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Enjoy the Experience: Homemade Records, 1958-1992
Enjoy The Experience is the largest collection of American private press vinyl ever amassed and presented, featuring over one thousand cover reproductions from 1958-1992. It is the seventh major book release by Johan Kugelberg, the author and editor behind The Velvet Underground: New York Art, Born In The Bronx and Punk: An Aesthetic (Rizzoli), True Norwegian Black Metal (Vice), Brad Pitt’s Dog (Zero Books) and Beauty Is In The Street: A Visual Record of the May ’68 Paris Uprising (Four Corners).
The subjects of Enjoy The Experience range from Lesbian Folk singers to Psychedelic Disco bands; Awkward Teen Pop combos to Pizza Parlor Organists; Religious Cult Leaders to Swank Sinatra Imitators. But this is not a novelty freak show: also profiled and discussed are some of the most highly regarded rock, soul, jazz, funk and singer/songwriter albums from the latter half of the twentieth century. From the awkward-yet-talented to the genius-yet-bizarre, one thing unites all musicians presented here: they sincerely hoped to become stars, they committed themselves to record, and they left themselves vulnerable to an industry not understanding of nuance, not appreciative of character.
Enjoy The Experience begins when the custom pressed American record plant came into existence and ends, largely, with the birth of the CD. As such, it is a snapshot of America in the second half of the twentieth century and manages to collate a bevy of tales and albums released by the brave souls who took the plunge and committed their musical vision to wax in the fifty states between the years of 1958 and 1992. Enjoy The Experience details a forceful American cultural experience that stands in juxtaposition to the mainstream even as its creators attempted to infiltrate it.
Enjoy The Experience includes an introduction by editor Johan Kugelberg, a lengthy overview by legendary rare record dealer Paul Major, along with commentaries, hundreds of reviews and over fifty biographies by noted enthusiasts and collectors like Gregg Turkington, Will Louviere, Brandan Kearney, Geoffrey Weiss, Jack Streitman, Eothen Alapatt, Rich Haupt and Mike Ascherman. It is presented as a hard cover visual catalogue, highlighting the graphic elements of the LPs and comes with a download card for dozens of the greatest private press songs culled from the book. (Sinecure Books)
The subjects of Enjoy The Experience range from Lesbian Folk singers to Psychedelic Disco bands; Awkward Teen Pop combos to Pizza Parlor Organists; Religious Cult Leaders to Swank Sinatra Imitators. But this is not a novelty freak show: also profiled and discussed are some of the most highly regarded rock, soul, jazz, funk and singer/songwriter albums from the latter half of the twentieth century. From the awkward-yet-talented to the genius-yet-bizarre, one thing unites all musicians presented here: they sincerely hoped to become stars, they committed themselves to record, and they left themselves vulnerable to an industry not understanding of nuance, not appreciative of character.
Enjoy The Experience begins when the custom pressed American record plant came into existence and ends, largely, with the birth of the CD. As such, it is a snapshot of America in the second half of the twentieth century and manages to collate a bevy of tales and albums released by the brave souls who took the plunge and committed their musical vision to wax in the fifty states between the years of 1958 and 1992. Enjoy The Experience details a forceful American cultural experience that stands in juxtaposition to the mainstream even as its creators attempted to infiltrate it.
Enjoy The Experience includes an introduction by editor Johan Kugelberg, a lengthy overview by legendary rare record dealer Paul Major, along with commentaries, hundreds of reviews and over fifty biographies by noted enthusiasts and collectors like Gregg Turkington, Will Louviere, Brandan Kearney, Geoffrey Weiss, Jack Streitman, Eothen Alapatt, Rich Haupt and Mike Ascherman. It is presented as a hard cover visual catalogue, highlighting the graphic elements of the LPs and comes with a download card for dozens of the greatest private press songs culled from the book. (Sinecure Books)
- GenresMusic
508 pages, Hardcover
First published April 20, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 19, 2018
Loved every page of this labor of love. This is a niche music book about self released and private press record albums. Before the proliferation of late 70's independent labels that used a network of distributors and one-steps to sell to record stores, if you wanted to document your music you had to do it yourself. "Enjoy The Experience" assembles hundreds of album covers, record reviews of the more unique entries by some of the foremost record collectors and features on some of the most intriguing of the artists in the "outsider music" genre.
There's obscure Christian rock bands, lounge acts, high school band recordings, mafia funded records with Hollywood connections, weird new age music, and my favorite type- entrepreneurs that stop at nothing to launch new schemes. I spent days staring at the covers before reading the text.
Text contributors include the inexhaustible Paul Major, whose reviews should have you spending a few hours on YouTube checking out some of his favorites. There are many on the inter webs. The best known "outsider" records - the first albums by The Shaggs and Gary Wilson are here. There's a comprehensive list of favorite songs by the contributors. Some of the writers tracked down the artists or their families for details or interviews.
This is not a spoiler particularly, but it helps to be a record hound or a fan of bad graphic art to truly appreciate this. If you aren't either of those, this book combined with a sampling of some of the records found on YouTube tells you a lot about the real 1970's and 80's.
There's obscure Christian rock bands, lounge acts, high school band recordings, mafia funded records with Hollywood connections, weird new age music, and my favorite type- entrepreneurs that stop at nothing to launch new schemes. I spent days staring at the covers before reading the text.
Text contributors include the inexhaustible Paul Major, whose reviews should have you spending a few hours on YouTube checking out some of his favorites. There are many on the inter webs. The best known "outsider" records - the first albums by The Shaggs and Gary Wilson are here. There's a comprehensive list of favorite songs by the contributors. Some of the writers tracked down the artists or their families for details or interviews.
This is not a spoiler particularly, but it helps to be a record hound or a fan of bad graphic art to truly appreciate this. If you aren't either of those, this book combined with a sampling of some of the records found on YouTube tells you a lot about the real 1970's and 80's.
May 24, 2018
A beautiful to look at book with plenty of fascinating tales from the strange world of private press records. The fact that it comes with a download code for a nicely chosen compilation is the icing on the cake
July 11, 2013
See my review in the Brooklyn Rail: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2013/06/m...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews