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An anthology of hip hop art & graphics compiled by designer Cey Adams – from street art, to snapshots of the NYC underground from the end of the 60s through the 80s, pivotal album cover art, hip hop in the worlds of advertising and film, fashion and more! Loads of classic hip hop imagery... read more

A great overview of exotic music in all its forms – not just the familiar American variant of the postwar years, but also a strong look at Italian exotica too! The book was originally penned in Italian, and has a good ear for the kind of unusual soundtrack and sound library material that... read more

The All Music Guide Required Listening collection of essential classic rock – featuring 1000 album reviews from the excellent All Music Guide reviewers – from the uber-legendary likes of Dylan, Springsteen, The Beatles, Hendrix and the like – to just as important and less... read more

A guide to essential Old School Rap & Hip Hop from team at the indespensible All Music Guide – featuring more than 500 music reviews of important records by Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC, NWA, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and so much more – plus reviews on soul and funk LPs... read more

The massive All Music Guide To Rock – The Definitive Guide To Rock, Pop And Soul (3rd Edition) – featuring reviews of thousands and thousands albums as rated and reviewed by the exceptional All Music Guide writers! The book is an encyclopedia of pop music from the 50s to the early 00s... read more

A pretty well-done look at the effect of recording technology on music in the 20th century – with an especially strong focus on the way that classical has been shaped by the evolution in sound! Author Arved Ashby definitely writes here from an academic perspective, but has a way of making... read more

The Beach Boys – day by day, year by year, presented in a very compelling diary format that really gets past some of the overblown mythos about the group! Author Badman goes for a "just the facts" sort of approach – and lists key days in the group's career from the 60s onward... read more

A treasure trove of 50s romance comics – brought together in a great-looking package, with helpful framing from author Michael Barson! The core material is great – way more than the soppy romance stories you might think – and instead some really compelling work that really gets... read more

A great look at the never-ending genius of the legendary Steve Ditko – one of the greatest comic book artists of all time, and someone who's given us decades of enjoyment! This beautiful oversized book is a great companion to all the vintage Ditko material that's been reissued in recent... read more

A cool little book that's partly an introduction to jazz – but more like a cool collection of sidebars from longer articles – offering up interesting slices that really help you understand the music! The book is roughly chronological, but served up with lots of images and smaller text... read more

The life of Billie Holliday! Billie is one of the most fascinating singers in American musical history, both for her beautiful, amazing voice and for the life she led. Even the story behind this book about her life is fascinating! In the 70s, Billie Holliday was interviewed extensively for an... read more

A great look at one of the more modern sides of our fair city – a beautiful book that focuses on the Lake Shore Drive apartments of architect Mies Van Der Rohe! Mies had a huge influence on the city's look in the postwar years – and some of his most striking creations are a set of... read more

A heavy-duty, lavishly-illustrated ode to the art of Louis Armstrong! It's not a biography – but a beautiful, 250+ page collection of photographs, movie stills, Satchmo's own hand-written letters, collage art and more! It's been put together by Steven Brower, with a forward by Hilton Als... read more

A range of essays on the music, influence, and cultural significance of the late John Coltrane – easily one of the key forces to have shaped our taste here at Dusty Groove! The book offers a number of differing perspectives, some with an academic tone, some a bit more political – and... read more

An absorbing biography of one legendary French singer Edith Piaf – one of the most alluring voices of the past century – and superbly written by Carolyn Burke! Edith Piaf lived as fascinating of a life as any international icon we can think of – musical or otherwise – and... read more

Charles Burns in a beautiful format – an oversized, nicely-bound edition that makes his work here feel like the glory days of Raw Comics! The story is quite dark – the first chapter of a new story line from Burns – and the images have this really unsettling way of turning a... read more

Somebody's finally gone out and written a book about one subject we can really get behind – the Record Store – and not only that, they've done a beautiful job with the entire package too! The book takes a look at the importance of the record store – not just historically, but... read more

Amazing images from the Santeria underground in contemporary Cuba – the rich spiritual culture that's persisted for decades – and, if anything, has gotten only stronger through a rich network of local practice and dedicated spirituality! The photographs here are all in brilliant black... read more

