The vast and surreal musical catalog of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, once unknown to all but a small circle of friends and peers on the early-2000s LA freak scene, has grown tremendously in listenership and notoriety, becoming both a touchstone for the era and an acknowledged influence on our weirdo pop present. But while the tunes have been canonized, criticized, and endlessly dissected, the unique circumstances leading to their creation remain mysterious. Now, on the heels of the Ariel Archives set of comprehensive reissues undertaken by Mexican Summer, Untitled APHG Book sets out to tell the unvarnished story of the Haunted Graffiti era in scrapbook form. Drawing from a massive trove of documentation and ephemera as well as archival interviews and reflections from friends, witnesses, and collaborators, the book is a document of relentless creative pursuit--and a celebration of the fertile and undersung artistic community that fed one of the most singular musical projects of the new century.

At seventeen, Bobby Rydell was the face of American Bandstand -- the kid from Italian South Philly with the smoothest voice, the highest pompadour, and the sweetest smile. And there were those hits: "Wild One," "Volare," and "Forget Him," to name a few. He was far more than just a teen idol. Bobby's voice and boy next door charm earned him a spot singing, acting, and dancing with Ann-Margret in the film adaptation of the hit musical comedy, Bye Bye Birdie. His comedic talents made him a nighttime fixture during the golden age of TV variety shows, and his phrasing and musicianship led to dozens of headlining gigs in the casino showrooms of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Frank Sinatra anointed him as his favorite pop singer of the early '60s. But early success took a toll on his life. Bobby Rydell's brutally honest street corner narrative evolved during an eighteen-month collaboration with Allan Slutsky, the award-winning author and producer of the widely acclaimed book and documentary film, Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Inspiring, gut-busting, and, at times, heartbreaking, Teen Idol On The Rocks gives you a front row seat to the turbulent, six decade journey of one of rock and roll's earliest, and most celebrated teen idols.

Alex is an awkward, introverted child growing up in 1970s Berkeley, California - a confusing vortex of shifting values, rampant drug use and social confusion. Misunderstood by his family and taunted mercilessly by classmates, he suffers from a paralyzing lack of confidence and low self-esteem. His existence is made tolerable when he discovers a superhero-like rock band, KISS, which inspires him to learn the guitar. While in high school, he auditions for Legacy - a group of hard partying, working class, twenty-something metalheads from the East Bay suburbs. After recording his first album with the group at age eighteen, he defies his Ivy League parents' rigid academic expectations by forgoing college and hitting the road with metal bands including Slayer, Megadeth, White Zombie and Judas Priest. As his own band, now known as Testament, rises through the ranks of thrash metal, the world begins to take notice of the young guitar prodigy who, despite being fawned over by autograph-seeking metalheads, guitar fanatics and adoring female fans, still feels the pain, awkwardness and ghosts of his past. Soon, a blooming interest in jazz and literature reshapes his values and strengthens his musicianship, bringing further accolades from fans and media but causing resistance and tension from within his inner circle. These experiences cause a realization to unfold: that the scene in which he had first sought his freedom and self-identity is fraught with its own perilous limitations, while the education he'd so fiercely resisted from his family can be invaluable when sought on one's own terms.

Two companion pieces released in one volume, containing selected writing and tour journal entries from 1988-1992.

This book is a more personal history than has ever before been written by or about Marianne Faithfull. Anecdotal, conversational, intimate and revealing, this is her no-holds-barred account of her life, her friends, her triumphs and mistakes. A decade after the publication of ‘Faithfull’, one of the most acclaimed rock autobiographies of all time, Marianne Faithfull is back, vowing periodically leave her wicked ways behind and grow up, but finding that somehow strange things keep happening. A wry observer of her slightly off-kilter world, Marianne muses nostalgically about afternoons languishing on Moroccan cushions at George and Pattie's, getting high and listening to new songs. She fondly recalls the outlandish antics of her Beat friends Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs; is frequently baffled at her image in the press (opening the paper to read of her own demise: 'Sixties Star in Death Plunge'); terrified by the curse sent by Kenneth Anger; mortified by her history of reckless behaviour; not to mention her near-death experience in Singapore while looking for an opium den. Marianne peoples her anecdotal memoir with legendary characters one can imagine only Marianne assembling around her, both the eccentric and the beautiful, from Henrietta Moraes and Donatella Versace to Sofia Coppola, Juliette Greco, and Yves St. Laurent's dog. Here is Marianne on the dark side of the sixties and the bright side of the nineties, which saw her collaborating with the likes of Blur and Jarvis Cocker; compelling recollections of an unconventional childhood in her father's orgiastic literary commune to a hilariously decadent few days at Lady Caroline Blackwood's deathbed. Here she is her blossoming movie career, on her records as subliminal autobiography. This is as intimate a portrait as we've ever had of Marianne, as she meditates on sex and drugs, confronts her alter-ego, the Fabulous Beast, and faces her own mortality in her battle with breast cancer. Since her last book Marianne has, in her own words, 'made quite a few records, gone on many tours, tried to play it straight, and... Well, the rest is the subject of this book.'

