This is weird but I want to “advertise ” the piece posted just before this latest edition of WEEKLY NEW WONDERS I’m about to serve up, aka our round-up of the best new songs from recent days which are seriously exquisite but hold that thought!
A few months ago, PuR reader-friend Tim asked if he could write a piece for the blog about how influential a particular book had been in his burgeoning musical nerdom as a child. When he told me it was The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Rock by Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden, I couldn’t f*cking believe it for this book had been a foundational piece in my childhood as well.
I get how Where The Wild Things Are, Harry Potter or The Baby-sitters Club books were seminal for millions of normal kids, inspiring their love of reading, dreaming and all that. But for me, no book was as glamorous or spoke to me as profoundly as The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Rock. It was home to a full-page picture of sweaty Jimmy Page coming offstage that I was both fascinated with and completely disgusted by. It featured hundreds of entries about bands I had never heard of like “Fairport Convention” (who?) and “Slade”(again, who?), and depicted album covers I’d never seen. Plus there were all sorts of sordid anecdotes about musicians OD-ing and jumping in front of trains. As a child who kept a scrapbook of obituaries for “fun”, I found these grim factoids to be especially intoxicating (I was a real Wednesday Addams). I used to sit for hours in my walk-in closet reading and re-reading this book, making lists of bands I wanted to seek out at the record store while gawping at, and occasionally being scared by the weird pictures (true).
And so after you listen to these brilliant new songs, please read Tim’s fabulous piece below. Or hell, why not multi-task and listen to the WEEKLY NEW WONDERS PLAYLIST while you read Tim’s piece and immerse yourself in a full-on musical haze. Rock on…
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PICKING UP ROCKS 
Another wonderful playlist. Those first 5 x tracks in particular. You’re like my own personal DJ! That Butch Walker track is crying out for a cover by The Isley Brothers. Looking forward to the new Rina album. I’ll also be checking into what else is available from Miya Folick and Say She She. And 2 to recommend – Thee Sacred Souls new album….so good. You must hear Can I Call You Rose (if you haven’t already). That led me on to Los Yesterdays – Nobody’s Clown – fantastic song and great video. All the best. Thanks, Dave
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Ha, thanks Dave, and hell, I would take an Isley cover of that BW song! Thanks for the TSS recommendations, absolutely digging them( and Los Yesterdays as well)! And if you haven’t checked out the video for Say She She’s “Trouble’, please do. They sooo capture the ’80s NYC vibe I grew up in and love (sonically and visually), just so damn good!
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