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matto
= Cult of Ray =
USA
943 Posts |
 Posted - 02/01/2006 : 07:42:32
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http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/06-02/01.shtml#33
U2, NIN, B&S, Magnetic Fields Books Due
Caroline Bermudez reports:
There are certain albums that just can't be contained by 800-word reviews. These are the albums you play on repeat until the disc is scratched or the battery dies. You obsess over the meaning of every single word in their lyrics, read multiple biographies about the artists in question, or turn each chord into a meditation. Have heart devoted listeners: someone out there has you and your battered headphones in mind.
The Continuum International Publishing Group has announced 21 new titles in its 33 1/3 series, a collection of short books about beloved (and heavily scrutinized) albums from the last half-century. The new additions, to be published throughout 2007 and 2008, run the gamut from folk to hip-hop to proto-industrial. The authors are writers from all walks of journalism, criticism, and academia, including Pitchfork's own Scott Plagenhoef, Amanda Petrusich, and Drew Daniel.
At 29 books and counting, the 33 1/3 series has taken apart the Beatles, Love, Joy Division (written by former Pitchfork contributor Chris Ott), Prince, and Neutral Milk Hotel among many, many others. Colin Meloy of the Decemberists wrote about the Replacements, Joe Pernice of the Pernice Brothers wrote about the Smiths, and lots of music nerds rediscovered the joys of the library.
Here is a list of the new tomes, so get ready to make room on your shelf:
Belle and Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister by Scott Plagenhoef
Steely Dan's Aja by Don Breithaupt
Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights by Hayden Childs
Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine by Daphne Carr
Guns N' Roses's Use Your Illusion by Eric Weisbard
Patti Smith's Horses by Phil Shaw
The Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime by Mike Fournier
Nick Drake's Pink Moon by Amanda Petrusich
A Tribe Called Quest's People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm by Shawn Taylor
U2's Achtung Baby by Stephen Catanzarite
Throbbing Gristle's 20 Jazz Funk Greats by Drew Daniel
Kate Bush's The Dreaming by Ann Powers
PJ Harvey's Rid of Me by Kate Schatz
Brian Eno's Another Green World by Geeta Dayal
Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life by Zeth Lundy
Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica by Kevin Courrier
Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love by Carl Wilson
Lucinda Williams' Lucinda Williams by Anders Smith Lindall
The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs by LD Beghtol
Television's Marquee Moon by Peter Blauner
Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones by David Smay
Several more titles are scheduled to be published in 2006. Look out for these at your local coffee shop soon:
The Pixies' Doolittle by Ben Sisario
The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique by Dan LeRoy
Sly and the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On by Miles Marshall Lewis
The Stone Roses' Stone Roses by Alex Green
Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation by Matthew Stearns
Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark by Sean Nelson
The Clash's London Calling by David L. Ulin
The Byrds' The Notorious Byrd Brothers by Ric Menck
Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited by Mark Polizzotti
Guided By Voices' Bee Thousand by Marc Woodworth Nirvana's In Utero by Gillian Gaar
The Who's The Who Sell Out by John Dougan |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2006 : 09:07:13
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Cool. I hope it isn't one of those crappy little cash in pocket guide book thingies!!
 pas de dutchie! |
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Erebus
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1834 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2006 : 11:54:24
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| If this is the series I'm thinking of, they're other-than-crappy real books, albeit small, but nonetheless clean and classy. I've hovered over their "A Piper at the Gates of Dawn" more than once. I should buy that next time I see it. My wonder was always that they hadn't honored "Surfer Rosa" yet, but I guess "Doolittle" will have to do. :-] |
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darwin
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
5448 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2006 : 12:27:28
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I was just looking at these on Amazon last night (Neutral Milk, Ramones, REM, Elvis Costello to be specific). They were universally praised in the customer reviews, except for the Costello Armed Forces book. I want to see the Minutemen book.
"Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love by Carl Wilson" that should be full of fascinating insights |
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Homers_pet_monkey
= Official forum monkey =
United Kingdom
17125 Posts |
Posted - 02/02/2006 : 05:07:09
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Some of these are very exciting.
