Detroit Rock City is an oral history of Detroit and its music told by the people who were on the stage, in the clubs, the practice rooms, studios, and in the audience, blasting the music out and soaking it up, in every scene from 1967 to today. From fabled axe men like Ted Nugent, Dick Wagner, and James Williamson jump to Jack White, to pop flashes Suzi Quatro and Andrew W.K., to proto punkers Brother Wayne Kramer and Iggy Pop, Detroit slices the rest of the land with way more than its share of the Rock Pie. Detroit Rock City is the story that has never before been sprung, a frenzied and schooled account of both past and present, calling in the halcyon days of the Grande Ballroom and the Eastown Theater, where national acts who came thru were made to stand and deliver in the face of the always hard hitting local support acts. It moves on to the Michigan Palace, Bookies Club 870, City Club, Gold Dollar, and Magic Stick -- all magical venues in America's top rock city. Detroit Rock City brings these worlds to life all from the guys and dolls who picked up a Strat and jammed it into our collective craniums. From those behind the scenes cats who promoted, cajoled, lost their shirts, and popped the platters to the punters who drove from everywhere, this is the book that gives life to Detroit's legend of loud.

Rock and Roll legend Ted Nugent contends that a lot of what is wrong with this country could be remedied by a simple, but controversial concept: gun ownership.

Knight Moves: The K J Knight Story recounts the fascinating tale of a miscreant young rock drummer growing up in the Motor City during the 1960s and 70s—a dynamic and defining period in rock and roll history. This is also the story of a teenage boy whose world is ripped apart and whose destiny is sealed through his father’s infidelity and the resulting dissolution of his parents’ marriage. As his home life crumbles, young K J immerses himself in his music. And against the backdrop of the madness of the music industry, this aspiring musician nomadically roams from one band to the next in search of a place in the rock-and-roll world. In this no-holds-barred account, author K J Knight describes his life and career, detailing his relentless acts of juvenile delinquency and his impact on the capricious nature of the music scene from Detroit to LA and back with many points in between. This candid, behind-the-scenes memoir could only have been written by a music insider, overflowing as it is with insight into America’s burgeoning rock culture. Knight chronicles his epic highs and shattering lows playing in countless bands. Eventually landing an envious gig with The Amboy Dukes and infamous guitar great Ted Nugent, K J gets a taste of the mythical life of a rock star, including rubbing shoulders with Motor City icons Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, and Iggy Pop. Knight’s passion for both his music and his family provide the emotional core for this searing autobiography, Knight Moves: The K J Knight Story.

A narrative history of the birth of rock 'n' roll in Detroit

In Extended Play, one of the country's most innovative music writers conducts a wide-ranging tour through the outer limits of contemporary music. Over the course of more than twenty-five portraits, interviews, and essays, John Corbett engages artists from lands as distant as Sweden, Siberia, and Saturn. With a special emphasis on African American and European improvisers, the book explores the famous and the little known, from John Cage and George Clinton to Anthony Braxton and Sun Ra. Employing approaches as diverse as the music he celebrates, Corbett illuminates the sound and theory of funk and rap, blues and jazz, contemporary classical, free improvisation, rock, and reggae. Using cultural critique and textual theory, Corbett addresses a broad spectrum of issues, such as the status of recorded music in postmodern culture, the politics of self-censorship, experimentation, and alternativism in the music industry, and the use of metaphors of space and madness in the work of African American musicians. He follows these more theoretically oriented essays with a series of extensive profiles and in-depth interviews that offer contrasting and complementary perspectives on some of the world's most creative musicians and their work. Included here are more than twenty original photographs as well as a meticulously annotated discography. The result is one of the most thoughtful, and most entertaining, investigations of contemporary music available today.