Bücher

Notes: Until we have a feature film in which Bill Callahan's words are spoken by the true and deep characters who exist within the songs, the best format will be this lyric book - wait, no, the best format will always be the albums featuring the songs, since they are sung by Bill Callahan, the author and singer, in his own inimitable and completely individual fashion. I Drive a Valence, however, which spans two decades of Smog/Bill Callahan songs, is a fairly unforgettable look-see; in fact, it's a definitive-yet-concise trip through the mirror, collecting the lyrics to 70 songs and pairing them with 116 dreamy ink-wash images by the man himself.

The nuances and ambiguities within plain-spoke expression are at the exquisite center of Callahan's gift, and the plain fact of words on paper nails them down in a concrete fashion that signals eternity somehow more concretely than sounds in the air can conjure.

I Drive a Valence does this for the listener - makes him/her a reader, while putting Bill Callahan's songs on another shelf where they sit just as entirely as they do on LP shelves around the world.

Notes: If we are somewhat over-inundated with rock biographies right now, then you can trust The Red Krayola's Mayo Thompson to come up with something different. The second part of his 'After Math' series sees us catch up with a plot to smuggle a small erotic bronze out of Tirana and the subsequent plot twists and red herrings are as unexpected and bewildering as any The Red Krayloa recording.

Notes: Calling all parents lost in Kids Book Land! Gabba Gabba, We Accept You is a children's picture book telling the story of a misfit kid who grew up to be a punk rock hero. The challenging times that Jeffrey Ross Hyman endured before becoming Joey Ramone speak to young folks navigating the complexities of growing up, via teachable punk stuff: being your own person with your own compass, embracing uniqueness, etc. Jay Ruttenberg & Lucinda Schreiber light the tale righteously with plain-spoken language, lyrical design and colorful illustrations, finding unexpected depths on every page.

About the inspiration for this book, Jay says,

"My daughter just turned 11, so I've spent recent years in children's book land. I think I've read her 97 books about Abraham Lincoln and 12,984 about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It occurred to me that a lot of the life lessons I've been trying to teach her weren't learned through my family or school, but through punk stuff: the importance of being your own person, following your own radar instead of a group's, embracing uniqueness, etc. The Ramones, and in particular Joey, seemed like the perfect embodiment of that. So my big hope for the book is that it tells the story of Joey Ramone, but also, in kind of the biggest way, of what punk rock means, and how it might help a little kid wade through difficult social waters and be their own unique person."

Gabba Gabba We Accept You speaks in well-grounded and wise verbal and visual language to inform and affirm children - young ones and the adult children alike - that their individual personalities have an inspired and inspiring place in the world. In the process of becoming and being a person, there's no one set of rules. The sooner we all know that, the sooner we'll find ourselves in a much better place.