33 1/3 Series of books

AEROSMITH ROCKS NATICK

I recently tried to read Alan Warner's Tago Mago. Warner has a lot of leeway for various reasons but this just a rambling mess, really. Didn't get on with Hugo Wilcken's Low either, despite loving his novel, Colony. Favourite has easily been the Darnielle.

liked Armed Forces except for all the stuff about "He goes from a diminished C to a G7" or whatever was in there.

i'm curious: were you ok with his equally close reading of costello's words and syllables, or did that bother you too?

i loved the book and loved all that stuff. there are so few people writing about pop who can dig under the hood of the music that effectively. alex ross obviously can whenever he approaches pop. i appreciate people who can use actual music to critique music. in the armed forces book, i thought bruno made clear why he was doing it and did a good job of explaining what it meant.

Darnielle, Erik Davis, Matos my big faves

The ATCQ book is from a personal perspective and is well written/enjoyable imho.

The Achtung Baby and OK Computer ones are the worst I've come across.

in the armed forces book, i thought bruno made clear why he was doing it and did a good job of explaining what it meant.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, April 7, 2017 3:55 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I read it a long time ago!

oh! the one on Low by Bowie is fantastic for production/sound nerds

Just read Matos SOTT book and it was marvellous, just a joy (Nick I need to post it back to you!).

The Riot book is good but there's not much in it that's not taken from the In Their Own Words Sly book from the early 90s (which is $$$s and crazy rare now so fair enough)

Anyone read the Bitches Brew one?

I have it here but never finished it. Grella's a good writer, but the territory was too familiar - he wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know from reading a half dozen other books on Miles, album liner notes, etc., etc. If you're not up to your eyeballs in Davisiana, though, it's good.

Honestly, the more interesting Miles 33 1/3 would probably be On the Corner – the impact is just about as significant but the story and how the record was made is a bit less known. But who knows – maybe in a era where we have Phil's book, Tingen's book and the OTC box, even some of that may be well known enough.

I had an idea a gazillion years back to write one on Keith Jarrett's The Sun Bear Concerts—it's just such a 70s era artifact—but realized my submission would likely have a much better chance if I did the better known (and selling) Köln Concert.

anyone get round to the Sound Of Silver book yet? or does anyone have any other faves worth checking out? i couldn't get along with the OK Computer one at all.

OK Computer might be the worst one. Been meaning to read the one for There's a Riot Goin On for ages, been sitting on my desk.

OK Computer and Achtung Baby are the worst one's i've read.

Call me old fashioned, but I've enjoyed most of the ones that stick to the expected formula: a little band history, a little making of the album, and maybe break it down for me track by track. And it really helps if they have access to the band to do interviews.

The book on Portishead's Dummy was my favorite example of this format, and it definitely gave me a deeper appreciation for that album.
(in the same vein: Bowie's Low, Aphex Twin's SAWII, Neutral Milk Hotel's Aeroplane, Pixies' Doolitte, Devo's Freedom of Choice)

And at the risk of immediately contradicting myself, Carl Wilson's book on Celine Dion completely breaks from that classic formula, but it's just a great piece of writing. A sort of treatise on taste, art, credibility, and hipsterdom, with Celine Dion as a framing device. That one could really exist outside of the series, since it's brimming over with big ideas.

ooh

https://media.bloomsbury.com/rep/f/9781501323072.jpg

https://bloomsbury.com/uk/lou-reeds-transformer-9781501323058/

I was really hoping this revive was because they're accepting pitches again :(

(but that said I'm game for this book)

coming soon to spotify

Ooh, I wonder which ones and who will read them

Or would it just be the existing audiobooks that you can find on places like Audible?

I think it’s just the audiobooks.

That would be great, actually.

There are Japanese iterations of these coming out, the Perfume one already is and there are books on Happy End and YMO coming.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/series/33-13-japan/

I love when these books walk that fine line between album biography and personal narrative about the significance of such record to the author ("Sign O The Times" by Michaelangelo Matos being the apotheosis).

Holy shit that Japanese series looks awesome!

Psyched for this, if only because it's been delayed on and off for more than a decade.
November 1st, all being well.

https://wordery.com/jackets/c18f055c/m/9781501321313.jpg

https://wordery.com/tori-amoss-boys-for-pele-amy-gentry-9781501321313

Another open call for proposals:

https://333sound.com/how-to-submit/

I just saw that there's a Brazil series of these, including one on Milton Nascimento & Lo Borges's Clube de Esquina. Anyone read these?

I knew there was a Brazil series and a Japan series. Didn't know until today that there was a Europe series:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/series/33-13-europe/

I read the book on Getz/Gilberto, certainly a good resource on Bossa Nova and its importation to the US, Brazilian cultural history, etc. The physical book was larger than the typical books in the series, and may have had a bigger page count as well.

looks interesting

https://333sound.com/nine-reasons-why-i-chose-to-write-a-book-about-24-carat-blacks-ghetto-misfortunes-wealth/

that does look cool. i always want to submit a proposal but whenever i check the window for submissions is closed...

i love that album

I've been reading the recent one on Tim Maia's Racional albums and really liking it. Very informative and detailed at almost 250 pages, goes through that 2-year period of his life almost week by week.

I'm excited to go through the rest of the Brazil series, I love a lot of those albums but don't always have the easiest time tracking down historical info and context for them.

https://333sound.com/announcing-the-latest-33-1-3s/?fbclid=IwAR1QdKEZsDxwqYF22CJD2pBJimA26pECkxinzZCvVh0yDQLIe_xcH6H4AN8

class of '23/'24 just dropped

My pitch didn’t make the cut but this looks like a good crop!

101?? Fantastic!

BBC Radiophonic Workshop! Wow.

Is the Suicide book good? Just started the Portishead one last night, it's good but a bit too heavy on how good the album is and I guess I knew too much about the making of Dummy to start with.

Recent discussion of Suicide books & related on Good books about music

Suicide one is OK, but not brilliant. Written as a novel, but stylistically flat.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwwcakTnoDo

(IIRC not much Floyd commentary here, regrettably)

Get your proposals in gear

https://333sound.com/open-call-for-proposals-2022/

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+

The EW&F book looked fetching. How's Erotica?

Not released til next spring

Erotica will be a must-read for me.