Marc Spitz

Documents the life and influence of the music icon, citing the role of trends from the 1960s through the 1980s in forming his development, and also considers his present-day status as a leading figure in alternative culture.

A Biography

Bowie

Brendan Mullen

An intriguing study of the Los Angeles punk scene during the late 1970s captures the energy, anarchism, and rebellion of the period and offers a close-up look at the bands--Germs, X, Black Flag, and the Circle Jerks, among others--the DJs, club owners, music journalists, groupies, and other survivors of the era. Original. 15,000 first printing.

The Untold Story of L.A. Punk

We Got the Neutron Bomb

A thirtysomething rock journalist, Joe Green struggles to cope with a rapidly changing world, a heroin addiction, and the new demands of adolescent music fans as he becomes convinced that getting the Smiths, a long-broken-up rock band, back together can provide the ultimate answer to changing his life. Original. 20,000 first printing.

A Novel

How Soon is Never?

New York Times, Spin, and Vanity Fair contributor Marc Spitz explores the first great cultural movement since Hip Hop: an old-fashioned and yet highly modern aesthetic that's embraced internationally by teens, twenty and thirty-somethings and even some Baby Boomers; creating a hybrid generation known as Twee. Via exclusive interviews and years of research, Spitz traces Generation Twee's roots from the Post War 50s to its dominance in popular culture today.

the gentle revolution in music, books, television, fashion, and film

Twee

A rock writer and music blogger trances his personal history through the Lower East Side's social scene of the 1990s, where heroin and cocaine use was rampant and Courtney Love, Morrissey, Alan Ginsberg, Damien Hirst and Joe Strummer held court. Original. 25,000 first printing.

A Memoir of Downtown New York City in the '90s

Poseur

The full story of the rise and spectacular comeback of the band hailed as the saviors of punk rock and the next U2 It's hard to believe that in early 2004 Green Day was considered over -- the band was still together, but they were dismissed as a strictly 90s phenomenon, incapable of re-creating the success of their groundbreaking album Dookie. Then American Idiot debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts, stayed on the charts for nearly 18 months, and went on to sell more than four million records and to win Record of the Year (for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams") at this year's Grammy's. Combining unique access to Green Day with a seasoned journalist's nose for a great story, Marc Spitz gives the complete account of the band, from their earliest days to their most recent explosion of popularity and critical acclaim. Foremost, Nobody Likes You is a story of friendship and the transporting power of playing very loud music. It is the story of how high school dropout Billie Joe Armstrong came to write song lyrics that inflamed the political conscience of fans in a way that two Yale graduates couldnt. Green Day's story -- from rise, to fall, to rise again -- has never before been fully told.

Inside the Turbulent Life, Times, and Music of Green Day

Nobody Likes You

Fitzgerald was once a twee wallflower. He's remade his image as a tough, junkie hipster and wants to take his Smiths obsessed, cardigan-wearing friends with him. Fearing resistance, he approaches a surly, Australian pimp, Blixa and hires her "finest bitch" Kylie, to "de-virginize them." He pays for Kylie's services with bad dope. When a furious Blixa shows up for revenge, what is supposed to be the most special night of Rodney and Stew's life could very well be their last on earth. Heroin, Morrissey, Nick Drake, Nick Cave, Toto Cuelo, Chinese egg rolls and a baby snatching dingo all figure into this fast, fearless, pitch black sex farce. "Spitz writes with a buoyant irreverence that may evoke rewarding memories at times of playwrights Joe Orton and Charles Busch. And he's not afraid to address life's really big questions, such as what is the ideal recording to listen to the first time you have sex?" -Chip Deffaa, The New York Post

