Conch Records
BOOK: I Believe You Are A Star by Peter McLennan
Available from Conch here, Book Launch at Conch Saturday May 25th from 3pm
I BELIEVE YOU ARE A STAR is a collection of magazine interviews written between 1992 and 2003 by Peter McLennan. He talked to locals just starting their recording careers (P-Money, Stellar, SJD, Black Seeds), through to established artists (Salmonella Dub, Shayne Carter, Bailter Space). They are fascinating insights of where these artists were at, and provide a look into their creative process.
The book launch will be held at Conch Records, 115a Ponsonby rd, from 3pm, Saturday May 25th, with special all-NZ vinyl DJ set from Dylan C. Books on sale on the day - first 25 copies come with a free mix CD of recordings mentioned in the book. Read about the artists and listen to them at the same time!
Before starting his blog Dubdotdash in 2003, Peter was a freelance magazine journalist for a handful of magazines, including Real Groove, North and South, NZ Musician, Rip It Up, Pavement, Selector, Planet, Lava and Stamp. This collection of interviews draws together some of the articles he wrote and is focussed on local musicians, DJs and artists.
There's some interesting threads in these interviews, like Stellar discussing their sizeable album budget and comparing it to what Straitjacket Fits or JPSE got, then Fiona McDonald having a similar conversation round her album budget, citing JPSE and Stellar.
There's Tigilau Ness (Che Fu’s dad) talking about how he got sent to prison after the 1981 Springbok tour protests, which is a pretty heavy story. Tigilau got chucked out of school for refusing to cut his afro, how staunch is that?
Or Shayne Carter, explaining why he didn’t want to send out advance copies of his debut album as Dimmer (after making me sit with him in the Sony boardroom and listen to the album in its entirety), and me suggesting that if I’d had the album before the interview, I could've written some pertinent questions. To which Shayne replied with words to the effect of “Oh, I didn’t think of that.”
Peter says “I got to meet some fascinating people writing these pieces. I feel very lucky to have met them - that’s part of the reason why I got into magazine writing. I wanted to meet these creative people and find out their process, and they turned out to be people I’d want to meet anyway.”
Other interviews include... SJD, Pitch Black, Sola Rosa, HDU, Darcy Clay, Graffiti art in Aotearoa: DLT, Otis Frizzell & Dan Tippett, Roger Perry, Dawn Raid, Kog Transmissions, Subliminals, Solid Gold Hell, Weta, Hinewehi Mohi, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Phase 5, Jakob, DJ Sir-Vere and the ITF DJ champs • PLUS: articles on the Aotearoa Hiphop Summit 2001 (and a NZ hiphop timeline), and the state of NZ music videos in 1992, and 1999.
Peter McLennan is a writer, musician, DJ, graphic designer, blogger and pop culture fiend, based in Auckland, New Zealand. The book is published independently by Dunbar Noon Publishing, thru the print on demand service, Createspace (book/e-book). Book design by Peter McLennan. RRP $20.00.
BOOK: Hip Hop: A Cultural Odyssey
Available for pre-order via info@conch.co.nz
This colossal 420 page leather-bound collection includes hundreds of poster-sized photographs, exclusive testimonials from your favorite DJs, MCs, Graffiti Artists, B-Boys and Producers plus unique profiles of iconic game changers written by Hip-Hop's most respected journalists and authors.
BOOK: Enjoy The Experience – Homemade Records 1958-1992
Available Here
Enjoy The Experience is the largest collection of American private press vinyl ever amassed and presented, featuring over one thousand cover reproductions from 1958-1992. It is the seventh major book release by Johan Kugelberg, the author and editor behind The Velvet Underground: New York Art, Born In The Bronx and Punk: An Aesthetic (Rizzoli), True Norwegian Black Metal (Vice), Brad Pitt’s Dog (Zero Books) and Beauty Is In The Street: A Visual Record of the May ’68 Paris Uprising(Four Corners).
The subjects of Enjoy The Experience range from Lesbian Folk singers to Psychedelic Disco bands; Awkward Teen Pop combos to Pizza Parlor Organists; Religious Cult Leaders to Swank Sinatra Imitators. But this is not a novelty freak show: also profiled and discussed are some of the most highly regarded rock, soul, jazz, funk and singer/songwriter albums from the latter half of the twentieth century. From the awkward-yet-talented to the genius-yet-bizarre, one thing unites all musicians presented here: they sincerely hoped to become stars, they committed themselves to record, and they left themselves vulnerable to an industry not understanding of nuance, not appreciative of character.
Enjoy The Experience begins when the custom pressed American record plant came into existence and ends, largely, with the birth of the CD. As such, it is a snapshot of America in the second half of the twentieth century and manages to collate a bevy of tales and albums released by the brave souls who took the plunge and committed their musical vision to wax in the fifty states between the years of 1958 and 1992. Enjoy The Experience details a forceful American cultural experience that stands in juxtaposition to the mainstream even as its creators attempted to infiltrate it.
Enjoy The Experience includes an introduction by editor Johan Kugelberg, a lengthy overview by legendary rare record dealer Paul Major, along with commentaries, hundreds of reviews and over fifty biographies by noted enthusiasts and collectors like Gregg Turkington, Will Louviere, Brandan Kearney, Geoffrey Weiss, Jack Streitman, Eothen Alapatt, Rich Haupt and Mike Ascherman. It is presented as a hard cover visual catalogue, highlighting the graphic elements of the LPs and comes with a download card for twenty of the greatest private press songs culled from the book.
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