 I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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mattb
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
474 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2006 : 16:40:39
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| The guy who is writing this contacted me because he found my site. He wanted help with articles from that era but I unfortunately didn't have any. In hindsight I should have posted about it here. His name is Ben Sisario and he wrote some stuff for the Village Voice from what I saw on google searches. |
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misleadtheworld
* Dog in the Sand *
United Kingdom
1222 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2006 : 17:04:36
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I have a copy of the Neutral Milk Hotel - 'In the Aeroplane Over the Sea' book, and it's excellent. It's only about 90-odd pages, but it's a great little gem of NMH knowledge; not just about aeroplane either.
? |
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matto
= Cult of Ray =
USA
943 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2006 : 18:41:41
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| wait - there's a "mattb"? are there others of the alphabet here? |
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Daisy Girl
~ Abstract Brain ~
Belize
5305 Posts |
Posted - 02/21/2006 : 21:05:59
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cool!!! cute name... 33 1/2. Good concept. Definately will check out the one on Doolittle. They did a good job of narrowing down the list of albums to discuss.
If I had a little kid I would teach them how to read by reading those books. |
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sisario
- FB Fan -
USA
1 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2006 : 18:45:24
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Hello,
I'm the author of the Doolittle book, and I'm pleased to report that it's just been published:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826417744/103-2645033-5013456
It's part of the 33 1/3 series by Continuum, and is based on extensive interviews with the band. And to be completely mercenary about it, I think it's a fantastic book and all of you will love it. And buy six copies apiece.
For those of you in the Los Angeles area, I'll be giving a reading and signing this Saturday, March 25, at Vroman's bookstore in Pasadena, at 4 p.m. It's a joint reading with Kim Cooper, who wrote the book on Neutral Milk Hotel in the same series. Here's the info:
http://www.vromansbookstore.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp?s=storeevents&eventId=319177
Vroman's is at 695 E. Colorado Blvd.; phone is 626-449-5320.
Hope to see you out there.
Ben Sisario |
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Homers_pet_monkey
= Official forum monkey =
United Kingdom
17125 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2006 : 04:35:43
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Thanks Ben, I have now pre-ordered mine.
I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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Chip Away Boy
= Cult of Ray =
914 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2006 : 17:34:35
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| i just don't know what to do with myself |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 04/08/2006 : 07:59:17
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http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/04/07/191932.php
Book Review: The Pixies'
"Doolittle" (33 1/3 Series) by
Ben Sisario
April 07, 2006
Modern Pea Pod
I spent the entire month of October 2004 wondering if I had wasted $35 (plus Ticketmaster convience charges) to see a band better remembered through their records. It's not as if I assumed the Pixies reunion would be horrible; but for me, purchasing a Pixies ticket was more about being able to say, "Well, at least I saw them." Despite the fact that there were no rumors or reports of the Pixies fighting, there was always the possibility that my show could be the one where the legendarily volatile group broke up again. And even if the Pixies did suck (and didn't break up), there would always be the opportunity to see the Datsuns play "Super Gyration" to a crowd of bespectacled Pitchfork readers. Actually, that in itself might have been worth the $35.
Yet, that Saturday night in Detroit, something unexpected happened: perhaps it was the crowd's reaction when the Pixies took the Fox Theatre stage. The entire theatre stood up quickly maybe it was a sign of respect, maybe we all just wanted to see them, hell, maybe we had all gone to the same school of concert etiquette. And maybe it was the way they entered: they didn't seem like a band who had just reunited for the money. They wanted to play their songs for us, just as much as we wanted them to play for us. And the Pixies were good! Frank Black sounded fantastic, ear-rending screams and all. Kim Deal was once again the woman who all of us (yes, yes, ladies included) wanted to have as a girlfriend. And although David Lovering and Joey Santiago were overshadowed as always by those two aforementioned behemoth personalities, they too were just on that night.
After my wild night with the Pixies, I was completely hooked as never before. When I received my first record player for Christmas that year, Surfer Rosa was one of the first vinyl LPs I bought. I spent a lot of time listening to Doolittle, despite the fact that no matter how many times I heard the songs, I always caught myself thinking, "How strange" at least once during the album. Maybe it was the Surrealism-influenced lyrics, the mad dog from hell howls of Black Francis, or the pure sonic dissonance. But still, to this day, every time I hear Doolittle those factors combine to remind me of what a strange, well-loved album it actually is. And in one of the latest additions to Continuum's 33 1/3 series, Ben Sisario lovingly expounds on the oddities of Doolittle to great effect.
