{"id":37,"date":"2015-06-13T03:37:03","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T03:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimdero.com\/?page_id=37"},"modified":"2016-12-23T22:38:11","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T22:38:11","slug":"books-and-other-projects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jimdero.com\/index.php\/books-and-other-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

All of these titles are available via my author\u2019s page at Amazon, though you really should support you local mom-and-pop bookstore<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"Blurt\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Let It Blurt<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America<\/strong>\u2019s Greatest Rock Critic<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Broadway Books, 2000)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Lester Bangs lived fast, died young, and left a beautiful body of work. Jim DeRogatis, himself a gifted writer on rock and roll, knows both of Bangs’ worlds–the music and the journalism–and has written an elegy for one of the few critics whose work is worth reading for itself, apart from its subjects.\u2014Roger Ebert<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally the great American writer gets the book he deserves. LET IT BLURT is a personal journey through the wit and the world and the ferocious spirit of Lester Bangs… DeRogatis brilliantly delivers the long-awaited biography of Bangs with an explosion and a commitment that Bangs himself would have appreciated–it reads like rock and roll.\u2014Cameron Crowe<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>LET IT BLURT tells one of the essential rock and roll stories with great affection and panache. Lester Bangs — paradigm, mystery, great writer, tragicomic presence — has been given the biography he deserves. But LET IT BLURT also manages to paint of remarkable portrait of a group of writers inventing a critical genre and immediately having it bought out from underneath them, illuminating the commodification of rebellion which became Bangs’ own great theme. A splendid book.\u2014Jonathan Lethem<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lester Bangs pounded the typewriter keys as they were the cavalry coming to the rescue–everything he wrote, from his eulogies of Elvis and John Lennon to record reviews knocked off in the middle of the night–was a forward charge. A performance artist on the page, Bangs turned rock criticism and personal soul-baring into standup comedy. Like Sam Kinison, another unclassifiable American original who died too young, he saw humor as the most honest road to salvation. Bangs’ feud with Lou Reed, his editorship of Creem, his Kerouackian writing jags, his own woozy quest to become a punk singer–all contributed to a legend that hid a real-life story waiting to be told. I recognize the Lester Bangs I knew in Jim DeRogatis’s biography (a superb piece of detective work), and see sides of him I didn’t know were there.\u2014James Wolcott<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the popular media’s short attention span caused the work of Lester Bangs to be forgotten, it would be a disaster for the entire culture of rock & roll. With this vivid and carefully researched biography, Jim DeRogatis has done everything in his power to ensure this won’t happen.\u2014Mick Farren<\/strong><\/p>\n

To those who knew him, Lester Bangs was a force of nature, “larger than life” and all such biz. For a mere book to capture the full sweep of his mind\/body at speed and at rest may be too tall an order, but Let It Blurt is a welcome stab indeed at the whole Lester thing.\u2014Richard Meltzer<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Lips\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Staring at Sound<\/strong><\/p>\n

The True Story of Oklahoma\u2019s Fabulous Flaming Lips<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Broadway Books, 2006)<\/strong><\/p>\n

An engrossing and intimate portrait of the Oklahoma-based psychedelic pop band the Flaming Lips, cult heroes to millions of indie-rock fans.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma\u2019s Fabulous Flaming Lips<\/em> traces the band\u2019s history from its earliest days playing local dives to their current status as cult kings, from ambitious noise rock to ambitious studio symphonies, and from borrowed equipment and menial jobs to state-of-the-art studios and elaborate, exuberant concerts. With enviable access to the band, Chicago-based music critic Jim DeRogatis effectively builds on the band\u2019s recent documentary, the Bradley Beesley-directed The Fearless Freaks: The Wondrously Improbably Story of the Flaming Lips<\/em>, as well as the band\u2019s own autobiographical liner notes. He incorporates a wealth of research and represents numerous points of view, remaining accessible and level-headed in the retelling.\u2014Pitchfork<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

With some rock band biographies, back story is just something to skim en route to later fame-induced decadence. With Oklahoma\u2019s Flaming Lips, it\u2019s quite the opposite. DeRogatis, the pop music critic for The Chicago Sun-Times and the author of a biography of Lester Bangs, does a nice job rendering the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s cultural dust bowl that produced these alt-rock lifers. Whether you find the Flaming Lips\u2019 noisy excursions and psychedelically embellished melodies endearing or a bit grandiose, their leader, Wayne Coyne, emerges in \u201cStaring at Sound\u201d as a fascinating character: a mid-American mix of organic capitalist, badgering colloquist and charismatic quester. DeRogatis\u2019s account of the band\u2019s early road-warrior touring echoes the D.I.Y. pattern of any band crisscrossing the country during the all-ages-club heyday of the late 80\u2019s. But his focus on Coyne results in lots of pithy quotations from a guy who had his hometown scene wired from Day 1. With an audience initially made up of Coyne\u2019s own working-class family, the Lips moved on to a large and loyal following that still comes to shows assured of big melodies, swirling guitars, bubbles, bear suits and other trip-friendly spectacles.\u2014Laura Sinagra,<\/strong> The New York Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their new CD, \u201cAt War With the Mystics,\u201d and their well-timed biography \u201cStaring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma\u2019s Fabulous Flaming Lips\u201d by Chicago pop-music critic Jim DeRogatis\u2019 marks one more artistic (and perhaps commercial) high point for the band. The Lips are one of the few experimental acts who seem to remember, and care, that the audience is listening. \u201cMystics\u201d is an invitingly freakish, downright pretty and even moving record: one part early Pink Floyd, one part the Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cPet Sounds\u201d and one part small-town science museum. It features shimmering keyboards, fuzzy psychedelic guitar and everyday found sounds – a creaking door, a beeping alarm – and the songs are tethered together with what sounds like signals from outer space.\u2014Lorraine Ali, Newsweek<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\"milkit\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Milk It!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the \u201990s<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Da Capo, 2003)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAn electrifying collection on the music of the \u201990s by the acclaimed journalist and critic who wrote dispatches from the front lines of the Alternative Nation.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Fans \u2014 and detractors \u2014 of acerbic pop music writer Jim DeRogatis may want to find a copy of Milk It!<\/em>, a collection of Dero\u2019s rantings and musings on the alternative rock explosion of the 1990s. DeRogatis, whose last book was the thrilling Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America\u2019s Greatest Rock Critic<\/em>, is a heck of a writer. DeRo\u2019s disses of the rock music elite \u2014 Smashing Pumpkins\u2019 Billy Corgan, Courtney Love, Clear Channel Entertainment and tired ol\u2019 Rolling Stone<\/em> editor Jann Wenner \u2014 are in the spirit of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. DeRo says what many writers are afraid to say for fear of falling from grace with magazine editors, labels or the reading public. (What? No more phoners with rock stars?) I don\u2019t always agree with the guy, and sure, I\u2019d be scared to sit down to lunch with DeRo, but I relish his candor, passion and spunk. I\u2019m glad he\u2019s in print and, in the way of his idol, Bangs, telling it like no other.\u2014Gina Vivinetto<\/strong>, The St. Petersburg Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