Shyness is Nice

The pressures of life in a post 9/11 world are starting to effect suburban dad Mort Williams in a strange way. His wife has left him and the only two people he can relate to are his unscrupulous plastic surgeon and his "tween" next door neighbor. Eventually the fact that Mort is slowly turning into Michael Jackson becomes a problem that his two grown sons must deal with; even as one has become a survivalist and the other is trying to convince his French girlfriend to keep their baby. Bleak and brutal with moments of wild humor, and the occasional shout of "Wooo!," this dark comedy embodies the spirit of a stunned city, struggling to piece life back together. "The Spitz aesthetic is proudly trashy and puerile, dedicated to slapstick and tasteless jokes, sort of like Mel Brooks if he listened to Joy Division. But Spitz's newest, Gravity Always Wins, turns out to be - hold on to your trucker hat - a domestic comedy with absolutely no onstage sex, violence or drugs. In truth Spitz's past works always hid a streak of sweetness, beneath the corrosive comedy lurks a romantic soul." -David Cote, Time Out New York

Gravity Always Wins

It was supposed to be a routine promotional appearance: an aspiring writer appears on a cable news or entertainment network to film a talking heads expert spot in order to promote one of his recently published articles. When face to face with the routine manipulations and blunt agendas that elicit the soundbytes we routinely see as part of our daily info-tainment, he is horrified and decides to rebel, only to realize that he is essentially violating the order of the entertainment universe and there are rewards for playing the game and deadly consequences for resisting. You will never watch an I Love the 90s episode again without wondering what's going on behind the scenes. "Mr. Spitz has written racy, insidery plays about junkies, pimps and rock stars. They were sloppy, but it didn't matter. Who wants a well made play about pornography or Joy Division's Ian Curtis anyway?" -Jason Zimonan, The New York Times

The Name of this Play is Talking Heads

Hvis Chuck Berry opfandt Rock and Roll, så opfandt Mick Jagger Rockstjernen. Marc Spitzer rejser i begyndelsen af bogen tvivl om, hvorvidt han bryder sig om Jagger. Han synes som mange andre, at Mick Jagger udstråler arrogance, kulde, overlegenhed. Hvor Kieth Richards er hjertet og blodet i The Rolling Stones, er Jagger hjernen. Men snart får vi en helt anden historie om en ung mand, som længe både fulgte sine studier og ledte den gruppe, der blev verdens største rockband, mens de andre stenede deres hjerne ud. Som gik på barrikaderne i ungdomsoprøret, indtil han blev så berømt, at han ikke kunne være i fred. Keith og Mick voksede som drenge op sammen i Dartford uden for London, og deres utroligt tætte samarbejde skaffede os en række af rockens største klassikere. Bogen er en morsom og næsten hypnotisk pageturner om Mick Jaggers liv, om musikken og kvinderne (nej, han er ikke bøsse), om det dekadente liv som berømthed, og om den klare omtanke og planlægning, der hele tiden bringer både ham og bandet ud af vanskeligheder og ud på alverdens scener.

rebel, rockstjerne, rodløs, stratenrøver

Jagger

Winston Frame is the self described, urban "poet of death and despair." Young, dour, pale and handsome, he is, much like Ian Curtis of Joy Division, also haunted and suicidal. When the pressure of impending success, fatherhood and an affair get too much, he hangs himself. Only his journey is not quite over. Winston finds himself in Purgatory, which is a Weimar style cabaret full of animal acts, exhausted chanteuses and the borscht belt comic Bobby Lemondrops. His guide is "Mad Simon," who seems intent on keeping Winston's damned soul out of Hell. Simon's agenda is hidden but we get the idea that this is no ordinary tour guide. It's A Wonderful Life meets 24 Hour Party People, I Wanna Be Adored is as strangely sweet as it is delirious and austere. "Beginning with a series of punchy and surprising scenes that include a woman getting spanked with a trout, a fight and a striptease by a wheelchair bound woman, the show maintains a gleefully racy tone throughout." -Jason Zinoman, Time Out New York

I Wanna Be Adored

Wer Mick Jagger verstehen will, muss dieses Buch lesen. 2012 stehen die Rolling Stones 50 Jahre auf der Bühne, aber ihr legendärer Frontmann Mick Jagger gibt bis heute Rätsel auf. Mit einer Synthese aus Biografie und Kulturgeschichte gelingt dem renommierten Schriftsteller, Dramatiker und Musikjournalisten Marc Spitz ein fesselndes Porträt des Musikers, das Frauen, Freunde und Feinde ebenso mit einbezieht wie Jaggers zahlreiche Rollen abseits der Rockbühne. Jagger, der sexuelle Revoluzzer, einflussreiche Gesellschaftskritiker, gewiefte Geschäftsmann und verhinderte Filmstar. Gründlich recherchiert, scharfsinnig analysiert und oft witzig geschrieben zeichnet dieses Buch dem Leser ein weitaus umfassenderes Bild als frühere Biografien.

