33 1/3 Series of books

bought on the Amazon Kindle store, read a page or less. oops

i just got whiney's nation of millions of book in the mail this afternoon and i'm about 100 pages in--more impressive considering how much time ive spent going to my ipod to relisten to PE and other golden era rap. the whole things been great but so far the wattstax chapter has been particularly exceptional, i just reserved the dvd at the library here.

after i finish i'll try to post something more concrete, but right now i just wanted to lavish some praise

I've read several of these books and on the whole I've been disappointed. One or two (e.g. Bowie's Low) I've just had to stop reading, as they were such dull re-treads of oft-written ideas. But then I keep getting sucked into trying another (they're so short and inexpensive!). I enjoyed Darnielle's Master of Reality.

Anyway, I have Drew Daniel's volume on 20 Jazz Funk Greats and might give it a go -- I somehow doubt Drew will disappoint.

I suppose it's also my fault for buying a book about a much-written-about album such as Low.

These books used to be about albums from the canon (Dusty In Memphis, Pet Sounds, Low) but now it seems they're going wilfully *anti* canon (The Dreaming rather than The Hounds Of Love, Boys for Pele as opposed to Little Earthquakes, Aquemini as opposed to The Love Below/ Speakerboxxx etc). Not that i'm complaining!

I liked the one about Low.

Aquemini is way more hip-hop canon than Speakerboxxx.

yeah i was gonna say

who's writing the aquemini one

Michael Schmelling

oh

there are definitely disappointing/subpar books in the series but generally i feel like they're mostly worth what little money and time they cost you and are usually at least fun if not great. how I would rank the ones I've read:

Led Zeppelin IV by Erik Davis
Aja by Don Breithaupt
Use Your Illusion I and II by Eric Weisbard
The Who Sell Out by John Dougan
It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back by Christopher R. Weingarten
Electric Ladyland by John Perry
Sign O' The Times by Michaelangelo Matos
Armed Forces by Franklin Bruno
Let's Talk About Love: A Journey To The End Of Taste by Carl Wilson
Exile On Main Street by Bill Janovitz
Double Nickels On The Dime by Michael T. Fournier
In Utero by Gillian G. Gaar
Illmatic by Matthew Gasteier
Let It Be by Colin Meloy

kinda want to read the colin meloy one out of the most morbid of curiosities

it's not completely terrible and is at times engaging, but it's about as indulgent and autobiographical as you'd expect from a famous person who's not a professional writer

i'd say of the three narrative ones i've read it's pretty far below the Master of Reality and Big Pink ones which i enjoyed a lot (MOR the most though)

im looking forward to reading nation of millions. fwiw the reckless in wicker park had like a dozen copies all as like featured-displays -- i bet its selling

it's not completely terrible and is at times engaging, but it's about as indulgent and autobiographical as you'd expect from a famous person who's not a professional writer

― every night i tell myself i am the custos, i am the wind. (some dude), Saturday, May 22, 2010 7:11 PM (1 hour ago)

and happens to be the lead singer of The Decemberists

Ten pages into the new book on Pavement's Wowee Zowee I thought for sure I was going to hate it for all the author's navel-gazing about his miserable post-college past, but then the book settled in. With such a ramshackle approach (author's life story, the annoyingly self-referential tale of the process of writing the book, lazy transcripts of interviews), it slowly became rather engaging to the point where I was surprised at how much I wound up learning about the album. In a way, it kind of mirrored my initial reaction to the album back in 1995. Which I suppose might have been the whole intention of this book.

uh yeah ksh that was implied

:-)

Is the Skiz Fernando 36 Chambers book ever coming out?

Has anyone ever submitted a Roxy Music one for this series?

I will propose Max Tundra's Mastered by Guy at the Exchange in the next 5 years.

Just started the Wowee Zowee one--I can't believe it, it's one of those memoir-type ones, and I am LOVING it. It might just be generational nostalgia though, page like 20 and he hasn't even heard the album yet

It might just be generational nostalgia though

Yeah, that has to be why I wound up giving it a chance too. I don't want to read a memoir in a 33 1/3 book, but damn, if I didn't find myself relating to it.

OK, I just finished the Pavement one--very odd to feel that the memoir-y stuff at the beginning is the best part. no structure to this book. it jumps from the memoir into albeit interesting interviews, then it's over. And hids reading that Flux=Rad is about sex as opposed to holding on to punk like your mother's apron strings (styles come and go but I don't want to let you go-I have always assumed he was doing his Cobain primal scream here) is just bizarre. I liked the book overall because I'll read anything about a band I like, and hell, I couldn't do write one, but these books vary real widely
I guess file this unrequested review under "OK then..."

