Chris Payne wrote a book called Where Are Your Boys Tonight? about the rise of the emo music scene. It’s due out June 6th, and pre-orders are now up.
Read More “The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008” Bill Watterson is returning to comics for “a fable for grown-ups:”
Iconic cartoonist Bill Watterson famously retired at the height of Calvin & Hobbes’ success in 1995. Now, 28 years later, he is coming back – but not for a kids comic strip (not that Calvin & Hobbes was ever just for kids).
The Mysteries is a new 72-page book by Watterson and fellow artist John Kascht are creating what is described as “a fable for grown-ups.” Scheduled to be published by Andrews McMeel Publishing in late 2023, The Mysteries has reportedly been in the works for years in what’s described as an “unusually close collaboration.”
”[In The Mysteries,] a long-ago kingdom is afflicted with unexplainable calamities,” reads the publisher’s description of the book. “Hoping to end the torment, the king dispatches his knights to discover the source of the mysterious events. Years later, a single battered knight returns.”
Pre-orders are now up.
Geoff Rickly will release Someone Who Isn’t Me on July 25th.
Read More “Geoff Rickly Announces New Book”
Songwriter Sam Hollander (for a lot of the bands you probably like) has written a book. Pre-orders are now up.
Read More “Sam Hollander Announces New Book”
Greg Graffin of Bad Religion will release the new book Punk Paradox on November 8th. Pre-orders are now up.
Joe Trohman of Fall Out Boy’s memoir, None of this Rocks, will be out on September 13th.
Read More “Joe Trohman of Fall Out Boy Wrote a Memoir” Dan Ozzi talked with BrooklynVegan about his upcoming book, Sellout:
Yeah, I think, you know, obviously record labels are in the business of making money, and they tend to put gasoline where the kindling is. So something that’s said in the book a lot by many people is that record labels put out like 100 records a year, and the president only gives a shit about the two that are doing well. So in a case like Rise Against, yeah I’m sure the president of their label didn’t even know who they were, until they started looking at the SoundScan numbers, and they’re like, “Wait, this band that we put no money into seems to be selling how many copies on their own? Maybe let’s put some marketing money into them.” So I think all these bands that signed to major labels thinking the people who worked there were just going to make them into stars were really naive. The ones that seemed to do the best were the best that went to a major label and were like “We’re gonna work really hard until the boss takes notice.” And Rise Against is probably the best example of that, workhorses who eventually did well enough to get the attention of people who could loosen the purse strings.
I’ve read about half of the book so far, and it’s very good. If you grew up listening to these bands, or arguing about who sold out in the AbsolutePunk forums: it’s a must read.
Frightened Rabbit will be releasing a book of lyrics.
The Work is a book of lyrics and illustrations by the late Scott Hutchison, lyricist, vocalist and songwriter of Frightened Rabbit. This limited hardback edition presents the band’s complete lyrics (including B-sides and rarities) with handwritten excerpts by Scott, alongside his illustrations, many of which have never been seen before.
The book is meant both as a celebration of and tribute to Scott’s unbridled creativity. It aims to fulfil his wishes by being the book that he wanted to create and had spoken of creating before his death.
The Work’s creative concept comes from renowned album designer Dave Thomas, who worked with Frightened Rabbit across their career.
Dave Grohl has announced a book tour.
Read More “Dave Grohl Announces Short Book Tour”
The Mountain Goats’ frontman, John Darnielle, will release a new novel, Devil House, in January of 2022. Pre-orders are now up.
Andrew McMahon will release his memoir, Three Pianos, on October 26th. Pre-orders are now up.
Read More “Andrew McMahon’s Memoir Coming October 26th” Dave Grohl will release The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music on October 5th. Pre-orders are now up.
Read More “Dave Grohl Announces New Book”
I came across this book, Punk Rock & Cocktails, via The Lawrence Arms’ Instagram account and it looks like something I think this website’s audience would be interested in.
Read More “‘Punk Rock & Cocktails: 20 Influential Albums + 20 Inspired Cocktails’” Dan Ozzi wrote an new book called Sellout. It is going to be right in the wheelhouse of most readers of this website. You can pre-order it here, and read more about it here:
The period of punk I lived through, from the mid-90s through the 2000s, has gone largely undocumented in any substantial way, at least in book form. When is someone going to properly chronicle this period, I often wondered. So, finally, I did it myself.
I wrote a book called SELLOUT because that word pretty much defined the era of music I grew up in. This was when there was still money in the music industry—the kind of money people were literally swimming in. And after Nirvana’s Nevermind changed national music tastes overnight, major labels went looking for indie rock’s next big thing. They found it in 1994 with Green Day’s Dookie, which set A&R reps’ sights on punk. From there, interest shifted to whatever subgenre of punk became popular over that decade—emo, hardcore, even ska.
