitar chords out. It was chaos, but that's just what I heard. I think I probably walked in the back door and walked up to the sound booth with Fry and we stayed up in the sound booth and were only there for Big Star's set. We were doing our thing up there, making microphones feed back. Something happened on stage and they all said, "It's over, let's go." John turned to me in the control room and said, "Richard, do you know the last thing the captain of a sinking ship does - he sets the controls for normal operation and he jumps off." With that I turned the P.A. back on and right under the line of feeding back and goosed it a little bit. John said, "Fine let's go." We walked downstairs out the back door and got in the car and left. That's totally John.

Ripping through a set that covered much of #1 Record, several songs that would later appear on Radio City, and a few choice covers, including an impromptu take on 'The Letter,' the performance was a roaring success. What separated this gig from virtually any other was the power the audience wielded with their pens. The affinity the writers had for Big Star had been reinforced and new fans had signed up - now they needed a fresh reason to write about the band. Big Star decided to oblige.

***

The Chosen Eleven

2009-05-08T19:10:00.002-04:00

Six months and one week after we started this process, I'm very pleased to announce that we've - finally - selected the proposals that will become books in the series during 2010 and 2011. They are, in no particular order:

Portishead's Dummy, by RJ Wheaton
Johnny Cash's American Recordings, by Tony Tost
Television's Marquee Moon, by Bryan Waterman
Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, by Gina Arnold
AC/DC's Highway to Hell, by Joe Bonomo
Ween's Chocolate and Cheese, by Hank Shteamer
Radiohead's Kid A, by Marvin Lin
Dinosaur Jr.'s You're Living All Over Me, by Nick Attfield
Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace, by Aaron Cohen
Slint's Spiderland, by Scott Tennent
The Rolling Stones' Some Girls, by Cyrus Patell

I really wish we could have signed up closer to 20 titles, as was the original idea, but in the current climate we at Continuum - like most other publishing houses - have to be a little careful.

Anyhow, a huge Thank You to everybody who participated in this process, whether by sending in a proposal or by voicing your opinions on this blog. It was fun, exhausting, wonderful, infuriating, educational, and mindboggling in equal parts.

(And let me be the first to point out that, yes, the Portishead proposal wasn't on the final shortlist. I changed my mind on that one, late in the day.)

Announcing Vol. 64: Nas' Illmatic, by Matthew Gasteier

2009-04-30T19:09:00.002-04:00

OK, so this one has pretty much shipped out from our lovely warehouse in Harrisburg, PA by now. It's a smart, passionate study of Nas' debut album - released 15 years ago last week. Here's an excerpt from the book's third chapter:

***

Nas would eventually name his record label after Ill Will, and he has never stopped talking about him. For the cynical outside viewer, this is no different than name-checking his Queensbridge upbringing, a street-cred ploy, the badge he carries with him to get a free pass when younger, hungry emcees come after Nas (a self-confessed homebody) and his commitment to the rugged lifestyle. But listening to him talk about his experience outside of the jaded mindset would quiet even the most antagonistic critic. Nas, an infinitely talented emcee with little need for a mythology, gained very little in May 1992. But he did, just before his career broke wide open, lose a friend.

The universe does have a way of balancing out. A few months later, for however short a period of time, Nas would gain a vital friend in MC Serch. "I didn't actually track him down," Serch recalls. "I was in the studio working on my solo album [Return of the Product], and Stretch Armstrong and Reef, who were A&R at Atlantic at the time, brought a bunch of emcees. I was with Red Hot Lover Tone and Chubb Rock in the studio, and Reef and Stretch brought Nas, Akinyele, and Percee P to spit on 'Back to the Grill Again.'" The end result was a posse cut similar to Nas' wax-debut "Live at the BBQ." His presence is noticeably different though. Unlike the earlier cut, where Nas had seemed anxious but confident, this less-remembered Nas persona is gruff and forceful. Though his voice is still instantly recognizable, the 17-year-old is playing with it, trying to stand on his toes to measure up to the adults in the room. The result is a deeper, gravelly snarl of a delivery, uncomfortably matched with Nas' usual flow. It's a rare opportunity to see a future great experimenting with approaches, but it would be more satisfying if he hadn't already nailed his persona in his first and only previous attempt.

***

Not the best video quality on this clip, but absolutely worth watching. Nas comes in shortly before the two-minute mark, waving automatic guns at nuns:

A bargain at any price

2009-04-24T08:45:00.003-04:00

Copies of Matthew Gasteier's brand new volume in the series, on Nas' Illmatic album, are currently shipping out of our warehouse in Pennsylvania. Much more on this book next week, but if you're serious about reading it before anyone else, you ought to know that Amazon is selling one used copy (in very good condition!) for just $999.99 (plus $3.99 shipping, which could be a dealbreaker).

