The May 2025 Spin Challenge - Music, Music, Read All About It!

Day 4 - Beastie Boys Book - Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz
Play a band that lost a beloved member
OR
Play some Beasties or some hip-hop

A founding member and the inspiration for the name of the band, Mikey Houser wrote many of Widespread Panic's most memorable songs and had great understated flair as a lead guitarist. Cancer robbed us of him at the age of 40.

One of Mikey's best songs and some of his most beautiful guitar. Less than a year later, he was gone...



Widespread Panic - Everyday

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Day 3 - 33 1/3 Series: Horses - Philip Shaw

Early in the book the author refers to Patti's style of lyric delivery as 'speak-singing.'

Play something poetic or that employs speak-singing
OR
Play some Patti Smith

The Plastik Beatniks – All Those Streets I Must Find Cities For
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A tribute to (my favourite) American poet Bob Kaufman that employs speak-singing and features Patti Smith!
 
Day 5 - No One Here Gets Out Alive - Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman
Play something from your middle school or adolescent years.
OR
Play the Doors or any side project from the members.

I'll go with an extracurricular Doors activity.

X is one of the most important American bands most folks don't know. Ray Manzarek knew from the beginning. He produced their first two albums, both sublime.

X covered The Doors 'Soul Kitchen' on their first LP...



X - Los Angeles

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ranbalam said:
May 8th through 15th

Day 8 - Miles: The Autobiography - Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe

Wow, don't meet your heroes. Miles really tells us a lot in this book, and it ain't all pretty.

Play an artist that you look beyond their shortcomings or bad deeds and can still enjoy
OR
Play some Miles or more jazz!
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Day 9 - How Music Works - David Byrne
I'll be honest, this was a DNF. I kept meaning to get back to it and still haven't.

Play something you have a hard time playing in its entirety
OR
Play some Talking Heads or a David Byrne project

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Day 10 - The Real Frank Zappa Book - Frank Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso

Here's a quote:
“A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an asshole.”

FZ didn't do drugs, didn't really like his touring band to do them either.

Play a straightedge or sober band or artist
OR
Play some Zappa or anything by someone who played with him.
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Day 11 - 33 1/3 Series: Court & Spark - Sean Nelson

I love the album but didn't love this book. The author interpreted the lyrics for every song and it was just like, his opinion man.

Play something that the lyrics speak to you
OR
Play some Joni or something Joni-related

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Day 12 - The Low Side of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits - Barney Hoskyns

This was really good. There aren't many notable and authorized bios of Tom; this one is widely considered the best.

Play something hard to find
OR
Play some Tom Waits or another artist that has changed/reinvented their sound over the years

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Day 13 - This is What it Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You - Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas

This was an easy and fun read. I can't say I got much out of it, like, I'm not sure what my taste in music says about me, but her stories about working with Prince were fun to read.

Play something that exemplifies your taste in music
OR
Play some Prince or something Prince related

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Day 14 - Robert Fripp: From King Crimson to Guitar Craft - Eric Tamm

This was published in 1990, so a bit before one of my favorite eras of KC.
Anyway, in the book, the author mentions Fripp's 'permanent sabbatical' in the 70s, but Eno and Bowie coaxed him out of it to work on the Berlin sessions. Glad they did,

Play an artist that came out of retirement
OR
Play any Robert Fripp-related project

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Day 15 - Under a Hoodoo Moon: The Life of the Night Tripper - Dr John with Jack Rummel
This is on my summer reading list, it was given to me by a coworker a few years ago who was his second cousin. I kind of forgot I had it on my shelf.

Play a band or artist that you have a six degrees of Kevin Bacon with.
OR
Play some Dr John or another New Orleans based artist.

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I've read three of these, too!
 
Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
Day 5 - No One Here Gets Out Alive - Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman
Play something from your middle school or adolescent years.
OR
Play the Doors or any side project from the members.

I'll go with an extracurricular Doors activity.

X is one of the most important American bands most folks don't know. Ray Manzarek knew from the beginning. He produced their first two albums, both sublime.

X covered The Doors 'Soul Kitchen' on their first LP...



X - Los Angeles

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Excellent choice, and gonna use this as a chance to plug this recently announced tour. Both these bands have only gotten better with time, gonna be a great night of music.

 
Day 4 - Beastie Boys Book - Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz

Fantastic. It was so good that after I already read it, my wife and I listened to the audiobook over the span of a few road trips. And of course it has a sadness about it...they dearly miss Yauch, as does the world.

Play some Beasties*

Country Mike – Country Mike's Greatest Hits
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*One lonely Beastie he be.

REST IN POWER MCA
 
Day 5 - No One Here Gets Out Alive - Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman
This was the first rock bio that I ever read. I remember passing this copy around with all my friends in middle school. Morrison was such a mysterious figure to me back then, and I couldn't get enough.
For further reading, Wonderland Avenue by Danny Sugerman is really good too.

Play something from your middle school or adolescent years.

Soul Asylum – Grave Dancers Union
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...and I still love it!
 
Day 5 - No One Here Gets Out Alive - Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman

I read Wonderland Ave a while ago, but never this bio.

Twofer out of today though.

Listening to Riders on the Storm w/ my Dad in my adolescence is a core musical memory. I suppose the wheel keeps turning as the 18 year old is currently into the Doors and grooving to this in the other room.

The Doors ~ L.A. Woman

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