The written version of Doolittle is a thought-provoking read, as Sisario attempts to demonstrate how vastly influenced the Pixies were by the cinematic Surrealist movement. The gravelly-voiced spectre of David Lynch flickers in and out of song lyric interpretations, and of course, there are multiple mentions of Un Chien Andalou almost every time "Debaser" comes up. And while this is all interesting, there's a fatal flaw. The idea of the Pixies' fascination with Surrealism takes more of a center stage than most of the band members...except for Charles Thompson, a.k.a. Black Francis. Obviously, it's not Sisario's fault that Kim Deal refused repeated interview requests; it's just really not a fulfilling read about the making of Doolittle and the (ahem) rich history of the Pixies without her. Yes, there are tantalizing ancedotes about Deal, but those moments are the equivalent to giving someone a spoonful of raspberry ice cream in July. It's delicious, but is that one spoonful enough? Helllllllll no.
Frankly, this 33 1/3 edition is much more valuable for those who are interested in the intricacies of the lyrics. With a scholarly zest, Sisario picks apart every song on the album and serendipitously reveals diamonds of meaning. These moments are very interesting and provocative: after finishing the book, I was inspired to relisten to all of Doolittle just to see what I truly felt about the songs. Was I supposed to do as Sisario did and find meaning in it, or was I supposed to understand the album as Black Francis wished ("The point is to experience it, to enjoy it, to be entertained by it")? Of course, that is a very personal decision, but for the thoughtful Pixies fan, it's a question that may very well plague them after reading this book. Is Doolittle actually just a plastic, disposable piece of entertainment, or is the listener supposed to consider it thoughtfully as a musical member of the Surrealist canon? Whatever your preference, Pixies fans ready to question their champions and thoughts of their music are highly recommended to read this book.
Reviewed by Megan Giddings
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Edited by - Carl on 04/08/2006 08:07:06 |
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TRANSMARINE
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
2002 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2006 : 10:25:39
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It has some new cool qoutes and recollections from all Pixies, sans Kim. She refused to be included. There is a great story from Lovering who recounts a 'haunted' skeleton key that tortured him in Europe...hilarious! Although the author sometimes became biased (at least it was in favor to Pixies) on random points, it is a rather enjoyable read.
It's neat to see the ACTUAL meanings of the songs coming straight from Charles's mouth...although I still hold my own interpretations as correct! That's the beauty of music and lyric...and if anything, reading this book made me spin my Doolittle CD for the first time in about a year, and rediscover just how fucking cool it is.
Hank the 8th was a duplicated man
-bRIAN |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 11:48:52
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http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/04/19/075658.php
Book Reviews: 33 1/3 Takes on The
Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and The
Pixies' Doolittle
April 19, 2006
Nik Dirga
I admit, my music tastes weren't real cool in 1989. It was the start of senior year in high school, and "edgy" for me was Depeche Mode. One of my big thrills my senior year was going to a Billy Joel concert. I bought a T-shirt. Heck, I still have a soft spot for "We Didn't Start The Fire" today, but these days my music radar is a bit broader than it used to be. In 1989, I had no clue that I missed out on two of the seminal albums of my time - The Pixies' roaring manifesto Doolittle, and the Beastie Boys' psychedelic mix tape Paul's Boutique.
I actually got The Pixies' Doolittle by mistake in 1990 as part of a record club I was in ... didn't know quite what to make of this clattering, screeching CD, and it took me a few years to get into it. Paul's Boutique I didn't discover until the mid-1990s, when the Beastie Boys finally lost the frat-boy image after hip-hop blasts like Check Your Head and Ill Communication. Now, both of these two very different albums are high up in my list of Desert Island CDs.
