A lot of ink has been split on the subject of punk rock in recent years, most of it by arty-fatty trendies who want to make the music intellectually respectable. Cranked Up Really High is different. It isn't published by a university press and it gives short shrift to the idea that the roots of punk rock can be traced back to 'avant garde' art movements. As well as discussing sixties garage rock and the British, American and Finnish punk scenes, Home devotes whole chapters to deconstructing Riot Grrl, Oil and the sorry saga of Nazi bonehead band Skrewdriver. This book champions the super-dumb sleazebag thud of The Ramones, The Stooges, The Vibrators, The Art Attacks, The Snivelling Shits, The Lurkers, The Queers, The Germs, The Child Molesters, The Ants and The Blaggers.

The band, the lifestyle, the revolution. This classic biography charts the phenomenal rise of The Stone Roses to the icons they are today, using interviews, rehearsal tapes and the archives of author John Robb who was with them from the beginning. Robb's exclusive inside knowledge of The Stone Roses creates a compelling and intimate insight into how the band single-handedly set the blueprint for the resurgence of UK rock 'n' roll in the 1990s: Ian Brown's new lazy-style vocals, Reni's fluid, funk-tinged, ground-breaking drumming, and the guitar genius of John Squire. From the band members' early years to the inception of the Roses, through the tours and success, their influences and style, to the demise of the original line-up and their solo careers; every high and low is documented in minute detail. This is the definitive, most revered account of one of the most influential British bands in pop music history.

Is comedy postmodern? Kirby Olson posits that no one has been more marginalized than the comic writer, whose irreverent truths have always made others uncomfortable. In a literary age that purports to champion diversity, comic writers remain an underclass huddling at the fringes of the canon. Olson challenges the status quo by inviting the comic writer into the center of literary debate. In the growing discipline of humor studies, Olson is the first to create a substantial link between the fields of comedy and postmodernism, discovering in comic writers a philosophy of oddness and paradox that parallels and extends the work of the major postmodern thinkers. With elegant clarity, Comedy After Post-modernism examines: Edward Lear as he invents a comic picturesque to challenge the sublime of Kant and Ruskin Gregory Corso as he explodes the Great Chain of Being of his early Catholicism Philippe Soupault as a comic surrealist undoing the sacrificial aesthetics of André Breton P.G. Wodehouse as a social thinker with surprisingly deep affinities to anarchist Peter Kropotkin and radical social theorist Charles Fourier Stewart Home, the infamously violent punk author, as a pacifist whose narrative questions Marxist-anarchist terrorism in favor of patience and tolerance Charles Willeford, the maestro of the black humor police procedural, as a postmodern philosopher who deepens the problems of ethical and aesthetic judgment after postmodernism. "An original, splendidly researched, and necessary book. By pointing to the vast excluded literature of 'comic writers, ' Dr. Olson opens the door to a postmodern scholarship capable of greater flexibility. Comedy After Postmodernism evinces a lucid, passionate, and engaging style." --Andrei Codrescu There was an old man on the Border, Who lived in the utmost disorder; He danced with the cat, and made tea in his hat, Which vexed all the folks on the Border. --From The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear

Factory Records' fame and fortune were based on two bands - Joy Division and New Order - and one personality - that of its director, Tony Wilson. At the height of the label's success in the late 1980s, it ran its own club, the legendary Haçienda, had a string of international hit records, and was admired and emulated around the world. But by the 1990s the story had changed. The back catalogue was sold off, top bands New Order and Happy Mondays were in disarray, and the Haçienda was shut down by the police. Critically acclaimed on its original publication in 1996, this book tells the complete story of Factory Records' spectacular history, from the label's birth in 1970s Manchester, through its '80s heyday and '90s demise. Now updated to include new material on the re-emergence of Joy Division, the death of Tony Wilson and the legacy of Factory Records, it draws on exclusive interviews with the major players to give a fascinating insight into the unique personalities and chaotic reality behind one of the UK's most influential and successful independent record labels.

Phoebe wants to relax after her recent adventure, get to know her family, and learn how to be a witch. She practices at disciplining her powers, but her training is interrupted when a shadow falls over the small group - literally. Now she must move fast to save the universe from an evil entertainer, a black unknown, and myriad other strange and unusual creatures. And she must close her holes before more things come through.

Three excursions through time, outer space, and imaginary worlds from “one of the most intellectually astute SF writers of his generation” (The Washington Post). Michael Swanwick is a legend in the science fiction and fantasy universe, having won five Hugos, a Nebula, a World Fantasy Award, and many more honors for his mind-bending work. This trio of acclaimed sci-fi thrillers showcases the versatility of an author who can build a world, foresee a future, and alter reality. Bones of the Earth: A remarkable scientific breakthrough presented to humankind by an enigmatic future race enables a team of paleontologists to travel back in time to study dinosaurs in their natural prehistoric habitat. But the greatest discovery in history threatens to foment terrorism and create dangerous time paradoxes that could alter tomorrow’s world in this Hugo and Nebula Award–nominated novel. In the Drift: On an alternate Earth, the meltdown at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power plant created a radioactive wasteland and caused the collapse of the US government. A century later, the mutants, monsters, and untouchables of the no-man’s-land called “the Drift” are descending on the city of Philadelphia. Vacuum Flowers: In this futuristic cyberpunk thriller, Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark is a recorded personality owned by a corporate giant. When Rebel’s personality is uploaded to an unsuspecting persona tester and burned into her brain, she escapes the corporation by hijacking her host’s body and embarking on a mad dash to freedom across the solar system.

A cyberpunk thriller from Nebula Award winner Michael Swanwick that explores bioengineering, wetware, and the riddle of personality Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark is a recorded personality owned by corporate giant Deutsche Nakasone. When Rebel’s personality is uploaded to persona tester Eucrasia Walsh and burned into her brain, Rebel escapes the corporation and takes off across an exotically transformed solar system, hijacking Eucrasia’s body and becoming the most wanted fugitive in existence. A fast-paced technological thriller, Vacuum Flowers allows the reader to consider the implications of bioengineering while providing an entertaining and dynamic story. Reminiscent of the innovative work of Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling, this high-tech work of science fiction carves out a niche all its own with themes as relevant today as when it was first published.