Blogs and Ends

Happy New Year. Here's to a potential-fulfilling 2009.

Following a short respite from the blog, there's a few stray loose ends to tie up before normal service is resumed.

Firstly, I was really, really pleased to see I Shot a Man in Reno included in the great KEXP's list of best music books of 2008: "It’s his knowledge of hip hop, as well as Goths, that makes I Shot A Man In Reno more than just a creepy bathroom read," they write during a smart little review . "His description of the Rolling Stones classic ode to “girls dressed in their summer clothes” shows his electric ability to craft delectable imagery with informative reporting..... Dude knows the best musical death trips!"

Reno is also featured on the Here Comes the Flood blog (desribed as the "definitive" book on death-pop, and one that will "expand the reader's musical horizons"), and it's also discussed - in rather impressive depth - in Alternative Ulster, Northern Ireland's premier music magazine.

Other end-of-year blog mentions: Tuna Day ("brilliant.... provides great reading opened at any page at random but is best enjoyed all the way through."), Hipster Book Club ("An interesting account of popular music's fascination with death"), and Big List of Dead People ("If Chuck Klosterman were more of an intellectual and less of a comedian he would have made something like this book, a completely legitimate look at the history of Death songs."

So now you know.