Urban radio from the inside – the third volume in Marcus Chapman's very detailed memoirs – covering his important late 90s years at Chicago's WGCI! Unlike other books of this nature, which are usually just history – and ancient history at that – Chapman's volume really digs... read more

One of the most heartbreaking stories we've ever read from Daniel Clowes – penned with a sense of pathos we never would have expected during his Ghost World years! The book has a great format – long sideways, like a newspaper comic strip – and Clowes' pages alternate between... read more

A unique account of the oft-told history of Chess Records by author Rich Cohen – focusing on the business acumen the the Chess Brothers, and the brazen approach that brought the music of juke joints to the mainstream. Cohen doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the exploitational side of... read more

A heavily detailed story of the great Nina Simone – her really unique place in music and American society – with a strong focus on the boundaries she broke and bridges she burned! Author Nadine Cohodas wrote a previous book on Dinah Washington, and does an even better job here with... read more

Amazing images from the universe of Sun Ra – a mixture of rare photographs and mural images painted by Aye Aton – sometime percussionist with the Arkestra, and a heck of a great painter too! The book begins with these stunning full color photographs of Ra on the set of Space Is The... read more

Amazing work from the great Roy Crane – one of the most important newspaper strip artists of the 20th Century! The book features the initial few years of Buz Sawyer – a new project that Crane did for William Randolph Hearst after leaving behind his very successful Wash Tubbs &... read more

One of the first great adventure strips of the 30s – presented here in a beautiful oversize volume! Roy Crane's artwork on Captain Easy is tremendous – a magnificently thin line at times, yet full of rich feeling that's augmented by the coloring of the strip – often almost water-c... read more

One of the first great adventure strips of the 30s – presented here in a beautiful oversize volume! Roy Crane's artwork on Captain Easy is tremendous – a magnificently thin line at times, yet full of rich feeling that's augmented by the coloring of the strip – often almost water-c... read more

A chronicle of African American Singing & Praying Bands in Maryland and Delaware – stirring spiritual music with roots in the Chesapeak Bay of the nineteenth century – and still thrives! It includes the first-person histories of the singers, players and prayers, musical annotion... read more

A wonderful memoir from the glory days of the Italian soundtrack scene – penned by Franco De Gemini (aka "The Man With The Harmonica"), and filled with loads of color photos and images of albums! Franco's memoirs are often quite personal – at a level that sheds tremendous new... read more

Just in case you thought all the backstage and tour bus action in the 70s was exaggerated, Pamela Des Barres comes along to show you that things were even wilder than you thought! The book is maybe a bit more freewheeling than some of her other volumes – as Pamela brings together stories... read more

Vintage images from Japanese movie posters – almost all of them hand-painted for the local market, and quite different than more famous images that circulated worldwide! The work here often has a warm, painterly quality – which really personalizes the presentation of the films,... read more

The remarkable story behind one greatest and most successful soul albums of all time – Aretha Franklin's I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You – the deepest account on the making of the album we've ever come across! Author Matt Doblin tells the story with loads of fresh interviews,... read more

Cultural historian Alice Echols explores the massive shifts in American culture during and as impacted by the disco era – not only in fashion and record sales – but the racial, sexual and behavioral landscape at large! Echols is a biographer and historian, but she's also former disco... read more

We love The Creation, but never knew their full story until now – a really compelling tale that not only gets at the greatness of their music in the 60s, but which also explains why they never reached the sort of fame they deserved! The story here is incredibly detailed – not just fan... read more

Tough, dirty and stylish late 50s short stories by the great Harlan Ellison – who would go on to be hailed as one of great science fiction and suspense writers in print, film and television – but working here as a very young man, under pseudonyms, on seedy crime and pulp stories! It's... read more

Amazing early work from Bill Everett – easily one of our favorite artistic talents of the Golden Age – famous for creating Sub Mariner, but seen here in a host of other rare work that's never been collected before! Everett's name was associated with Marvel/Timely for decades –... read more

