Category: General News

The Millions recently posted a list of 2010 books forthcoming from literary giants. I’m looking forward to quite a few on that list. But, I think we are due a list from literary midgets, too, right?

So here they are (the ones I can think of right now, anyway. I reserve the right to add more):

Sawako Nakayasu’s Texture Notes and Travis Nichols’s Iowa from Letter Machine Editions. I only recently heard about Letter Machine Editions, and, other than a few excerpts from the above titles, I have no reason to think these books are worth anticipating. But I like the press’s simple webpage and their equally simple book design. I never said the lit midget list had to be supported by my knowledge of a press or its authors, did I?

Noah Cicero’s The Insurgent from BLATT Books. Lot’s of people don’t like his stuff. I do. Will I ever look back on a Cicero book as a pivot point in my life? Probably not. Will I continue to read his stuff anyway? Yes.

Scott C. Rogers’s Love Like a Molotov Cocktail to the Chest from Black Coffee Press. The potential here is all in the title. How could you not read that and sense at least a hint of potential? You can’t.

Tim Hall’s One Damn Thing After Another from OW Press. Yeah, I’m partial. I have a hand in bringing this one to life. But know this: I would never have gotten my hand involved if I didn’t respect Mr. Hall, and more importantly, his writing. He’s good. Real good.

Joshua Mohr’s Termite Parade from Two Dollar Radio. I’ve followed Two Dollar Radio for a while. Everything they release could be worthy of a spot on this list. They have a style in both literary and visual aesthetics that works for me. This title in particular looks enticing.

Tom Waits stands as one of the most innovative artists alive, mixing crooner piano tunes, industrial percussion, and all the styles between in a way that compliments, though dissonantly, his abrasive voice. Woven throughout his catalog, there’s hip hop, too, from when hip hop was beat poetry. Take 1978’s “Step Right Up” from his Small Change album:

Step Right Up

Then, as Waits fell in with (helped create?) the garbage clank-boom crowd, he upped the percussion, giving his hip hop styles more “edge:”

Top of the Hill

Dog Door

But, during last night’s Sonic Spectrum show with Roger Moore (a program I love, by the way), I heard a Tom Waits track that clearly marks the man’s furthest stretch into hip hop:

Though my initial reaction was one of disgust. Not because Waits had further adopted hip hop (I like hip hop) but because he had done so to such a extreme level. I love Waits for the way he manipulates styles for his own use, not the other way around. He should mold hip hop; hip hop should not mold him.

But, as Waits music tends to do, the track is growing on me. His first verse (after the chorus, which he performs as well) reminds me of (hed) P.E’s “Pac Bell,” with it’s vibrato gravel quality to the vocals.

Pac Bell

All in all, I’m glad Waits is still fighting. Considering his last two albums were a B-Sides collection followed by a live recording, I imagined that perhaps he was winding down. This track makes me think he’s possibly not quite done.

Gordon Highland is not Drew Ballard. Though, to know the former after reading the latter, one might not recognize a distinction. Ballard, the protagonist of Highland’s first novel, Major Inversions, has much in common with his author: 80’s tribute band member, check; film scoring history, check; unending wit, check. Film set drug dealer…no.

After reading Major Inversions, I sat with Gordon to ask him a bit about these parallels (as well as a couple especially interesting others). Check out the video interview, the first of what I hope to be a series of author interviews called Beer und Questions Asks.

Buy a copy of Major Inversions online at Amazon.com. I recommend it.

Further reading:
My review of Major Inversions at Outsider Writers Collective
Gordon Highland homepage