Beastie Boys Book

Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can’t imagine a book better capturing the artistic style of the Beastie Boys as well as this. Full of detailed stories from throughout their career, mixed with honesty, melancholy, exuberance, arrogance, anxiety and so much more. Many bios or band/artist histories make the mistake of failing to inject what makes them unique into the pages, and instead becomes a by the numbers retelling with a few pages of pics stuffed in the middle. This book feels as alive and eclectic as a Beastie album that jumps from a hip hop track to a hardcore burner to a Brazilian influenced instrumental jam. In the end, it reads like a loving tribute the soulful center of the Beasties, Adam Yauch.

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Retro Concert Review: Josh Rouse At The Black Orchid, Chicago IL (1.19.06)

(Note: this was going to be just a straight-up concert review, but then it got derailed by my brain)

Back in 2006 I traveled to Chicago, IL. to take in a concert by Josh Rouse at the Black Orchid. That sentence, by itself, is completely average and mundane. I was in my twenties, in a band, and going to see live music was something I did almost any weekend. I had actually been to Chicago once before, briefly in 2003 to play a venue called The Note with my band The Stepford Five and our friends Miranda Sound, along with a pair of Chicago bands (Woolworthy and Light FM), on a short tour put together by Donewaiting.com. I managed to do the tourist thing and grab a Chicago Dog at a place around the corner from the venue, but that was the extent of the sightseeing as we had gigs the day before and after that required lots of driving.

Here's the part, in dusting off my memories of this trip, that are putting my brain through a bit of a workout. I went with a girl named Amy (not her real name), who I had met through the music scene here in Columbus and we hung out a bit. We weren't best friends or dating, just a casual "hey, let's hang soon" sort of thing, usually with a group of people. She was a grown-up compared to me, owning a house and having a real job, and liked to go to the Short North galleries that featured local artists, something I wanted to do, but wasn't finding the time to do so. She also listened to music I didn't. She introduced me to Kanye West, thanks to a loud sing-along of "Gold Digger" in her VW Beetle along with several of her female friends on our way to one of the nicer bars in town I never hung out in. She also introduced me to Josh Rouse.

Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc.

Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. by Jeff Tweedy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book answered, in part, a lot of questions and closed some loose threads about one of my all time favorite bands. It also gave me a fascinating and at times uncomfortably honest insight into one of my songwriters. You don’t have to love, or even like, Wilco to appreciate this book.

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Slayer's Reign in Blood

Slayer's Reign in Blood by D.X. Ferris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The 33.3 series is always hit ‘n miss, luckily this one was a hit. It gives me detailed backstory, interviews with all the important players, the relevance of the music to the genre at the time of release and going forward on future artist, and injects enough of the authors voice to provide personal insights and a unique take.

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