Tony Fletcher's impressive, sprawling look at the street music fom New York – one that covers the heart of the 20th century! Fletcher has penned the kind of far-reaching tome hear that truly commands respect – covering 50 years of NYC music from the early days of 78s to the punk &... read more

Kim Fowley, an author? Stranger things have happened – and given Fowley's penchant for putting his finger in just about every pie that came within reach, the whole thing's no surprise at all! The book is a stunning account of Fowley's important years in the music business – working in... read more

If you liked the first volume of this essential book, you'll love this revised edition – because it's almost 3 times bigger, and stuffed with great new features! The book's a lifetime labor of love for Freddy Fresh – an extensive discography that's got to be the most definitive book on... read more

A cool German book with a great sense of global street culture – photos from around the world, brought together with a National Geographic brand, but much grittier than anything we ever remember seeing in the magazine! The hefty tome is almost 400 pages, in full color, and is filled with... read more

A remarkable collection of a half century of writings on James Brown – from a Variety piece way back in 1959 up to a Rolling Stone profile from 2006 – edited by Nelson George & Alan Leeds and featuring work items from trades, newspaper and magazine profiles, select liner notes and... read more

A much-needed second volume of Vinyl Lives – especially since they left Dusty Groove out of the first book! This time, they correct their mistake with a nice long look at our store – plus other chapters in equally important record retailers – including Jerry's in Pittsburgh,... read more

A beautiful collection of early 30s newspaper strips penned by Floyd Gottfredson – early daily comics starring Mickey Mouse, but offering up a very different version of the character than on the screen! The format does a great job of tying Mickey to some of the other comic stars of the time... read more

A beautiful collection of early 30s newspaper strips penned by Floyd Gottfredson – early daily comics starring Mickey Mouse, but offering up a very different version of the character than on the screen! The format does a great job of tying Mickey to some of the other comic stars of the time... read more

A cool little guide to all things club jazz – put together by Shuya Okino of Kyoto Jazz Massive, and featuring both record listings and writings! The record listing section is a fair bit smaller than other Japanese books like this that we stock – about 40 pages that show how you might... read more

An incredible look at the all-too-short life and music of Sam Cooke – put together by Peter Guralnick with an amazing amount of historical detail, and an even more important love of Cooke's music! The book is to Cooke what Guralnick's earlier writings were to Elvis Presley – a much... read more

The story of the Creole Band – the 7-piece group that took to touring the US in the 1910s – and thusly introduced a lot of people to the pioneering strains of New Orleans-style jazz to heck of a lot people for the very first time – and planting seeds for much of the jazz music to... read more

The life story of Buddy Guy – one of the the key blues figures to come out of our Windy City home! David Ritz helps shape the story, but the book is definitely in Buddy's own words – which vividly paint a picture of both the Chicago scene, and the growing global world that began to... read more

The sensational early 70s document of the big city pimp culture by writer Susan Hall & photgrapher Bob Adelman! It features fascinating interviews with "professional gentleman of leisure" Silky and his "wives" – and filled with jaw dropping b&w photography. A... read more

A great compendium of album and 45 cover art for always fun to look at, often horrible to listen to records released by actors, athletes and other celebrities! Feast upon the cover art for records by Don Johnson, Morton Downey Jr, The Chicago Bears, John Schneider, Alyssa Milano, Eddie Murphy,... read more

A great revolution in record cover art – the early 90s rise of the hand-made package in the punk rock underground! 7" singles were a key force in punk and other underground styles of the time – and these small pressings were often hand-assembled by the bands themselves –... read more

A cinematic effort from Gilbert Hernandez – a standalone graphic novel that expands on the story of one of the characters from his Palomar epic – but with a gritty sort of vibe that really matches the cover! The shift is a nice one – as Hernandez works in an even more visually-foc... read more

A cool sci-fi story from two of the three brothers who created Love & Rockets – a tight little tale about robot culture, with a vibe that's like some of the best work from the early years of the magazine! The drawings here are most strongly in the famous style of Gilbert Hernadez, but... read more

