Rare Bird Publishing special
Founded in 2010, LA-based publishing house Rare Bird has released a catalogue of over fifty books and records with an eclectic cast of authors ranging from Mark Lanegan via William T. Vollmann to books by Sam McPheeters, which we have covered before.
One of Rare Birds’ latest releases is a tome dedicated to the collective known as Leftöver Crack, who have left an indelible dent in the realm of underground music with what on the surface looks like a nihilistic melange of no fucks given, cops hatin’ and drug takin’ crust core that centres its output around the tenet of causing mayhem in every possible way.
Architects of Self-Destruction: An Oral History of Leftöver Crack scratches the surfaces and seeks to document the band’s history by gathering details from the main protagonists themselves, their entourage, supporters and, most interestingly, their antagonists and enemies.
The result is a nuanceful depiction of a well-reflected band that shows that there is a method to their madness and more to their antics than mere shock value: In both a contemplative, challenging and provocative manner, the band’s history is chronicled with light being shed on the fiascos, confrontations and other shenanigans that ensued along the way.
An enlightening read that should tickle the fancy of both the uninitiated as well as hardcore fans, as the book is in essence an homage to the DNA of rebellious underground activism.
Having recently worked on an academic expose on Rammstein’ play with Teutonic imagery, taboos and stereotypes at large, it was nice to come across a book penned one of the less prominent members who nonetheless holds a special significance within the confines of the band, i.e. their keyboarder Flake.
It’s the World’s Birthday Today is the book equivalent of the man himself in that it is self-deprecating without being coquettish, funny and written from a unique angle.
Penned in a steady stream of consciousness kind of manner, Flake muses on being a middle-aged rock artist touring the world, fame, its pitfalls and insanities that come with it, set against the evolution of Rammstein as a band.
With his own idiosyncratic sense of humour and in an engaging and relatable fashion, Flake shares not exactly glamourous but entertaining anecdotes from what happens behind the scenes of one of the biggest current bands on the planet.
The most entertaining bits is when Flake touches on mundane things and deconstructs the mythical entity the band has become, e.g. the fact that he listens to Rammstein cover bands to prepare before tours as their recordings prove to be more precise, his gripe that fascists do not get what Rammstein is really about, the creative process informing it all and what ensues when the band films their eccentric videos or engages in their not always too safe onstage pyro enhanced performances.
A wonderfully down-to-earth, enjoyable and entertaining book filled with titbits of a musician’s life that sheds light on where they come from and either makes you fall with Rammstein even more or will inspire you to give them a second shot, should you have decided that they were not for you the first time around.Cheap Shots: A Photographic Look at Underground Bands from the 1980s and Beyond should be the last component of the Rare Bird trifecta.
As the name suggests, this photobook zeroes in on bands that coined and shaped punk and hardcore music as we know it, ranging from the Bad Brains, Black Flag, Danzig, The Descendants, Fugazi via The Damned, UK Subs to the portrayal of U2’s first US tour along with many others.
Depicted both on-, behind and offstage in their respective natural habitats, Cheap Shots delivers in the eye candy department and should be a mandatory addition to the library to anyone remotely into underground music of the 1980s.
