i have now read the Shoot Out the Lights book. it's kinda on the opposite end of the spectrum to the Zoso book in terms of analysis & detai. Zoso was extremely well written & engaging, but ultimately a little dense & verbose, at least for me; SOTL was way too thin & tenuous with sections of really weak writing.
― charlie h, Saturday, 28 February 2015 01:04 (nine years ago) link
aerosmith, I'll admit that I was skeptical about reading Master of Reality (I haven't read any of the other fictional entries, mostly because the fictional conceit doesn't seem to jibe with what I'm looking to get out of the series), but I'm really glad that I did because it was excellent. It worked really well as an epistolary novella, but it was also more effective at parsing the album (a process which sometimes benefits from a hyper-subjective, inarticulate-yet-passionate perspective) than some of the more straightforward entries have been.
― Deric W. Haircare, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 16:47 (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
way late to this, but I was in Strand bookstore the other day and finally saw a copy of this (cos my local store doesn't have it) and picked it up, and wow I wish I had read this sooner. Strangely, I had an idea for a 10-minute short play years ago that was similar to this (although switch out mental patience for criminal in jail), but this was pulled off way better than I could have.
as Deric said (almost 7 years ago), I liked that the fictional component of the story wasn't merely an excuse to gush over the album in a new format, but could stand on its own and be compelling even if that particular album wasn't one you enjoyed. obviously for someone like me who loves Masters and also considers it probably his favorite Sab, it makes it that much better. Although Sabbath doesn't serve the same purpose for me that it does for the narrator, there are definitely other bands/albums that do serve that function.
great stuff.
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Monday, 2 March 2015 20:00 (nine years ago) link
I like to think that my early encouragement helped spur a young unknown towards literary greatness.
― U SNOOZE U LOOZE BRAH (Old Lunch), Monday, 2 March 2015 20:16 (nine years ago) link
speaking of young unknowns
http://333sound.com/2015/04/16/open-call-2015-22-and-under/
― katherine, Tuesday, 21 April 2015 17:49 (nine years ago) link
rats. 7 months too old
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 00:55 (nine years ago) link
same
― flopson, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 02:03 (nine years ago) link
nvm i misread, 22 before may 2016! i'm way old man
― flopson, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 02:05 (nine years ago) link
Well I was under 22 before May 2016.
― pplains, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 02:10 (nine years ago) link
Someone got me the Super Mario Bros. soundtrack one, it is so good! I have been waiting my entire life to read this book!
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, 2 May 2015 19:53 (eight years ago) link
The thing I've been wondering regarding that one is how different it is from the the previous book he wrote on the subject, Maestro Mario.
― MarkoP, Sunday, 3 May 2015 00:17 (eight years ago) link
Just read the brand-new Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables one. I'm kinda blown away by how this is essentially "Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables: The Early Years" by Alex Ogg (which was just published LAST YEAR ferchristsakes) with an added sheen of (non-musical) historical colour. It's quite shameless. Unless there is something connecting the two works which I don't know about. It's just a complete rip-off! Plus Ogg's book has tons of artwork, labels, Winston Smith art etc. Don't get this 33 1/3 book - get the Ogg.
― everything, Thursday, 21 May 2015 21:18 (eight years ago) link
iirc when you pitch something you have to say how your work will differentiate from any other books/documentaries on the subject. so obv bloomsbury knew about the similarity and it didn't bother them.
― T-Boz Scaggs (get bent), Monday, 25 May 2015 21:06 (eight years ago) link
i have something i might be interested in pitching this time out, but little-to-no-advance and a percentage of royalties on a smallish run with a limited audience, for all the effort that would go in? not that appealing tbh.
― T-Boz Scaggs (get bent), Monday, 25 May 2015 21:09 (eight years ago) link
Finished another one that just hit the stands: Freedom of Choice by Evie Nagy. Nice to get some background on Devo without the usual faux-corporate trappings. The only criticism I have is that the book operates on the principle that this was Devo's creative peak and that what came before and after was lacking. The portrayal of Duty Now For The Future as their nadir is baffling.
― everything, Tuesday, 26 May 2015 17:47 (eight years ago) link
same here, unfortunately i have an idea i really believe in
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Tuesday, 26 May 2015 17:56 (eight years ago) link
i really love duty now. that album has a ton of punk cachet, maybe even more so than the debut. and new traditionalists and oh no! are no slouches either. i know the band doesn't rate duty now -- the songs were leftovers, they were all fighting, they hated the producer. but bands can be wrong about their best work.
(full disclosure: i worked on evie's book, doing the interview transcriptions.)
― -entry-level umami (mild bleu cheese vibes) (get bent), Wednesday, 27 May 2015 19:23 (eight years ago) link
also i remembered last night that the day i got my 33 1/3 rejection last year was the day i was having major surgery -- the message hit my inbox as i was lying there in a hospital gown, waiting for the morphine drip to kick in. not my least vulnerable moment!
― -entry-level umami (mild bleu cheese vibes) (get bent), Wednesday, 27 May 2015 19:27 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, the book contains interviews with the band where they express disappointment with Duty Now. But they are also on record as being regretful about aspects of the first album too. And the later ones...even the last one which you'd think it would have been created with zero expectations and with full creative control yet they still had a bad experience with Warners. My theory is that they strived more than most to control everything, but their career 78-84 proved to be extremely challenging and uncontrollable. Their critical and commercial fortunes fluctuated wildly. So that the only era they appear to not be regretful about is the brief flash of widespread popularity (Whip It and FoC) and the 74-77 period. No surprises they have specifically focused on revisiting and repackaging those periods more and more to that over the last decade or so.
