Next Week in Music | June 8-14 • 13 New Books

Summer’s here, and the time is right for lying around and reading books about rock ’n’ roll. Unless, of course, you spend hours every week combing through emails, press releases and online retailers to compile a massive list of all the new titles on the way. But hey, that’s my problem. Your dilemma: Deciding between new tomes by or about Kim Thayil, Pérez Prado, Sue Foley, Raymond Pettibon, rock ’n’ roll movies, queercore and more. Read ’em and weep (for me):

A Screaming Life: Into The Superunknown With Soundgarden And Beyond
By Kim Thayil With Adem Tepedelen

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “From Soundgarden’s humble beginnings manifesting grunge in Seattle’s beer-soaked punk clubs to their revered status today as rock icons, the band’s journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. In A Screaming Life, founding member and guitar god Kim Thayil goes backstage to introduce the band that fearlessly pushed the boundaries of rock, invented a new genre, and amassed fervent fans from every corner of the world. Thayil shares the story of how he and his Soundgarden bandmates — Hiro Yamamoto, Ben Shepherd, Matt Cameron and Chris Cornell — faced the triumphs and challenges on the road to their historic and influential rise. His storytelling channels the essence of Soundgarden’s era-defining sound — one that’s supercharged with raw creativity and unapologetic lyrics — and explores the ways that Soundgarden were shaped by the diverse backgrounds of its creators: Thayil’s Indian heritage and founding bassist Yamamoto’s Japanese background added unique dimensions to the band’s identity, influencing not only their music but also their experiences in the industry. For Soundgarden fans and ’90s alternative rock enthusiasts, A Screaming Life not only gives behind-the-scenes access to one of the most revered bands, but it also demonstrates the power music and its creators have to transform culture.”

Pérez Prado: King Of The Mambo
By John Radanovich

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “A riveting tour through rich moments in Cuban, Mexican, and American cultural history, this book captures Pérez Prado‘s colorful life and surprising influence, including his famous hit Mambo No. 5. Not only did Prado and his contemporaries ignite an American passion for the thrilling dance music of mambo, but they also played an essential part in early R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. Their influence can even be seen in much popular music of today, from Shakira and Jennifer Lopez to Karol G and Michael Bublé. Born in Cuba, Prado landed in Mexico City when music and cinema were soaring, starring in classic films of the Cine de Oro and writing for noir musicals in the 1940s and 1950s. He lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade, creating some of his most notable artistic works that earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As Cuban music rose, audiences could not resist the startling horns, percussion, and rhythms of his hits. Prado had his quirks and an extreme attraction to kitsch. He regularly wore jewels, heavy gold chains, and flamboyant suits and drove a Cadillac with tiger stripe upholstery. This book dives into the story and legacy of this larger-than-life figure.”

Close Enough For Rock N Roll: The Rise, Fall, And Rise Again of Dwarf
By Peter V. Madary

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This rock ’n’ roll story is not unique, in fact, it is a familiar one in the industry out of the 1970s and 1980s. What makes this memoir interesting are the close bonds that have lasted for decades, and the sudden surge of interest in Dwarf‘s original songs forty years later. It is the tale of a wild ride for a group of boys with a love of music becoming men, while rising in the rock ’n’ roll world, across the U.S. and Canada. Growing up in Michigan, the young boys developed a pop rock sound that caught on fast. Like so many aspiring rock stars, the young men fresh out of high school shared the dream of making it in Hollywood. As the dream unfolds, the reality of challenges and difficult decisions begin to sink in.”

Guitar Women: Conversations & Life Lessons With Six-String Heroines
By Sue Foley

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Every generation has its myths about the guitar: who gets to hold it, who gets to define it, and what it means to play it. Guitar Women moves beyond those myths through intimate conversations with women who shaped the instrument’s sound and story. Part oral history, part memoir, and part cultural reckoning, the book spans generations and genres, featuring artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Nancy Wilson, Charo, Suzi Quatro, Joan Armatrading and Sharon Isbin. Writing from her own experience as a touring guitarist, Foley approaches these exchanges from the inside, bringing together deeply human accounts of persistence, artistry, and devotion to the instrument shared in the artists’ own words. The result is a richer, more truthful lineage of the guitar, revealed through the lives of women who have always been at its heart.”

