33 1/3 Series of books

That would be awesome, but I'm going for something even more obvious ;)

Damn. Got it submitted within 50 minutes of the deadline! Many thanks to the expert proofing by EZ Snappin and my buddy Bob Ham.

sent mine 9 minutes ago. going bowling to celebrate!

good luck nate and anyone else who tried their hand at this!

Good luck everybody!

Hell yeah J.D. (J.D.)!

I feel like an immense weight has lifted off me. Now I'm off to DJ a metal show!

Hey everybody, John Mark from Continuum here. Thanks to everyone who submitted a proposal this time around. I'm looking forward to getting schooled.

Also, just a note about stores that carry the series: We can make the book available to them and ask them to re-order, but ultimately, it's a store's call if they want to dedicate the shelf space and $$$ to bring the books into the store. So if you notice a store that used to have a good selection and has let it fall off, ask them about it and then buy some when they get them in stock! They will be more vigilant about it if they're making a buck.
Other stores I know of that do well with the series: Skylight in LA, Sonic Boom in Seattle, Atomic Records in Baltimore, Greenlight in Brooklyn, Word in Greenpoint...and uh, I know I'm missing a bunch here. Anyway, Amazon is good in a pinch, but I'm probably preaching to the choir when I say that the indies need the support.

IN OTHER NEWS: Anyone want a 33 1/3 tote bag? It's a nice high-contrast black and white design. First 5 people to email their address to johnm✧✧✧.bol✧✧✧@bloomsb✧✧✧.c✧✧ will get one in the mail. First two will get a signed copy of the Lethem/Talking Heads 33 1/3 as a bonus.

make that johnmark dot boling at bloomsbury dot com.

OK, that was fast... tote bags got snatched up quick.

Tote bags are gone, so no need to send any more emails, please. thanks. I'm sending out six bags since caller #2 (fair and square) was a friend.

I'm so lucky to live in Portland near Powell's. They always have the latest 33 1/3 in stock.

Cheers JMB!

Oh yeah, Powell's is great, duh. There's lots of bonus content here on their blog, conveniently tagged as 33 1/3.

posted this over in the fear of music thread but it's relevant here:
LA Review of Books has some great content about Fear of Music (in relation to Lethem's new 33 1/3 book)
In-depth review: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=587
Podcast w/ Lethem (interviewed by Andy Zax, who produced all the recent Talking Heads reishes): http://lareviewofbooks.org/media.php?media=183&r_article=597

471 proposals this time. Wow! A lot of great ones that I would buy...

http://www.33third.blogspot.pt/2012/05/listomania.html

^^ full list. some odd choices, as expected (3 jandek proposals, for example). kinda sad there aren't some more electronic/dance records overall. still, would really love to read a good book on klf's 'chill out' - wonder if it was proposed by someone from ilm.

so have they decided that they'll re-do artists who have already been featured in the series? a lot of the proposals are repeats.

iirc they said a while ago that they were open to repeating artists but haven't actually done so yet

ah ok. at this point it probably makes sense to do some repeats.

there are already some repeat artist books -- 2 on the stones, 2 on radiohead.

oh no kidding? did not know that.

De La Soul Is Dead is the biggest "yes, that needs to be a book" album on the list for me

yeah, that'd be good!
was just telling my friend that he should submit a go betweens proposal -- looks like a couple people beat him to it!

also kind of intrigued by the idea of a volume on I, Jonathan, though it seems like a book about the Modern Lovers debut is more likely.

i love that album so i liked seeing it ont he list, even though yeah it does seem a little implausible

lol thank me later

bunch of repeats in that list, they should've sorted them alphabetically...

The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas
The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas
The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas
The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas
The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas

Artists getting more than one proposal:

The Mountain Goats (6)
Bob Dylan (5)
Manic Street Preachers (4)
Pet Shop Boys (4)
Richard Hell (incl. Voidoids) (4)
The Beatles (4)
Van Halen (4)
Wilco (4)
Danger Mouse (3)
Fiona Apple (3)
Frank Zappa (inc. MOI) (3)
Fugazi (3)
Jandek (3)
John Lennon (incl. w/Yoko) (3)
Rush (3)
The Beach Boys (3)
The Go-Betweens (3)
The Mekons (3)
The Monkees (3)
The Waterboys (3)
They Might Be Giants (3)
Van Morrison (3)
X (3)

surprised there's no Blur/Suede/Pulp in that list* and like FOUR Van Halen proposals! (no offence, fans of The Halen).

*nor books on them already.

Dog Man Star is in there

...but if you meant in that list of multiple proposals please ignore my post

wld read the shit out of a AHWT book. Also The Grey Album. Also a bunch more. Aw hell, here I go to amazon.

Should have pitched a EtWT one as the other one died.

whoever's gone for True Stories is outta their heads. i get the idea of some non-canon albums being better than the canon album of band X (Tusk over Rumours or whatever) or having better behind-the-scenes stories attached, so making for better books (De La Soul Is Dead over 3 Feet High.. ) but True Stories.. gimme a break that album's garbage.
*give me a hundred pages about Remain In Light*!!

144 interesting pages about a mediocre album >>>>>>>>>> 144 boring pages about a great album

true, but that requires some mighty assumptions about which book would turn out boring or interesting

imo after they pick which ones to publish 33 1/3 should do something like share all of the pitches and let people vote on one. actually n/m i'm sure whatever act has the most rabid online fanbase would hijack that. but it would be fun to see the pitches.

xpost

I guess...? My only point is that the quality (or lack of quality) of the album/subject doesn't rub off on any analysis of it. I'd love to see a Bizarro-world 33 1/3 Series about really bad albums, reportage and historical analysis about how these turds got made, what the principals were thinking, how they tried to polish said turds, etc.

oh totally. a lot of my fav albums in the series are ones that aren't dragged down by a tone of awestruck fandom.

a Bizarro-world 33 1/3 Series about really bad albums,
http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/image.aspx?BookId=125649
kind of what this volume is about....

wmc otm

i mean, eg céline

ha xp!

though the point of that book was not dismissing it as a bad album

yeah, no, it wasn't really about dissing the album, more just the idea of writing a book about something you don't really like.

whoever's gone for True Stories is outta their heads. i get the idea of some non-canon albums being better than the canon album of band X (Tusk over Rumours or whatever) or having better behind-the-scenes stories attached, so making for better books (De La Soul Is Dead over 3 Feet High.. ) but True Stories.. gimme a break that album's garbage.

I would so love to read a cogent take on, say, how quickly Byrne's ideas ossified. Then after a long wilderness period the band returns to a new level of authority and influence.

The best stuff I've heard regarding True Stories were Stephen Tobolowsky's experiences on working on the film and how he became the inspiration for the song Radio Head based on psychic experiences that he had in his youth.

On the topic of the list, I'm certainly baffled by the presence of "Music from and Inspired by Mission Impossible 2".

Wld love to read a Kimono My House book.

Just went to Amazon.co.uk to buy three of these (Paul's Boutique, Music from Big Pink, Village Green) and some of the reviews for this series are brutal. So many angry one-star slams from aggrieved fans of the albums. Is, say, Amanda Petrusich's Pink Moon really that bad?

I ordered the Paul's Boutique one yesterday.

I know that the talking-point books are deservedly the more ambitious essays/memoirs/novellas but with some albums I just want a really solid, persuasive making-of story.

Yes, many of them, sadly but predictably, are rubbish.

I really enjoyed the Zaireeka one and the Celine Dion one. I liked Geeta's Another Green World one, too. I've not read any others, I don't think.

The ones I want (of albums I love) generally seem to get poor reviews.