So hats off to Continuum Books' fab 33 1/3 music-criticism series, which examines the Pixies' and the Beasties' 1989 slabs of sound in two new books. Each slim 100-page-or-so book in the series dissects a particular CD, like liner notes on steroids. The Pixies book by Ben Sisario and the Beastie Boys book by Dan LeRoy are both swingin' samples of the series' rock-geek eye for minutiae and big-picture grasp of the trends and visions that go into the albums we love.
LeRoy's Paul's Boutique volume will hit the spot for Beasties fans, many of whom still consider the Beastie Boys' madcap second CD their best. LeRoy establishes the revolutionary sophomore record Boutique was. The Beasties made their name with loud, thrashing proto rap-rock like "Fight For Your Right To Party," but the leering goons in the early videos weren't really who they wanted to be. Paul's Boutique was the response to those who thought they'd pegged the Beasties as one-hit wonders - a still-remarkable collage of samples, slick multi-referential rhymes and an ever-shifting soundscape. A tune like "Sound of Science," built almost entirely of riffs by none other than the Beatles, still kicks it today.
LeRoy painstakingly reconstructs how Boutique came to be. He builds a pretty strong case that Boutique can be considered a strong collaboration between the Beasties, the Dust Brothers and reclusive producer Matt Dike, who had assembled the sample-filled bones of some of the songs on his own even before the Beasties came along. That helps explain why Paul's Boutique doesn't sound quite like anything else the Beasties ever did. It also bombed in 1989, coming nowhere near the success of the Beasties' License To Ill and only gaining its current shining reputation over time.
LeRoy provides a guide to some of the arcane samples peppered throughout the album, noting it's "impossible ... to comprehend in its sprawling totality." Paul's Boutique is a gorgeously dense piece of work, and LeRoy explains how post-1989 changes in sampling laws mean nothing like it will ever quite happen again. Given the confines of a 128-page book, LeRoy can't be utterly encyclopedic about the disc and sometimes a broader picture of the Beasties' influences and inspirations is lacking but he is pretty darned solid at showing the voices and ideas that went into it.
The Pixies, unlike the Beasties, didn't become truly famous until they'd broken up. Their "prickly kind of pop," Sisario notes, wasn't ever Top 10 material, but influenced many (notably Kurt Cobain, who idolized the band). Their second album proper, Doolittle, is a jagged, glistening knife of a listen, strangely sunny despite the loud-to-soft howls of frontman Charles Thompson (aka Black Francis) and titles like "Debaser," "Gouge Away," "There Goes My Gun" and "Mr. Grieves." Seventeen years on, Doolittle - originally titled Whore - still sounds fresh and fiery. Sisario shows how the Pixies' unique alchemy rocketed them to "next big thing" status, and how they soon imploded in the usual ego and fame struggles.
Sisario really manages to capture some of Thompson's elusive personality as he road-trips with him around his Eugene, Ore., home. He illuminates some of the thinking that went into the songs that became alt-rock anthems, and he goes after Doolittle's twisted lyrics with a scholar's eye. It might spoil the mystery of the songs a bit for some, but I found it fascinating to learn that, say, "Crackity Jones" is about Thompson's demented former roommate. Few secrets of Doolittle remain untold under Sisario's probing.
Sisario heavily examines the influence of Surrealism on the Pixies' voice - Thompson ate up filmmakers like Buuel and David Lynch, and his frenzied lyrics captured a kind of senseless joy and pain. Or, as Thompson himself puts it, the appeal of the Pixies lay in their "sex and death vibrations." Sisario's sharp analysis and exploration of Doolittle makes this 33 1/3 tome a must for Pixie-heads.
Both books suffer a tiny bit by not having the full bands' cooperation - the Pixies' Kim Deal refused to talk to Sisario, and only Mike D of the three Beasties spoke on the record to LeRoy. Yet that doesn't really matter too much. These 33 1/3 books aren't meant to be an all-inclusive band biography. Both authors bring to their task an easygoing yet authoritative voice. Reading these books, it's like it's 1989 all over again for me, and I can pretend I'm finally kinda sorta hip.
http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/04/25/night_of_a_thou_1.php
April 25, 2006
Night of a Thousand Pixies
Unless you are in Sonic Youth...you probably love the Pixies. At the very least, you loved the song Where Is My Mind? after hearing it in the movie Fight Club. This Thursday author Ben Sisario will be reading from his new book called "Doolittle," as part of the acclaimed 33 1/3 series. The book takes a look at the 1989 release of the Pixies sonic masterpiece of the same name, gaining insight from the band themselves.