For over fifty years, in radio, on multiple stages, in scores of movie soundtracks, and tête-à-tête performances with the rich and famous, Artie Kane's music has touched and inspired millions of people. His memoir is the story of a pianist, film composer, and conductor whose credits span the industry and reveal the enduring bond between a gifted musician, his piano, and the people who crowd around it. Music to My Years captures the romantic as well as the rough-hewn and unrelentingly perfectionist sides of the world of professional entertainment. For the love of music, and in quest of love through eight marriages, Artie reimagines his dreams, and with characteristic candor and acerbic wit, proves that the American landscape thrives as a place for misfits who follow their dreams to success. Music to My Years is also the story of the ever-changing world of professional entertainment, told by an artist whose talents helped to define the transformative era. This memoir will delight and inform lovers of music, fans of Hollywood culture and films, and devotees of TV shows of the last five decades. This story will resonate with anyone who has pursued a dream or struggled to find true love.

The ultimate showbiz insider's expose, HOWLING AT THE MOON, is the wildly entertaining and brilliantly narrated autobiography of Walter Yetnikoff, head of CBS Records during its heyday in the 1980s, and then the most powerful man in the music industry. Yetnikoff knew most of the stars and embraced all the excesses of this era: he was mentor to Streisand, father confessor to Michael Jackson, shared a mistress with Marvin Gaye and came to blows with Mick Jagger. He feuded with David Geffen and outmanoeuvred Rupert Murdoch. He was also addicted to cocaine and alcohol - until his doctor gave him just 3 months to live. Yetnikoff came from a working- class Jewish family from Brooklyn; he graduated from law school in the 1950s and proceeded to climb the corporate ladder to the very top. His high-flying ended in breakdown, but throughout his rise and fall, Yetnikoff remained a man of huge charisma and disarming charm. HOWLING AT THE MOON is written with David Ritz, the only 4-time winner of the Ralph J Gleason Music Book award, who has collaborated on the autobiographies of such stars as Ray Charles, BB King, Aretha Franklin and Etta James.

“Arthur Rubinstein was a seventh child—gifted not only with the extraordinary talent we all listened to but also with one of the totaller recalls which makes possible this easy, expansive memoir of his years into World War I but also and especially a very happy nature which makes itself manifest throughout. ... These are his 'young years'—resilient and outgoing and full of his musical, social and romanticissimo activities.”—Kirkus Reviews “My Young Years remains a classic autobiography in the grand manner. Unlike the memoirs that now crowd the bookshelves, exercises in self-administered therapy in which narcissistic narrators of no apparent accomplishment whine ad nauseam about real or imagined angst, this is an exuberant account of what Rubinstein calls, in his brief foreword, 'the struggles, the mistakes, the adventures, and ... the miraculous beauty and happiness of my young years.' His was a life lived to the full, with triumphs and disappointments galore, and by the time he reached his 80s and began to write this book, Rubinstein had such great stature that his story virtually commanded readers' attention.”—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post *** Arthur Rubinstein was a Polish American classical pianist who played in public for eight decades. He received international acclaim for his performances of music written by a variety of composers, and many regard him as the greatest Chopin interpreter of his time. He was described by The New York Times as one of the most gifted pianists of the twentieth century. My Young Years is Rubinstein’s book of personal recollections, providing a record of his life and creative development from his childhood days in Poland to the years of World War I. This edition contains 37 illustrations as well as a foreword and an afterword from the author. With his uncanny memory, with his unsurpassed gift as raconteur, the adored maestro of the piano at last tells the story of his life—the adventures, the struggles, the amours, the mishaps, and the triumphs—from his birth in Lodz in a large, complex Polish-Jewish family (they would have been happier if little Arthur had taken to the much more “distinguished” violin), to his education among strangers in musical Berlin, to his visit to Switzerland (to be displayed to the Great God Paderewski), to the first concerts, the first (of many) loves, and the first triumphant tours. By the close of the book, the world is deep in its first Great War, and Arthur deep in his great career—perhaps the greatest, in music, of our century. Here are the places—each new city an adventure—from Warsaw, Berlin, and Paris to St. Petersburg, Vienna, Rome, London, New York (where Rubinstein awoke his first morning to find himself front-page news for reasons far from musical), and Madrid. And here are the people: Josef Hofmann, already adored in America; the young giant Chaliapin, overflowing with animal vitality; the notorious critic Monsieur Willy and his wife (in hair ribbons) Colette—she teasingly urged the young pianist to disaster his first time at roulette; the reputedly terrifying Saint-Saëns; Stravinsky, Casals, Koussevitzky, Diaghilev, Picasso ... In story after wonderful story Rubinstein brings us into the presence of the great, the near great, the once-great, the teachers gentle or tyrannical, the family, the fascinating circles of friends, who populated his Young Years. Rubinstein’s life and music have been illuminated with a radiant energy, a magic that could have only sprung from a gargantuan love of life. His book—bursting with anecdote, information, opinion, with life—is a testament to that great gift.

