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Music Books in this online selection represent only a sliver of what we offer in the store. If you've got a particular book in mind and want to check on its availability, call us at 415-362-8193.

1 2 3 >>>     sort list by title | author Sparks-Tastic Twenty-One Nights with Sparks in London Tosh Berman In 2008, Tosh Berman — author and publisher of TamTam Books — got on a plane with a single motive: "Sparks Spectacular." I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp An Autobiography Richard Hell The sharp, lyrical, and no-holds-barred autobiography of the iconoclastic writer and musician Richard Hell, charting the childhood, coming of age, and misadventures of an artist in an indelible era of rock and roll... Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer For Freedom Letters from Prison, Songs, Poems, and Courtroom Statements, PlusTributes to the Punk Band that Shook the World Pussy Riot On February 21, 2012, five members of a Russian feminist punk collective Pussy Riot staged a performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Dressed in brightly colored tights and balaclavas, they performed their "Punk Prayer" asking the... Satan Is Real The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers Charlie Louvin Born the same year as Ralph Stanley and growing up very similarly on a hardscrabble Appalachian farm, Charlie Louvin gained fame in a brother act, too. Like the Stanleys, Charlie (1927–2011) and Ira (1924–65) Louvin made songs their mother taught... The Nigger Factory Gil Scott-Heron Originally published in 1972, Gil Scott-Heron's striking second novel, The Nigger Factory, is a powerful parable of the way in which human beings are conditioned to think, drawing inspiration from Scott-Heron’s own experiences as a student... Guitar Zero The Science of Becoming Musical at Any Age Gary Marcus Just about every human being knows how to listen to music, but what does it take to make music? Is musicality something we are born with? Or a skill that anyone can develop at any time? If you don't start piano at the age of six, is there any hope? The Last Holiday A Memoir Gil Scott-Heron The stunning memoir of Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Holiday has been praised for bringing back to life one of the most important voices of the last fifty years. Now in paperback, The Last Holiday provides... How Music Works David Byrne How Music Works is David Byrne's remarkable and buoyant celebration of a subject he has spent a lifetime thinking about. In it he explores how profoundly music is shaped by its time and place, and he explains how the advent of recording technology... Where the Heart Beats John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists Kay Larson In this stunning biography of John Cage, Larson investigates how Buddhist concepts shaped Cage's approach to art, and the influence it had on other artists of his era (ie. Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, etc.). If you're a fan of Cage, you... Always in Trouble An Oral History of ESP-Disk', The Most Outrageous Record Label in America Jason Weiss In 1964, Bernard Stollman launched the independent record label ESP-Disk' in New York City to document the free jazz movement there. A bare-bones enterprise, ESP was in the right place at the right time, producing albums by artists like Albert Ayler... No Regrets The Life of Edith Piaf Carolyn Burke The iconic French singer comes to life in this enthralling, definitive biography, which captures Edith Piaf's immense charisma along with the time and place that gave rise to her unprecedented international career. Raised by turns in a brothel... The Grey Album On the Blackness of Blackness Kevin Young Taking its title from Danger Mouse's pioneering mashup of Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' The White Album, Kevin Young’s encyclopedic book combines essay, cultural criticism, and lyrical chorus to illustrate the African American tradition of... Carlos Aldama's Life in Batá Cuba, Diaspora, and the Drum Umi Vaughan, Carlos Aldama This book recounts the life story of Carlos Aldama, one of the masters of the batá drum, and through that story traces the history of batá culture as it traveled from Africa to Cuba and then to the United States. Keystone Korner Portrait of a Jazz Club Kathy Sloane During the 1970s, when jazz clubs all over America were folding under the onslaught of rock and roll and disco, San Francisco's Keystone Korner was an oasis for jazz musicians and patrons. Tucked next to a police... 1 2 3 >>>