The Byrds went through many many changes during their legendary run in the late 60s – some of which are documented on their rich body of recorded work, lots more of which you'll find in this thick volume of historical detail! The book offers a day by day, year by year existence of the group... read more

An amazing guide to some of the hippest jazz ever released – a wealth of great albums from the 50s and 60s – not just from the US, but from England, Italy, Germany, and many other global locales! As with other volumes in this series, the discography focuses on rare bits that have a... read more

A brilliant look at the early days of the comic book industry – a very well-written history that intermingles economic history and personal biography – in ways that really get at the complexity of the early days of comics! Gerard Jones covers a wide range of roots at the start of the... read more

A very cool book – not just a biography on Quincy Jones, but one that's filled with photos, letters, and other things from his personal collection – plus some very cool "artifacts" as well! The volume's put together like a mini-museum of Q's life – and features pull-out... read more

A wonderful tribute to the Impulse Records label – one that's put together with as much graphic sensitivity as you'll find on the company's album covers of the 60s! The book is incredibly well researched – both from archival material and over 50 interviews with artists and producers... read more

The heady life and even hipper music of Sly Stone – told here by an author who managed to get Stone's participation on the project! The book focuses most strongly on Sly's rise to fame and key late 60s/early 70s years – a time when his records not only changed the face of soul music,... read more

An amazing little book, and one hell of a lifelong research project – a huge volume that documents deep details about the American underground of vanity, or "private" press records – obscure pieces of wax that were usually just pressed up by an artist for their own pleasure... read more

A book we can really get behind – partly because we're a groovy local retailer, just like the ones featured in the pictures! The volume is exactly what's promised in the title – a beautiful look at storefronts in Brooklyn – from local grocery stores, to mom and pop neighborhood... read more

Some of the greatest albums in rock and roll are those that were never released – including some that finally saw the light of day after decades, like the Beach Boys' Smile! This book really gets at that fact beautifully – showing how, although never issued, some of these key creative... read more

Stevie Wonder's classic albums as guided though a musicians lens, rather than only the the prism of popular culture – put together by London based musician, columnist and author Steve Lodder – who has worked with Carla Bley, George Russell and Paul McCartney to name a few! The book... read more

A beautiful set of jazz album cover art from the 50s and 60s – hardcover, in full color, and packed with hundreds of classic images! The title's a reflection of the strong scope of material – work from both the east and west coast scenes, pulled from labels like Prestige, Atlantic,... read more

A massive book on the music of Bob Marley and The Wailers – written in collaboration with Aston Barrett and other group members – and offering up a huge amount of detail that we haven't seen in other Marley biographies! The style is great – and offers up loads of personal... read more

A thick, photo heavy book dedicated to the greats of Latin rock – from the creative firestorm that burst from the 60s San Franisco Haight scene, up to Santana's surprise commercial juggernaut Supernatural in the late 90s. The book goes far deeper Santana, though, with reminiscences from a... read more

A really cool guide to an under-researched side of the record business – the decades of albums and singles issued for the younger market – served up in a book that's as colorful as the records themselves! The volume is partly a price guide, partly a discography – and it's printed... read more

Over looked genius in American comics from the 40s to the 80s – a wonderful volume that features material we never would have seen otherwise! Some of the names here are legends, represented by obscure slices of their work – and others are talents that never got the respect they deserve... read more

A beautiful document of a lost Japanese art – the in-person version of manga, in which vividly colored images were used to accompany a live storyteller! The format pre-dated comics and most cinema in Japan – and is presented here in a huge amount of vivid full-color images – some... read more

A beautiful book of vintage hard rock album covers – starting in the late 60s, and running through the early 80s – all to provide a perfect showcase of the best images of the genre from the vinyl generation! The book's got way more than pictures, though – as each oversize page... read more

A nicely-done biography of Louis Armstrong's late life and career – one that takes deep look at the last 25 years of this giant in American musical culture! It's a fascinating period for Satchmo – in which he actually made his highest charting recordings in "Mack The Knife"... read more

