I picked up SPC ECO’s Fifteen album, and if you like sort of steady-state, trancy shoegaze with beautiful female vocals sort of floating on top, I recommend it. Here’s “The Heart and Soul”:
I came across these interviews of Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy from Mystery Science Theater 3000. These were evidently an extra on Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders from Volume 5 of the Rhino boxed sets (and presumably on the Shout! Factory reissue). Talks about the early days of the show and some of the films too awful for them to riff.
I’d never heard Sara Rachele before I went looking for covers of “Fade Into You.” She’s good enough to provide a close approximation of Hope Sandoval’s voice. The arrangement is more sparse and lonely than the Mazzy Star original, accentuating the sad, twangy, “coming home from a honky tonk alone at 3 AM” vibe of the song.
David Roback, half of duo Mazzy Star, has died at age 61. He co-wrote their one hit, the haunting “Fade Into You”:
Mazzy Star got called Shoegaze because there wasn’t anything else to call them, but their twangy guitar sound, and Hope Sandoval’s breathy, honey-and-bourbon vocals, were like nothing else on the scene.
Save the first book (not signed), all of these are books I bought off Mike back in November.
Moorcock, Michael (as Bill Barclay). Printer’s Devil. Compact, 1966. First edition paperback original, a Very Good- copy with spine creasing, rear cover bunching near spine, a nickel-sized blotch of discoloration, pages age-darkened, and slight curl and top front corner. The only book in this post I didn’t buy from Mike. Bought off eBay for £14.50 plus shipping. Tanelorn Archives, page 27. Currey, page 371.
Moorcock, Michael. The Revenge of the Rose. Grafton, 1991. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed to me by Moorcock. Elric novel.
Moorcock, Michael. Sojan. Savoy Books, 1977. First edition trade paperback original, a Near Fine+ copy with a bump at head, slight crease at top of back cover, and touches of edgewear, plus slight age-darkening of pages. Inscribed to me by Moorcock: “To Lawrence,/All very best/yours,/Michael Moorcock.” Includes a fantasy novel Moorcock published in his own Tarzan fanzine in his teens, plus very early Moorcock short stories (most of which have not appeared anywhere else), plus considerable additional material on Elric, Jerry Cornelius, etc. Tanelorn Archives, page 31. Currey, page 372.
Moorcock, Michael. The Vengeance of Rome. Jonathan Cape, 2006. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed to me by Moorcock. Colonel Pyat novel.
Moorcock, Michael, editor. Before Armageddon. W.H. Allen, 1975. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket (though there is now a small hole on the title page where Mike’s fountain pen slipped). Inscribed to me by Moorcock. Reprint anthology of pre-World War I future war stories, including “The Battle of Dorking.” Tanelorn Archives, page 7. Currey, page 374.
Moorcock, Michael, and Langdon Jones, editors. The Nature of the Catastrophe. Hutchison, 1971. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with a few small white spots on black cloth, and slight bumping at head, in a Fine- dust jacket with a trace of blindside spotting (I also not that the laminated portion of the dust jacket appears slightly uniformly darkened throughout, save about 1/8″ at the far edge of each flap that’s not laminated, and that portion is bright, undarkened white; both copies I’ve seen so affected, leading me to believe that this is an artifact of the lamination process used by the publisher on the dust jacket, making it likely that all copies are so affected). Inscribed to me by Moorcock: “To Lawrence,/Avguard [?} the heart,/Mike Moorcock.” Anthology of Jerry Cornelius stories by Moorcock and divers hands, including Brian Aldiss, M. John Harrison, Norman Spinrad and James Sallis. Tanelorn Archives, page 25. Currey, page 375.
Here’s the first part of the Moorcock titles I bought from Mike back in November.
Moorcock, Michael. The Brothel in Rosenstrasse. New English Library, 1982. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with slight spine fading and slight wear at top points. Inscribed to me by Moorcocok. Von Bek novel.
Moorcock, Michael. Byzantium Endures. Secker & Warburg, 1981. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with bumps to top points in a Very Good+ price-clipped dust jacket with several delamination wrinkles across the spine. Inscribed to me by Moorcock. Colonel Pyat novel.
Moorcock, Michael. The City in the Autumn Stars. Grafton, 1986. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with a tiny bump at head and top front corner blunted, in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with several invisible scratches to rear cover, trace of wear at points, and 1/4″ closed tear at bottom rear fold join. Inscribed to me by Moorcock.
Moorcock, Michael. The Dragon In the Sword. Ace, 1986. First edition hardback, a Near Fine+ copy with two pinhead spots to bottom page blocks, slight bend at head, and slight blunting to bottom points, in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with bumping to bottom front point and wrinkling at head and a trace of edgewear. Inscribed to me by Moorcock: “To Lawrence/All best —/Michael Moorcock.” Precedes the Grafton edition by a year.
Moorcock, Michael. Elric: La Saga. Editizione Oscar Draghiluglio, 2019. First edition hardback thus, an Italian omnibus edition of the first six Elric novels, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Inscribed to me by Moorcock: “To Lawrence/Prego!/Michael Moorcock.” A beautifully printed book, with decorated boards, full-color, full page plates by a variety of artists. A thrown-in by Mike, who had just received a big box of them. “See those behind you? Go ahead and take one if you want…”
Moorcock, Michael. Elric of Melniboné. Hutchison, 1972. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight bumping at head and heel in a Near Fine- dust jacket with a 3/8″ chip at heel/front join, shallow chipping at head and heel, and touches of edgewear. Inscribed to me by Moorcock. Tanelorn Archives, page 17.
