Outline Press Ltd – förlag

Nirvana are one of the most influential bands in rock history, and even now, nearly 20 years after Kurt Cobain's death, the reverence in which they are held is undiminished. Books have been written about Nirvana before, but they tend to concentrate on the band's superstar period and Kurt Cobain's demise, while skating over the early years. In Entertain Us, Gillian Gaar redresses the balance by examining in forensic detail the band's rise to fame, and their first album, Bleach. Seattle native Gaar was one of the first journalists to write about Nirvana, and covered the band's career closely, offering her a unique perspective to write this book. Drawing on extensive interviews with the key characters in the story, including bassist Krist Novoselic, drummer Chad Channing, and producers Jack Endino and Butch Vig, the book charts the band's formation and early years as well as their role at the center of the grunge gold rush. By critiquing every song the band recorded in this period, tracing influences and unpicking complex relationships between band members, associates and record labels, Gaar gets to the heart of a compelling story.

Read & Burn is the first serious, in-depth appraisal of Wire, one of the most influential British bands to emerge during the punk era. If Wire were briefly a punk band, however, it was largely by historical accident. Despite the fact that they had complicated and transformed that category almost before they'd begun, they seem never to have quite escaped the label. Be it punk, post-punk, or art-punk, critics have clung onto the p-word in an attempt to capture the essence of Wire's innovative uniqueness. But their story - which honours punk's original yet quickly forgotten commitment to the new - is one of constant remaking and remodelling, one that stubbornly resists reduction to a single identity. As a result, the group's projects have always balanced uneasily between artistic endeavour and the need for commercial sustainability, played out against the backdrop of the musicians' perennially complex creative relationships. Tracing Wire's diverse output from 1977 up until the present, Read & Burn seeks to do justice to their highly influential and restlessly inventive body of work.

Although Big Star were together for less than four years and had little commercial success, the influence of their three original albums - #1 Record, Radio City, and Third - continues to grow. Big Star bucked all the musical trends of the '70s. In an era of glam and prog rock they wrote catchy, radio-friendly power-pop tunes that remain influential today. Artists as diverse as Primal Scream, R.E.M., The Bangles, The Posies, Teenage Fanclub, Jeff Buckley, and Wilco have spoken about the Big Star legacy. In the decade since the original version of this book was published, Big Star have made a belated fourth album, In Space, and released an acclaimed four-disc retrospective, Keep An Eye On The Sky. The band have also lost two original members, an influential producer, and the photographer of their iconic logo. But interest in the group is as high as ever in the 21st century, with new bands such as Yo La Tengo and Hot Chip - and even pop superstar Katy Perry - carrying the flame. Now fully updated, and drawing on firsthand interviews with the band, family members, friends, and the major players at Ardent Records, this is the definitive history of rock's forgotten band.