Event: LOUD! FAST! PHILLY! Presents: "We Are The Clash"




Tuesday, July 20th at 7pm
at
Brickbat Books:

LOUD! FAST! PHILLY! Presents:
"We Are The Clash"




LOUD! FAST! PHILLY! Presents:
"We Are The Clash: Reagan, Thatcher, and the Last Stand of A Band That Mattered" authors Mark Andersen (of Positive Force DC and We Are Family DC) and Ralph Heibutzki live at Brickbat Books, Philadelphia.
A live interview with the authors followed by audience questions and a book signing.
"We Are the Clash" is published by Akashic Books.
www.AkashicBooks.com
http://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/we-are-the-clash/

Moderated by Joseph A. Gervasi of LOUD! FAST! PHILLY!
This event is part of the LOUD! FAST! PHILLY! speakers series.
In conversation with Frank Blank Moriarty, author of "Modern Listener Guide: Jimi Hendrix," foreword by Derek Trucks, afterword by John McLaughlin. To be published by Modern Listener Publishing this summer.
Please help this event out not only by attending, but by sharing it with your friends. It's only through grassroots promotions that this event and other will succeed.
About the book:
The Clash was a paradox of revolutionary conviction, musical ambition, and commercial drive. We Are The Clash is a gripping tale of the band’s struggle to reinvent itself as George Orwell’s 1984 loomed. This bold campaign crashed headlong into a wall of internal contradictions and rising right-wing power.
While the world teetered on edge of the nuclear abyss, British miners waged a life-or-death strike, and tens of thousands died from US guns in Central America, Clash cofounders Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon, and Bernard Rhodes waged a desperate last stand after ejecting guitarist Mick Jones and drummer Topper Headon. The band shattered just as its controversial final album, Cut the Crap, was emerging. Andersen and Heibutzki weave together extensive archival research and in-depth original interviews with virtually all of the key players involved to tell a moving story of idealism undone by human frailty amid a climatic turning point for our world.
With a foreword by The Baker.
“When did the Clash quit being ‘the only band that matters’? This fascinating book faces a challenge: documenting the final years of the British band that its record label had promoted with that slogan . . . The band may no longer have mattered, but its legacy mattered to the authors, who make it matter to the readers. More than a footnote to the rise and fall of one of the last great rock bands.” —Kirkus Reviews
“This is an inspiring take on the rock-band bio format, as much a political history of the 1980s as it is a look at an influential band in its final years.” —Publishers Weekly
“Coverage is specialized, extending considerably beyond mere behind-the-scenes reportage and deeply explores the sociopolitical context in which the band operated; as such, the tone can be intense (read: punk) and professorial. In all, Andersen and Heibutzki’s examination of the band’s proletarian stance in light of its commercial striving is immensely satisfying.” —Library Journal
Included in the Shepherd Express‘s Roundup of New Music Titles
“The inside story of the last great British punk record.” —Jon Savage, author of England’s Dreaming
“We Are The Clash tells an important part of the story of both The Clash and punk rock. The repercussions of what went down politically both in the USA and UK back then are still very much felt today.” —Kosmo Vinyl, former manager of The Clash
“At long last, The Clash’s final incarnation has been definitively chronicled. Mark Andersen and Ralph Heibutzki have brilliantly filled in the blanks of the ‘Clash Mark II’ era, including its eventual implosion. Beautifully constructed and brilliantly written . . . I was riveted, unable to put it down.” —The Baker, from the foreword
“Smash your television and buy this book! We Are The Clash proves, once again, the importance of The Clash, even during their rarely discussed and most maligned period. Situated in the Reagan/Thatcher era, We Are The Clash illustrates why, when Reagan called women like my mom ‘welfare queens,’ I bought a ticket to see ‘the only band that matters,’ and then went on to start one of my own.” —Michelle Cruz Gonzales, author of The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band
“The Clash are remembered as much for their blistering music as their gritty yet hopeful message to listeners worldwide. In this first serious look at The Clash’s music and meaning, post–commercial success, the authors mix thoughtful reflection with grassroots political analysis in an effort to inspire a new generation of music fans and activists to Cut the Crap.” —Craig O’Hara, author of The Philosophy of Punk: More than Noise!

Event: Elkhorn, C Joynes, Laura Baird




Thursday, June 7th at 8pm
at 
Brickbat Books:

Elkhorn / C. Joynes / Laura Baird

ELKHORN (Philadelphia/New York) is an acid folk guitar duo featuring the 12 string acoustic fingerpicking of Jesse Sheppard and the improvisational electric soloing of Drew Gardner. Their music straddles the story of American guitar over the last century by digging into deep folk, jazz, blues and psychedelia. The Black River, their debut LP, was released on Debacle Records in 2017. Their forthcoming cassette on Eiderdown Records, Lionfish, is coming out in June of 2018. 
https://eiderdownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/lionfish
https://elkhorn.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulrzeuvH4Ik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB2ip2WzQdo

Over the last decade, C JOYNES (UK) has ploughed a singular furrow through solo guitar, with a body of work incorporating English folk-tunes alongside North & West African music, and lifting proto-minimalist and improvised techniques from the European classical tradition.  Joynes has released 7 albums to date, including ‘The Wild Wild Berry’, a collaboration with singer Stephanie Hladowski (fROOTS Editors Choice Album Of The Year 2012, MOJO Top 5 Folk Albums 2012). Shifting to solo electric guitar on his most recent releases, the '33 Chatsworth Rd' EP on alt.vinyl (2015) and ‘Split Electric’ LP on Thread Recordings (2016), he’s currently exploiting the instrument’s potential for placing overdriven garage blues throw-downs alongside the brittle ringing tones of electric folk.
http://cjoynes.tumblr.com/
http://cjoynes.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWDbO40_a00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GPhcDa90TQ

LAURA BAIRD (Philadelphia) is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and recording engineer. Since 2001 she has performed and recorded as The Baird Sisters with her sister, Meg Baird (Espers). In 2012 the duo released Until You Find Your Green (Grapefruit Record Club, 2012), which was recorded and engineered by Laura at Forest Hill Farm, her home recording studio. John Mulvey of Uncut has described their album as one of his personal favorites of 2012.  In addition to The Baird Sisters, Laura has also recorded with Espers, Death Vessel, Aroah, and The Trouble with Sweeney. Laura plays a wide variety of instruments, including banjo, flute, piano, harpsichord, guitar, trombone, theremin, and fiddle. She enjoys crossing and blending genres like folk, pop, classical, and electronic, and frequently collaborates with other artists and musicians who work in and between these genres.
http://laurabaird.com/music/
https://badabingrecords.bandcamp.com/album/i-wish-i-were-a-sparrow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Z2HEnZS48

7pm / $10 suggested / all ages