With his dynamic on-air personality and his trademark cry of "Burn, baby! BURN!" when spinning the hottest new records, Magnificent Montague was the charismatic voice of soul music in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. In this memoir Montague recounts the events of his momentous radio career, which ran from the era of segregation to that of the civil rights movement; as he does so, he also tells the broader story of a life spent in the passionate pursuit of knowledge, historical and musical. Like many black disc jockeys of his day, Montague played a role in his community beyond simply spreading the music of James Brown, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and other prominent artists. Montague served as an unofficial spokesman for his black listeners, reflecting their beliefs and acting as a sounding board for their concerns. Montague was based in Los Angeles in 1965 when the Watts rioters seized on his incendiary slogan, turning the shout of musical appreciation into a rallying cry for racial violence. In Burn, Baby! BURN! Montague recalls these tumultuous times, including the personal struggle he faced over whether to remain true to his listeners or bend to political pressure and stop shouting his suddenly controversial slogan. Since the mid-1950s Montague had also expressed his passion for African American culture by becoming a zealous collector of artifacts of black history. He has built a monumental collection, taking time out from his collecting to become only the second African American to build his own radio station literally from the ground up. A compelling account of a rich and varied life, Burn, Baby! BURN! gives an insider's view of half a century of black history, told with on-the-air zest by the DJ/historian who was there to see it unfold.

During the golden years of the; 50's 60's and 70's, Carl Davis, was one of Chicago's hottest music producers and record executives to ever blaze the trails of Chicago's renowned Record Row. This action packed memoir chronicles his rise to prominence and power in a dazzling yet cut-throat music business where only the strongest survived. Mastering the art of cutting a deal to the artistry of cutting wax, Davis' visionary leadership helped forge the legendary Chicago-Sound. From the stage of Chicago's famed Regal Theatre to the bright lights of concert venues throughout the world, his artists were some of the brightest stars of our time. No longer an unsung hero, this autobiography punctuates the tireless efforts and the timeless contributions of one of America's greatest music producers and record company executives. To many he was a friend, to others a businessman, but to his artists and fans throughout the world - he is and will always be - the man behind the music.

In a tribute to the great musical loves of his life, the popular musician and performer tells the story of his legendary career as America's favorite interpreter of classical popular music and his love affair with Tin Pan Alley and friendship with Ira Gershwin. Reprint.

"A rapturous, witty, and passionate memoir ... Violin Dreams is not only the story of a man becoming an artist, it’s a history of twentieth-century music.” -- John Guare, Tony Award-winning playwright Arnold Steinhardt, for more than forty years an international soloist and the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet, brings warmth, wit, and fascinating insider details to the story of his lifelong obsession with the violin, that most seductive and stunningly beautiful instrument. His story is rich with vivid scenes: the terror inflicted by his early violin teachers, the sensual pleasure involved in the pursuit of the perfect violin, the charged atmosphere of high-level competitions. Steinhardt describes Bach’s Chaconne as the holy grail for the solo violin, and he illuminates, from the perspective of an ardent owner of a great Storioni violin, the history and mysteries of the renowned Italian violinmakers. Violin Dreams includes a remarkable CD recording of Steinhardt performing Bach’s Partita in D Minor as a young violinist forty years ago and playing the same piece especially for this book. A conversation between the author and Alan Alda on the differences between the two performances is included in the liner notes.

Joseph Epstein demonstrates time and again his talent for taking nearly any subject and polishing it into a gem of sparkling wit and fascination. In Narcissus Leaves the Pool, he displays his signature verve and charm in sixteen agile, entertaining pieces. Among his targets in this collection are name-dropping, talent versus genius, the cult of youthfulness, and the information revolution.

Although A.B. Marx is not often acknowledged as such, he remains Western music's single most influential theorist, as the person who gave Sonata Form its name and codified its elements. Above a certain level of proficiency, there is not a single musician in the Western Classical tradition who does not know Sonata Form: they know Marx's legacy, if not his name. Further awareness of Marx as a man is especially important. The naming of Sonata form, and the discussion of its elements, was invested with convictions about music that Marx was among the very first to hold, and which we continue to value: for instance, that a composer's formal choices are not made just by convention, but with intention, and that the way in which a work unfolds is itself meaningful; or that music of any era reflects the aesthetic priorities of its age. Those convictions, in turn, spring from Marx's vigorous intellectual engagement with the world around him, its thinkers, its writers, and its politics. This translation provides a unique opportunity to read Marx in his own words. His Recollections from My Life were published in 1865, Marx's last book to appear during his lifetime, and have not been republished either in the German original, nor in any translation. Our translation with annotation and commentary will make available to English-readers this important view of music in Germany during the time of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and other familiar names from the concert hall.