The Distinguished Locals Shoppe

New!: The Lawn What is the sound of ...

'The Delmarva peninsula. Asbury Park, New Jersey. Hermiston, Oregon.
Love, Steely Dan, The Butthole Surfers, Autechre.
Since 1999 Portland, Oregon's "The Lawn" have been baffling themselves.
They decided to share.
"What is the sound of..." is a question they refuse to answer in words.
4 chords are never enough.
A Zen Koan of craftsmanship, honed in obscurity. 14 songs.
Languid, fluid, angular, uptight.
Disparate elements kiss (metaphorically) in a wood paneled basement. Heavy meadow. The Lawn.'

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Screenname: Winter Rates
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Chris Goode No Son House (Barque Press)

'A new book of poetry and writings by Chris Goode, who has been described by The Guardian as "one of the most exciting talents working in Britain today". Since 2001 he has been Artistic Director of camden peopleís theatre, and also Associate Director with Unlimited Theatre, which was awarded a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2001, for the show Neutrino. In 2002 he won a second Fringe First for his one-person show Kiss of Life, which previewed at cpt before its run at Pleasance Dome. And in 2003 he took his production of Napoleon in Exile (initially developed at cpt for the 2002 Sprint Festival) to an acclaimed run at the Traverse, and subsequently to a London outing at The Drill Hall.'

To purchase: send cheques made payable to Barque Press, in UK Sterling, (include £1 postage) or cheques made payable to Andrea Brady, in US Dollars, (include $3 postage) to:

Barque Press
c/o A Brady and K Sutherland
13 Heathfield Park, Flat 2
London NW2 5JE ENGLAND
info@barquepress.com

Screenname: Chris
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Justin Taylor, ed. The Apocalypse Reader (Thunders Mouth Press)

'These are the ways the world ends. Thirty-four new and selected Doomsday scenarios: an enthralling collection of work by canonical literary figures, contemporary masters, and a few rising stars, all of whom have looked into the future and found it missing. Across boundaries of place and time, these writers celebrate the variety and vitality of the short story as a form by writing their own conclusions to the story of the world. Obliteration has never hurt so good. Some of the contributors include Dennis Cooper, Carol Emshwiller, Brian Evenson, Neil Gaiman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Shelley Jackson, Ursula K. Le Guin, H.P. Lovecraft, Gary Lutz, Rick Moody, Michael Moorcock, Joyce Carol Oates, Colette Phair, Edgar Allan Poe, Terese Svoboda, Justin Taylor, Lynne Tillman, H.G. Wells, and Diane Williams.'

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Screenname: Maximum Etc
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Nick Hudson The Elegy (Verticle Records)

'Proud to report completion of work on my ninth album, The Elegy, a hymnal, spare meditation on the casting off of self-imposed emotional corsets...a very minimal, pastoral song-cycle dealing with the severing of toxic legacies, and with negotiating reasons not to die...

"The Elegy wanders like an aching brook, anchored by a weighty grace. You can hear the willows weep over its delicate guitar lines and naked, unaffected vocals" - Michel Foucault

Available in Resident Records and Wax Factor Brighton, retailing at £5...or available via trade, just email on: hudsonjnick@yahoo.co.uk and we'll negotiate something...'

Screenname: Nikolas
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Erik Morse Spacemen 3 & the Birth of Spiritualized (Omnnibus Press)

'This is the warts-and-all story of Spacemen 3 - the backwater band forged from the collaborations of Pete ‘Sonic Boom’ Kember and Jason ‘Spaceman’ Pierce. Erik Morse’s book recounts the highs and lows of a fringe outfit whose brief history was characterized by excess, overdose, ambition and the hypnotic trance of tremolo drones. Spacemen 3 had more than its share of psychedelic experimentation and heroin addiction before it finally burned out...but before it did Kember and Pierce’s group gave the world a bracing antidote to early 80s synthesizer pop. Spacemen 3 were a shot in the arm - in every sense - and the book goes on to give an incisive history of the mid 80s British indie-rock scene they energized and influenced. Contains discography for Spacemen 3 plus details of early releases from spinoff bands Spectrum and Spiritualized.'

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Screenname: SCHIZZ
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Perspects Peopleskills (Interdimensional Transmissions)

'Following an extended incubation period, the new Perspects experient has decided to fruit. Having endured the harshest of conditions, it has proven itself extremely hardy. The Peopleskills Complex is an evolutionary snapshot. An artifact of memetic warfare. A surviving mutation of the arti-starchetype in Global America Incorporated. The sound is a nuderection for Perspects. The unrelenting Twelvish seamlessly careen from murky atmospheres to wry pop to spazzy synth-rock to shrunken fourfold headscapes. A sinister affair.'

