Best Music History & Criticism

Here's what The Rap Year Book does: It takes readers from 1979, widely regarded as the moment rap became recognized as part of the cultural and musical landscape, and comes right up to the present, with Shea Serrano hilariously discussing, debating, and deconstructing the most important rap song year by year. Complete with infographics, lyric maps, uproarious and informative footnotes, portraits of the artists, and short essays by other prominent music writers, The Rap Year Book is both a narrative and illustrated guide to the most iconic and influential rap songs ever created. Shea Serrano is a no.

Includes words and music to each hymn Special softcover, french flap cover design Ivory paper with brown ink Jagged-edge paper, giving it a classic feel Complete with hymn index Use for devotionals, teaching illustrations, introductory remarks for song leaders and music ministers. Rob Morgan is the pastor of The Donelson Fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee, where he has served for more than thirty years.

One of the longest running clubs in American rock 'n' roll, First Avenue in Minneapolis finally gets the rock-star treatment it deserves in print. Chris Riemenschneider is longtime music critic and reporter for the Star Tribune and has contributed articles to a wide variety of newspapers and music publications.

Blaring the Cream anthem “I Feel Free,” WBCN went on the air in March 1968 as an experiment in free-form rock on the fledgling FM radio band. “Alan’s book traces WBCN’s unassuming birth from the ashes of a classical music station in 1968, through its heyday as the ‘Rock of Boston’ in the ‘70s and ‘80s, to its demise in 2009, when, Alan writes, the station was ‘drained of its blood in the consolidated radio industry of the new century.’ To recount the story, Alan interviewed most every personality involved and willing to speak on the record.”— Boston Globe.

Learn the subtle editing, arrangement, and monitoring tactics which give industry insiders their competitive edge, and master the psychological tricks which protect you from all the biggest rookie mistakes. Pick up tricks and tips from leading-edge engineers working on today's multi-platinum hits, including Michael Brauer, Serban Ghenea, the Lord-Alge brothers, Tony Maserati, Manny Marroquin, Dave "Hard Drive" Pensado, Jack Joseph Puig, Mark "Spike" Stent, Phil Tan, Andy Wallace, and many, many more . Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Mike Senior on Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio , "The 'Why The Hell' Challenge". In all these cases I've started with real-world small-studio recordings and used widely available mass-market technology to remix it to a commercial level, all without ever setting foot inside a "real" studio. If you want that kind of transformation for your music, then you can find a detailed explanation of my method in Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio . The second reason you might want to take notice of these mixing techniques, though, is that they've been drawn not only from my own professional experience, but also from more than four million words of first-hand interviews with the highest-profile engineers and producers on the planet. Amongst many other things in Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio , I try to deliver a stout kicking to the following questionable (but surprisingly pervasive) pieces of received wisdom: Indeed, the two most celebrated mixing speakers of all time, the Yamaha NS10 and the Auratone 5C Super Sound Cube, both have extremely uneven frequency-response plots, but excellent time-domain performance. Those common experiences are just the tip of the iceberg, and it's only by learning to work around the fickleness of your own hearing that you can begin to get decent mix results reliably. Corrective processing can certainly produce unmusical results, but it's important to realize that it doesn't have to, even if you're just using the editing facilities built into your software DAW. Furthermore, almost every small-studio production I've worked on sounded more musical (and became a lot easier to mix) once careful timing and tuning correction had been applied. In that case, it's much better to start with those while your ears are fresh, and while you've still got lots of mix real estate and computer CPU power to play with. In fact, a lot of the established classic reverb units sound pretty unnatural (the AMS RMX16, say, or the EMT 140 plate), but that doesn't stop them from appearing all over the current charts. I call this the "silver bullet" myth--that comforting delusion that the only thing separating your mix from the ones you hear on the radio is some single esoteric process. The malaise can almost always be traced to a whole selection of minor misjudgments that have been made at various points in the arrangement, editing, and mixing process. It doesn't matter if you have to replace the drums with samples, stuff synth pads between the guitar layers, add new backing vocals, or remove certain instruments entirely--just as long as your final product sounds great enough to make the client a happy bunny.

Millions of readers have thrilled by bestselling authors Bill O’Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln , page-turning works of nonfiction that have changed the way we read history. The iconic anchor of The O'Reilly Factor led the program to the status of the highest rated cable news broadcast in the nation for sixteen consecutive years. He holds a history degree from Marist College, a masters degree in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University, and another masters degree from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Every album and every song ever released by the Beatles - from "Please Please Me" (U.S. 1963) to "The Long and Winding Road" (U.S. 1970) - is dissected, discussed, and analyzed by two music historians in this lively, fully illustrated work. *Starred Review* This hefty gem of a book catalogs every recording released by the Beatles, in chronological order of album release. They know their stuff (Guesdon is a musician; Margotin, a music critic), and it shows—especially in the Production and Technical Details sections, where the type of equipment is named and described, recording speeds are discussed, and there is much talk of the number of takes each song required and why.

Here's what The Rap Year Book does: It takes readers from 1979, widely regarded as the moment rap became recognized as part of the cultural and musical landscape, and comes right up to the present, with Shea Serrano hilariously discussing, debating, and deconstructing the most important rap song year by year. Complete with infographics, lyric maps, uproarious and informative footnotes, portraits of the artists, and short essays by other prominent music writers, The Rap Year Book is both a narrative and illustrated guide to the most iconic and influential rap songs ever created. Shea Serrano is a no.

