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Event Tue May 07 2013
Tonight: Rock Is Dead — Just Ask Ian Svenonius
Ian Svenonius, the man behind the fabled post-hardcore outfit Nation of Ulysses, current member of Chain and the Gang, and writer of Marxist-leaning gazettes will be appearing at Quimby's Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave., to read from his newly minted treatise on the forming of rock bands, Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group. Svenonius's latest screed is a "bizarrely erudite" meditation on the hazards and resulting socioeconomic upheaval that occurs with the formation of rock groups (which are really just a natural progression from male street gangs of post-War Western society, he says.) Naturally, it's smart and meticulously crafted, but he gets some help: The book is framed by introductory interviews with dead rockers like Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, who proffer valuable and surprisingly pedantic advice that Svenonius expounds upon in greater detail in chapters such as "Drugs" and "Sex," and passages that discuss the importance of the Zodiac in choosing band members. Svenonius is no stranger to the firmly tongue-in-cheek interview, and his discussions with rockers from the Great Beyond are essential reading for anyone daring to pursue rock 'n' roll in its current, post-capitalist stage. Part cautionary how-to guide and part philosophical meditation on the current state of rock, Strategies exhumes rock's past to consider its present and help guide its future toward, hopefully, a more astrologically synchronous state.
Ian Svenonius will be appearing at Quimby's Bookstore tonight at 7pm. Admission is free.
DON'T MISS: The official afterparty for tonight's event will be at The Owl, 2521 N. Milwaukee, where Svenonius and fellow rock icon Calvin Johnson will be DJing from 10pm to 4am, and where Svenonius will have a mixtape soundtrack for the book for sale in a numbered edition of 100 tapes with silkscreened covers.