The reading and signing will start off the night, but it doesn't end there. What happens when you get Todd P to book a show in conjunction with such a reading? You get every band east and west of the Williamsburg Bridge playing Pixies songs, that's what. Talibam, The Defenders, M Shanghai String Band...and many, many more perform their favorite Pixies tunes. We wonder how many bands will play Debaser, the first song off Doolittle. For more info and a list of bands check out Todd P's site.
Thursday // Reading 7pm, Bands 9pm // Union Pool [484 Union Ave, Williamsburg] // Reading Free, Bands $5
Posted by Jen Carlson in Event , Literature , Music | Recommend? (11) | [+]
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Edited by - Carl on 04/25/2006 21:08:52 |
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Levitated
= Cult of Ray =
Chile
652 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2006 : 19:14:09
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quote:
Originally posted by Carl
Unless you are in Sonic Youth...you probably love the Pixies.
Ha! that made me laugh!  |
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Jefrey
= Cult of Ray =
USA
918 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2006 : 16:24:19
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Got both Doolittle and Paul's Boutique. Go figure - probably the 2 most influential records of the last 20 years. Both are great reads! You will get insider information from the period in which the albums were made and see just how they came to be.
Although FB has said repeatedly that his songs should be interpreted however anyone who listens to them wants, and that no interpretation is "correct" - it's still pretty cool to have entire section of the book dedicated to analyzing the lyrics song by song and hearing what FB was thinking when he wrote the songs.
Hopefully, as this series of books gains credibility and the artists realize what a cool idea it is (and that the authors have a true love for the music/albums they are writing about), the authors will have better cooperation from the bands and maybe we'll even get a "revised" version in the future. |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2006 : 16:37:05
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quote:
Originally posted by Jefrey
Although FB has said repeatedly that his songs should be interpreted however anyone who listens to them wants, and that no interpretation is "correct" - it's still pretty cool to have entire section of the book dedicated to analyzing the lyrics song by song and hearing what FB was thinking when he wrote the songs.
Although I'm sure the book quotes stuff some fans will have heard before, this sounds pretty good. I'm gonna keep an eye out for it....
http://33third.blogspot.com/2006/11/cake-shop-event-on-monday-13th.html
And Ben Sisario will be on hand too, reading from his acclaimed Pixies
book.
http://33third.blogspot.com/2006/11/pixies-and-pollard.html
Pixies and Pollard
Ben Sisario read the first few excellent pages of his
Pixies book, followed by a quick Q&A session. |
Edited by - Carl on 11/20/2006 09:00:54 |
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madtempest
- FB Fan -
USA
225 Posts |
Posted - 11/28/2006 : 12:24:18
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| It's a really good book. |
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Homers_pet_monkey
= Official forum monkey =
United Kingdom
17125 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2006 : 10:06:34
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quote:
Originally posted by madtempest
It's a really good book.
Great review.
I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 03/24/2007 : 19:34:22
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-0703170072mar18,1,4167703.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
"Doolittle," by Ben Sisario (2006)
Ben Sisario tears into the Pixies' "Doolittle" with an enviable combination
of cunning prose, exacting detail and theoretical conviction. His colorful
descriptions serve as analytical contexts for the narrative as well as
accessible entry points into briefs about Surrealism, Dadaism,
Christianity and apocalyptic paranoia - themes echoed by the record.
Stemming from a one-on-one road trip with Pixies icon Frank Black,
various interviews, song-by-song appraisals and article research, the
watertight approach provides insight into just where Black's mind was.
courier-journal.com
Friday, June 15, 2007
Read your records
33 1/3 book series dissects the creation of landmark albums
By Tamara Ikenberg
tikenberg@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
A vinyl album spins on a record player at the rate of 33 1/3 revolutions per
minute. When editorial director David Barker named a series of album-based
books "33 1/3," he knew that Generation i-Pod might not recognize the
fraction.
