33 1/3 Series of books

Glad to see Entertainment! but what I'd really like to see - Hex Enduction Hour. Why no Fall yet?

Poliopolice, did you miss the part where Weisb@rd goes song by song?

man I really feel that Rocks or Toys in the Attic (but to me Rocks is the one) ought to get one of these. Does anybody even pitch Aerosmith albums? I mean actual Aerosmith albums. We were an awesome band for about six years and we made some classic records!!

I wonder if those are albums that would hold up to sustained analysis, though. Sure, there'd be plenty of lurid drug stories and I-hate-your-wife-so-I-wrote-this-song-about-how-much-I-hate-your-wife psychodrama, but as far as actual detailed musical analysis, I don't know what there would be to say. The songs are killer, but they're also not particularly formally or technically innovative - they're just really good songs, played by a perfect combination of complementary musicians. Which is on the one hand all you need, but on the other hand really fucking hard to write about in a compelling way.

feel like if someone pitched an aerosmith album it'd be kind of a lol klosterpaws one about Get a Grip and have long alicia silverstone digressions, sorry to say. i'd read something that actually took 70s hard rock seriously, though.

i'd read something that actually took 70s hard rock seriously, though.

Me too. Could you imagine, say, Joe Carducci doing a 33 1/3 book about Rocks?

yeah, carducci was who i was thinking of! he is really the only person i can think of who would do it, who'd be less interested in the sordid stuff and more into how the music does what it does? not sure if he likes aerosmith though.

Excited about SAWII. And reading that proposal convinced me to break out "Passion," which is a great ambient record (of a sort) in its own right.

i wanna read the new talking heads one.

Keeping in mind that I'm a hardcore Lethem fanboy, it's pretty awesome.

Reading Loveless right now. Very entertaining and well written, plus it seems to have some ILM connections!

I read the Tom Waits one a wee while back. Not sure what I thought of it, although it felt worthwhile at the time. The Paul's Boutique one is pretty good too.

I have If You're Feeling Sinister ready to read but I don't know if I can be fucked - is it any good?

"i'd read something that actually took 70s hard rock seriously, though."

you stay here, i'll be right back!

Poliopolice, did you miss the part where Weisb@rd goes song by song?

No, I did mention that:

the author states upfront that he hadn't heard the albums in 15 years, and still hadn't before writing the majority of the book. This was presented as a positive thing. When it finally got to [discussing] the songs, it was presented as a fairly half-assed song-by-song analysis at the end, totaling about 10-15 pages or so.

The analysis of the songs seemed very half-hearted to me. It felt like that part was only there because if he left it out, there would have been very little in the book that was specific to these albums.

As a meandering personal essay about the author's feelings on GNR, and GNR's place in the canon of music, it's a decent, if trifling book... but as an expository essay on the Use Your Illusion albums proper, I'd say it was not illuminating in the least bit, and in fact spent very little time talking about them. The Amazon reviews corroborate this.

Except uh he's not trying to write an expository essay of UYI so who cares.

Then the title of the book should not be "Use Your Illusion."

Brr. I read the one on "Low" based on recommendations from this thread. I didn't like it that much. The historical stuff had some dynamite writing, but it was pretty strange to see "serious anecdotes" from "serious Bowie biographies" put side-by-side with sordid details from Angela Bowie's tell-all book. Admittedly, Angela's account is totally hilarious and interesting but she eats a lot of crow in that book-- the first chapter talks about Bowie's dick iirc-- so to read her account blended together with more serious interview-based stuff read to me as meta-narrative?

The track-by-track chapters were hit-and-miss for me, too. There was a paragraph about Eno/Bowie beating Burroughs and/or Stockhausen at their own game that made me frustrated and sad. Hugo's a good writer though, would read his other books.

i liked the one on loveless. it was rather personal and was based a lot on interviews with the band, esp. kevin shields. i didn't realise before that loveless is almost a solo album by kevin except bilinda's singing.

My two year old niece brought me the 20 Jazz Funk Greats book and asked "Can we play with this?"