” — Complex “A cautionary tale that ends in triumph.” — GQ “A revelation and a welcome addition to hip-hop’s literary legacy.” — All Hip Hop. Born in rural Bessemer, Alabama, Radric Delantic Davis became Gucci Mane in East Atlanta, where the rap scene is as vibrant as the dope game. He inspired and mentored a new generation of artists and producers: Migos, Young Thug, Nicki Minaj, Zaytoven, Mike Will Made-It, Metro Boomin. In his extraordinary autobiography, the legend takes us to his roots in Alabama, the streets of East Atlanta, the trap house, and the studio where he found his voice as a peerless rapper. There are scenes from Gucci Mane’s new autobiography that seem better fit for a gripping Oscar drama than for the story of a guy who recently won his first MTV Video Music Award.” —GQ. The book provides incredible insight into one of the most influential rappers of the last decade, detailing a volatile and fascinating life . By the end, every reader will have a greater understanding of Gucci Mane, the man and the musician.” —PITCHFORK. A thorough look into the experiences that molded one of rap's most polarizing figures in recent memory.” —VICE. Through sheer grit, shrewd intelligence, and a stubborn unwillingness to be counted out, he transformed himself from a street hustler, drug dealer, and occasional strong-armed robber into a modern day Zone 6 prophet. Even while incarcerated, Gucci remained a cult hero to a generation that reached far beyond the Southern city where his influence first blossomed. His is a story of overcoming adversity, taming internal demons and rejecting the imposed labels of others." “The Autobiography of Gucci Mane, written with music journalist Neil Martinez-Belkin, quietly defies the conventions of the celebrity memoir genre; in parts, it reads like what I can only describe as pop culture poetry. In its conversational candor and the razor-sharp image it evokes of a particular era, it felt reminiscent of Patti Smith’s Just Kids.” —LITERARY HUB.

NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories is the first tell-all autobiography from one of the world's most influential and controversial punk bands. If you need a little history lesson on how all this shit started, and what the true meaning of being punk rock is, I suggest you read this book now! Classic Rock , May 2016 “Compiled in the style of Motley Crue's The Dirt , this readable and engaging account of a band who live life almost as fast as the music they play is predictably rip-roaring For being a book that spares nothing, this one is hard to beat.”. Their new book, The Hepatitis Bathtub And Other Stories , details it all and does so in true, painfully honest NOFX fashion The band held nothing back.”. NeuFutur , 4/6/16 “Surprisingly sincere Much like the band's music, which buries moments of deep political and emotional topics inside of goofy, often sophomoric humor, the book's emotive moments are buttressed by wild stories about partying on the road Even if you've never been a big fan of NOFX, the book is a refreshing honest look at a struggling independent band dead set on compromising nothing and still managing to be successful.”. Bad Feeling Magazine, 5/15/16 “With often unflinching honestly, NOFX have recounted a harrowing story that showcases the real life pain behind the band's often-obnoxious façade. In the beginning, you'll be glad these people weren't your friends, but by the end you'll wish they were A book that's impossible to put down—even if you will occasionally want to hold it at arm's length.”. Like the few great band bios, the array of experiences described in The Hepatitis Bathtub are enough to set anyone into contemplation about strength and perseverance, love and depravity, camaraderie, and a place for misfit rock and rollers in a society that to this day clings to rigid standards. Tampa Bay Times , 4/17/16 “A harrowing memoir The Hepatitis Bathtub is peopled with lunatics, sociopaths, addicts and loved ones who couldn't escape the punk abyss, with the band struggling to survive dark turns ranging from drug abuse to counterfeiting to disastrous investments to friends' deaths to, um, matricide (allegedly).”. Exclaim.ca, 4/18/16 “Tells the band's rise from shitty L.A. upstarts to the kings of pop-punk It's also teeming with the kinds of sordid tales of drunken hooliganism and abject squalor that would put Mötley Crüe to shame.”. Chapter 16, 4/20/16 “A tell-all memoir The overarching themes of the book are universal and inspiring, but on a concrete level this memoir is pretty raw Absolute candor is actually what unifies the book and makes it impossible to put down From their humble beginnings in one of the country's toughest punk scenes to superstardom, NOFX never fails to entertain.”. Nashville Scene , 4/21/16 “[A] revealing new memoir Staggering and, in some cases, heartbreaking But Hepatitis Bathtub makes it impossible to look the other way The format reads like a sweeping, intriguing conversation, but the book also has a cinematic quality, as each person recalls the same moments in time from his own perspective.”. Nashville Tennessean , 4/20/16 “Offers a no-holds-barred look at the band, as the four members—‘Fat Mike' Burkett, Aaron ‘El Jefe' Abeyta, Eric Melvin and Erik ‘Smelly' Sandin—share memories from their 30-plus years together.”. , 4/25/16 “Every bit as hilarious, disgusting and boundary-hyphen free as you'd expect from a band who've spent three decades in the punk trenches filling themselves with drugs and booze.”. New Noise , 4/12/16 “The candid demeanor of their stories mirrors the ethics the band have held all along—not always pleasant, but a direct reflection of their early DIY roots Hepatitis Bathtub covers it all. Whether a casual listener, hardcore fan, or a ‘couldn't give a fuck about NOFX' character, this book is an evolutionary tale of grimy, realistic fun worth learning to read for.”. No attempt is made to cover or smooth out any rough or hard memories, everything feels as though it has been included in the name of telling the whole story The character of each band member is meticulously presented and articulated and, after one has made it through the whole book, readers are left feeling as though they truly know them In a world where many rock bios seek to do little more than collect myths, NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories bravely stands and tells the great, unbelievable truth.”.

9, "From the New World" (composed during Dvořák's three-year stay in America), echoes the folk spirit of his native Czechoslovakia as well as American influences, and is filled with the spontaneous melodic invention, rhythmic variety, and intensity of harmony that characterize his orchestral works. The Dover edition presents both symphonic masterpieces — among the most popular works in the orchestral repertoire — reprinted from authoritative editions in one inexpensive, practical volume.