NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERBased on a decade of research and reporting--as well as access to the Replacements' key principals, Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson--author Bob Mehr has fashioned something far more compelling than a conventional band bio...

(Music Sales America). This book provides an ample background of textual and historical information about Handel's Messiah . Though it arises from the author's work involved in his own edition in vocal and full score, its relevance is by no means...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of one of the greatest artists of all time, in his own words—featuring never-before-seen photos, original scrapbooks and lyric sheets, and the exquisite memoir he...

The singer, guitarist, and songwriter—best known for his work with Wilco—opens up about his past, his songs, the music, and the people who have inspired him in this personal memoir. This ideal addition to your Wilco collection also makes a perfect gift...

A TIME Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2012A New Yorker Best Book of the YearLos Angeles Magazine's #1 Music Book of the YearThis revelatory book of music history examines what is perhaps the best known and most-popular symphony ever written—and its...

What is it about the music you love that makes you want to hear it again? Why do we crave a "hook" that returns, again and again, within the same piece? And how does a song end up getting stuck in your head? Whether it's a motif repeated throughout a...

Courtney Love has never been less than notorious. Her intelligence, ambition and appetite for confrontation have made her a target in a music industry still dominated by men. As Kurt Cobain's wife she was derided as an opportunistic groupie; as his widow...

Transformer, Lou Reed's most enduringly popular album, is described with varying labels: it's often called a glam rock album, a proto-punk album, a commercial breakthrough for Lou Reed, and an album about being gay. And yet, it doesn't neatly fit into...

By June 1993, when Washington, D.C.'s Fugazi released their third full-length album In on the Kill Taker, the quartet was reaching a thunderous peak in popularity and influence. With two EPs (combined into the classic CD 13 songs) and two albums (1990's...

Although Exile in Guyville was celebrated as one of the year's top records by Spin and the New York Times, it was also, to some, an abomination: a mockery of the Rolling Stones' most revered record and a rare glimpse into the psyche of a shrewd,...

A memoir and manifesto by a pivotal figure at the junction of rock, the avant-garde, and an ever-widening spiral of art, theater, film, and dance.For over five decades, Elliott Sharp has been engaged in a quest at once quixotic and down to earth: to take...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop and What Truth Sounds Like, and the author of Jay-Z: Made in America, the classic biography of Tupac Shakur and portrait of hip hop culture.Decades after his murder, Tupac Shakur is even...

A galvanizing history of how jazz and jazz musicians flourished despite rampant cultural exploitation The music we call “jazz” arose in late nineteenth century North America—most likely in New Orleans—based on the musical traditions of Africans, newly...

Why Jazz Happened is the first comprehensive social history of jazz. It provides an intimate and compelling look at the many forces that shaped this most American of art forms and the many influences that gave rise to jazz’s post-war styles. Rich with...

As an industry insider and pioneering post-punk musician, Vivien Goldman’s perspective on music journalism is unusually well-rounded. In Revenge of the She-Punks, she probes four themes—identity, money, love, and protest—to explore what makes punk such a...

Sleater-Kinney's 1997 album Dig Me Out is built on Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein's competing guitars, Janet Weiss's muscular rhythms, and layered vocals that teeter between an urgent, banshee-like vibrato and a lower accompaniment. Dig Me Out was...

Initially published in 1998, Patti Smith’s Complete Lyrics was a testimony to her uncompromising poetic power. Now, on the fortieth anniversary of the release of Horses, Smith’s groundbreaking album, Collected Lyrics has been revised and expanded with...

Music has been examined from multiple perspectives: as a product of human history, for example, or a product of human culture. But there is also a long tradition, intensified in recent decades, of thinking about music as a product of the human mind...

A PERFECT COMPANION READ TO THE SHOWTIME DOCUMENTARY, WU-TANG CLAN: OF MICS AND MENSelected as a Best Book of the Year by Esquire"Couldn't put it down." – Charlamagne Tha God"Mesmerizing." – Raekwon da Chef"Insightful, moving, necessary." – Shea...

The essential biography of one of music's most influential icons: Lou ReedAs lead singer and songwriter for the Velvet Underground and a renowned solo artist, Lou Reed invented alternative rock. His music, at once a source of transcendent beauty and...