http://www.continuumbooks.com/series_details.cgi?sid=311
has anyone actually read one yet?
― Matt Sab (Matt Sab), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 14:39 (twenty years ago) link
― robin (robin), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 14:57 (twenty years ago) link
― robin (robin), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 14:58 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 15:15 (twenty years ago) link
― robin (robin), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 15:47 (twenty years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 15:58 (twenty years ago) link
I like his writing...I love the album.
― ddb, Tuesday, 7 October 2003 16:03 (twenty years ago) link
Wasn't it Zappa who said this?
― scottjames23 (worrysome-man), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 19:07 (twenty years ago) link
i think it's pretty well accepted that (a) both frank and elvis said this, (b) but various others (charles mingus, for example) said it way before they did, and (c) trying to figure out who exactly thought of it first is kind of like, ya know, dancing about architecture.
― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 7 October 2003 19:36 (twenty years ago) link
Hey, when will Douglas Wolk's book be out then?
― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 19:46 (twenty years ago) link
Right now I'm writing a sequence about a bear that climbed a fence in Duluth right about the time James Brown was singing "I Don't Mind" and thereby came yay-close to starting World War III.
I can't WAIT to read Matos on Prince and Elisabeth Vincentelli on ABBA.
― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 20:39 (twenty years ago) link
:::drool:::
― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 21:20 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 21:21 (twenty years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 21:46 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 7 October 2003 21:53 (twenty years ago) link
http://33third.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 9 April 2005 13:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric von H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 9 April 2005 14:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― tylerw, Saturday, 9 April 2005 14:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― Masked Gazza, Saturday, 9 April 2005 14:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 9 April 2005 15:34 (eighteen years ago) link
I'll probably read the Entroducing book.
― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 9 April 2005 16:28 (eighteen years ago) link
I also got the feeling (primarily from the VU book) that the writers were getting their one and only chance to write about a particular passion and as a result I felt like there was this barely constrained urge to branch out beyond the scope of the single album in question. Maybe my personal expectations for this type of book were off base but I think that for example the artist's personal life should barely if at all come into play.
I might be more interested in reading one by a writer who had already done a full biography of the artist in question so that the standard gossipy stuff and most common observations would already be out of the way. Maybe then the author would be forced to focus more deeply on the music in abstract terms and not worry about some of the more mundane details. But these criticisms are all very nitpicky and I'm sure I'll be ordering another batch soon.
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Sunday, 10 April 2005 00:45 (eighteen years ago) link
The Armed Forces one? That's definitely on the top of my list. I'm optimistic because it's a pretty interesting choice out of the early Costello albums so I'm guessing he'll have something unique to say. A lot of the other picks are very classic-rock-y but maybe once those are out of the way the series will get more interesting.
― walter kranz (walterkranz), Sunday, 10 April 2005 00:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 10 April 2005 03:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― Douglas (Douglas), Sunday, 10 April 2005 06:53 (eighteen years ago) link
Just out of curiosity, could you tell me what you think is the difference between turntablism and scratching?
Turntablism is the description of scratching that’s supposed to make people who don’t listen to hip-hop, sit up and go “Hmm, maybe it is real music.” Scratching, to me, is just what it is. Turntablism has this virtuosic aspect to it, and to me, that’s when things start to turn jazzy. And I’m not a huge fan of when things turn jazzy. Because when I think of jazzy, I think of Wynton Marsalis.
― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 10 April 2005 08:28 (eighteen years ago) link
i saw Douglas's book in the shop the other day. Looked a bit dauntingly 'conceptual' on a quick flip through, what with all the headings and shit. But I'm sure it's a good read and i'll probably buy it. Anybody else read this?
― zebedee (zebedee), Sunday, 10 April 2005 13:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 10 April 2005 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link
I should really put together a proposal for "Return to the 36 Chambers".
― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 10 April 2005 16:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― Orange, Sunday, 10 April 2005 16:56 (eighteen years ago) link
Songs in the Key of Life, by Dave HesmondhalghParallel Lines, by Elisabeth VincentelliThree Feet High and Rising, by Brian ColemanTusk, by Stephin MerrittComputer Love, by Michael BracewellMarquee Moon, by David KeenanMaster of Puppets, by Tom BissellThe Basement Tapes, by Damon Krukowski
The editor/creator of the series, David Barker runs a blog about the series. Email him directly if you like:
I finally read one of these. I think I picked a great place to start, Douglas Wolk's Live at the Apollo. It was really really good.
