Thirty-Three and a Third) is a series of books, each about a single music album. [1] The series title refers to the rotation speed of a vinyl LP, 33 + 1⁄ 3 RPM. [2] History [ edit ] In 2010, Continuum was bought out by Bloomsbury Publishing, which continues to publish the series. [3] Following a leave, Barker was replaced by Grossan in January 2013. [2] Leah Babb-Rosenfeld has been the editor of the series since 2016. [4] I mostly really liked this. I like Matthew Bannister as a writer. I think his original memoir Positively George Street is absolutely one of the best NZ music books; it’s written with a delightful honesty – so much so that some of the Flying Nun stalwarts took offence. And now we have all these gushy Flying Nun books clogging the shelves, trying to tell “the real story” as a result. Bannister, a musician (Sneaky Feelings, The Changing Same, Dribbling Darts of Love, solo) was also briefly connected to The Mutton Birds, playing with them in their final iteration before the band imploded. So, he’s very close to the subject. But not too close. He compiles fresh interviews with Don McGlashan, Harry Sinclair and Jennifer Ward-Lealand and gives a great cultural context for The Front Lawn’s multimedia weirdness popping up like a pimple on the unexpectant face of late-80s New Zealand. He walks us through the album song by song, as you’d hope in this case (and often expect across the series) and he doesn’t drip too heavy in academia. Though there’s also not a whole lot to learn here, it’s more a survey. That said, it's pretty enjoyable. And I love this album so much that I wanted to cling to anything written about it. I wish he’d gone slightly deeper into his own love of the album, his own discovery.

That such a lively collection of beats and samples—as cerebral as they are physical—was created by a dying man ensures that Jordan Ferguson’s book will be poignant, but his clear storytelling and direct prose allows producer James Yancey to emerge as a complicated, contradictory character. The first half is the most extensive biography we have of the man, from his childhood in Detroit to his death in Los Angeles, just three days after the release of Donuts. The second half grapples with the album as a meditation on mortality, which only shows what an immense talent the world lost.

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a b https://web.archive.org/web/20151106232635/https://333sound.com/2015/11/04/open-call-2015-results-the-16-new-books-in-the-33-13-series/ Have you read any of the titles? Will you? What are your thoughts on either the individual titles so far, or what great New Zealand album would you most like to read about?

Thank you also to our editorial advisory board for their hard work reading through and helping us make decisions on the hundreds of proposals received: Geeta Dayal opens her book on Another Green World by admitting that she had trouble writing it. She penned and discarded multiple chapter drafts, then found her momentum flagging. Finally, she decided to let Brian Eno’s set of Oblique Strategies cards direct and inspire her work. It’s an apt move, as Eno often foregrounds the creative process himself, and it results in a probing and thoughtful book that never falls into formula. Instead, Dayal portrays her subject as a deft artist embracing studio technology and balancing his past accomplishments with all the endless possibilities of the future. A big thanks to our external advisors, who were integral in our selection process: Samantha Bennett, Sean Maloney, boice Terrel-Allen, Sarah Piña, and Ryan Pinkard. By the time most people discovered In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel had already disbanded, and Jeff Mangum had disappeared. L.A.-based writer Kim Cooper dispels the mystery of the band without diminishing the power of the album as she retraces the NMH’s short history. At the time of its release in 2005, this title was the only book-length examination of Neutral Milk Hotel, and 10 years later it remains the best and most definitive biography of a band whose mystery only intensified its fans’ loyalty.

Help us support independent bookstores and record stores. Buy the latest 33 1/3 books at one of the fine stores listed below! A: This time around we’re asking that you do not re-submit proposals. However, feel free to submit one on a different album.