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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 of them used to tell full-length stories that give you an idea of what it was like when the kamishibai storyteller would come to your street! Some pages have the images dominating the scene, with just a bit of text – and others are laid out in smaller segments to follow a more narrative approach – with a quality that's very vivid throughout. 304 pages, hardcover, and in full color!

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 their time – classic toy organs of the 50s & 60s, robot voice changers, noise generators, musical kits, toy drums, rhythm machines, kiddie turntables and more. A wonderful look back – we remember many of these from childhood, and boy do we wish we still had our old Mattel Magical Musical Thing! Hardcover, 190 pages.

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 always get us going – but also brings those recordings into context with larger strands of exotica, both vocal and instrumental. There's plenty here to please soundtrack, jazz, and vocal fans too – and the book even features some listening suggestions at the end. 361 pages, softcover.

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 – with most of the details given to important stretches before 1970, but some key information from later decades too. Each entry is dated, with specific information on what the Beach Boys were involved in on that day – recording, rehearsing, touring, etc – with a surprising amount of vintage photos and other bits to support the text. Perhaps most compelling is the book's frequent use of Musicians Union sheets for recording sessions – listing session players and their details (including, oddly, social security numbers!) – which really helps illuminate the way that the records were being made. 399 pages, softcover, with black and white images.

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 at the worries and anxieties of America in the post-war years. Sure, there's certainly tales of gals looking for love in all the wrong places – but you'd also be amazed at how much of this stuff offers up a larger comment on society as well – penned with surprisingly thoughtful prose, and illustrated with relatively mature images too. If we had one complaint, it would be that Barson doesn't give us enough detail about the artists and writers of the material – but that's only because the whole thing's so beautiful, we want to know more! 208 pages, softcover, in full color.

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 intended biography by Linda Keuel, but she passed away in 1978 before her book about Billie could come out. Author Jula Blackburn mined the audio recordings of those interviews for this one – a biography that highlights Billie's strength and encourage. Paperback, 354 pages

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 overall, the writings definitely live up to the spirit promised in the title! Articles include "A Look At Late John Coltrane" by Salim Washington, "When Bar Walkers Preach" by Tommy Lott, "Freedom Is A Constant Struggle" by Tammy Kernodle, "John Coltrane As The Personification Of Spirituality In Black Music" by Anthony Brown, "In His Own Words – Coltrane's Responses To Critics" by Leonard L Brown, "John Coltrane & The Practice Of Freedom" by Herman Gray, and a few interviews with Billy Taylor, Yusef Lateef, and Olly Wilson – and a special coda, "George Russell on John Coltrane". 235 pages, paperback.

Author Mick Brown chronicles the fascinating, tragic world of the Phil Spector – the most fascinating figure in American pop music history – thanks to both his unrivaled genius and artistry, his fabled reclusiveness and ultimately, real life crime noir tragedy. From his epic work with the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers, The Beatles, The Ramones and the many less iconic artists, to the recluse years and the bizarre shooting in his home, this is richly researched, very well done bio by Brown. Engrossing and briskly readable, even as a fairly hefty girth, Hardcover, more than 500 pages.

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 Simone – really laying out the complexity of the woman and her music, but in ways that never over-sensationalize any of the key historical details either. There's a pacing here that really shows Nina's strong commitment over the years – and the heavy notes in the back show that Cohodas really did her research. 448 pages, hardcover, with black and white images.

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 and photos. Text by Jonathan C David and some great b&w photography by Richard Holloway. Paperback, 231 pages. Comes with a CD of field recordings, too – audio snapshots of hymns, prayers, praise and services.

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, especially given the lack of English language on the posters. Films featured are both American and Japanese movies – and while the book is especially heavy on work from the 50s and 60s, there's a few images from other years as well. Full color, paperback, and 96 pages in all.

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 deejay, with insights both academic and deeper felt. The book is smartly and exaustively researched, but is more importantly accessibly readable. Hardcover, 338 pages.

A beautiful book on five key forces in American advertising of the 20th Century – and one with an especially strong focus on the important work of the Mad Men generation! The lavish book is filled with full color images, printed on heavy paper in an oversized format – and interspersed with details on the careers of each of the five ad men named in the title – Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy, Marcel Bleustein Blanchet, Bill Bernbach, and Albert Lasker – each given their own section in the book, laid out to show an aesthetic progression up through the 70s. The presentation is wonderful – like finding a pile of old magazines to pore through, and about the same size as well – and the full color book is 140 pages, with heavy stock paperback covers.

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 – laid out lovingly by Dan Nadel, in a way that's similar to his previous collection, Art Out Of Time. Original comic pages are reproduced in full color, but with a nice yellowing effect to the pages – and black and white underground art comes through very vividly – in this huge volume that features work by Bill Everett, Matt Fox, Jesse Marsh, Mort Meskin, HG Peter, John Stanley, Pat Boyette, and others – plus great text and introductions from Nadel. 301 pages, hardcover, in color and black and white.

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" and "Hello Dolly", arguably reaching a pop icon/living legend status that a lot of his peers didn't get to enjoy in life. It's also a period in which he managed to cement his legacy and ultimate creative importance, while still baiting larger audiences – which is never an easy trick for any artist. A good read and much needed bio of late career Louie Armstrong!

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 – but which have gone onto reach the status of legend over time! The format is a genre unto itself – even though the music style can vary widely – and the lavish book brings together a huge amount of rare covers and images, along with notes on the recordings – plus hundreds of reviews, an essay on the format, and even biographies of collectors and enthusiasts who've helped unearth this lost American treasure! Also comes with a download for dozens of tracks – and book is over 500 pages, in color, with a very heavy cover!