― Matt Sab (Matt Sab), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 15:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 15:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― PB, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 15:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 15:34 (eighteen years ago) link
also got the ABBA one, which i devoured in a day. twas OK, wish Ms Vincentelli had spent fewer sentences justifying (or having to justify) the book's very existence. also i'm not sure she cracked the problem of how to order the narrative, though I accept it's a toughie.
― zebedee (zebedee), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 15:35 (eighteen years ago) link
These are a few of the projects that - for various and sometimes complicated reasons - never made it to fruition. Some came very close to happening, others less so; but they all would have been fun.
― Matt Sab (Matt Sab), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 16:03 (eighteen years ago) link
Songs in the Key of Life, by Dave Hesmondhalgh
Why not?
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 16:48 (eighteen years ago) link
Matos' Sign O'The Times book's prince has been slashed (on Amazon at least) to $4.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0826415474/qid=1122928710/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-2999298-5726417?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
― Matt Sab (Matt Sab), Monday, 1 August 2005 19:47 (eighteen years ago) link
This has been a difficult process: we received dozens of very strong proposals from dozens of very good writers and it's a shame to have to turn down so many of you.
If you're interested, the 33 1/3 books we eventually decided to sign up are:
"If You're Feeling Sinister" by Scott Plagenhoef
"Aja" by Don Breithaupt
"Shoot Out the Lights" by Hayden Childs
"Pretty Hate Machine" by Daphne Carr
"Use Your Illusion" by Eric Weisbard
"Horses" by Phil Shaw
"Double Nickels on the Dime" by Mike Fournier
"Pink Moon" by Amanda Petrusich
"People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm" by Shawn Taylor
"Achtung Baby" by Stephen Catanzarite
"20 Jazz Funk Greats" by Drew Daniel
"The Dreaming" by Ann Powers
"Rid of Me" by Kate Schatz
"Another Green World" by Geeta Dayal
"Songs in the Key of Life" by Zeth Lundy
"Trout Mask Replica" by Kevin Courrier
"Let's Talk About Love" by Carl Wilson
"Lucinda Williams" by Anders Smith Lindall
"69 Love Songs" by LD Beghtol
“Marquee Moon” by Peter Blauner
“Swordfishtrombones” by David Smay
― that's so taylrr (ken taylrr), Thursday, 26 January 2006 18:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 26 January 2006 20:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― cancer prone fat guy (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 26 January 2006 20:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 26 January 2006 20:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― cancer prone fat guy (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 26 January 2006 21:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 26 January 2006 22:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 26 January 2006 22:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Thursday, 26 January 2006 22:30 (eighteen years ago) link
i want to like these for real but mostly i appreciate them for banishing any overachiever syndrome i might have
i've only read a handful but they are not great? it's rough
that said i desperately want rushomancy to write a book about pink floyd. just in general, honestly. but also from a trans pov. maybe one of those books with similar texts (but not quite!) on opposing pages
― mookieproof, Friday, 22 July 2022 03:21 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwwcakTnoDo
(IIRC not much Floyd commentary here, regrettably)
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Friday, 22 July 2022 03:42 (one year ago) link
Get your proposals in gear
https://333sound.com/open-call-for-proposals-2022/
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 5 September 2022 19:07 (one year ago) link
Gotta say, really happy with some of the albums that are cropping up lately: That's the Way of the World, Madvillainy, Erotica, Once Upon a Time, all A+
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 December 2022 13:39 (one year ago) link
The EW&F book looked fetching. How's Erotica?
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 December 2022 13:43 (one year ago) link
Not released til next spring
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 December 2022 14:35 (one year ago) link
Erotica will be a must-read for me.
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Thursday, 22 December 2022 15:48 (one year ago) link
put your hands all over that book!
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 December 2022 16:05 (one year ago) link
You're a thief of books, and now you have to pay (for that book)
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 December 2022 16:37 (one year ago) link
Really looking forward to reading the Ingenue one as there seems to be next to nothing written about it anywhere (or kd herself come to that).
― piscesx, Thursday, 22 December 2022 17:49 (one year ago) link
New announcements include Badu!
― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Saturday, 28 January 2023 17:45 (one year ago) link
I'm most intrigued by Red Hot + Blue.
