book Archive
09 Jul 2021
Progress Report #5: Disturbing the Peace in Fall ’21
The book is complete and off to the publisher! In the end, my research for Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave encompassed 96 interviews (plus untold email exchanges), and the final manuscript clocks in at 55 chapters, plus a foreword (more news on the latter soon). Not counting the six
22 Jun 2021
Book Review: The White Label Promo Preservation Society
It’s happened to me, and I’d imagine it has happened to you. You’re out in public somewhere – a bar, a food court, a record store, outside a music venue waiting for the doors to open – somewhere you’d encounter strangers. And being a not-unfriendly sort, you find yourself drawn into conversation with one of
21 Jun 2021
Progress Report #4: My Book About 415 Records
It’s time for another of my occasional book updates. I’m mere days away from finishing writing my second book, Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave. As I tackle the remaining few chapters, I’m struck (as I have been throughout the project) by the ways in which various themes come up
14 May 2021
Book Review: Rudi Protrudi — As Times Gone
I’m on record as being an ardent Fuzztones fan. And while the band has created plenty of music to satisfy fans’ cravings for garagefuzzpunk, those similarly inclined are apt to be interested in anything in and around the band. Happily, Fuzztone Numero Uno, Rudi Proudi understands and appreciates that fat. That, or he finds that
13 May 2021
Book Review: Rudi Protrudi — The Fuzztone
Note: While perusing the newest book by the Fuzztones’ Rudi Protrudi, I made a discovery: a review I wrote more than four years ago has somehow failed to be published here on Musoscribe. So here ’tis. Come back tomorrow to read about his newest title. Formed in 1980, the Fuzztones were on the crest of
12 May 2021
Progress Report #3: Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave
I love my work; I really do. But even against the backdrop of the thousands of other stories with which I’ve been – and continue to be – involved, the work on my book about 415 Records stands apart. The manuscript is coming along briskly; I’ve already written more than 35,000 words, and have drafts
06 May 2021
Book Review: Shut Up You Animals!!! A Remembrance of Dirk Dirksen
Dirk Dirksen wasn’t known as musician, but his importance to the music history of San Francisco is substantial. Imagine a sort of Bill Graham writ small, with a perhaps unexpected interest in (and affinity for) the then-new punk rock and new wave, and you’ll have the beginnings of what he was all about. Dirksen –
05 May 2021
Book Review: Rock and Roll Explorer Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area
San Francisco has a rich and varied cultural history. The city by the Bay has been home to a long succession of cultural scenes, from the Beat poets to the psychedelic explosion to the punk and new wave phenomenon of the late ‘70s and early 1980s. Relevant to my own interests, I’m writing a book
03 May 2021
Book Review: Paul Collins — I Don’t Fit In
One of the finest among the so-called new wave bands of the late-late-late ‘70s and very early 80s (the subgenre’s peak period) was The Beat. Renamed Paul Collins Beat to differentiate itself from the similarly-named UK ska-rock band (renamed to the English Beat, the group led by guitarist Paul Collins made some compelling music that
30 Apr 2021
Pop music’s Terrestrial Paradise: Joel Selvin’s ‘Hollywood Eden’
Many authors have sought to chronicle the cultural ferment that gave rise to the Southern California pop music explosion of the 1960s. And while some efforts have yielded worthwhile books, Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars, and the Myth of the California Paradise stands apart. The newest book from Joel Selvin – author of nearly