I can’t tell you how many books I have read about The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed and Andy Warhol. But I can tell you this: Soon I will have read one more, thanks to Richie Unterberger’s essential new VU tome. For those who prefer The Beatles, Olivia Rodrigo, Barbara Dane, Miles Davis and other topics, take heart; you have not been forgotten. Read all about ’em:
Do What You Fear Most: The History Of The Velvet Underground
By Richie Unterberger
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Do What You Fear Most is the authoritative tome on the band that changed music, fashion and culture forever. Blending new archival insights and first-hand accounts, Richie Unterberger illuminates the band’s radical global impact on New York’s progenitors of punk, who bridged pure rock ’n’ roll, avant-garde experimentation and literary songwriting to take rock music into previously uncharted territory. Beginning with each member’s path to the band, it details their influences, successes and (many) failures, the whirlwind with Warhol, the triumph of the so-called Banana album, the fractured and strained relationships and egos, and beyond to the end of the Velvets and the beginnings of various solo careers. Rigorously researched and packed with previously undocumented insights, this book features first-hand interviews with the group’s associates, as well as a substantial amount of material newly unearthed from the Lou Reed Archive and the Andy Warhol Archive, as well as never-before-seen images and ephemera. An entertaining and exhilarating narrative, Do What You Fear Most vividly captures the grit and uninhibited creativity of the 1960s New York cultural scene and is an essential portrait of one of the 20th century’s most visionary and influential bands.”
Mr. Moonlight: Brian Epstein And The Making Of The Beatles
By Philip Norman
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Brian Epstein didn’t just manage The Beatles — he transformed them into the most famous band the world has ever known. A young record-shop owner from Liverpool, he took four relatively unknown musicians and set out to make them ‘bigger than Elvis’, changing pop music, celebrity and British culture forever. Only a few years older than John, Paul, George and Ringo, he called them ‘the Boys’, guiding, protecting and relentlessly believing in them as no one else did. Without Epstein, there would have been no Beatles as we know them. Brian’s achievement in a profession in which he had no experience remains astonishing. A passionate devotee of classical music, he was nevertheless instrumental in shaping a new kind of pop that would revolutionize its sound, its business and Britain’s image around the world. Yet for all his achievements, he received no public honour — and scarcely any thanks. Drawing on a remarkable cache of exclusive interviews with those closest to him, Philip Norman delivers the most intimate and revealing portrait yet of this complex, conflicted and ultimately tragic figure. Mr. Moonlight reveals the depths of Brian’s many trials and tribulations — how he almost lost the Beatles to organized crime; the antisemitism and homophobia he endured even at the height of his success; his intense and fraught relationship with John Lennon; and the haunting circumstances of his lonely death during the so-called Summer of Love. At once revelatory and deeply moving, Mr Moonlight restores Epstein to his rightful place at the heart of The Beatles’ story.”
This Bell Still Rings: My Life Of Defiance And Song
By Barbara Dane
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “A renowned folk, blues, and jazz singer who performed with some of the 20th century’s most celebrated musicians, from Louis Armstrong to Bob Dylan. A proud progressive who has tirelessly championed racial equality and economic justice in America, and who has traveled the world to sing out against war and tyranny. An organizer, a venue owner, a record label founder, and a woman who has charted her own creative and political path for more than ninety years. Barbara Dane has led an epic,trailblazing life in music and activism, and This Bell Still Rings tells her story in her own adventurous voice. Dane’s memoir charts her trajectory from singing in union halls and at factory gates in Second World War-era Detroit, to her rise as a respected blues and jazz singer, to her prominence as a folk musician frequently performing at and participating in civil rights and peace demonstrations across the U.S. and abroad-from post-revolutionary Cuba to wartime Vietnam. This Bell Still Rings offers a wealth of inspiration for artists, activists, and anyone seeking a life defined by courage and integrity.”