― jaymc, Saturday, 28 January 2023 20:05 (one year ago) link
All of them look interesting. I submitted a proposal this time but it was turned down. :-(
― treeship., Saturday, 28 January 2023 20:36 (one year ago) link
did you get a reply from them? I heard nothing after I submitted a proposal in 2020.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Saturday, 28 January 2023 20:54 (one year ago) link
Red Hot + Blue is such an amazing choice. I thought only I liked it! Discovered recently that Ed Lachman got the Songs For Drella gig because of the RH+B video he made for Annie Lennox.
Here’s the full Red Hot And Blue film btw.. https://vimeo.com/46642017
― piscesx, Sunday, 29 January 2023 00:24 (one year ago) link
I like that it's Nu Amerykah pt 2, which quietly became my favorite Badu album.
― change display name (Jordan), Sunday, 29 January 2023 00:52 (one year ago) link
I'm definitely gonna read the Land of Rape and Honey one (the author is a friend), and I'm intrigued by the idea of books on Café Tacvba and the Isley Brothers.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 29 January 2023 01:32 (one year ago) link
Do they ever just take a regular ass person or does everyone with an accepted entry have some kind of journalistic experience?
― zacata, Sunday, 29 January 2023 03:26 (one year ago) link
Aside from having a blog, I was a regular ass person. My 33 1/3 book was the one and only time I ever got paid to write about music.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Sunday, 29 January 2023 04:39 (one year ago) link
xp didn't hear anything. i assume they get a lot of proposals, and looking back i could have made mine more focused and less academic.
i am a regular ass person, though, so it's good to hear that they've taken from others who aren't music critics. i have written professionally about art and architecture but not music.
― treeship., Sunday, 29 January 2023 17:13 (one year ago) link
Just finished the Achtung Baby book, and...yeesh. Nothing wrong with having your own take on what songs mean, and obviously religion does inform a lot of Bono's lyrics, but this was basically a stealth religious tract! I would have said the writer had a very strained interpretation of the lyrics to fit his beliefs, but in honesty, from about the halfway point he barely even bothers to refer to the actual songs in any way, and instead goes on and on about this hypothetical man and woman that the entire album is supposedly about.
I bought the 33.33s of 69 Love Songs, Another Green World and Aeroplane Over the Sea on the same shopping trip, and hope they're better (how could they not be?...)
― Duane Barry, Sunday, 16 April 2023 18:29 (eleven months ago) link
I remember enjoying the latter two a whole lot
― change display name (Jordan), Sunday, 16 April 2023 18:31 (eleven months ago) link
Just discovered that there is a Brazilian equivalent, in Portuguese of course.
― The Titus Andromedon Strain (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 16 April 2023 19:50 (eleven months ago) link
treeship. at 5:13 29 Jan 23xp didn't hear anything. i assume they get a lot of proposals, and looking back i could have made mine more focused and less academic.i am a regular ass person, though, so it's good to hear that they've taken from others who aren't music critics. i have written professionally about art and architecture but not music.
― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 16 June 2023 14:53 (nine months ago) link
Please, someone pitch sellout jazz-funk
― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.), Friday, 16 June 2023 15:42 (nine months ago) link
or microhouse
― MaresNest, Friday, 16 June 2023 15:46 (nine months ago) link
Damn, I always think about pitching one for New Orleans brass band, and the genre format would be much better than a single album (at least for wider appeal). But I'm sure it would take over my life, and pinning down all the musicians for interviews would be an exhausting process.
― Random Restaurateur (Jordan), Friday, 16 June 2023 17:35 (nine months ago) link
The one about Depeche Mode 101 looks promising..
Table of Contents1. Live or Memorex?2. Is “Music” Electric?3. It's Hip, it's Totally Hip, It's the Only Thing Happening4. Dreamboats and Market Shares5. Uneasy Listening6. America, Man7. “KROQ's Woodstock”8. No Mode, No Nirvana: 101 and its Legacy
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/depeche-modes-101-9781501390326/
― piscesx, Sunday, 18 June 2023 18:42 (nine months ago) link
Missed a trick by not having it as #101 in the series.
― Dan Worsley, Sunday, 18 June 2023 18:50 (nine months ago) link
That wouldn't bode well for a book about Yes' 90125
― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 18 June 2023 20:06 (nine months ago) link
I started to put together a genre pitch back in the initial round but then realized I’d much rather just write about one album.
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Sunday, 18 June 2023 20:09 (nine months ago) link
other than an ilxor writing about dolly parton i don't recognize the names of anyone writing new books. (not that i ever read them. i never see them anywhere anymore! i think i would have to live in a city to see them...or be an internet shopper...)
