McGowan’s “Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon” offers a dystopic view of the Laurel Canyon music scene

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Headpress might have outdone themselves with their latest book, Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream by David McGowan. Anymore, it takes me about a week to finish a book, with the day job, writing, family obligations, and the ever-pressing need to sit on my ass and gorge on movies and shows.

That being said, I got Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon on Friday, and had it finished by Sunday morning. It’s entrancing. Once McGowan starts spinning his stories, you can’t help but fall under his spell — ironic, really, given the number of Svengali madmen who populate the pages of this book. I can’t imagine fact-checking this publication was anything but a nightmare, encompassing as it does hidden rooms, allegations of incest, mind control, government involvement, and outright murder, amongst the obvious discussion of drugs and deviant groupie use.
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Read the first chapter of David McGowan’s “Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon”


Headpress (of whom we are big fans here in the Nuthouse) is getting ready to release the newest book from David McGowan. Entitled Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & The Dark Heart Of The Hippie Dream, it looks to be an absolute head trip. The introduction and first chapter — which you can read above — tie in the Laurel Canyon hippie scene to the miltary-industrial complex, pedophilia, and so much more. It’s some freaky conspiracy shit, which is always an interesting read.

If you buy it from the Headpress shop by tomorrow, Friday, March 21, you save 10% and can get it as an exclusive hardcover.

Mick Farren’s collection about so much more than Elvis (but that’s the best part)

book cover - farren elvisCollections of essays are my favorite thing to read after I’ve mixed a cocktail and sprawled out on the couch. You talk about music, and I’m absolutely rivetted. Mick Farren‘s collected writing, Elvis Died for Somebody’s Sins But Not Mine, out now via Headpress, works especially well, as he talks booze, in addition to music, politics, and assorted lyrics from his band, the Deviants.

The music writing is the big draw, here — his writing on the King, especially, given the title and all. You’ll read about somebody putting on one of Presley’s records at a make-out party and the response of all the girls just seals the deal. Farren has this way of expressing exactly why Elvis is more than just impersonators and Vegas and bad movies.
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“Offbeat” is a droll stroll through obscure British cinema

book cover - offbeatUpon finishing the latest compnedium from Headpress, entitled Offbeat: British Cinema’s Curiosities, Obscurities and Forgotten Gems, one has an idea that British cinema was driven primarily by a desire to do the best with what they had. Over and over, much is made of the low — or in some cases, barely-existent — budgets.

The tone of Headpress’ books seems to be one of genuine appreciation for things that many others find unlistenable / unwatchable. The authors of these essays have an innate ability to tease apart the various strands of plot and ridiculousness to find the gem of a performance, or brilliant cinematography. Sometimes, a film succeeds simply due to a willingness to present a subject in a realistic manner, rather than with derision or tongue-in-cheek.
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Goodall’s “Gathering of the Tribe” a rabbit-hole of oddities

book cover - gathering of the tribeWithin the last few years, I’ve developed a general manner of reading books such as Mark Goodall‘s Gathering of the Tribe: Music and Heavy Conscious Creation (out now via Headpress). When you’ve a thick book, consisting of many different subsections, and under each subsection a series of essays, you just have to work through it in fits and starts.

What I’m trying to say is that Goodall and and the contributors he’s lined up are going to lay some very deep ideas on you, and they’re going to cover a lot of ground. You’re going to want to allow yourself some time to process it as you go along, or you’re going to fall prey to my usual problem — namely, 2/3 to 4/5 of the way through, you peter out, set the book aside, and move along to something with a linear narrative.
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