Still In A Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers And The Reinvention of Rock, 1984-1994
By Simon Reynolds
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The definitive story of the slackers and shoegazers who reinvented rock. Twenty years after his acclaimed postpunk best-seller Rip It Up And Start Again, Simon Reynolds tells the tale of what happened next: The underground explosion of noise-pop, shoegaze, slacker-rock and grunge that reverberated through the mid-’80s into the early ’90s. Capturing the musical exhilaration of the era along with the alienation of youth during a period of ascendant conservative politics and glitzy mainstream pop, Still In A Dream celebrates a golden age of guitar reinvention, a second psychedelia of mind-blowing sounds pioneered by bands like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. In Britain, groups like Cocteau Twins and Slowdive escaped into shimmering dreamworlds while American underground rockers like Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement blended apathy and urgency into thrilling noise. A propulsive and personal account from a journalist who covered this music in real time from the frontlines, Still In A Dream vividly recreates a period that was the last blast for the analogue culture of vinyl records and music papers, before the Internet changed everything.”
Pacific Jazz Records: A History Of The Label And Its Artists, 1952-1965
By James A Harrod
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “From its modest beginning in the back of a drum shop, Pacific Jazz became one of the most respected and successful independent jazz record labels in America, starting with a single 78-rpm release in 1952 that introduced The Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Its exponential growth during the 1950s launched the jazz careers of Mulligan, Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton and Bud Shank. With expansion in the mid ’50s and a name change to World Pacific, the catalog included folk, comedy, pop, vocal, Latin, and world music genres featuring artists such as Kimio Eto and Ravi Shankar. Jazz releases continued to introduce major artists in the 1960s including The Jazz Crusaders, Les McCann, Curtis Amy, Paul Bryant, Clare Fischer, Joe Pass, Gerald Wilson and Carmell Jones. Dick Bock sold Pacific Jazz to Liberty Records in the spring of 1965, ending its 13-year run as an independent jazz label. This history covers in depth all 13 years of the transformative record label’s independence.”
Riding With The Blues: Deep South Travels Into Music History
By James Charles Roy
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Classic blues, one of America’s most distinctive musical art forms, originated specifically in a portion of Mississippi known as the Delta, a onetime cotton-growing feudal kingdom of sorts, stretching from Memphis south to Vicksburg, hugging the great Mississippi River in between these cities along its eastern shore. For well over 100 years, these thousands of acres represented a private preserve ruled by white plantation owners. Black agricultural workers, initially as slaves and later as sharecroppers, were a deprived underclass. Combining travelogue with history, this book traces the lives and careers of blues icons Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, B.B. King and a host of others who created and shaped the blues in all its variants, both acoustic and electric. It explores the context that shaped their music, including segregation and Jim Crow laws, poverty, moonshine whiskey, and the evolving recording industry. In doing so, it illuminates both the origins of the blues and its longstanding cultural impact, blending many strands into a memorable narrative.”
Teenage Dreamer: The Little Guide To Olivia Rodrigo
By OH
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Known for her relatable lyrics, angsty pop-rock sound and fearless Gen-Z attitude, Olivia Rodrigo has quickly become a defining figure of her generation. Brimming with fabulous quotes, must-know facts and bite-sized insights, this stylish little book dives deep into everything that makes Olivia a global superstar. From her early days in commercials to her record-breaking debut, and from her bold red-carpet style to chart-topping anthems, discover the key moments that shaped her meteoric rise — along with the outspoken views on issues like women’s rights and mental health that make her a powerful role model worldwide. Whether you’re a day-one Livie or just discovering the artist behind Driver’s License, this guide is packed with everything you need to know. Raw, real and unapologetically Olivia, it’s your front-row pass to the story behind the star.”
Rethinking Miles Davis
Edited by Roger Fagge, Nicolas Pillai & Tim Wall
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “What hasn’t been said about Miles Davis? Much has been written about the jazz trumpeter and band leader, yet studies of Davis are often restricted to the groundbreaking acoustic jazz he produced between the 1940s and ’50s. While more recent studies revisit his 1960s and 1970s work, Davis’s later engagements with music, fashion, and the mainstream media are ripe for reassessment. Rethinking Miles Davis confronts familiar narratives about Davis and his music through a range of perspectives: from the ways Davis pushed jazz into new genre forms, re-envisioned jazz standards, and collaborated musically, to his role in the record companies that released his music, the persona he developed in video, film, and fashion, and how his masculinity manifested both professionally and personally. The collection includes a photo-essay of international jazz musicians’ take on Davis’ albums in which each musician explains the personal significance of a favourite recording. Ultimately, Rethinking Miles Davis challenges the orthodoxy of jazz criticism, repositioning Davis within a larger framework of modernism and mass culture.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source tinnitist.com ’