Rebell und Rockstar

Mick Jagger

Clarence, Tony and Dommy work in a posh clothing store in New York's retail capital of SoHo. They're surrounded by fabulous people, drape themselves in the latest fashions, but they take home tiny pay checks and cannot numb themselves enough with drugs, alcohol, cheap sex and even cheaper fads. As 30 approaches fast, they must fact the dying dreams, face their greatest fears, and reckon with the various firebrands, zealots and sugar mommas who make up the women and men in their lives. All day long, they must ask customers, "Can I help you?" but these guys can barely help themselves. With the world collapsing around them, they must depend on each other to survive another weekend shift. It's the story of friendship, frocks and five dollars an hour self esteem. "Marc Spitz is one of my favorite playwrights; I have been to at least half of his dozen plays, and I have never been disappointed. He knows how to shake people up; make them laugh, gasp and gag. Expect bad taste, bad language, snappy dialogue, theatrical surprises and maybe something that really grosses you out." -Tom Murrin, Paper Magazine

Retail Sluts

«Este es un libro esencial para vislumbrar algo más de cerca el mito Jagger, el mito Stones.» Juan PuchadesUn examen ecuánime sin precedentes de una de las figuras más celebradas e incomprendidas de la historia del rock and roll.El conocido periodista musical Marc Spitz ha explorado un icono cultural cuya contribución, imagen e influencia en nuestra cultura han sido insondables, y ha conseguido reflejar en profundidad una visión del legado de Mick Jagger. Jagger se construye como un fascinante documental en una serie de episodios que marcan los hitos de una vida de estrella, desde su infancia en una familia de clase media en el Londres de después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial hasta la adquisición del estatus nobiliario de sir Mick, un viejo y glorioso hombre de Estado del rock.A través de un retrato mucho más completo que las biografías previamente publicadas, esta biografía profundiza en la multiplicidad de roles incorporados por Jagger: liberador sexual, provocador de los medios, estrella del cine independiente, y, por si fuera poco, también empresario taimado con un entusiasmo libertino por mujeres mucho más jóvenes que él.Este Jagger es tan inspirado, provocativo y polifacético como el mismo artista.«Uno sabe que nunca hay nada definitivo en contemporáneos pero esta biografía es excelente y cultiva tanto el mito como anti-mito. Minucioso y encomiable trabajo de entrevista y diagnóstico sobre el Mesías Marciano que siempre nos ha ofrecido David Jones» Carlos ZanónDavid Bowie es uno de los músicos más reconocidos y respetados del pop-rock mundial. Conocido en todo el mundo como el gran “camaleón” de la música, su brillante creatividad y constante reinvención le han convertido en un icono de nuestro tiempo. Sin embargo, a pesar de su fama, Bowie sigue siendo un enigma. En Starman, el galardonado periodista musical Paul Trynka, ha pintado el retrato definitivo de este gran artista. Desde sus años de infancia en el Brixton de la posguerra hasta el glamur decadente de Ziggy Stardust pasando por su controvertido periodo berlinés.Basada en cientos de entrevistas a amigos y detractores, ex amantes y compañeros de profesión, Starman revela cómo Bowie construyó su música y a sí mismo.Además, trata la vida y trayectorias profesionales de muchas otras figuras relevantes del mundo de la música que se cruzan en la vida de Bowie como Iggy Pop, Lou Reed o Brian Eno.Marc Spitz es autor de cinco libros, entre ellos How Soon Is Never?: A Novel, Bowie: A Biography y el aclamado We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L. A. Punk (escrito con Brendan Mullen). Sus artículos sobre cultura pop han aparecido en The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Spin, Maxim, Nylon y Uncut. Actualmente es el blogger musical de VF Daily (www.vanityfair.com). Spitz vive en Nueva York.Paul Trynka es periodista musical, editor de la revista International Musician. Fue editor fundador de The Guitar Magazine y ha colaborado en diversas publicaciones, entre ellas, The Face, Wire y Mojo. Es autor de The Electric Guitar: An Illustrated History y de una biografía de Iggy Pop (2007).