― scott seward, Sunday, 18 June 2023 21:20 (nine months ago) link
RC, you should do a wolf eyes book. has anyone done one? or a noise book!
― scott seward, Sunday, 18 June 2023 21:21 (nine months ago) link
Who knows, man? Who knows…
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Sunday, 18 June 2023 21:53 (nine months ago) link
I would read Jordan on New Orleans brass !
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 20 June 2023 18:29 (nine months ago) link
Pulp’s This is Hardcore coming next year by Jane Savidge.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/pulps-this-is-hardcore-9798765106952/
― piscesx, Sunday, 2 July 2023 04:11 (eight months ago) link
Nice.
― Looking For Mr. Goodreads (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 July 2023 18:47 (eight months ago) link
The Dead C’s Clyma est mort
wow!
― Reeves Gabrels' Funko Pop (majorairbro), Tuesday, 4 July 2023 08:35 (eight months ago) link
ooh nice
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Tuesday, 4 July 2023 16:22 (eight months ago) link
!
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 4 July 2023 16:36 (eight months ago) link
Just a warning--the Dead C's one is in 33 1/3 Oceania which I learned, on buying two of the books in that series yesterday, is a completely different size to the rest of the books. This is aesthetically maddening.https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0K_qQoaIAEfvmw?format=jpg&name=large
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Tuesday, 4 July 2023 23:11 (eight months ago) link
This one just came in at the library. Looks interesting:
https://333sound.com/vopli-vidopliassovas-tantsi-excerpt/
― Alito Bit of Soap (President Keyes), Monday, 17 July 2023 18:18 (eight months ago) link
oh, excellent. one of the best post soviet bands and one of the best post soviet albums. i still remember seeing the Tantsi video when it was first broadcast.
― scanner darkly, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:59 (eight months ago) link
Have to say the upcoming Erotica book sounds fascinating
Everyone wanted Madonna’s Erotica to be scandalous, even pornographic. In the midst of the early 1990s culture wars, conservatives wanted it to be proof of the decline of family values. The target of conservative loathing, gay men reeling from the AIDS epidemic wanted it to be a celebration of a sexual culture that had rapidly slipped away. And of course Madonna herself, who released the album at the same time as her actually pornographic coffee-book table simply titled Sex, knew sex sells. But Erotica is more sentimental than sexual. At a time when sex was deadly, this sentimentality was not kitsch, but a way of sustaining a sexual culture. In this book, Michael Dango shows how Erotica marks an inflection point in multiple narratives. It is the album in which Madonna began more directly addressing her gay audience, at the same time that gay politics was transitioning from a sexual liberation framework to a rights-based framework that would ultimately culminate in same-sex marriage. To tell this story, Dango draws on his own experiences positioned between two generations of gay people―between a generation decimated by AIDS and a generation that grew up assuming they would be able to get married―as well as works of queer theory, which emerged in the academy at the same time as Madonna emerged on the music scene.
https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/michael-dango/madonnas-erotica-33-13
― piscesx, Sunday, 13 August 2023 19:59 (seven months ago) link
I expect nothing less than one of this series’ finest moments from that entry
― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.), Sunday, 13 August 2023 20:53 (seven months ago) link
I sometimes daydream about which album I would write about were I to ever send in a proposal. And I think I've worked out that it would have to be Confield by Autechre. Partly because I've already written a good 3 or 4 articles about them in the past and I'm a big nerd; but specifically this album because while it is likely their most well-recognised album, it's also the one I've had most trouble getting to grips with. And it's precisely this "thorniness", with 22 years' hindsight, that I'd like to make peace with. Whereas I could probably wax lyrical about LP5 or Sign or Oversteps, it's Confield that I think would yield the most interesting writing
― ...eh you get the gist of it (dog latin), Tuesday, 3 October 2023 19:51 (five months ago) link
I would love to read that.
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 3 October 2023 22:21 (five months ago) link
I daydream about writing one on You and Your Sister by the Vulgar Boatmen.
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 3 October 2023 23:43 (five months ago) link
It looks like two really great ones are out this month and next month; Erotica and Ingenue, good timing too considering they’re both from the same year.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 4 October 2023 00:26 (five months ago) link
Open call for Proposals for 2024, deadline is March 29th.
https://333sound.com/33-1-3-open-call-for-proposals-2024/
― piscesx, Thursday, 8 February 2024 14:16 (one month ago) link