(SAUGERTIES, N.Y.) – Peter Aaron, author of the just-published If You Like the Ramones… (Backbeat Books), the newest volume in the If You Like series of guidebooks to pop culture connectivity, will be joined by novelist/spoken word performer Maggie Estep for a reading at Inquiring Minds Bookstore on Saturday, December 7, 2013, at 7pm.
Aaron’s If You Like the Ramones… is a lot more than just the story of the seminal New York City punk-rock band. The guidebook places the Ramones in their cultural context in terms of what came before, surveys the rich downtown rock and arts scene in which they emerged, and details the enormous influence the group had and continues to have on everything that has happened since.
Aaron serves as a deft guide to the scene surrounding the Ramones, navigating the reader quickly through such key influences on the Ramones as early rock ’n’ roll, surf rock, British Invasion sounds, garage rock, girl groups, hard rock, bubblegum, proto-punk, and glam rock. Aaron is equally skillful with delineating the non-musical influences on these cultural avatars, including the weird movies, cartoons, trashy TV shows, comic books, and other pop-cultural jetsam that overtly or discreetly informed their project, which was as much a socio-cultural critique itself as an object of cultural engagement.
But most importantly, Aaron recognizes the fun in the music of the Ramones and so many like-minded artists. There’s enough here to keep a hardcore fan or a novice engaged in a pop-cultural exploration for months if not years.
Peter Aaron is the music editor of Chronogram magazine and the frontman of the influential New York punk-blues band the Chrome Cranks. His writing has appeared in the Village Voice, the Boston Herald, and other publications, and online at AllMusic and All About Jazz. In the 1980s, he promoted early concerts by Nirvana, the Flaming Lips, White Zombie, and others. He lives in the Hudson Valley, N.Y.
Maggie Estep has published multiple books, including Alice Fantastic and Hex (a New York Times Notable Book of 2003). Her work has also appeared in many magazines and anthologies such as Brooklyn Noir, Queens Noir, Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Best American Erotica, and The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. She has performed her work in a wide variety of venues ranging from Lincoln Center to Lollapalooza, Charlie Rose, and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. She lives in the mid-Hudson Valley.
Upcoming readings by Peter Aaron include:
TUE. DEC. 9 (7PM) – Barnes & Noble – Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Reading and book signing.
SUN. DEC. 22 (2PM) – Barnes & Noble – Albany, N.Y.
Reading and book signing.
FRI. JAN. 17 (7PM) – Inquiring Minds Bookstore – New Paltz, N.Y.
Reading and book signing. Pizza will be served. “Hey! Pizza! Great, let’s dig in!”