33 1/3 Book Club
We've teamed up with Nice Price Books and Records for a monthly book club. We read a different book from the 33 1/3 series, listen to the record, and meet to discuss over snacks and drinks!
This month, we'll be reading Franklin Bruno's book Armed Forces.
Armed Forces was an intercontinental pop-rock bomb, built from American spare parts, reurposed in England with a German timing mechanism and a sleek Swedish design, intended to produce global shockwaves but lobbed most directly at the land where it was conceived. Its advance press campaign asked the American audiences: WHERE WERE YOU FOR THE BIG ONE? WORLD ELVIS COSTELLO ALBUM THREE. If one imagined a succes d'estime would satisfy its architect, another ad invited listeners to GET MERCENARY right along with him, beside a stylized, pinless grenade.
Released at the start of 1979, Armed Forces was Elvis Costello's most ambitious album to date—both artistically and commercially. In this meticulously detailed book, Franklin Bruno tracks down musical reference points from the Beach Boys to Marvin Gaye, and examines the successes (and failures) of Costello's lyrical techniques. He also places the album in the context of Costello's career and the era's charged social and political climates: this was the time of Rock Against Racism, the birth of Thatcherism, and the infamous "Columbus incident."
Join us at the shop on Wednesday, July 1 at 7pm for beer, wine, snacks, and book/album discussion.
This month, we'll be reading Franklin Bruno's book Armed Forces.
Armed Forces was an intercontinental pop-rock bomb, built from American spare parts, reurposed in England with a German timing mechanism and a sleek Swedish design, intended to produce global shockwaves but lobbed most directly at the land where it was conceived. Its advance press campaign asked the American audiences: WHERE WERE YOU FOR THE BIG ONE? WORLD ELVIS COSTELLO ALBUM THREE. If one imagined a succes d'estime would satisfy its architect, another ad invited listeners to GET MERCENARY right along with him, beside a stylized, pinless grenade.
Released at the start of 1979, Armed Forces was Elvis Costello's most ambitious album to date—both artistically and commercially. In this meticulously detailed book, Franklin Bruno tracks down musical reference points from the Beach Boys to Marvin Gaye, and examines the successes (and failures) of Costello's lyrical techniques. He also places the album in the context of Costello's career and the era's charged social and political climates: this was the time of Rock Against Racism, the birth of Thatcherism, and the infamous "Columbus incident."
Join us at the shop on Wednesday, July 1 at 7pm for beer, wine, snacks, and book/album discussion.
Where is it happening?
So & So Books, 704 N Person St, Raleigh, NC 27604-1216, United States
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Host or PublisherSo & So Books