League Table, version deux

2009-04-22T13:33:00.002-04:00

And this is what I think the chart would look like, had all the books been available for the same amount of time. (Definite guesswork involved here, clearly.)

***

1. Neutral Milk Hotel
2. The Rolling Stones
3. My Bloody Valentine
4. Bob Dylan
5. David Bowie
6. Celine Dion
7. Radiohead
8. The Kinks
9. The Smiths
10. Velvet Underground
11. Joy Division
12. Beastie Boys
13. Led Zeppelin
14. Pixies
15. The Beatles
16. Black Sabbath
17. Pink Floyd
18. The Beach Boys
19. Slayer
20. Steely Dan
21. DJ Shadow
22. Sonic Youth
23. Captain Beefheart
24. Magnetic Fields
25. Guided By Voices
26. The Replacements
27. Minutemen
28. Tom Waits
29. Belle & Sebastian
30. Jimi Hendrix
31. Jeff Buckley
32. The Band
33. R.E.M.
34. Afghan Whigs
35. The Byrds
36. Bruce Springsteen
37. The Ramones
38. Patti Smith
39. The Who
40. Flying Burrito Bros
41. Nirvana
42. Elvis Costello
43. Love
44. Stone Roses
45. Sly Stone
46. Joni Mitchell
47. Nick Drake
48. Stevie Wonder
49. Throbbing Gristle
50. Neil Young
51. The Pogues
52. U2
53. Richard and Linda Thompson
54. Dusty Springfield
55. Prince
56. James Brown
57. Jethro Tull
58. Abba
59. The MC5
60. A Tribe Called Quest
61. Guns N Roses
62. PJ Harvey

***

Meanwhile, Quietus has posted an engaging conversation about Wire, between Jon Savage and Wilson Neate, author of our very recent book on Pink Flag. You can read the whole discussion here.

The League Table, April 2009

2009-04-21T15:14:00.002-04:00

Here's a chart showing how the published books in the series compare so far, in terms of lifetime sales around the world.

Bear in mind that some of these books have had almost 6 years on sale, others have had only a few months. If I have the time in the next few days/nights, I'll post another chart, making allowances for that factor. (And I've left out the very new books on Wire and Elliott Smith, as those haven't yet been fully distributed, globally.)

8 of the top 10 artists are British. I'll say no more!

***

1. Neutral Milk Hotel
2. The Kinks
3. The Rolling Stones
4. Radiohead
5. The Smiths
6. Velvet Underground
7. Joy Division
8. The Beatles
9. Pink Floyd
10. Led Zeppelin
11. My Bloody Valentine
12. The Beach Boys
13. David Bowie
14. Bob Dylan
15. Beastie Boys
16. Love
17. DJ Shadow
18. Celine Dion
19. Pixies
20. Neil Young
20. Jimi Hendrix
21. The Replacements
22. Jeff Buckley
23. Dusty Springfield
24. Prince
25. The Band
26. R.E.M.
27. Sonic Youth
28. Bruce Springsteen
29. The Ramones
30. Captain Beefheart
31. Magnetic Fields
32. Steely Dan
33. Nirvana
34. Elvis Costello
35. Guided By Voices
36. Black Sabbath
37. James Brown
38. Slayer
39. Minutemen
40. The Who
41. Jethro Tull
42. The Byrds
43. Tom Waits
44. Belle & Sebastian
45. Stone Roses
46. Abba
47. Sly Stone
48. The MC5
49. Joni Mitchell
50. Nick Drake
51. Stevie Wonder
52. U2
53. Throbbing Gristle
54. A Tribe Called Quest
55. Afghan Whigs
56. Guns N Roses
57. PJ Harvey
58. Patti Smith
59. Flying Burrito Bros
60. The Pogues
61. Richard and Linda Thompson

***

Rum, EMP, and the Paste Contest (FREE BOOKS!)

2009-04-21T10:38:00.009-04:00

Here is a roundup of nice reviews of Jeff Roesgen's book on The Pogues' Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash...