"Anyone under the age of 35 tends to not get it," Barker says from the New
York office of Continuum books.
Most of the books in the
series, which started in
1993, are essays
delving into the making
of an individual album,
from the meanings
behind the songs to the
relationships among the
band members and the
album's place in music
history.
The flip side to the fact-
based 33 1/3 books is
album-inspired fiction.
The first effort was Joe
Pernice's memoir-ish
take on The Smiths' "Meat Is Murder."
One of the adaptations is headed to the big screen in 2009 -- Barker says the
film rights were just sold to John Niven's novella of The Band's "Music From
Big Pink."
Barker doesn't dictate which albums or bands are chosen, but when he
conceived the series, he did come up with a list of artists that should be
included, like The Smiths and Pink Floyd.
He puts out a call for proposals about every 18 months on the 331/3 Web site.
Writers are free to attack the album from whatever angle they please. One of
the only rules is that there only be one book per musical artist. The only
Beatles album represented is "Let It Be," and the only Rolling Stones offering
is on "Exile on Main Street."
It helps if the writer is passionate about and intimately familiar with the album
they're covering.
Craig Rich, owner of Underground Sounds in The Highlands, which stocks the
series, is a connoisseur of The Grateful Dead's "Anthem of the Sun." He wants
to write a 331/3 book devoted to it and has sent a proposal to Continuum.
"I've been wanting to write a book on that album for many years," Rich says.
"The Grateful Dead weren't engineers so much as alchemists on that album.
There are a bunch of things they came up with; studio techniques that are still
used today that were invented on the spot out of necessity back then."
Rich says the books are "really cool when a lot of people are becoming
dispassionate toward music in the age of CD burning and downloading.
"People don't put the same emotional value into music. They look at it as
audio wallpaper. To a lot of the kids today, it's just a song they downloaded
because they saw it on a Nike commercial."
The best-selling 331/3 book at his store is Kim Cooper's tribute to "In the
Aeroplane over the Sea," the 1998 masterpiece by the enigmatic Neutral Milk
Hotel. The band was the brainchild of the hermit-like Jeff Mangum. Barker says
"Aeroplane" is also the best-selling book in the entire series.
Jonathan Hawpe, a bookseller at Carmichael's, which also sells the series, is
a fan of both NMH and the "Aeroplane" book.
"A lot of twentysomethings and thirtysomethings really love that record, and it
had this mystery behind it they were this really big cult band, they made
two records, then they just kind of vanished," he says.
"The book is a really nice little window into the making of it, what Mangum did
afterward and why he faded away."
The series has gotten some criticism for its lack of hip-hop albums. The next
batch will feature more on that genre, including a book on OutKast's 1998
album "Aquemini."
Most of the albums covered are undeniably hip, but Barker is willing to take a
chance on an album charged for being the epitome of mainstream cheese.
A 331/3 book based on Celine Dion's "Let's Talk About Love," by Toronto
Globe and Mail music writer Carl Wilson, is coming out soon.
"We've had a lot of aggro about that," Barker says, adding that fans of the
series have expressed their aggravation on the 331/3 site.
"Wilson doesn't like Celine Dion's music, and he's basically spent 18 months
immersing himself in her music and talking to her fans and people who hate
her, Barker says. "It's a book about what is good taste and what is bad taste,
and why do people get so angry about things like Celine Dion."
Few mega-mainstream hit albums have been covered in the series, and there
is a dearth of early rock 'n' roll. The oldest album covered is "James Brown Live
at the Apollo 1962."
"I have had people interested in doing stuff about Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee
Lewis, and Little Richard and people like that," Barker says. But to do that, he
says, "I'm kind of tempted to do a slightly different series."
There's a theory about why the 331/3 format may not work with pre-'60s
releases, according to Ben Sisario, a New York Times writer who penned a
331/3 book centered on the Pixies' surreal, melodic 1989 album "Doolittle."
"A lot of music we loved in the '50s wasn't conceived in an album context," he
says. "The earliest albums were like binders with a bunch of singles. They
weren't considered cohesive works of art."
Sisario was a fan of the series before he took a crack at his own 331/3 book.