Moorcock, Michael. King of the City. Scribners (UK), 2000. First edition hardback, a Near Fine- copy with bumps to top points and a cluster of small gray stains on pageblock edges, and slight bumping at heel, in a Near Fine dust jacket with bumping to top points, slight bumping at heel, and slight edge wrinkling along bottom flaps. Inscribed to me by Moorcock: “To Lawrence,/All the best—/Michael Moorcock.” Sequel to Mother London.
Moorcock, Michael. The Laughter of Carthage. Secker & Warburg, 1984. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight bend at head, in a Near Fine-, price-clipped dust jacket with two scratches to front cover and a long lamination wrinkle down the spine. Inscribed to me by Moorcock.
Moorcock, Michael. Legends From the End of Time. WH Allen, 1976. First UK edition hardback, a Fine- copy with top front point slightly blunted, in a Fine- dust jacket with slight bumping at head and top front point. Inscribed to me by Moorcock. The U.S. true first looks like ass, while this edition has a groovy Rodney Matthews cover that looks a lot like Roger Dean. Tanelorn Archives, page 24.
Moorcock, Michael. Letters from Hollywood. HAARP, 1986. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with bumping at head and heel and blunting of points, in a Very Good dust jacket with shallow chipping at heel and points, wrinkling along front join, trace of dampstaining to bottom rear flap, and touches of general wear. Inscribed twice by Moorcock: On front free endpaper: “To Howard —/The third of the/world’s finest cities —/Love/Mike/Aug 18th/NY.” On half-title page: “Michael Moorcock/To Lawrence.” Collection of letters to J.G. Ballard.
Moorcock, Michael. London Peculiar and Other nonfiction. PM Press, 2012. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy, new and unread, inscribed to me by Moorcock.
Moorcock, Michael. The Mystery of the Texas Twister with Argosy January/February 2004. First edition trade paperback original, both fine copies in a Fine paper slipcase with advertising insert intact and inserted. Inscribed to me by Moorcock. Attempt to revive the venerable Argosy magazine, which evidently only lasted three issues. Upon receiving it, Mike said “I thought it was a Mentos ad!”
Ladysmith Black Mambazo founder and lead singer Jospeh Shabala has died. Like just about everyone else in the world, the first time I heard them was on Paul Simon’s Graceland. Unlike most, I actually picked up a few Ladysmith Black Mambazo albums. (In fact, I just counted and I have seven, a lot of which came out on Shanachie records, which put out a lot of world music in the 1980s and 90s.)
If you only know them from Graceland, you might not have realized that they’re primarily a gospel group. Most of the songs end with “Amen! Halleluya! Amen!” The track below is from Umthombo Wamanzi.
Like last week’s selection, “All We Have Is Now” is off Static Waves 5. It’s a beautiful, echoey piece of steady state Shoegaze:
Between this and The Capsules, the Static Wave compilations aren’t so much introducing me to new bands as presenting new work from bands I already liked but hadn’t tracked closely enough.
More books I bought from Michael Moorcock. These are the non-Moorcock hardbacks I bought off him (in addition to Rendezvous With Rama).
Brooke, Keith and Nick Gevers, editors. Infinity Plus One. PS Publishing, 2000. First edition hardback, a PC copy of 500 signed, numbered copies signed by the contributors (to which Moorcock has added “Michael Moorcock’s copy” to the limitation plate), a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a trace of wear at top points. Supplements another copy. Anthology series (partly original, partially reprints) that only had two volumes. Gevers would later take up co-editing duties for Postscripts.
Burroughs, William S. The Ticket That Exploded. Grove Press, 1967. First hardback edition (preceded by an Olympia Press paperback edition), a Very Good+ copy with bumping at head and heel, slight wear to boards at heel, and a race of dust soiling, in a Very Good- dust jacket with 1″ closed tear at top front, 1/8″ semiclosed tear at bottom front near point, slight bumping at points, slight dust soiling, and general wear (it had dark staining along the spine, but a damp cloth cleaned that up nicely); I suspect that the orange text on the dust jacket was originally red, but since it applies to the inner flap as well, and almost all the copies I see online are similarly affected, I’m assuming it’s more the chemical composition of the ink than sun-fading per se. Shoaf, Collecting William S. Burroughs in Print, 6a, which states that it has textual revisions from the Olympia Press edition.
Di Filippo, Paul. Joe’s Liver. Cambrian Publications, 2000. First edition hardback, of presentation copy of 300 signed/numbered hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed by the author to the Moorcock’s: “To Michael/&/Linda —/America — It’s one/big laff/fest!” Replaces another copy.
Holdstock, Robert. Celtira. Simon & Schuster UK, 1998. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with Moorcock’s ownership bookplate affixed to the inside front cover.
Holt, Tom. Flying Dutch. Orbit, 1991. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
Moore, Alan. Voice of the Fire. Top Shelf Productions, 2003. First hardback edition (preceded by a Gollancz TPO), #68 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just a trace of edgewear. It seems that the only difference between this and the trade edition (currently unrecorded in the ISFDB) is the full-color signature plate page.
Robinson, Kim Stanley. Remaking History. Tor, 1991. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed to Moorcock: “for Michael Moorcock/with great admiration/from a raw/2μg rain trance./KS Robinson/1993.” At least I think that’s what the last line before his signature says. (At the 1992 Armadillocon, Stan told the story of driving through west Texas, dropping acid, and writing all his really deep thoughts down in a notebook, only to read it the next day and find such pearls of wisdom as “Bugs are weird.”)
Wilson, Colin. The Angry Years: The Rise and Fall of the Angry Young Men. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight bumping at head and a nailhead-sized nick near the heel. Non-fiction biography and criticism of the “angry young men” of literature in the 1950s and 60s. Laid in is a largely negative review of the book from Roger Lewis.
Wilson, Colin. Dreaming to Some Purpose. Century, 2004. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy, with uneven sunning to side and bottom page blocks, in a Fine dust jacket. Autobiography.