“In this book by the same sordid name, Jeffrey T. Roesgen tells the story behind the album, interwoven with a tale of his own creation, a seafaring narrative starring the band and several of their lyrics’ characters. Roesgen … delivers a spirited novella along with vivid snippets of rowdy, romantic rock ’n’ roll history.”- Keith Goetzman, Utne Reader

“Within the book’s sense of impending disaster is some sharp analysis of the characters, squalor and juxtaposing optimism inherent in the recordings.”- Ian Abrahams, Record Collector

“Roesgen's work casts the album's individual songs in a different light, fleshing them out with his imaginative prose, prompting the reader to look at the life behind the words and music and interpret each song through their own prism. It's an approach that wouldn't have worked on most of the albums covered by the 33 1/3 series, but it works like a charm for Rum, Sodomy & The Lash. By the end of the book, you find yourself caring about the characters brought to life by Roesgen and wondering what will happen next. Kind of like a Pogues album....” - Keith A. Gordon, Blurt-Online

“Roesgen’s overall thesis about the band in the non-fictional parts—that the Pogues were concerned here mostly with showing how the struggles and pains and joys of the downtrodden life are universal, not constrained by time or culture or language—is a convincing one, and he writes well on the sodden joie de vivre Shane McGowan and company bring to these songs.” – Ian Mathers, Pop Matters

“This pocket sized, take-on-holiday, historical and musical mix of fact, fiction and nautical friction is well recommended. You can smell The Pogues through the writing…” – Stephen Kingston, Salford Star

* * * * * * * * * *

Reading through the always excellent Soul Sides this morning (one of my favorites), there were a number of familiar names in the EMP Pop Conference postmortem, including Daphne Brooks (wrote the 33.3 on Jeff Buckley, here interviewing Nona Hendryx), Michaelangelo Matos (Prince, here talking about "dance music's national anthem"), and Carl Wilson (Celine Dion, here discussing the use of Auto-Tune).

I just realized that Soul Sides is celebrating 5 years of existence this year. So is the 33 1/3 series, which brings me to the next item...

* * * * * * * * * *

We have teamed up with Paste Magazine for a contest to win the 10 most recent 33 1/3 titles. The luckly winner will get the following...

[Plus an extra doodad or two that I find hanging out around my cubicle.]

If you want in on that, CLICK HERE and follow the directions.

* * * * * * * * * *

One more for the road: I just remembered this interview with Carl Wilson on Ed Champion's Bat Segundo podcast. Enjoy!

Announcing Vol 63: Elliott Smith's XO

2009-04-16T19:48:00.002-04:00

I'm very pleased to let people know that Matthew LeMay's intricate and fascinating study of Elliott Smith's XO album has now been published in North America.

From the back cover copy:

The name "Elliott Smith" conjures images of a sad, powerless, and drug-addled coffeehouse troubadour. But Smith's 1998 major-label debut XO is a musically intricate and lyrically bold rejection of this archetype. How and why did Smith come to be considered the consummate "sad sack," even as his music explicitly countered this construct? Tracing numerous early demo and live recordings of the songs that became XO, Matt LeMay deconstructs the remarkable creative process behind a fully realized masterpiece and examines the tension between Elliott Smith's work and his popular image.

And here's Smith on Jools Holland's BBC show in 1999, performing "Waltz #2" from the album:

Some weekend reading... and a small contest.

2009-04-03T11:23:00.008-04:00

We just got office copies of Matthew LeMay's book on Elliott Smith's XO, so keep an eye out for that one. Pre-ordered copies should be shipping from Amazon very soon, and your friendly neighborhood bookshop will have copies on shelves, too.

Bruce Eaton's take on Big Star's Radio City and Matthew Gasteier on Nas' Illmatic are at the printers and (fingers crossed) should be out by the end of the month!

The Quietus has an extract from Wilson Neate's 33 1/3 on Wire's Pink Flag. You can read more here.

And this review from Toronto's Eye Weekly.

We got our first review of a 33 1/3 in Metapsychology Online, this one for the book on Throbbing Gristle.

We also unearthed this recent review of John Darnielle's Black Sabbat h 33 1/3 from Enough Cowbell. We are trying to figure out what that thing is that's on his lap in the press photo. So far we only know it's male and probably from the southern hemisphere. First one to correctly ID it for us in the comments field will get a rare galley copy of the Sabbath book.

Sadly, not an April Fool's prank...

2009-04-01T11:15:00.005-04:00

It’s with a heavy heart that I announce that Claire will be leaving Continuum at the end of this week. She has handled publicity for the 33 1/3 series for the last two years, and I can tell you from experience that managing 60+ authors on top of the rest of the workload is no simple task.

Chances are if you have read about a 33 1/3 book somewhere other than on this blog in the last couple years, or, for example, saw an author on the Colbert Report, Claire was the one who laid the groundwork that made it possible. She has done an amazing job behind the scenes, organizing the monthly 33 1/3 multimedia reading series at Barbes in Brooklyn and pulling together the soon-to-launch 33 1/3 newsletter…and we are really going to miss seeing her face around here.

