“Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group” a legitimate manifesto

book cover - supernatural strategiesIn reading Ian F. SvenoniusSupernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group (out now from Akashic Books), you’re privy to to what is perhaps the most clever take-down of the rock ‘n’ roll genre thus written. If you can make it through the rather high-minded, yet overly arch and pretentious opening chapters of the book, you’re treated to what is simultaneously a mockery of all that is rock ‘n’ roll, yet still managing to be remarkably sound advice.

Part I, “True Secrets Revealed,” is entertaining, but while the concept of having séances with dead rock stars so as to glean their knowledge is a conceit that wears thin rather quickly. Had Svenonius chosen to relate the concept of the seances, minus the actual transcriptions thereof, it would have worked better. I get the idea that what the author’s going for is something akin to a melding of Chairman Mao’s little red book and occultist pamphlets from the run of the last century, but the first third of the book just seems clunky.
Continue reading

Using the picture book format, Cortés traces the history of popular stimulants

book-cover-coffee-coca-colaRicardo Cortés forthcoming book, A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola, is a deceptive work. It’s put together like a children’s book — a slim, glossy hardcover, with illustrations on every page and few words on each page. That’s merely the method by which Cortés operates. It’s the means by which the author gets you to look at his work.
Continue reading

Trivializing emotion, courtesy Akashic Books

book-cover-letters-to-kurtI really don’t know what to think of the upcoming Letters to Kurt, by Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson. While it’s understandable that the death of a friend can be a hard thing with which to cope, and understanding the why and wherefore of a suicide is a long-lasting issue for those left behind, this book seems cheap.

Technically, the book itself doesn’t seem cheap. Writing “an anguished, angry, and tender meditation on the octane and ether of rock and roll and its many moons: sex, drugs, suicide, fame, and rage” as an “an elegy for Kurt and the ‘suicide idols’ who tragically fail to find salvation in their amazing music” isn’t cheap. It’s a remarkably touching thing to eulogize a lost friend in any manner, be it poetry, prose, or song.

What does seem cheap, however, are the things being offered with the pre-order by Akashic Books. You can find a complete list of items on the pre-order page, but what strikes me about the whole thing is that there’s really no need to have autographed “Polaroid-style snapshot[s].” Taking a book that’s supposedly a deeply emotional work and commercializing it in such a manner as this only serves to turn Letters to Kurt from a personal statement into a trivial one. Limited-edition extras and autographs make this less like a literary work and more like an exclusive for the members of the Katy Perry street team.

Pre-order Please Take Me Off the Guest List, get a 7″

book-cover-please-take-meIf you pre-order Akashic Books‘ forthcoming collection, Please Take Me Off the Guest List, you get some pretty fantastic extras. What makes the book worth looking at? First, you might recognize Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or Zachary Lipez from the Freshkills. Stacy Wakefield takes Zinners’s photographs and Lipez’s stories, and turns them into a series of books within a greater book.

Then, the pre-order gets you an exclusive 7″ which features:

“Musical interpretations by Nick Zinner, Zachary Lipez, and Stacy Wakefield in collaboration with three different bands. The 7” is bound in a handmade and individually numbered poster sleeve, which also contains an original story by Zachary Lipez (not included in Please Take Me Off the Guest List), entitled “My Romantic Competition Among the Stalwarts of the Goth and Cold Wave and New Music Community.”

In addition, you get “an original SIGNED photograph by Nick Zinner. Each photograph is a random outtake from his personal collection of 4×6 drugstore prints.” The pre-order will run you $50, plus $10 shipping, but the pre-order is the only way to get the 7″ and signed photo. The book ships in October, but you can get the pre-order here.

No clue as to the bands they collaborate with. I imagine the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are involved.