― everything, Wednesday, 27 May 2015 20:10 (eight years ago) link
I had no idea the band didn't like Duty Now; I love it to bits.
― Competent Cracker Barrel Manager (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 27 May 2015 20:38 (eight years ago) link
http://333sound.com/2015/06/01/open-call-for-33-13-proposals-2015/
― anthony braxton diamond geezer (anagram), Tuesday, 2 June 2015 10:45 (eight years ago) link
everyone who can be bothered to pitch to these people is independently wealthy, yes? still never encountered any publisher as up itself as them
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 2 June 2015 23:00 (eight years ago) link
well i have pitched to them and i am not quite begging on the streets but i have a few bills i'm definitely sweating rn, so "independently wealthy" hahaha no. the proposal does seem like it'd be a big time suck for me this year, though.
― music begins where words leave off (get bent), Tuesday, 2 June 2015 23:41 (eight years ago) link
that's big time-suck, not big-time suck.
― music begins where words leave off (get bent), Tuesday, 2 June 2015 23:42 (eight years ago) link
a Tom Waits 33.3 about why Big Time sucks
― ( who ALSO my boss and his sister!) (sic), Tuesday, 2 June 2015 23:55 (eight years ago) link
the world needs a 'celebrity skin' one.
― Nourry, Wednesday, 3 June 2015 01:47 (eight years ago) link
oh my god yeah
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 02:12 (eight years ago) link
yeah, i'd have written about that or POTI over live through this.
― music begins where words leave off (get bent), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 02:45 (eight years ago) link
does it seem like a "derivative work"? that is, does it follow the ogg closely in what it says/structure even if it doesn't directly plagiarize the word choice, etc.? because ogg might have a lawsuit, frankly.
on another note: if i knew more about music i'd love to write a little book on "she's so unusual."
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 02:53 (eight years ago) link
has someone written about the saturday night fever soundtrack? that'd be a good' un.
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 02:56 (eight years ago) link
the movie and the bee gees and mainstream disco in general have been written about extensively, but i'd want to know more about the lesser-remembered stuff on that album like ralph macdonald's "calypso breakdown"
― music begins where words leave off (get bent), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 03:36 (eight years ago) link
Seriously considering doing an Erotica pitch.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 3 June 2015 03:50 (eight years ago) link
! ! !
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 03:53 (eight years ago) link
it's probably the alcohol speaking but i'm thinking of pitching the indigo girls.
― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 3 June 2015 05:03 (eight years ago) link
I'd want to do Blackout if it was even remotely worth it
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 3 June 2015 05:16 (eight years ago) link
Has Aaliyah's S/T been done. You could sneak that through under the Trojan Horse of "favourite album of every female indie artist or singer in an indie band."
― Tim F, Wednesday, 3 June 2015 08:31 (eight years ago) link
yes but i don't want to pitch ANYTHING to them
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 3 June 2015 10:27 (eight years ago) link
Considering a pitch for the Fania All-Stars' Live at Yankee Stadium. Not because the album itself is world-shakingly great, but because a broader overview of 1970s New York salsa would be a lot of fun to write.
― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 12:16 (eight years ago) link
What were the successful pitches last time? I seem to recall the chosen books were a lot safer and more Mojo-esque than had previously been the case.
― anthony braxton diamond geezer (anagram), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 12:21 (eight years ago) link
I would read the Fania book in the blink of an eyelid.
― NotKnowPotato (stevie), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 13:00 (eight years ago) link
This was the final list from last time:http://333sound.com/2014/06/03/14-new-33-13-titles-coming-2015-2016/
― MarkoP, Wednesday, 3 June 2015 13:38 (eight years ago) link
I was gonna say, I remember there being some weirdo titles in there last time. I mean, yeah, you got Metallica and Bitches Brew and Workingman's Dead and Psychocandy, but Hangin' Tough and Super Mario Bros are hardly the stuff of Mojo!
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 13:52 (eight years ago) link
you know what i'd read --but which 33 1/3 is unlikely to ever publish? -- gary giddins on that bing crosby christmas LP.
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 14:34 (eight years ago) link
never read any of these - which would y'all recommend? (definitely getting the Super Mario Bros. book)
― example (crüt), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 15:21 (eight years ago) link
whiney's Public Enemy and Doug's James Brown and Elizabeth's Abba are all good.
― like a giraffe of nah (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 15:25 (eight years ago) link
Would love to do one on Bill Dixon's Vade Mecum, seen as a game-changer in some circles, but those circles are likely too tiny to support/justify such a publication.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 15:46 (eight years ago) link
really? Bill Dixon less justifiable than Madness or J Dilla or Sigur Rós or fucking Elliott Smith?
― example (crüt), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 16:30 (eight years ago) link
Madness sold a lot of records and still play to big rooms
― ( who ALSO my boss and his sister!) (sic), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 16:37 (eight years ago) link
also they were great
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 3 June 2015 16:39 (eight years ago) link
Madness are great, but I think a book on Bill Dixon would be way more interesting!
― example (crüt), Wednesday, 3 June 2015 16:41 (eight years ago) link
that is probably true
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 3 June 2015 16:44 (eight years ago) link