Punk is my favorite genre of music, and I’ve also always liked the punk aesthetic in terms of graphic design.  The graphic art that graced the covers of albums and singles was colorful and creative.  The collages, the ransom-note lettering, stencils, logos, and the whole do-it-yourself ethos were brilliant and exciting and were an important part of the entire punk…

This is a very cool book that describes in excellent detail some mythical musical gems that for whatever reason never got to see the light of day.  The author covers all genres, and has done some impressive research.  At the end of each album description, he gives a rating on the odds that the record will ever be released.  The…

I was never a huge fan of Blondie, although I did buy their first album (on Private Stock records, before they were signed to the big label Chrysalis. Not worth much on eBay, though.)  I’ve always thought Debbie Harry was cool and she’s certainly led an interesting enough life to make for a good memoir.  This book leads you through…

I breezed through this very enjoyable, very readable book.  Chris Frantz takes you back to the art school origins of Talking Heads, the heady, exciting early days of New York punk (lots of cool stories about CBGBs), the exhilarating early European tours where they toured with bands like the Ramones and XTC.  He describes the creative process that gave rise…

I read a lot of these rock and roll books, the ones that focus on one particular year or era.  I tend to like the ones that evaluate the music within the context of the culture at the time. This book doesn’t do that as well as others that I’ve read, and when it does, I couldn’t relate as much…

I’m a huge music fan, but I’ve never thought much about the music industry and how it actually works: who makes the money, how they make it, and how much they actually make.  This book was loaded with interesting facts about the music business and how it has radically changed over the past few years.  Rock musicians used to make…