Please join me in wishing her farewell and good luck!

Bob Dylan and the Poetry of the Blues

2009-03-30T09:55:00.003-04:00

Michael Gray, author of Continuum's massive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, will be in the States (and Canada) for some dates in the next few months. International readers can check Gray's blog for UK and European dates.

NORTH AMERICAN DATES, MARCH-MAY 2009:

Tues Mar 31, 7pm Daemen College, Amherst NY, US
Thur Apr 2, 4.30pm Washington College, Chestertown MD, US
Fri Apr 3, 7.30pm Nyack Village Theatre, Nyack NY, US
Mon Apr 6, 8.30pm Hugh’s Room, Toronto, CANADA
Sat Apr 25, 8pm One Longfellow Square, Portland ME, US
Wed Apr 29, 5.30pm Farmingdale State College, NY, US
Wed May 20, 7pm High Noon Saloon, Madison WI, US
Thur May 21, 6pm Hibbing Public Library, Hibbing MN, US

What the British and Irish press says about his performances:
"Michael Gray is a witty, effusive, self-deprecating speaker. A wonderful eye-opener of an evening."
"Michael Gray, the world's foremost Bob Dylanologist, is telling people how it really is... Entertaining with wit and insight, Gray is clearly enjoying himself."
"Clever, funny and fresh."
"A stimulating insight into rock music's premier singer-songwriter."
"A wonderful evening packed with information, insight and humour. More of these please!"
"Michael Gray is a masterful speaker."

...and then there were 27

2009-03-27T22:49:00.003-04:00

So.

We've gone from 170 down to 27. (Fingers crossed, everybody who was in the 170 has received an email from me tonight, either way.)

I wish we could sign up all 27 of these (actually, I wish we could sign up dozens more of the 170), but we can't. This is what we're left with, for now. By the end of April, we'll be able to post the final, final list of books that we will sign up. Until then, discuss, debate, whinge, moan, celebrate, and speculate! I'm off on vacation for a week...Thanks for bearing with me, everybody.

***

AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Aretha Franklin - Amazing Grace
The Beatles - The Beatles
Bob Dylan - Time Out of Mind
The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo
Dinosaur Jr: You're Living All Over Me
ELO - Out of the Blue
Grateful Dead - Closing of Winterland
Johnny Cash - American Recordings
Kiss - Destroyer
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen
Lil' Wayne - Da Drought 3
Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music
Neil Young - Tonight's the Night
Operation Ivy - Energy
Paul Simon - Graceland
Radiohead - Kid A
Rolling Stones - Some Girls
Slint - Spiderland
Television - Marquee Moon
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
Ween - Chocolate and Cheese
White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth

***

Holding Pattern

2009-03-18T19:08:00.002-04:00

You'll have to bear with us a little while longer, I'm afraid. There are some economy related goings-on here at Continuum, and I can't progress the 33 1/3 proposals any further until those are properly taken care of. Thank you for your continued patience, and your understanding. We'll have a further update on here next week, I hope.

In the meantime, you might want to take a look at Bruce Eaton's nascent blog in support of our upcoming Big Star 33 1/3 book.

A Progress Report...

2009-03-09T21:14:00.002-04:00

Apologies, everyone, for the lack of updates on where we are with the proposals. Significant progress is being made, and a list of projects to which we'd like to offer contracts is taking shape.

Although it's unlikely that we'll be able to announce the final, official list of new books until late April (there are many necessary internal hoops through which to jump, here at Continuum), I should be able to start contacting authors with a tentative "yes" or a definite "no" within the next ten days or so.

In the meantime, here's an entry from Nick Rombes' forthcoming A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974-82...

***

"Gunning for Sex Pistols"

A letter to the editor published in the Los Angeles Times in 1977:

I'm greatly disappointed at Robert Hilburn's enthusiastic review of the Sex Pistols' debut album. If this is what is best in punk rock, then I will never buy such trash. Thanks for the education, but no thanks. By the time I was listening to the second track I was becoming appalled by the lack of imagination, the sameness of the melodies (what melodies?), the musical aridity and the unrelenting noise throughout, which Hilburn, regretfully, prefers to call "intensity." Thank God and the Queen for sending us, instead, Paul McCartney and Wings and for their new and truly compelling and exhilarating "Girls' School."

[Tony Rico, "Gunning for Sex Pistols," Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1977, p. X2]

***