If you and I are officially Internet friends — and by that I mean we’re connected via Facebook — it’s likely you saw an exciting status update I shared yesterday. No, it wasn’t the April Fools joke I played on my sister where I added an important “Life Event” officially terminating our brother/sister relationship. It was a photograph of the Jerry Solomon entry I helped contribute for an upcoming coffee table book called Enjoy The Experience: Homemade Records 1958-1992.
Edited by Johan Kugelberg, Paul Major and Michael P. Daly, Enjoy The Experience is the first ever major work detailing the history of American private press records. As you all know, this is a realm of American music that I am extremely fascinated by, and endlessly trying to share with the masses. If you’ve ever downloaded a self-produced, self-released record from this blog (be it by Jr. and His Soulettes, or Dana Westover, Tres & Kitsy, or Paul Levinson, or any of the dozens of albums I’ve promoted in this space) you’ll want to order a copy of this book.
How to define a private press record? Well, I happen to like the description used by the book’s publisher, Sinecore Books: “An endless stream of psych-rock hopefuls, Holiday Inn Elvises, pizza parlor organists, funk bands aspiring to become to JBs, high school bands performing all of Jesus Christ Superstar, cult leaders who never found the right cult, jazz bands inspired to fore a new stream all sincerely hoped to become stars, they committed themselves to record, and they left themselves vulnerable to an industry no understanding of nuance, not appreciative of character. This is not a gathering of kitsch and novelty, though: the records cataloged in Enjoy The Experience are funkier, more psychedelic, more idiosyncratic and more emotionally rewarding than the mainstream music product it aspired to be.”
If you pre-order the book from Sinecure, not only will you receive the product itself…all pre-orders include a unique slipcase for the book, a fold-out poster, a facsimile clear vinyl 7″ manual on “How To Make Your Own Record,” and a free download card featuring dozens of the most amazing artists featured in the book. Furthermore, you can purchase a companion double LP and CD anthology that’s been pressed by Now-Again Records. It’s entirely worth the price — not only because you’re getting a whopping TWO PAGES I helped contribute, but because you’ll be supporting artists that deserve the recognition they never received when these albums were produced. My (and hopefully yours as well) enjoyment of these private press records often comes at the expense of the artists. When only hundreds of copies of records are made, the artists never profit. And more often than not we hear the music via ancillary media (MP3s, CDrs, etc.). Downloads do not often translate into success for those who have struggled to bring their music to the masses. But hopefully if enough people show support for this important — yet marginalized — thread in the fabric of American musical history, more of the artists will have the chance to reissue their albums in greater numbers, thus reaching and even larger audience.
That makes sense, right? I’ve been drinking non-stop for the past five hours and, honestly, I’m having a hard time telling if what I’m saying is getting through and making some semblance of sense.
To pre-order Enjoy The Experience: Homemade Records 1958-1992, please click here.
Don’t do it for me (I literally get nothing out of it other than a credit I can put on my writing resume), do it for the artists whose music you’ve enjoyed on this blog for the past few years.
Better yet, order two. I mean…it’s a fucking coffee table book. There’s a ton of pictures, the topic is music…pretty much anyone who receives a copy is going to appreciate it.
Michael Fitzgerald – Brand New Day [MP3]
