Friday, February 10 2012
Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro: A Rock Star’s Midlife Crisis or Valid Literature?
Regardless how history comes to look Nick Cave's
Thursday, February 2 2012
Carole E. Barrowman’s Authorial Journey to Hollow Earth
Hollow Earth isn’t just any book. It may be the Next Big Thing in young adult (YA) literature. It’s cover proclaims that “Imagination can be a dangerous thing,” but fans of John and Carole E. Barrowman are more than willing to take that risk.
Friday, January 13 2012
The Sexual History of London
If Paris is the city of love, then London is the city of lust. From the bath houses of Roman Londinium to the sexual underground of the 20th century and beyond, this is an entertaining, vibrant chronicle of London and sex through the ages.
Thursday, December 15 2011
Fug You: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the Fuck You Press, the Fugs…
This is an unapologetic and hilarious account of eight key years of "total assault on the culture", to quote William S. Burroughs.
Friday, December 9 2011
This is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl
This definitive biography tells the epic story of a singular career that includes Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, and Them Crooked Vultures.
Friday, December 2 2011
The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun
Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun signed and/or recorded many of the greatest musical artists of all time. Always hip, he lived in the grand manner but was never happier than when he found himself in some down-and-out joint listening to music late at night.
Wednesday, November 23 2011
And Nothing but the Truthiness: The Rise (and Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert
A funny and personal portrait of the comedian who became the headline-making, ground-breaking star of The Colbert Report.
Friday, November 18 2011
Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever
From post-Dylan Greenwich Village, to arson-scarred South Bronx barrios where salsa and hip-hop were born, to Lower Manhattan lofts where jazz and classical music were reimagined, to ramshackle clubs like CBGBs and the Gallery, where rock and dance music were hot-wired for a new generation...
Friday, November 4 2011
‘Pulphead’: A Sharp-Eyed, Uniquely Humane Tour of America’s Cultural Landscape
An exhilarating tour of America’s popular, unpopular, and at times completely forgotten culture. Sullivan shows us—with a laidback, erudite Southern charm that’s all his own—how we really (no, really) live now.
Monday, October 31 2011
Chic, Le Freak: Why Nile Rodgers Is the Guv’nor
Nile Rodgers is undoubtedly one of the architects of contemporary pop, yet the Chic man, über-producer and guitar legend has not always received full praise -- he's even had his records dynamited. However, according to Steve Jansen, Rodgers has never been anything less than the Guv'nor.
Friday, October 28 2011
The Beatles in Hamburg: The Stories, the Scene and How It All Began
When the Beatles went to Hamburg in 1960, in the company of gangsters and prostitutes they changed their sound, wore black leather, lost their bass player, sacked their drummer, developed a vast repertoire of raucous rock ’n’ roll songs, and fashioned a new hairstyle.
Tuesday, October 25 2011
Rapper and Mystic: Two Sides of Charles Bukowski
Like all mystics, Bukowski felt strongly that man’s way of living was insane, that we are asleep if we accept, blindly, the pointless, soul-destroying, undignified, unmanly nature of the nine-to-five.
Friday, October 21 2011
A Rocket in My Pocket: The Hipster’s Guide to Rockabilly Music
This the story of rockabilly music, the primal ‘50s howl of rockin'rage. With roots in country, blues, folk, hillbilly, R&B, boogie-woogie and other Deep South forms it was young people's music, wild and primitive, and despised by adults and the country music establishment.
Friday, October 14 2011
Beethoven in America
Beethoven is in American commercialism and the black power movements. He’s in film and theater, disco, country, rock and rap. To examine Beethoven on American soil is to examine America itself.
Friday, October 7 2011
Red Rock: The Long Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll
From pivotal concerts by local legends to controversial visits from international rock superstars, clashes with state censors and government-sponsored rock festivals, this work encapsulates the thrills and frustrations experienced by Chinese rockers.
Tuesday, October 4 2011
20 Questions: William Shatner
William Shatner, Captain Kirk, Cultural Icon Extraordinaire. Shatner Rules. Like all great American actors – he’s not American. We’re not even sure he’s human. We’re certain, however, that he’s The Captain of Everything -- not least PopMatters 20 Questions.
Monday, October 3 2011
Michael Moore’s ‘Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life’
Capturing the zeitgeist of the past 50 years, yet deeply personal and unflinchingly honest, this memoir takes readers on an unforgettable, take-no-prisoners ride through the life and times of Michael Moore.
Friday, September 30 2011
How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior
Bad behavior is the entry point for a brilliant cultural romp as well as an anti-civics lesson. "Shove your rules," says scandal, and no doubt every upright citizen, deep within, cheers the transgression—as long as it's someone else's head on the block.
Thursday, September 29 2011
The Collision of ‘Roadside Picnic’ and ‘Infinite Jest’
We have love and jealousy and revenge. All this from a McArthur grant recipient with a reputation as one of the most challenging and polarizing writers of his generation. What's going on?
Friday, September 23 2011
Devil Sent the Rain: Music and Writing in Desperate America
Acclaimed author Tom Piazza follows his prize-winning novel City of Refuge and the post-Katrina classic Why New Orleans Matters with a dynamic collection of essays and journalism about American music and American character, in Devil Sent the Rain.