I have no idea what she meant but I'm gonna play her some very inappropriate music tomorrow. I have a feeling I've got a very small and very cute Cosey fan here.

look tasty all in a row don't they.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/482718_10151572603944273_13098934_n.jpg

the next one up; FLOOD by They Might Be Giants, is a bit of a surprise

how so?

TMBG aren't as alt/indie canon as a lot of bands of their generation that have had 33 1/3s, so it's a little surprising, mostly just nice that they're going for a cult classic that's obsessed over by a slightly different crowd.

oh the band themselves? yeah guess so. the album is way more beloved than many many others in the range though, so.

I just got excited when it was announced bcz I <3 Flood and I <3 Sandifer - thought it would still be ages away though, iirc was only turned in a month or so ago? hyped now.

why arent those books in chromatic order

Actually, Histoire de Melodie Nelson is next, to be released in October, followed by Flood in November and I Get Wet in January.

unhyped again

I have the "Loveless", "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" and Afghan Whigs' "Gentlemen" books and enjoyed them all. Liked a lot of the contextual stuff in the Whigs book about the general events surrounding the making of the album.

didn't see this coming

http://www.amazon.com/Kanye-Wests-Beautiful-Twisted-Fantasy/dp/1623565421/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_9

other new ones according to Amazon include Aphex Twin Ambient II, Oasis Definitely Maybe and Richard Hell Blank generation.

Yeah the upcoming ones are mentioned in this very thread. Also if you go to http://www.333sound.com and browse through the archived posts, you can find Q&A interviews with all the authors of the upcoming books.

Phil Sandifer posted the beginning of the Flood book on his blog the other day

yo yo yo yo yo yo

http://333sound.com/2013/10/07/lets-talk-about-love-by-carl-wilson-a-new-and-expanded-edition/

super-pumped to be in on this critical orgy

James Franco's piece is going to be just a page saying "I agree with the tune was space."

very cool. franco/gaitskill/tuneisspace orgy is quite the orgy.

I like the brutality of the new subtitle for the book

i kinda like the original subtitle to be honest. but, yeah, its blunt.

I don't like the new subtitle so much

oh woah i feel like the new subtitle's kind of hateful

i am excited for, like, the essays by ilxors and by ann powers, but if i just came across that book in a shop i would find it incredibly offputting

Yeah, I feel like whoever came up with the new subtitle was aiming for attention-grabbing and maybe a bit trolling but ended up with "in-joke very few people will get".

oof @ that subtitle

half the new essays sound excellent and the other half are on some serious "nope, get away from me" shit NICK HORNBY

I loved the Céline ref of the old title, tied in with the book nicely. The new title suggests a target market of a lower reading comprehension than the book (might) require, I mean, it's not exactly heavy lifting but it's not as lite as all that

the way it looks now suggests that its ostensible remit's moved quite beyond celine dion? which strikes me as a bit of a pity.

i mean, you know, interesting writing about pop music is a hard publishing market and you have to hustle, ain't no shame carl wilson do your thing etc, but :(

but maybe the yikes factor keeps it exciting- I for one can't wait to read what everybody else has to say because I'm guessing there's going to be some serious dissonance / disagreement and I think that's what makes carl's book already kind of a livewire experience

(obviously I'm incapable of being objective so I'm just being honest)

I just wish the cover image made some sort of sense.

Has anyone ever proposed one on Since I Left You?

"i'd read something that actually took 70s hard rock seriously, though."

Chuck Eddy to series

Open for proposals again:

http://333sound.com/2014/01/30/open-call-for-proposals-2014/

i wonder if it's too soon to submit a proposal for Bangerz

The following projects were contracted at some point but for various reasons are now cancelled.

The following albums are now fair game:
Tori Amos- Boys for Pele
The Clash – London Calling
Wu Tang – Enter the Wu (36 Chambers)
Weezer- Pinkerton
Bjork- Biophilia
Pulp- This is Hardcore

Might submit one this year.

Bjork- Biophilia

Someone, submit a proposal about one of Bjork's GOOD albums!