"There's a sort of style, there's a voice, there's a kind of persona of the music
journalist. As time goes on, its gotten a little bit more rigid," he says. "The
idea behind these was to write about music in creative ways; to have the
space to do it and not have the pressures of journalists in general. There's no
time peg. It's the way a lot of people write about art. It's the way a lot of people
write about literature. There doesn't have to be a product to promote."
Once Sisario got his 331/3 proposal approved, he set to recruiting Pixies
frontman Charles Thompson, better known as Black Francis in his Pixies days
and Frank Black in his current solo career, to grant him an extended interview.
Serendipitously, Thompson happened to be in New York doing the Pixies
reunion tour at the time, and the selection of 331/3 books Sisario brought
along to familiarize Thompson with the series helped seduce the rock star into
participating.
"One (of the books I brought) was about the Kinks' 'The Village Green
Preservation Society,' and that's like my favorite one. When I gave it to him, he
just grabbed it and leafed through it," Sisario recalls.
He ended up interviewing Thompson over a three-day road trip.
"On the one hand, it was like, holy ---- , here I am driving with this guy I think is
awesome and I've thought that since I was 14, but I also just thought I had to
get the story, and I was just overprepared," Sisario says.
He says there were a couple of uncomfortable moments when Thompson
ignored questions, but overall, "we got along well. He brought me to his house
and I met his family. In some ways, he was probably the friendliest rock star
kind of guy I've ever met."
Kate Schatz took the literary approach to her 331/3 book on English rocker PJ
Harvey's hard-driving 1993 album "Rid of Me," scheduled to be published in
August.
"It's always stuck in my head as an album that's really evocative and has a
really intense mood and tone," says Schatz, a music writer and teacher.
"When it came out she got a lot of attention for being this angry, crazy, man-
hating, vengeful feminist."
Schatz has mutated "Rid of Me" into the story of two wild, love-starved women
named Kathleen and Mary. In the album, there are references to the Virgin
Mary, and a Kathleen appears in the tracks "Heela" and "Hook," but Schatz
fleshed them out and made the desperate characters her own.
There are lyrics and references sprinkled throughout the book. For instance,
there are 14 chapters in the book, and 14 tracks on the album. Each chapter
is named for its corresponding song.
"The entire process was pretty stream of consciousness," Schatz says. "At
the beginning, I'd go to my favorite coffee shop and put my headphones on with
one song on repeat over and over, and see what it was generating, and really
try to pay attention to the lyrics, the feel of the song and the mood of the song.
"Sometimes a certain lyric would take me off on a crazy tangent. I was just
trying to get into the album as much as possible and see what happened.
When you love a song or love an album, you listen to it so many times that it
kind of becomes your own."
Reporter Tamara Ikenberg can be reached at (502) 582-4174.
(By Matt Stone, The Courier-
Journal)
ON THE WEB
www.33third.blogspot.com
GET THE BOOKS
Underground Sounds: 2003 Highland Ave.,
(502) 485-0174
Carmichael's Bookstore: 295 Bardstown Road,
(502) 456-6950, and 2720 Frankfort Ave.,
(502) 896-6950
The 33 1/3 book series
includes the Pixies' 1989
album, "Doolittle," and PJ
Harvey's 1993 album, "Rid of
Me," below.
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Edited by - Carl on 06/15/2007 14:11:14 |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2014 : 19:11:14
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| ` LEE G `ʩ` 㥱å 100J LEE(`)Υ㥱åȤɫȾϤåȥƥؤϤޤ ӤιͨU· <a href="http://www.hotel-tulip.jp/mall-p-6915.html" >http://www.hotel-tulip.jp/mall-p-6915.html</a> ˽ϱ˱ˤ餬ؤːۤФsaeDpicateѥΥ֩`Ĥϡͨйu죨ꥢեˣˤϳڤΤΤ_ͬ1:1ץꥫ`bϥեꥫIFڡΥǥmäơŮԤϱ٤Υ`ɥ`֤ФҪǷĿΤĤϡˤventesjpgWhatϲӤȡ륢`룿 ձլˮfվ֤ϤZ롸```Щ`ϥϽΤΡʤΡIȡ귽ʽʤɤޤޤΑBޤ |
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Doolittle book in 2006
