Pretty Vacant

Traces the history of punk music from its underground roots to the mainstream charts, from Britain to the U.S., including bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, and the Talking Heads, and figures such as Sid Vicious and Iggy Pop.

The only thing better than one boring building is hundreds of them. Far from the glamorous and avant-garde architectural features that make Los Angeles justifiably famous are the humble apartment buildings known as "dingbats." But Pretty Vacant dares to elevate the low-rise, the boxy, the not remarkably well-constructed to the architecturally sublime. In this inexpensive brick of a book, through scads of photographs of these underappreciated gems, their boundless surfacey charms are soon obvious. Combining funky textures, streamlined sconces, and future-retro ornamentation, these buildings practically define LA vernacular in their optimistic mix of mid-century modishness and darling details. Clive Piercy's photographs provide a streetside glimpse into the curious lives of these buildings, with charming names that range from the regal (Kings Studios) to the space-age (The Galaxie). Assembled in a compact but weighty package with more than 480 images, Pretty Vacant provides a snapshot tour and kitschy homage to this underdog architectural form.

"With Audiotopia, Kun emerges as a pre-eminent analyst, interpreter, and theorist of inter-ethnic dialogue in US music, literature, and visual art. This book is a guide to how scholarship will look in the future--the first fully realized product of a new generation of scholars thrown forth by tumultuous social ferment and eager to talk about the world that they see emerging around them."--George Lipsitz, author of Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture "The range and depth of Audiotopia is thrilling. It's not only that Josh Kun knows so much-it's that he knows what to make of what he knows."--Greil Marcus, author of Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century "The way Josh Kun writes about what he hears, the way he unravels word, sound, and power is breathtaking, provocative, and original. A bold, expansive, and lyrical book, Audiotopia is a record of crossings, textures, tangents, and ideas you will want to play again and again."--Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

Music is performed, reproduced, and heard differently today as a result of twentieth-century technology. A new consideration of these changes is a practical and cultural necessity. In Conditions of Music, Alan Durant extends Deryck Cooke's Language of Music, placing the insights of Cooke into a much wider sociological and historical framework. Conditions of Music provides a basis for detailed commentary and criticism of music. Unlike literature and painting, around which illuminating critical techniques and theories have developed, little common ground exists for music criticism. The appraisal argument adopted here implies a major revision of accepted ways of thinking about contemporary directions of music.

This edition of The Little Black Songbook presents the complete lyrics and chords to a huge collection of the biggest Seventies hits! This handy chord songbook is perfect for any aspiring guitarist, ideal for group singalongs, a spot of busking or simply to explore the music of the era in all its beauty. This little book includes: - All The Young Dudes [Mott The Hoople] - American Girl [Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers] - Another Girl, Another Planet [The Only Ones] - Baker Street [Gerry Rafferty] - Band Of Gold [Freda Payne] - Don’t Stop [Fleetwood Mac] - In The Summertime [Mungo Jerry] - Jamming [Bob Marley & The Wailers] - Jet [Wings] - Layla [Derek & The Dominos] - Lean On Me [Bill Withers] - Let’s Stay Together [Al Green] - Lola [The Kinks] - My Sharona [The Knack] - New Rose [The Damned] - No More Heroes [The Stranglers] - Pretty Vacant [The Sex Pistols] - Roxanne [The Police] - Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting [Elton John] - Teenage Kicks [The Undertones] - Tumbling Dice [The Rolling Stones] And many more!

A cult classic in a new edition. This book is about a single, serpentine fact: late in 1976 a record called 'Anarchy in the UK' was issued in London, and this event launched a transformation of pop music all over the world. The song distilled, in crudely poetic form, a critique of modern society once set out by a small group of Paris intellectuals. In Lipstick Traces, Greil Marcus's classic book on punk, Dadaism, the situationists, medieval heretics and the Knights of the Round Table (amongst others), the greatest cultural critic of our times unravels the secret history of the twentieth century.