The Rittor Music Japan Bible Of Extreme Metal – a discography book that covers brutal music in a beautiful way! The cover art is extremely metal – but the book actually covers more than just "extreme metal" – it spans the metal genre from it's origins to today –... read more

A beautifully-drawn sci-fi strip from the great Jerry Robinson – material that's even more vibrant than Jerry's famous 40s work on comic books – thanks in part to the lavish style of this volume! Jet Scott was a short-lived continuity strip – one that mixed rocket stories with... read more

A nice photographic history of Our Town's Lake Shore Drive – which the author's hail as Urban America's Most Beautiful Roadway, and awe shucks, we're kinda proud! As lifelong Chicagoans, we can almost take the view for granted. . .especially if you get trapped there in a blizzard or during... read more

A great counterpart to the Sampling Dictionary – one that offers up most of the same material, but in reverse! Like that volume, this one offers up a huge list of tracks that have been sampled by hip hop songs – over 17,000 listings of different samples from the past few decades,... read more

A beautifully illustrated little book devoted to the coolest musical toys of the past half century – from the collection of Eric Schneider – and featuring a forward by DJ Spooky! It's all about the images in this book, photographs of these incredible, colorful musical kitsch relics of... read more

The history of Harlem in the 20th Century – told through a wealth of vintage images and newspaper snippets – all laid out beautifully to present a vivid portrait of this uniquely American community! The subject matter varies a lot, especially as the years go by – and by taking... read more

A surprisingly beautiful book from Patti Smith – her memoirs of her years with Robert Mapplethorpe, told with an even more sensitive voice than we might have expected from her music! The book has earned Patti a whole new range of appreciation – and for good reason too – and in... read more

Denise Sullivan's history of Black Power and a broader look at the marriage of music and social change – from blues to hip hop! Crawdaddy columnist Sullivan features interviews with John Sinclair, Yoko Ono, Richie Havens, Solomon Burke, Phranc, Wayne Kramer, Len Chandler, Michael Franti and... read more

Yeah, THIS is the Nick Tosches we want! Tosches has a way of chronicling the diseased, mobbed up underbelly of the 20th Century music rackets that's simply unrivaled – it's gut level brilliant and street smart writing like no one does anymore. Save The Last Dance For Satan is a more... read more

A giant-sized tribute to the fanzine movement! The book is devoted to DIY zines from the 70s onward – not just the iconic underground music journals – all the great personal and passionate self-published subcultural screeds. Teal Triggs' book is beautiful, served well by the oversized... read more

A really unique look at The Velvet Underground – a book that traces their late 60s experience and existence at a day-by-day level – offering up crucial dates in their career with very vivid happenings, and lots of photos and images too! The book is way way more than a diary – as... read more

A really compelling project that's very much in the spirit of work by Lynda Barry or Debbie Dreschler – served up in a cool slipcover package! The book is loosely based on a teenage diary found in a gas station bathroom in the 80s – and tells the tale of a high school sophomore in 1985... read more

Not just the "why" of jazz, but the "who", "how", and "when" as well – all laid out in a really unique format by jazz critic Kevin Whitehead! The book is roughly chronological, based on the history of jazz – but the approach is quite unusual... read more

We're not usually fans of books on a single album – but in this case, we gladly make an exception – as the creation and circulation of Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue is definitely powerful enough to fill volumes of writing! Author Richard Williams does a great job of exploring this crucial... read more

Way more than you might expect! Once again, comic historian Craig Yoe blows us away with the breadth of his knowledge – as the book's a huge range of anti-war images that span the space of a century – from early drawings by Daumier and Thomas Nast, to expressionist work by George Grosz... read more

Way more than some of the star-type bios on Scott Walker that have littered the market over the years – and instead, a well-chosen collection of writings on Walker that really get at the full depth of his genius! The book's a co-production with The Wire – and definitely lives up to the... read more

A download-only version of the Numero Omnibus – no vinyl, but a beautiful booklet, and download code for all 90 tracks in the 45 collection! The price is high, but you get a hell of a lot of value for the package – the digital version of a funky 45 collection to rival longtime... read more