READING IS FUCKINMENTAL / Jason Matthew Smith

NEW & NOTEWORTHY

New releases for the week of June 24 – July 1.

Here we are again with another round of new releases. The usual spate of warnings apply: purchase at your own risk, as I have not had a chance to check these out. Your mileage may vary. Not responsible for lost or stolen items. Consult your physician before undertaking any exercise program. Side effects include anal bleeding, insanity and death. If you wake up dead, contact your doctor immediately. And so on.

Rock Star Babylon: Outrageous Rumors, Legends, and Raucous True Tales of Rock and Roll Icons, by Jon Holmes (Plume, released June 24)

Looks to be something like 288 pages of Ozzy Osbourne-esque tales of gnawing the heads off small mammals, imbibing too much (of anything … food, sex, dope, Tide bleach, etc.) and then laughing about it: “Ha ha. Boy was I fucked up that time I killed a hooker and dumped her body in a ravine south of Las Vegas. The music was great, though. Good times.” Seriously, haven’t we seen and heard this kind of stuff somewhere before? Oh, yeah, on just about every washed-up-celeb reality show and VH-1 retrospective of the past decade. Still, if you can’t get enough naughty rock n’ roller material to fill your otherwise meaningless existence, this may be the book for you.

Counterculture Kaleidoscope: Musical and Cultural Perspectives on Late Sixties San Francisco, by Nadya Zimmerman (University of Michigan Press, released June 28)

What the hell is going on? We’ve been hit by a spate of books analyzing the late 1960s and its music/culture, presumably because 40 years have passed since the era choked on its own vomit and died. In another 40 years, will publishers be cranking these things out because it’s the “80^th anniversary”? I’ll be too old to give a shit. Nonetheless, Zimmerman’s book is an “academic” look at the movement, with her main points being: a) the “hippie” movement of the era was, in fact, an organized rebellion; and b) contemporary critics and culture have tarnished the whole shebang by commercializing 1960s clichés to create a crass “hip consumerism.” In other words, you’re a fake and a fuckface because you’ve got that shitty tie-dye shirt you bought at Target.

’Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky: Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child, by David Henderson (Atria, released July 1)    

Initially published in ’78, this book is regarded as one of the best biographies of Hendrix. Henderson is an old-guard “New Journalist,” and his prose hums like a high-tension power line. This re-release reportedly includes information previously unavailable to Henderson when he was first putting the book together. Should be a good one.

Jason Matthew Smith is a Texan who never developed an accent, thanks to a steady diet of television reruns during his formative years. He now lives in Utah, where everyone thinks he sounds just like John Astin, the original Gomez Addams.