Kevin Prested does a fine job with his detailed history of Lookout Records, the Berkeley, California-based independent record label which gave a voice and a home to punk bands of…
Book Reviews
122 Articles
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
In this period of celebration for The Who’s 50th Anniversary comes this excellent book by Mark Blake. Pretend You’re In A War: The Who & The Sixties is – for…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Another study (as opposed to pop history biography) that examines the qualities of the bands that came to the United States in the wake of the February 1964 arrival of…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Mavericks of Sound: Conversations with the Artists Who Shaped Indie and Roots Music (to give it its full title), is a compendium of interviews done by music scholar David Ensminger…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
In Geek Rock: An Exploration of Music and Subculture, editors Alex DiBlasi and Victoria Willis examine the intertwining of “geek culture” and music, in a methodical and very academic fashion. …
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
The first rock bio I ever bought was in 1979, when I was 14. It was about The Who, Headliners by John Swenson, as I had just become a devotee…
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Rob Ross
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I was fortunate enough to receive and read Heather Augustyn’s last two books; one on the history of ska and the other, a painstakingly researched biography of the late Jamaican…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
What makes this book so interesting is, for a start, I have little-to-no great knowledge about the ’60’s folk-rock revolution aside from love for bands like The Lovin’ Spoonful, The…
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Scott Malchus
2 Min Read
A new book chronicles Led Zeppelin’s rise and fall in their own words through rare interviews.
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Pete Chianca
2 Min Read
My fellow Gatehouse Media editor Matt Phillion is at it again: ”The Indestructibles: Breakout” (PFP Publishing), his sequel to last spring’s young adult superhero saga ”The Indestructibles,” comes hot on…
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Justin Vellucci
3 Min Read
Twenty years after Kurt Cobain’s tragic suicide, he’s still, it seems, as popular as ever. Sure, Cobain and company have sold some 25 million records in the U.S. since 1991…
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Pete Chianca
3 Min Read
One thing Barbara Barnes Sims doesn’t do in ”The Next Elvis“ (LSU Press), the memoir of her time working at Sun Records in the late 1950s, is dish — at…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
For once, a book about The Beatles that differs – to me – from the ones that have gone before. Beatleness, by Dr. Candy Leonard, is a look at the…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Hands down, Hotter Than a Match Head: Life on the Run with The Lovin’ Spoonful, the autobiography of the Spoonful’s bass player, Steve Boone, is a riotously funny, no bullshit,…
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Pete Chianca
2 Min Read
Since it was written by a colleague — Matthew Phillion, a fellow Gatehouse Media journalist — I would have likely picked up ”The Indestructibles“ just as a show of support….
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
As someone who worked for nearly two decades in the music industry for record labels, distributors, etc., I was quite eager to read this book. Unfortunately, my appetite was whetted…
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Jack Feerick
6 Min Read
I’m not here to pass judgment on what gets you off, friends; let’s get that straight. My job, when I’m wearing my ”critic” hat, is to look at the things…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Author/food writer/blogger/critic/”Calvin & Hobbes” aficionado (and former music industry insider) Nevin Martell delivers what I think is his finest book to date – a loving and laughable look at life…
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Jack Feerick
8 Min Read
The problem with monsters is that, when you come right down to it, they’re not that scary. Oh, zombies and kaiju and slaver-mawed xenomorphs can put you in a world…
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Ted Asregadoo
8 Min Read
Is Paul Stanley’s epitaph: “Loving father and husband; asshole bandmate?”
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Jack Feerick
4 Min Read
People get into the fandom scene because they are deeply and sincerely interested in an artist, of course. But it’s also an effective way to boost one’s own self-esteem, because…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
It isn’t often one reads a book about music – famous rock musicians – and find references to Maslow or Goethe. This is, hands down, the only psychological study I’ve…
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
Holly George Warren did an exemplary job of writing about Alex Chilton, the frontman of ’60’s hitmakers The Box Tops, the ramshackle director of his solo career and of course,…
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
This book is a proverbial “Top Of The Pops” greatest hits – most of which can be looked upon with a warm nostalgic smile as “’80’s Top 40” pop…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
This 432-page tome is a loving tribute to City Gardens, the legendary (to many) but often overlooked club in Trenton, New Jersey that was crucial to the then-burgeoning punk-to-hardcore punk…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
To me, the music of Stax Records, the seminal soul music label from Memphis, has always been sacred, from the time I was a child. All of my life, Stax…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
So the enigmatic former frontman for The Smiths – and solo star for a quarter century – finally gave in and wrote his “tell all” autobiography. And in truth, to…
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Chris Holmes
2 Min Read
In which Chris Holmes reviews Greg Prato’s The Faith No More & Mr. Bungle Companion. The verdict? You should care a lot.
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Once again, author Heather Augustyn hits hard and deep, this time with her study of a forgotten musical legend – Jamaican trombonist Don Drummond. Acknowledged by many but heard of…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Ska: The Rhythm Of Liberation is a very serious study of the upbeat, rhythm-based music that was born in Jamaica. While other books have been written about the “2 Tone”…