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Screenname: perspects
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John W. Hoopes, Jeffrey Quilter, eds. Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Columbia (Dumbarton Oaks)

'The lands between Mesoamerica and the Central Andes are famed for the rich diversity of ancient cultures that inhabited them. Throughout this vast region, from about AD 700 until the sixteenth-century Spanish invasion, a rich and varied tradition of goldworking was practiced. The amount of gold produced and worn by native inhabitants was so great that Columbus dubbed the last New World shores he sailed as Costa Rica—the "Rich Coast." Despite the long-recognized importance of the region in its contribution to Pre-Columbian culture, very few books are readily available, especially in English, on these lands of gold. Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia now fills that gap with eleven articles by leading scholars in the field.'

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Screenname: Hoopes
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Ariana Reines The Cow (Fence Books)

'To call Ariana Reines' poetry scatological doesn't even scratch the surface. "I COULD BE A DIAPER FOR THE DAY'S RESIDUALS," she writes, and, "She clasped the event to her and proceeded. Fucked her steaming/ eyehole and ended it." The Cow is a body in the way that texts are bodied—"Are you so intelligent your body doesn't have you in it." — but not in the way that allows the text to become desensitized, depersonalized, sterilized. Instead this text is filthy and fertilized, filling and emptying, filling and emptying, atrocious and politic with meaning. The Cow is a mother, a lover, and a murdered lump of meat, rendered in the strongest of languages. "I cannot count the altering that happens in the very large rooms that are the guts of her."'

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Screenname: Antler
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Derek McCormack Christmas Days (House of Anansi Press)

'What do the doors of Advent calendars conceal? Chocolates, sometimes, or toys. Sometimes there are illustrations of chocolates and toys. And holly. And snow. Things that make Christmas Christmas. Derek McCormack's Christmas Days is an Advent calendar in words and images. The chapters are doors, each wittily illustrated by Seth, and each offering a behind- the- scenes look at the making of something quintessentially Christmassy. Wrapping paper, toy stockings, tree stands. When did they become part of Christmas? Where were they made? Who made them? A blend of history and reportage, Christmas Days includes a cast of incredible characters and a sampling of festive holiday treats from the past and present.'

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Screenname: Derekmc
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JW Veldhoen Witchburn, a novella

'There is composition, but also swells of music as words are said, hopefully by someone, in some form, some day, all together (but ordered and selected in ways beyond my control). Joyce said that the ideal reader for 'Finnegan's Wake' would take a lifetime to learn how to read his work. I would beg the reader forbearance as I take a lifetime learning how to write mine. Looking back at 'Witchburn' the best parts were the most patently not experimental, and what little I've tried to stretch myself here on the blog, with my orphans, seems limited by cloying for attention, and for status... But trust, if only to exert the benefits, for myself, and also for others. But now, I cannot deny my feelings. I never cared. I is not my deepest concern...'

Free for all
Screenname: JW Veldhoen
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Joseph Mills Obsessions (Millivres-Prowler Group Ltd)

'Joseph Mills is a Glaswegian librarian who already has a well-received novel, Towards the End, and numerous short stories to his name. Here, Mills presents us with a collection of his own stories – all with a Glasgow backdrop – of gay men. The stories are complex and well crafted and present the reader with some very powerful and vivid images. “Long To Go”, about a young man who is looking after his dying partner suffering from AIDS and who is already nurturing a new lover, is particularly poignant. Definitely a book well worth its cover price.' -- galha.org

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Buy Mills's first novel Towards the End
Screenname: joe mills
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Boris Vian Manual of St-Germain-des-Pres (co-edited by Tosh Berman, Rizzoli Books)

'Manual of St-Germain-des-Prés documents the first time legendary African-American jazz musicians rubbed shoulders with French writers, artists, musicians, and intellectuals who wanted to shake the conservative grip and dance. The interactions amongst a cast of characters who lived exuberantly active and diverse lives make for a captivating read, and vividly illustrate the irresistible, anything-is-possible spirit that made the Left Bank the place to be in the 1950s.'