You Don’t Need A Dick To DJ
By Smokin Jo

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Before she became Smokin Jo — the most famous and visible of the first generation of ‘superstar DJs’ — Joanne Joseph was a young girl growing up in a children’s home with her sister. Until her mother returned and whisked the siblings away just before secondary school to a flat on London’s Portobello Road, her life was devoid of music: The home didn’t allow it, apart from hymns and carols at Christmas. As she entered the turbulent years of adolescence, Jo found herself pulled towards Soho and the burgeoning underground acid house scene, instantly finding herself at home amongst other artists, musicians and misfits who breathed and survived on dance music and ecstasy. Within a couple of years, in a lightning-fast ascent, Jo claimed her permanent place as one of England’s most exciting and revered DJs of the British rave scene. This alternately celebratory and brutal memoir tells a story full of change, growth and determination. It documents Jo’s life and loves; her struggles with drink and drugs and journey towards peace and sobriety. It documents the highs and lows of rave culture in an unprecedented way through Jo herself: The elation and euphoria that comes with entertaining an audience as well as the misogyny, the racism, the prejudice and homophobia of the scene, as told by someone who has been at the hard end of these experiences. You Don’t Need A Dick To DJ is an extraordinary, moving and unforgettable story from a pioneer and survivor; perhaps the most honest and startling memoir yet to emerge from the club scene.”

Nervous Breakdown: Raymond Pettibon Album Covers
By Raymond Pettibon

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The definitive collection of Raymond Pettibon’s album covers, uniting art and music in one powerful visual history. Featuring work for Black Flag, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Iggy Pop, Lana Del Rey and many others, this volume traces the artist’s bold influence on alternative culture from the late 1970s to today. Throughout his decades-long career, Pettibon has remained deeply engaged with the world around him, whether through biting political satire of American geopolitics or poetic meditations on surfing and baseball. Pettibon’s aesthetic and political sensibilities originated in the punk scene that thrived in Southern California, the artist’s first home, in the late 1970s and 1980s — evidenced in his collaborations with bands such as Minutemen, Sonic Youth and Saccharine Trust. Among the most iconic works featured in this collection is Pettibon’s four-column logo design for Black Flag. Nervous Breakdown spotlights the artist’s enduring impact on the music industry, presenting for the first time every record, CD, and cassette cover since 1978 that features his artwork. Published on the occasion of an exhibition at the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen, Germany, this catalogue features more than 200 works from the Stefan Thull Collection. With essays by Max Dax, Robert Eikmeyer and Ulrich Loock, and a 1985 Artforum essay by Kim Gordon, the book includes a catalogue raisonné of Pettibon’s album artwork, an essential resource for fans, scholars, and collectors of contemporary art and music history alike.”

33⅓ | Queercore
By Audrey Golden

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Transatlantic knowledge of the queer underground punk scene that ultimately became queercore developed through the spirit of DIY resistance that guided earlier feminist artists as queer musicians pushed back against the homophobia and sexism that remained pervasive in hardcore punk. Queercore officially got its name in the mid-1980s when G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce named it in their revolutionary zine J.D.s, but the movement began years earlier with bands like Wayne County And The Electric Chairs, Nervous Gender and Fifth Column. The scene exploded into the next decade with the popularity of bands that often crossed over into the riot grrrl scene, including Tribe 8, Team Dresch, Sister George and Huggy Bear. Their revolution took the form of zine and cassette creation, which they distributed far and wide. Those documents became like guidebooks for queer punks in small towns throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. This book explores queercore as a genre that was never intended to be a genre, but instead an underground resistance movement centered around punk. It identifies the key players in the queercore lexicon, from musicians and filmmakers to record labels and zine-makers, and it documents their histories through original interviews and archival research. Ultimately, the book guides readers through the beginnings of queercore into the present, where the legacy of this unlikely genre looms loudly for LGBTQIA+ artists and all those marginalized by the mainstream.”

The Underground in China: Metal, Punk, Hardcore And Noise, 2013-2021
By Ryan Dyer

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In 2013, Ryan Dyer arrived in China with little idea of what lay beneath the surface of its music scene. Within a week, he found himself at an underground show featuring the band Rectal Wench. That night opened the door to a world few outsiders ever see. Over the next eight years, Dyer travelled across Beijing, Tianjin, Suzhou, and Shanghai, documenting the country’s explosive punk and metal underground. Armed with a camera and a journalist’s curiosity, he attended hundreds of shows, capturing bands that express what it means to be an artist in modern China. The Underground In China: Metal, Punk, Hardcore And Noise 2013-2021 brings together more than 350 pages of photography, interviews, and first-hand observations from inside this thriving scene. Featuringbands across genres including grindcore, black metal, hardcore punk, noise, and experimental music, the book offers a rare glimpse into a creative community that seldom reaches Western audiences. It features more than 100 artists, including The Dark Prison Massacre, Nine Treasures, Torturing Nurse, Frozen Moon, Scare the Children, Rectal Wench, Impure Injection, Suffocated, Dreamspirit, Ritual Day, Black Kirin, Gum Bleed, Dummy Toys and more! Part photo archive, part cultural document, this is the story of China’s underground as it was lived-loud, chaotic, and defiantly alive.”

