Reading Diary (33 1/3 Edition)
a) Double Nickels On The Dime by Michael T. Fournier
I've always really loved the idea of Continuum's 33 1/3 series of books, with each volume dedicated to a single album, but until recently I'd only gotten around to reading one, Matos's Sign O' The Times book. The last few months, though, I realized that a local record store stocks a bunch of them and started buying them up like crazy, since they're quick reads and fit in my coat pocket so pretty much anytime I'm stuck somewhere or have to kill time, I have something good to read. Plus, I was really seriously planning on pitching something for their most recent round of proposals in December, but I flaked out because I was really busy and ultimately had trouble settling on one album. But even though I'm no longer 'studying up' on the series in hopes of contributing to it (at least until the next round of pitches), they're still pretty fun. Aaaaanyway, this book is about one of my favorite albums of all time, by the Minutemen. I wasn't too wild about the way it was written, the guy's style was kinda dry and it felt like he kept making the same points over and over in kind of awkward ways, but still, it was really cool how he went through all 40-something songs on the album one by one, with a lot of Mike Watt interview commentary, it was kind of like extended liner notes. Right after I read this, I re-watched We Jam Econo on TV and man, what a fucking amazing band they were.
b) The Who Sell Out by John Dougan
This might be my favorite book in the series that I've read so far. Part of why it worked for me is that I love The Who but this album's never been one of my favorites, so it was interesting to read someone kind of making a case for why it should be. But really the guy just did a great job of putting the album in its cultural context with a lot of good research about the era. I always kind of appreciated the satirical concept of the album, but I had no idea just how it came together or how tied in it was with the pop art movement of the time, or how the whole London pirate radio thing happened and how much of the interstitials from the album were taking directly from those stations.
c) In Utero by Gillian G. Gaar
This one was kind of a light read that I didn't feel fully engaged in, partly because I feel like I've heard the story of this album a thousand times before, read Come As You Are back in the '90s, and ultimately I'm not that huge a Nirvana fan. Still, this was my first and still favorite album of theirs, and it's cool to hear how it came together in really close detail. All the interviews with various engineers and producers and sound techs kind of tracking the development of individual songs is definitely the strong suit of this one.
d) Let's Talk About Love: A Journey To The End Of Taste by Carl Wilson
I kinda have wanted to hate this book ever since it was announced. I knew it was a matter of time before 33 1/3 published a book where the author didn't actually like the album, just for the sheer novelty of it, and picking an artist like Celine Dion seemed like such an obvious easy target. That's the point of course, and after the book got just one rave review after another, I figured I should sit down and actually read it instead of just hating on the concept. And it is really quite good, an extremely thoughtful and intricate examination of the concept of "bad taste," but I can't help resenting it just because the whole point of 33 1/3 and what I like about it is the limitation of the format, the fact that it's about just one album and not an artist's entire catalog. How writers use that one album as a prism to talk about lots of other things is, of course, important, but ultimately Wilson doesn't really use the album as the prism, but the artist herself. It just feels like he chose this one because it has the Titanic song on it, but doesn't really address the album itself. I'm not quite done this one yet, but I'm almost finished, and he's still yet to really say anything about any of the other songs. I realize that's not the point, and I'm sure he does get to them to some extent, but I still kinda wish he had found some other outlet for this work. That might be pretty OCD of me, though.
I've always really loved the idea of Continuum's 33 1/3 series of books, with each volume dedicated to a single album, but until recently I'd only gotten around to reading one, Matos's Sign O' The Times book. The last few months, though, I realized that a local record store stocks a bunch of them and started buying them up like crazy, since they're quick reads and fit in my coat pocket so pretty much anytime I'm stuck somewhere or have to kill time, I have something good to read. Plus, I was really seriously planning on pitching something for their most recent round of proposals in December, but I flaked out because I was really busy and ultimately had trouble settling on one album. But even though I'm no longer 'studying up' on the series in hopes of contributing to it (at least until the next round of pitches), they're still pretty fun. Aaaaanyway, this book is about one of my favorite albums of all time, by the Minutemen. I wasn't too wild about the way it was written, the guy's style was kinda dry and it felt like he kept making the same points over and over in kind of awkward ways, but still, it was really cool how he went through all 40-something songs on the album one by one, with a lot of Mike Watt interview commentary, it was kind of like extended liner notes. Right after I read this, I re-watched We Jam Econo on TV and man, what a fucking amazing band they were.
b) The Who Sell Out by John Dougan
This might be my favorite book in the series that I've read so far. Part of why it worked for me is that I love The Who but this album's never been one of my favorites, so it was interesting to read someone kind of making a case for why it should be. But really the guy just did a great job of putting the album in its cultural context with a lot of good research about the era. I always kind of appreciated the satirical concept of the album, but I had no idea just how it came together or how tied in it was with the pop art movement of the time, or how the whole London pirate radio thing happened and how much of the interstitials from the album were taking directly from those stations.
c) In Utero by Gillian G. Gaar
This one was kind of a light read that I didn't feel fully engaged in, partly because I feel like I've heard the story of this album a thousand times before, read Come As You Are back in the '90s, and ultimately I'm not that huge a Nirvana fan. Still, this was my first and still favorite album of theirs, and it's cool to hear how it came together in really close detail. All the interviews with various engineers and producers and sound techs kind of tracking the development of individual songs is definitely the strong suit of this one.
d) Let's Talk About Love: A Journey To The End Of Taste by Carl Wilson
I kinda have wanted to hate this book ever since it was announced. I knew it was a matter of time before 33 1/3 published a book where the author didn't actually like the album, just for the sheer novelty of it, and picking an artist like Celine Dion seemed like such an obvious easy target. That's the point of course, and after the book got just one rave review after another, I figured I should sit down and actually read it instead of just hating on the concept. And it is really quite good, an extremely thoughtful and intricate examination of the concept of "bad taste," but I can't help resenting it just because the whole point of 33 1/3 and what I like about it is the limitation of the format, the fact that it's about just one album and not an artist's entire catalog. How writers use that one album as a prism to talk about lots of other things is, of course, important, but ultimately Wilson doesn't really use the album as the prism, but the artist herself. It just feels like he chose this one because it has the Titanic song on it, but doesn't really address the album itself. I'm not quite done this one yet, but I'm almost finished, and he's still yet to really say anything about any of the other songs. I realize that's not the point, and I'm sure he does get to them to some extent, but I still kinda wish he had found some other outlet for this work. That might be pretty OCD of me, though.
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