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Screenname: tosh
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Boris Vian Manual of St-Germain-des-Pres (co-edited by Tosh Berman, Rizzoli Books)

'Manual of St-Germain-des-Prés documents the first time legendary African-American jazz musicians rubbed shoulders with French writers, artists, musicians, and intellectuals who wanted to shake the conservative grip and dance. The interactions amongst a cast of characters who lived exuberantly active and diverse lives make for a captivating read, and vividly illustrate the irresistible, anything-is-possible spirit that made the Left Bank the place to be in the 1950s.'

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Screenname: tosh
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Scott Heim In Awe (Harper Collins)

'The poetic language of In Awe places images like mutilated mannequins and a defunct miniature golf course in a weird, dark Kansas setting. Scott Heim's lyrical tale of three outcasts (a 17-year-old boy, a 32-year-old woman, and an old woman) works its eerie magic on two levels. On one level, it's about people so vilified by society that their ambitions come from horror stories: Boris is writing a story in which the three friends will rise from the grave "with worms on [their] wrists like gray bracelets" and wreak zombie vengeance, and Sarah wants to "star in movies where everyone will suffer sobbing and she alone will survive for top billing in the sequels." On another level, it's about an obsessive desire for a love object (Boris's for another boy he sees as "half-hyena, half-swan") that is so fierce, it can only be consummated in death.' -- amazon

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Screenname: scott
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Guy Blackman In Japan (Chapter Music)

'Guy Blackman In Japan will jar with any listener who has spent a good while admiring canonised folkies like James Taylor, Stephen Stills, Joni Mitchell or Jack Johnson (yes, canon). If you prefer to side with Bill Fay, Syd Barrett, Robert Wyatt or Mayo Thompson then there will be much to admire in this slight EP. It could almost read like an acoustic version of Japan’s Boris. It’s saddlesore, for sure. How it works is baffling. And it surprises me again and again when I hear it. The fucking thing works a treat.' -- FasterLouder.com

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Screenname: tigersare
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Bernard Welt, Valerie Cassel, Roger Sabin Splat! Boom! Pow! The Influence of Cartoons on Contemporary Art (Contemporary Arts Museum)

'Presenting work by 35 nationally and internationally recognized contemporary artists who have incorporated the imagery, technique, or style of the comics in their work, Splat Boom Pow! makes evident the shift from traditional literary narratives to a visual language of myth as seen in comic strips over the last 40 years. Taking an in-depth look at the current phenomenon of cartoon-referencing work, its connection to the pop art movement of the 1960s, and the social and cultural factors that have shaped our understanding of the comics as a form of popular communication, Splat Boom Pow! includes work by three generations of artists, among them Laylah Ali, Michael Ray Charles, Roy Lichtenstein, Takashi Murakami, Elizabeth Murray, Chris Ofili, Sigmar Polke, Peter Saul, Kenny Scharf, Jim Shaw, and Andy Warhol.'

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Screenname: Bernard Welt
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Tony O'Neill Digging the Vein (Contemporary Press)

'Digging the Vein's unnamed narrator has a problem: He has a burgeoning drug habit and a wife he's only known for two days, but no job, no money, and no way out. As the narrator's life crumbles, the pills, booze, and problems multiply until he hits on a brilliant solution: heroin. Soon the narrator is associating with a cabal of street freaks. Just as the comedy is piling up, things go sour, making Digging the Vein a brutal look at a self-destructed, marginal life.' -- amazon

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Screenname: Tony oneill
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James Champagne Confusion (iUniverse)

'Hamilton once rode through life on the high road, but now is a disgraced plumber. He's about to get a second chance, thanks to Mike Whitaker, his best friend and a successful businessman. Whitaker just purchased the Miami Fireballs basketball franchise, and he believes Hamilton will be a perfect coach for his new team. Hamilton takes him up on his offer and soon meets many interesting characters, including Sypha Nadon, the openly gay pop star. Nadon is one of the flashiest celebrities in America, but behind his glamorous façade lurks a troubled soul. He's haunted by his past, which could consume him when he least expects it. But Hamilton and Nadon, two polar opposites, might have more in common than they think. Will these two men find enlightenment in a decade where outside layers mean everything, and introspection no longer matters?'

