Tag Archive for 'music'

Singer-Songwriter-Guitarist and Author Phil Circle Launches His New Book The Outback Musician’s Survival Guide 10/19

Oct ’17
19
7:00 pm

In Phil Circle’s new book The Outback Musician’s Survival Guide (Guilt By Association), he uses his 30+ years as an independent musician to shed some light on the real world of music for 99% of American musicians. Through a series of tales both whimsical and dark, reflections on the craft and the business, and admissions of his own faults, he brings a human face to a seemingly glamorous world. You’re likely to find that some of what you’ve heard about being a musician is sadly or hysterically true, and that other widely held beliefs are little more than hot air.

“Towards the end of the book, Phil says, “I don’t have some profound message.” In fact, by sharing his humanity and his failings as well as his high points, he has created a profound message. It is often in mere survival that we create greatness, although we ourselves don’t know it at the time. The touch of human grief amidst all of the adrenaline pumping adventure makes this book something of a celebration of what it means to be human.” -Sarah Jane Clarke, Beat Media, Oxford, UK

Phil Circle has written, recorded and produced eight albums of his own music and two albums of cover songs, one featuring almost entirely music by Chicago songwriters. As a writer, Phil’s work has appeared in articles for various music zines and other publications over the years, including Chicago Music Guide, Pro-Am Guide and a report on the industry for NARAS.

For more info: www.philcirclemusic.com @philcircle

Here’s the Facebook invite for this event!

Thursday, October 19th, 7pm – Free Event

Steve Miller Talks Detroit Rock City Book and Punk Rock Provocateur Tesco Vee Squawks Touch and Go

Jul ’13
26
7:00 pm

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Michigan madmen Steve Miller and Tesco Vee, veterans of the unbridled musical sounds that made the Midwest famous, appear together July 26 to talk about Miller’s new oral history, Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Five Decades of Rock ‘N Roll in America’s Loudest City (Da Capo). The two will also discuss the classic punk rock tome Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79-’83 (Bazillion Points), the 576-page monsterpiece written by TV and edited by Miller.

Steve Miller is a noted true crime author, award-winning investigative journalist, and former singer of hardcore punk legends the Fix. In Detroit Rock City, Miller spins a tale of rust belt rebellion culled from hundreds of hours spent interviewing a litany of rock titans, from Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop to Jack White and John Brannon. Miller does the walkin’ and lets the principals do the talkin’ as he creeps through 50 years  of hard rockin’ magnificence from the “Mitten.”

Tesco Vee is the irascible, ageless, iconic punk rock impresario, renaissance man, and founder of Touch and Go. His band The Meatmen continue to amaze and astound. His rapier wit will be on full display Friday.

Detroit Rock City is …A sharply edited oral history that nails most of the major players and includes the inherent contradictions in each person’s account of how history went down, it offers up that singular Detroit attitude that somehow fuses an inferiority/superiority complex into something loud, aggressive, and delightfully unique. Not to be crude, but– holy crap. – Dave DiMartino, former editor, Creem magazine

Creem may have taught me how to piss, but Touch and Go taught me how to shit. I owe my career to that magazine.”—John Brannon, Negative Approach

facebook.com/detroitrockcitybook

touchandgobook.com

Eugene S. Robinson discusses FIGHT at Quimby’s Bookstore

Jan ’08
11
6:00 pm

 

 

Friday, January 11th at 6:00 PM


FIGHT

Join Eugene S. Robinson as he reads and discusses his new book Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking. Crushing your enemies, driving them before you, and hearing the lamentations of their women? It doesn’t get any better than this.”
–Eugene Robinson, ripping off John Milius

That’s the sentiment that surges just below the surface of Eugene Robinson’s Fight – an engrossing, intimate look into the all–absorbing world of fighting. Robinson – a former body–builder, one–time bouncer, and lifelong fight connoisseur – takes readers on a no–holds–barred plunge into what fighting is all about, and what fighters live for. If George Plimpton had muscles and had been choked out one too many times––this is the book he could have written.

When Robinson and his fellow fighters mix it up, they live completely for the moment: absorbed in the feel of muscles slippery with sweat; the metallic tang of blood mingling with saliva in the mouth; the sweet, firm thud of taped knuckles impacting flesh. They fight because it feels good. They fight because they want to win. And even if they get their asses kicked, they fight because they love fighting.

Fight is part encyclopedia, part panegyric to fighting in all its forms and glory. Robinson’s narrative – told in his trademark tough–guy, stream–of–consciousness noir voice – punctuates this explanatory compendium of the fighting world. From wrestling, jiu–jitsu, boxing and muay thai to bar fighting, hand–to–hand combat, prison fighting and hockey fights, from the greatest movie fight scenes to how to throw the perfect left hook, Fight is a scene–by–scene tour of the bloody but beautiful underworld that is the art of fighting.

With his aficionado’s enthusiasm and fast–paced, addictive voice, Robinson’s Fight combines compelling text with beautiful photographs to create an illustrated book as edgy and interesting as it is gorgeous.
Eugene Robinson
Eugene Robinson has written for GQ, The Wire, Grappling Magazine, LA Weekly, Vice Magazine, Hustler, and Decibel, among many others. He has also been Editor-in-Chief of Code and EQ. He grew up in New York City, where he first understood the surreal joy of a bloody nose obtained through fighting. The 6′ 1?, 235-pound Robinson has worked in magazine publishing, film, and television. He has studied boxing, Kenpo karate, Muay Thai (mixed martial arts), wrestling, and Brazilian jiu jitsu. Robinson is also the vocalist and front man for Oxbow, a rock group-cum-fight club whose most recent album, The Narcotic Story, will be released in 2007. He lives in the San Francisco area.

The Return of Ronald Thomas Clontle

RTC on Johnny Cash:

It’s often forgotten that the Man Dressed in Black was the first country singer to tackle taboo subject matter. Look no further than “Sunday Morning Coming Down” — Cash’s recounting of an acid trip that ends in a chainsaw murder. 1957’s “Ballad of a Teenage Queen” is, as far as I know, the first song documenting the everyday trials and tribulations of a lowly transvestite. I’m looking forward to hearing what this national treasure serves up next.