"his reading", sorry

Loved Weisbard's book. The only one that deeply disappointed me was Dusty in Memphis.

My favorites:

Low
Sign o' the Times
Court and Spark
Use Your Illusion I and II

agreed on all four. i've yet to hear the record dusty in memphis so maybe i'll buy the book and record in tandem.

Yeah the Court and Spark book is great.

Zaireeka is good and basic, very much a beginner's guide to the Flaming Lips, and I polished it off in no time. Geeta's I read in advance and of course like. Just began Weingarten's, which is terrific so far (though disco wasn't in its velvet-rope phase yet in 1973; that happened four years later, when Studio 54 opened).

anyone have suggestions on which one(s) i should read next based on my list posted a bit upthread? how's the Achtung Baby book?

Master of Reality by John Darnielle (I think my #1)
Live at the Apollo by Douglas Wolk
Paul's Boutique by Dan LeRoy (not sure if you're a Beasties non-fan, but I recommend this even if so; it's really well done and gives great insight to that whole time and place)

yeah i'm not huge into the Beasties in general but that one seems worth checking out -- i think Whiney described it as similar to his but in his opinion better

Has anyone ever submitted a Roxy Music one for this series?

― iago g., Sunday, May 23, 2010 7:06 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark

Pitched Avalon about two years ago, got a response saying "Great idea! Wait till the next open call!" and never followed up.

I have a different one in mind now but I'm uncharacteristically intimidated. I mean, if I'm going to write a book - even a short one - I'd have to do nothing but. No internet, no records, no food. And my life doesn't currently allow me to make that kind of commitment.

I just hope whenever they do a Roxy one, that it's not one of the first two albums. I love them, but there has been too much ink spilt about the Eno years. My vote is for one of the next three (unsurprisingly) or Avalon--the latter is a GREAT subject for one of those books, such a deeply weird record

I just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed reading the Nation Of Millions book by Christopher Weingarten of this parish over the last couple of days. It's a great, punchy piece of journalism. The extended comparison of the changing line up of the J.B.s to the progression of various tracks on the album is masterful and he nails the oft suggested but rarely convincingly well explained theory that hip hop can be seen as an Afro American form of folk music (with the recontextualization of samples and raps working in the same way as folk memory) in a few short, crystal clear passages.

I'd also recommend the Matmos guy's book on 24 Jazz Funk Greats. In fact his own theorising is much more illuminating than the actual interview sections.

Finally got my first few of these. I'm not going to name the ones I don't like, but I really, really love Drew's 20 Jazz Funk Greats book.

friend loaned me the In the Aeroplane Over the Sea one. it was okay. reading about how Schneider got the distortion on there was probably the most interesting thing, but I imagine I could've found that out from Tape Op or something if I had really cared. was surprised at how little this record actually sold, always seemed to me like it was way more popular than it actually was.

Is the Skiz Fernando 36 Chambers book ever coming out?

― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Sunday, May 23, 2010 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i just read the Big Star Radio City one -- pretty great overall. Nice to have some tech-y info on a lot of this stuff + some pretty good access to all of the bandmembers including Chilton. Even the personal stuff, detailing the author's time playing with Alex, is well done. way fucking better than the bio that came out a little while ago.

so far i've read and enjoyed:

Led Zeppelin IV
Let's Talk About Love: A Journey To The End Of Taste
Sign o' the Times
Master of Reality
Another Green World
Armed Forces
ABBA Gold
Endtroducing

have but need to get to:

Live at the Apollo
Exile On Main Street
Low
Use Your Illusion I and II
Loveless

Live At The Apollo is the best I've read, keep it top of your list

Read the Eno book a week or two back - it's great. Hoping to get to the Wire and Big Star books soon.

Whiney's was terrific. I've always had in my head a want to get a FREEDOM IS A PATH SELDOM TRAVELLED BY THE MULTITUDE tattoo and now I know the whole story, I want it even more so. Thinking that next payday it will happen. It sucks beyond belief that Wattstax isn't available on dvd over here yet.

are you sure you can't make yr DVD multi region somehow? Wattstax would reward any such efforts grandly

the only one I've read is the Forever Changes one...that was really good!!

have read two of these in the past couple days - the 'another green world' one is fantastic, i recommend. props 2 geeta if she still reads ILX! the bowie 'low' one is ok, something a touch dissatisfying about it that i can't quite put my finger on.

Any idea when the next call for submissions will be?

the last 2 rounds were in early '07 and early '09, so if they're doing it on any kind of steady schedule there might be another in a few months, although I have no idea if that's actually the case.