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Screenname: SYpHA_69
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Deerhunter Cryptograms (Kranky)

'Atlanta five-piece Deerhunter show their guts admirably on this vast, visceral second album. Arranged in chronological sequence from two distinct recording sessions, Cryptograms is alternately murky and ethereal, amorphous and incisive, shot through with Sonic Youth guitar squall, Spacemen 3's blissful hymns, the morbidly introspective drum sounds of early Factory Records productions, and the abstract sonic richness of Harold Budd's collaborations with Brian Eno.' -- Pitchfork

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Screenname: bradford
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Gary Lee Boas New York Sex 1979-1985 (Dilettante Press)

'From the late 70s through the early 80s, Gary Lee Boas (Starstruck: Photographs from a Fan, Dilettante Press) spent much of his time in New York City, obsessively photographing famous people and collecting autographs. Boas’ “off” time, however, was consumed in the strip joints, bath houses and sex clubs flourishing on 42nd Street and in downtown Manhattan. As a fan and voyeur, Boas documented the local dancers, porn stars, street hustlers, ordinary individuals and the most celebrated sex personalities of the era. Hedi El Kholti partnered with Mennour Editions in Paris to produce the 240-page deluxe monograph of Boas’ photographs titled Gary Lee Boas: New York Sex 1979-1985. The book presents these images accompanied by Boas’ detailed personal accounts of the times and people he encountered. Together they reveal an astonishing and intensely personal document of post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS urban American sexuality.'

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Screenname: hedi
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David Ehrenstein Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-2000 (Harper Collins/ Perennial)

'Part social history and part exposé, this revealing, entertaining, and provocative book spans nearly seventy years as it explores the lives and careers of some of the silver screen's foremost gays and lesbians and the effect of their high-profile lifestyles on the general public. From Charles Laughton and Greta Garbo to Nathan Lane and Ellen DeGeneres, David Ehrenstein traces the gradual transformation of Hollywood from a time when it was box-office poison to be publicly gay to the modern era when many top entertainment figures are celebrating their gay sexuality--and are in turn celebrated for it. Updated, Open Secret reveals what has happened to the key players in gay Hollywood since the original hardcover publication.'

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Other Ehrenstein products
Screenname: David Ehrenstein
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Fosca Diary of an Antibody (Shinkansen Records)

'In a world where the Pop Idol rules and US bands are forced on us each week by the so called alternative music press you have to ask what happened to the genuine voice of the underground. Fosca's "Diary Of An Antibody" is the best alternative pop album of 2002, or as we like to call it pop music with a library card, and speaks out to the generations which grew up with Stephen Patrick Morrissey or Richey Edwards.' -- Designer Magazine

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more Fosca products
Screenname: Dickon Edwards
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Blair Mastbaum Clay's Way (Alyson Books)

'A wannabe punk rocker who writes bad haiku poetry, 15-year-old Sam is fed up with his middleclass parents, his geeky best friend, and his inability to do the raddest skateboard tricks. Then he meets Clay. Mistaking lust for fate, Sam becomes obsessed with the 17-year-old surferboy, whose island cool masks an internal conflict even darker than Sam's. Directing his furious energy toward winning Clay's heart, Sam goes on a reckless odyssey to become everything Clay seems to be. Through hurricanes, car accidents, teenage parties, and monster waves they ricochet off each other until, on a remote beach, in the flickering light of torches and campfires, the violence and tumult of Clay and Sam’s dynamic propels them both through the hardest decisions and obstacles of their young lives.' -- flap copy

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Screenname: land of the bat
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Bett Williams The Wrestling Party (Alyson Books)

'The Wrestling Party is a raucous mixture of cultural criticism, erotic tell-all, and in-the-field journalism that reads like a novel you can't put down. In an era marked by social isolation and paint-by-numbers politics, Bett Williams's stories offer us a glimpse of who we are beyond the constraints of cool correctness. Like wrestling, conflict in Bett Williams's nimble hands is transformed into beauty and violence, into something altogether more complicated and tender.' -- amazon

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Screenname: bett
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Matty Lee 35 Cents (Suspect Thoughts)

'He was the victim of a horde of vultures who wouldn't leave him alone. "Everywhere I went they were there: at the bathrooms in the park, at the YMCA, at family gatherings, everywhere." He was molested so many times he began to think it was normal human discourse. There must have been something special about this boy, because he was tragically popular. He grew to hate being alone, for instantly they would ruffle their vulture wings, seeking a sacrifice. "Every time I was alone for five minutes or more, one of them would turn up." They played a game, pedophile and abandoned boy. "Always the same game, touch me, let me touch you." The wonder is that, in recounting these events thirty years on, Matty Lee is able to bring so much humor and clarity to his story. He brings to writing the gifts of a great comedian, the timing, the knowledge of human nature, and the capability for forgiveness and redemption.' -- Kevin Killian @ amazon

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Screenname: matty lee
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