Pack Biografías del Rock

There is a light and it never goes out . . . or is there? Welcome to the big Reagan ’80s, where ketchup is a vegetable and the Cold War looms large and chilly. If like Joe Green you were coming of age during this boom era, your main concerns include one or more of the following: a rainbow assortment of Polo shirts worn with the collar flipped up, K-Swiss tennis shoes, a new cable channel called MTV, and Top 40 radio. Stuck in the suburban haze of Long Island, New York, Joe Green knows there has got to be more to life. However, salvation is on the way, in the form of a quiffed-up quartet from Manchester, England, who take over the airways of a local radio station. Hearing the Smiths for the first time jerks Joe awake: Morrissey’s wry and witty lyrics speak to him, and Johnny Marr’s driven guitar chords get under his skin. He destroys his Phil Collins cassettes, pomades his hair into New Wave submission, studies up on his Oscar Wilde, and falls in love. He even shows up for dinner on time. That is, until his favorite band breaks up and then breaks his heart. Fast-forward some fifteen years. Joe Green is making a living as a rock journalist, still recovering from a wicked post-college smack addiction and slumming with youngsters who ironically “appreciate” the seminal ’80s music that once gave his life meaning. It’s too late to go home, or is it? What if Joe Green can get the Smiths back together? What if reuniting the long-broken-up band can reverse the passage of time and bring back the magic of youth? What if it helps him win the heart of the woman he loves? How Soon Is Never? is an acerbic, ingenious look at Reagan-era adolescence, the power of hearing a record that changes your life, and the dangers of nostalgia. Be prepared to see a bit of yourself in Joe Green.

How Soon Is Never?

The Farewell Drugs (Reed, Chimpy, Johnny and Sloane) were the worst behaved band on the Lower East Side: heroin snorting, groupie abusing, shoplifting, drug dealing, sexist, racist misanthropes. But they had talent. When beleaguered record industry executive Hella Hecht endeavors to make them over, she finds wild success, marketing them as The Skatekeys, a boy band full of clean cut and polite young troubadours. The Drugs play along but slowly and surely, their old ways creep back in with deadly results. A rock and roll industry farce with a little too much of an edge. "Spitz exploded onto the Ludlow Street theater scene... their first production, 1998s's Retail Sluts depicted the SoHo class struggle: kids working in high-end boutiques selling overpriced hipster clothes to tourists." -Tom Murrin, Paper Magazine

(The Rise and Fall of) The Farewell Drugs

Unlikely ex-rock star Sandy James grumbles, bemoans, and proselytizes about the long career but short success of his rock band, the Jane Ashers, in this edgy second novel from "Spin" senior writer Spitz.

