33 1/3 Series of books

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ok then someone write it. i just wanna read it. though i do have a good anecdote about getting high in highscool in some kids Audi listening to ready to die and then escaping from cops.

i am off to download Madonna because my tape copy melted over the summer. should be a lark.

― artdamages (artdamages), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:04 (seventeen years ago) link

one month passes...

The latest batch:

Funkadelic: Maggot Brain - by Matt Rogers
Slayer: Reign in Blood - DX Ferris
Tori Amos: Boys for Pele - Elizabeth Merrick
Fleetwood Mac: Tusk - Rob Trucks
Nas: Illmatic - Matthew Gasteier
The Pogues: Rum, Sodomy & the Lash - Jeffery Roesgen
Wire: Pink Flag - Wilson Neate
Big Star: Radio City - Bruce Eaton
Pavement: Wowee Zowee - Bryan Charles
Madness: One Step Beyond - Terry Edwards
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole: Facing Future - Dan Kois
Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions... - Christopher R. Weingarten
Van Dyke Parks: Song Cycle - Richard Henderson
Weezer: Pinkerton - Jessica Suarez
Black Sabbath: Master of Reality - John Darnielle
Wu-Tang Clan: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) - S.H. Fernando, Jr.
Afghan Whigs: Gentlemen - Bob Gendron
Flying Burrito Brothers: Gilded Palace of Sin - Bob Proehl
Elliott Smith: XO - Matthew LeMay
Outkast: Aquemini - Nick Weidenfeld and Michael Schmelling
The Flaming Lips: Zaireeka - Mark Richardson

― jaymc, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:04 (seventeen years ago) link

someone has finally tackled the monster that is zaireeka!

― unfished business, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Pavement: Wowee Zowee - Bryan Charles

ehhh. Brian Charles wrote a novel called Grab On To Me Tightly as if I knew the way, right?

― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:09 (seventeen years ago) link

someone has finally tackled the monster that is zaireeka!

please please please let that be a proposal for four books that have to be read simultaneously to make any sense.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:10 (seventeen years ago) link

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Four books must be place in a row and the text read in impossibly long single lines.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:25 (seventeen years ago) link

nah, surely each book has every fourth word?

― unfished business, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Looking forward to Maggot Brain + misc. rap books.

― The Reverend, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Is S.H. Fernando Jr. Skiz Fernando of Wordsound fame?

― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes. According to google and Wordsound's website.

― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:49 (seventeen years ago) link

I KNOW MISTER MOUNTAINGOAT WILL DO ME PROUD WITH HIS SAB BOOK! (i was thisclose to submitting a sab proposal. it's nice to know that they are in good hands.)

― scott seward, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Nice to see the Afghan Whigs cheerleaders on the 33 1/3 board got their wish.

― Joseph McCombs, Thursday, 22 March 2007 03:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Nice to see more rap books than ever before, plus Funkadelic.

― curmudgeon, Thursday, 22 March 2007 15:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Tori Amos: Boys for Pele - Elizabeth Merrick

hey! wow.

― pisces, Thursday, 22 March 2007 16:00 (seventeen years ago) link

This list is split between albums that I am really excited to read about and albums that I would never under any circumstances read about and very little in between haha.

― Alex in SF, Thursday, 22 March 2007 16:05 (seventeen years ago) link

I always knew you were a Tori Amos fan, Alex.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 22 March 2007 16:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah she's tops.

― Alex in SF, Thursday, 22 March 2007 16:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Sweet! I love new 33 1/3 batches. Then I look forward to the brand-new ILX thread demanded a march to Amazon.com to belittle critical customer reviews. ("Folks, I'm a paid, professional critic, trained in the ancient ways. These public-school-educated peons don't know what they're talking about, WTF.")

― No Scintillating Prose in Outer Space, Friday, 23 March 2007 20:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Still no Stooges or Cheap Trick. Gotta wonder if the editor hates those groups. Hard to believe there hasn't been one decent pitch yet.

― MC, Friday, 23 March 2007 20:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Haikunym's pitch for Cheap Trick was fantastic, I don't know why they didn't say yes.

― jaymc, Friday, 23 March 2007 20:30 (seventeen years ago) link

uh there was at least ONE decent pitch I thought.

― Dimension 5ive, Friday, 23 March 2007 20:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Slayer: Reign in Blood - DX Ferris
Nas: Illmatic - Matthew Gasteier
Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions... - Christopher R. Weingarten
Van Dyke Parks: Song Cycle - Richard Henderson
Black Sabbath: Master of Reality - John Darnielle
Wu-Tang Clan: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) - S.H. Fernando, Jr.
Flying Burrito Brothers: Gilded Palace of Sin - Bob Proehl
Outkast: Aquemini - Nick Weidenfeld and Michael Schmelling
The Flaming Lips: Zaireeka - Mark Richardson

MAD AMPED

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 23 March 2007 20:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Just finished the MC5 book today. Very good / fast read. Made me sad that the documentary never came out a few years back.

― MC, Friday, 23 March 2007 20:45 (seventeen years ago) link

The documentary did come out! I saw it!

― Alex in SF, Friday, 23 March 2007 20:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Must have missed it at the local art house then. Is it on DVD?

― MC, Friday, 23 March 2007 20:46 (seventeen years ago) link

That hasn't happened I think. They were in court wangling about it last I heard.

― Alex in SF, Friday, 23 March 2007 20:53 (seventeen years ago) link

i wish ana gasteier were writing about nas.

― fukasaku tollbooth, Friday, 23 March 2007 21:35 (seventeen years ago) link

one month passes...

I've only read the Low and Daydream Nation books.