DeRogatis is not contemporary rock criticism\u2019s great gonzo journalist, gutter poet, or romantic visionary\u2014that is to say, not its Lester Bangs. But he\u2019s enthusiastically assumed the role of its most dedicated journeyman and unapologetic gadfly. And when the problem with music is that one has to settle for Stephan Jenkins instead of Lou Reed, that might be a worthy enough charge.\u2014Bob Mehr, The Chicago Reader <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEven though DeRo can sometimes be a DICK, he\u2019s only exercising his right to free speech, and ultimately he\u2019s got balls and takes on the man\u2014a lot. He can\u2019t be bought, and he\u2019s got ears.\u201d\u2014Courtney Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cJim has always taken the \u2018investigative reporter\u2019 approach to any area of exaggerated hype in music culture\u2014which usually means the bigger the egos of those being critiqued, the more fun he has pointing out their blunders. If only he could\u2019ve been around for the birth of Christ.\u201d\u2014Wayne Coyne<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"turnon\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Turn On Your Mind<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA history and critical examination of rock\u2019s most inventive genre.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Hal Leonard, 2003)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBe you a reefer-smoking square or a fluid-sniffing hipster, a transcendental simp or a wholesome mahoney who gets his kicks from secondary smoke, enlightenment awaits you in this study of what happens when guys without consciousness set out to expand their consciousness.\u201d \u2014 Nick Tosches<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"51D8365Z54L._UY250_\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally published as Kaleidoscope Eyes <\/em>by Citadel Underground, 1996.<\/strong>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Idols<\/a><\/p>\n

Kill Your Idols<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Edited by Jim DeRogatis and Carm\u00e9l Carrillo<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Thirty-five of the best rock writers of Generations X and Y each weigh in on an album that\u2019s universally considered \u201ca classic,\u201d but which they think suck<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0(Barricade Books 2004)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>A gang of Gen-X and -Y music critics slaughter sacred cows like Born to Run,<\/em> Rumours<\/em>, and Sgt. Pepper\u2019s<\/em> (\u201ca bloated and baroque failed concept album\u201d)\u2014with hilarious results. Guaranteed toinfuriate any boomer rock fan.\u2014Entertainment Weekly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes incisive, occasionally enraged and other times infuriatingly muddle-headed, \u201cKill Your Idols\u201d will promote screaming, either in agreement or disagreement… But it\u2019s only rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, right? You bought the albums. Now destroy the thing you love.\u2014The Los Angeles Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kill Your Idols<\/em> is a fun, frustrating gathering of attacks on some of rock\u2019s most revered albums. Slaughtered sacred cows range from reliables like Sgt. Pepper<\/em> and Pet Sounds<\/em> to the recently anointed OK Computer<\/em> and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot<\/em>, with a few head-scratchers (why Ram<\/em>?). Mostly, the essays are gleeful rants that give the canon, and music writing itself, several much needed blows to the ego. But the fact that only two of the 34 records are by nonwhite musicians, and one, Public Enemy\u2019s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back<\/em>, is treated with a malicious, problematic screed, suggests that the editors should have put more thought into choosing their targets. Still, what\u2019s an identity crisis without a little pain? \u2014Amy Phillips, The Village Voice<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"51QfaTyBUlL._UY250_\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sound Opinions on the Great Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll Rivalry<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Voyageur Press, 2010)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Better<\/a><\/p>\n

The Velvet Underground<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

(Voyageur Press, 2009)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Shep\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sheperd Paine<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The Life and Work of a Master Modeler and Military Historian<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

(Schiffer, 2008)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Shep Paine’s Armor Modelers Guide
\n<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

(Kalmbach, 2016)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of these titles are available via my author\u2019s page at Amazon, though you really should support you local mom-and-pop bookstore \u00a0Let It Blurt The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America\u2019s Greatest Rock Critic (Broadway Books, 2000) \u00a0Lester Bangs lived fast, died young, and left a beautiful body of work. Jim DeRogatis, himself a Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimdero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimdero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimdero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimdero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimdero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/jimdero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139,"href":"https:\/\/jimdero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37\/revisions\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimdero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}