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We haven’t done one of these in a while. Here’s your chance to see how the books are stacking up against each other, in terms of global sales. Of the new titles, the Paul’s Boutique book is off to the best start. I’m still puzzled by the (relatively) low standing of the books on R.E.M., […]

Carl Wilson’s 2007 book about Celine Dion is causing a little bit of friction already. You can read Carl’s own post on the subject here, and there are plenty of links and comments attached to that to keep you going for a while longer. I don’t want to say anything about this book until Carl

I can’t say enough good things about the Dogbox Records compilation CD, Blue Skies Up: Welcome to the New Pop Revolution. If you want to buy it (for a measly 8 quid), you can do so here. Trust me on this, there’s hardly a clunker on the whole damn thing. Sixteen songs, all by bands

There was an interesting piece on the series by Jim DeRogatis, author of the excellent recent Flaming Lips book, in yesterday’s Chicago Sun-Times, which you can read here. In other Chicago news, Nicholas Rombes (author of our Ramones book and of our future publication The Punk Rock Encyclopedia) wrote to tell me of the series

Just a reminder that you now have exactly a month to submit an entry for our writing contest – if you’re under 21 years of age. The winning essay will appear in our forthcoming book 33 1/3 Greatest Hits, Volume 1 – publishing in October. We’ve had a handful of entries already, but it would

Franklin Bruno, author of our excellent Elvis Costello book, has written one of the best pieces I’ve read so far about Grant McLennan. The piece, on Moistworks, comes with 4 songs to download, and you can link to it here. But here’s the main text of it, without the MP3s. *** As many readers already

Received a cracking manuscript yesterday from John Dougan, on Sell Out by the Who. We’ll be publishing this in September, but here’s an unedited preview for you… *** In 1967, Peter Blake, the most celebrated and successful of the four artists featured in Ken Russell’s Pop Goes the Easel, made a spectacular leap into the

I enjoyed David Yaffe’s piece in Slate today, reproduced here: The State of the Dylan AddressAn annual tradition.By David Yaffe Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress, readers of Slate, distinguished Fraysters, fellow citizens. Sixty-five years ago today, our Dylan was busy being born. He’s older than that now. As he becomes a contender

Here’s a short passage from Mike McGonigal’s book about Loveless, coming in September… *** The most radical changes in pop music occur with shifts that might appear really minor from the outside but actually represent huge leaps. Often, it’s as simple as one tool being used for something it was never intended for, as with

Got back from Book Expo in DC yesterday. Considering it was the first time Continuum had taken a booth there for a few years (hence, they quite reasonably gave us a crappy spot in the massive exhibit hall), it went very well. Met lots of people, handed out lots of freebies, got lavished with food