The Low one, as everyone else I've seen comment on it has said, is great. It was exactly what I was looking for when I was going in: it goes into Bowie's life and mental state heading into and during the recording, talks a good amount his relationship with Eno and Iggy Pop, details the recording process and the players, talks about Berlin and Bowie's obsession with German Expressionism, and so on. I would recommend it for anyone.

The Daydream Nation book was really disappointing. I mean, I love Daydream Nation and all, and it's a NEAR-perfect album, but this book starts with the premise that it is THE perfect album and then rewrites history around it.

― Z S, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 03:57 (seventeen years ago) link

The Daydream Nation book was really disappointing. I mean, I love Daydream Nation and all, and it's a NEAR-perfect album, but this book starts with the premise that it is THE perfect album and then rewrites history around it.

I love this series, so it pains me to admit that I was a little disappointed by this one also. The chapters about the actual process of recording the record and the things that inspired the songs are very good. The chapters analyzing individual songs (except for the Providence chapter) fall short when they falter on how the songs were constructed and resort to hyperbole. It is a good record, you don't need to convince me otherwise I wouldn't be the audience for it.

Not that I want the books to be formulaic, but I guess I would prefer more of an approach that discusses the nuts and bolts and actual details behind a recording as well as whatever sources or events inspired it. This is what I liked about the Loveless and Murmur books, for example.

I'm looking forward to the Song Cycle one.

― Bill in Chicago, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 05:02 (seventeen years ago) link

I would prefer more of an approach that discusses the nuts and bolts and actual details behind a recording as well as whatever sources or events inspired it

What else would you want, in this series? Chapters written with the intent of convincing the reader that the album in question is INCREDIBLE seem like preaching to the choir. Is there anyone reading the Daydream Nation book that doesn't already love it?

― Z S, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 06:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Reign in fucking Blood. Yes. Also stoked for Illmatic and 36 Chambers. My boss at the Rock Hall wrote the first book in the series, it was fun to talk to him about that.

― chris.steffen, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 06:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Just finished the one on Joni Mitchell's Court & Spark. Very good, although I don't really get the author's dismissal of Hissing and Hejira.

― baaderonixx, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 08:29 (seventeen years ago) link

i've given up halfway through the daydream nation book. really obviously padded with waffle, hardly any insight whatsoever, entirely pedestrian interview segments and written in the most annoying authorial 'voice' this side of pitchfork.

― stevie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 09:32 (seventeen years ago) link

there s an AJA one coming out isn't there? can't wait.

how's the ABBA GOLD one?

― pisces, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Tom should have written it.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:54 (seventeen years ago) link

I thought the Abba Gold one was good.

― the next grozart, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:01 (seventeen years ago) link

It was kind of weird in that it *didn't* assume the readers were already converted and spent a bit too much time semi-apologetically establishing ABBA as a great band. I guess there were quite a few people who bought ABBA Gold itself as a kind-of ironic joke but they're unlikely to buy a book about it! So it was slightly frustrating, though if you want a beginners guide to ABBA it's pretty good.

I also think it missed an opportunity to talk about compilations, especially as it now looks like it's the only 33 1/3 book that will be about one.

― Groke, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:04 (seventeen years ago) link

right yeah that's what i feared. the LAST thing i want a beginner's guide to is abba.

― pisces, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:14 (seventeen years ago) link

What else would you want, in this series?

Yeah, mostly true. Though the Murmur book is about half interpretation and analysis and the author pulls it off really well.

Oh, Aja book sounds great. Although I don't know what they could add to it that the Aja film didn't cover.

― Bill in Chicago, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Can we start some kind of master list on the GREAT books of the series? They're too expensive for me to just do trial-and-error with, even though some of them are about some of my favorite albums.

― Reatards Unite, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link

I thoroughly enjoyed the 'Bee Thousand' GBV entry - can't recall the author's name, but he made the book engaging and interesting at all times. I especially liked his touch of incorporating several 'listener accounts' of fave songs, gut reactions, reminiscing, etc.

Just picked up the 'Daydream Nation' SY entry - about a quarter of the way through and it's just not grabbing me so far. Maybe I want it to put me in a magic state of mind for the ATM/Pfork performance coming up in July. So stoked for that!

― BlackIronPrison, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:26 (seventeen years ago) link

Or more specifically, can someone let me know how these are (some of them may not be out yet, I'm just looking at a list of all titles):

Prince - Sign O the Times
The Replacements - Let It Be
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street (!!)
REM - Murmur
David Bowie - Low
The Byrds - Notorious Byrd Brothers
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Pixies - Doolittle
Stone Roses - Stone Roses
Nirvana - In Utero
Sly and the Family Stone - There's a Riot Going On
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica (!!)
Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion

― Reatards Unite, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

the sly stone one is amazing.

― stevie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, which ones are about the record itself? I was very tempted to get the Replacements one until I read the reviews that it was a "coming-of'age" memoir about the author who listened to the record.

― Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:46 (seventeen years ago) link

even worse: it's written by the Decemberists guy

― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link

the sly stone one has only the slightest bit of autobiog, and it actually helps illuminate the album. and it is very well written too - can't reccommend it enough.

― stevie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:49 (seventeen years ago) link

there's a whole thread about MATOS's book on 'sign o the times' somewhere i think. it got raves in the press and its brilliant. the IN UTERO is also ace.

― pisces, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 16:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Trout Mask book is a little disappointing, but I still read it in a day.
The author has written a book on Zappa, so there's a lot of that. At least one factual error about Steve Reich's "Come Out" that is really glaring, but I think it's attributable to one of the ladies in the GTO's.
A good read, nonetheless.

― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link

I also think it missed an opportunity to talk about compilations

it actually talked a lot about compilations, specifically how Gold was put together etc. it's a terrific book.

― Matos W.K., Wednesday, 2 May 2007 17:20 (seventeen years ago) link

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