Loud Pictures: A History Of The Cinema Of Rebellion & The Greatest Rock And Roll Films of All Time
By Marc Spitz

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In a long line of beloved books, Loud Pictures stands as Marc Spitz’s final project. This big, broad, noisy, and expansive exploration of art marries the two things Marc loved most — movies and rock ’n’ roll. In many ways, films can become imprinted on our brains because of their soundtracks. And songs in films take on different meanings because of the scenes associated with them. Loud Pictures explains, explores, and celebrates that symbiotic relationship through interviews with directors, actors, music supervisors, critics, and many more. Films with nostalgic undertones such as Say Anything, Purple Rain, Trainspotting, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Taxi Driver, A Hard Day’s Night, Shaft, Saturday Night Fever, Postcards From the Edge, Dirty Dancing, Nashville, Blow Up, and hundreds more, are sprinkled throughout these pages, perfectly capturing moments in time where the intersection between film and music have shined the brightest. The completion of Loud Pictures would not have been possible without the aid of Lizzy Goodman, author of Meet Me In The Bathroom, and Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield, author of Turn Around Bright Eyes, On Bowie and Dreaming the Beatles.”

A Hard Day’s Night
By Samira Ahmed

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “How did a film made to capture a pop phenomenon become an enduring cinematic classic? With warmth, wit and precision, Samira Ahmed reveals how The Beatles’ first film changed both the band themselves and pop music’s relationship with the screen. In a vivid and personal exploration, she shows how this black-and-white gem, shot in a documentary style and brimming with youthful energy, captured Britain at a moment of social transformation, with a portrayal of celebrity, camaraderie and media frenzy that still resonates today. Drawing on her own experience of first discovering the film as a child and going on to work in the television industry, Ahmed shines a spotlight on the craft behind its enduring appeal. With insights from members of the cast and crew, including her own new interviews, Ahmed highlights A Hard Day’s Night’s class and sexual politics, and adds a delightfully original analysis of the women in the film. In these pages you will be transported to a time when four young men from Liverpool, via the mass medium of television, changed the way Britain saw itself and the way the world saw Britain, revealing how, and why, A Hard Day’s Night has become a landmark of modern cinema.”

The Smiths: A Novella
By Michael Bracewell

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Wildly inventive and magnificently surreal, The Smiths: A Novella recounts the impact of an unconventional pop group from Manchester on one man’s life. Taking the form of a flâneuring journey through the landscape of memory, our anonymous protagonist is accompanied by the iconic French actress Carole Bouquet, who becomes his guide and interlocutor, asking about his life during the years The Smiths were together and the profound effect of their music upon him. As the unlikely couple perambulate from the old Selfridge Hotel to West Hollywood by way of a park bench in Cavendish Square, their conversation interrogates and celebrates the joys of outlandish pop genius, the zealous dedication of fans and the cult of outsider disaffection given uproarious voice. As such, this is not a book about The Smiths but one that emerges from their music, their emotional register and their literary resonance. Michael Bracewell‘s novella cum-fairy tale is at once deeply romantic and laced with comedy — not unlike the band themselves – and perhaps (in fictional form) the most astute and celebratory portrait of The Smiths to date.”

The Bad Bunny Enigma: Culture, Resistance, And Uncertainty
Edited by Sheilla R. Madera, Nelson Varas-Diáz & Daniel Nevárez Araújo

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This collection offers the first comprehensive analysis of Bad Bunny’s impact on music, culture, and politics. Exploring his gender-fluid style, Afro-Caribbean aesthetics, and critiques of colonialism, the book highlights his role in amplifying marginalized voices. With contributions from diverse scholars, it presents a balanced view of his influence on intersectional resistance. The chapters examine whether Bad Bunny represents a cultural shift or a fleeting moment, positioning him as a multifaceted figure in contemporary culture and activism.”

Anything Goes: The Life & Music Of Cole Porter
By Paul Matthew Kaplan

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The first major biography on Cole Porter in over two decades, this delightfully entertaining life story of one of the most important musicians and composers of the 20th century follows Cole from Peru, Indiana to jazz age Manhattan, Hollywood and beyond.”