Too Much, Too Late

New York Times, Spin, and Vanity Fair contributor Marc Spitz explores the first great cultural movement since Hip Hop: an old-fashioned and yet highly modern aesthetic that’s embraced internationally by teens, twenty and thirty-somethings and even some Baby Boomers; creating hybrid generation known as Twee. Via exclusive interviews and years of research, Spitz traces Generation Twee’s roots from the Post War 50s to its dominance in popular culture today. Vampire Weekend, Garden State, Miranda July, Belle and Sebastian, Wes Anderson, Mumblecore, McSweeney’s, Morrissey, beards, artisanal pickles, food trucks, crocheted owls on Etsy, ukuleles, kittens and Zooey Deschanel—all are examples of a cultural aesthetic of calculated precocity known as Twee. In Twee, journalist and cultural observer Marc Spitz surveys the rising Twee movement in music, art, film, fashion, food and politics and examines the cross-pollinated generation that embodies it—from aging hipsters to nerd girls, indie snobs to idealistic industrialists. Spitz outlines the history of twee—the first strong, diverse, and wildly influential youth movement since Punk in the ’70s and Hip Hop in the ’80s—showing how awkward glamour and fierce independence has become part of the zeitgeist. Focusing on its origins and hallmarks, he charts the rise of this trend from its forefathers like Disney, Salinger, Plath, Seuss, Sendak, Blume and Jonathan Richman to its underground roots in the post-punk United Kingdom, through the late’80s and early ’90s of K Records, Whit Stillman, Nirvana, Wes Anderson, Pitchfork, This American Life, and Belle and Sebastian, to the current (and sometimes polarizing) appeal of Girls, Arcade Fire, Rookie magazine, and hellogiggles.com. Revealing a movement defined by passionate fandom, bespoke tastes, a rebellious lack of irony or swagger, the championing of the underdog, and the vanquishing of bullies, Spitz uncovers the secrets of modern youth culture: how Twee became pervasive, why it has so many haters and where, in a post-Portlandia world, can it go from here?

The Gentle Revolution in Music, Books, Television, Fashion, and Film

Taking us back to late ’70s and early ’80s Hollywood—pre-crack, pre-AIDS, pre-Reagan—We Got the Neutron Bomb re-creates word for word the rage, intensity, and anarchic glory of the Los Angeles punk scene, straight from the mouths of the scenesters, zinesters, groupies, filmmakers, and musicians who were there. “California was wide-open sex—no condoms, no birth control, no morality, no guilt.” —Kim Fowley “The Runaways were rebels, all of us were. And a lot of people looked up to us. It helped a lot of kids who had very mediocre, uneventful, unhappy lives. It gave them something to hold on to.” —Cherie Currie “The objective was to create something for our own personal satisfaction, because everything in our youthful and limited opinion sucked, and we knew better.” —John Doe “The Masque was like Heaven and Hell all rolled into one. It was a bomb shelter, a basement. It was so amazing, such a dive ... but it was our dive.” —Hellin Killer “At least fifty punks were living at the Canterbury. You’d walk into the courtyard and there’d be a dozen different punk songs all playing at the same time. It was an incredible environment.” —Belinda Carlisle Assembled from exhaustive interviews, We Got the Neutron Bomb tells the authentically gritty stories of bands like the Runaways, the Germs, X, the Screamers, Black Flag, and the Circle Jerks—their rise, their fall, and their undeniable influence on the rock ’n’ roll of today.

A biography and cultural examination of the Rolling Stones' frontman Mick Jagger's spectacular life and the cultural revolution he led. As the Rolling Stones' legendary front man Mick Jagger remains an enigma. He hasn't given an in-depth interview for a decade and a half and never commented on his friend and partner, Keith Richard's often critical biography. Drawing on firsthand recollections from rockers, filmmakers, writers, radicals, and other artists who have been transformed by Mick Jagger's work, acclaimed music journalist Marc Spitz has created a unique examination of the Jagger legacy, debunking long held myths and restoring his status as a complicated artist. Combining biography with cultural history, Jagger unfolds like a captivating documentary, a series of episodes tracing the icon's rise from his childhood in middle-class postwar London to his status as a jet-setting knight. A culturally astute, often funny, and painstakingly researched read, Jagger offers a far richer portrait than biographies published previously. The book reveals much about his relationships (with Marianne Faithfull and ex-wives Bianca Jagger and Jerry Hall); his complex, creative partnership with Keith Richards; his friends like John Lennon and David Bowie; and enemies like Hells Angels leader Sonny Barger. Spitz goes even deeper, exploring Jagger's many roles: an authentic soul man; powerful social commentator; sexual liberator; would-be movie star; and yes, sometimes, a shrewd businessman with an enthusiasm for much younger women. The myth of Mick is examined and rebooted for the twenty-first century.

Marc Spitz

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