The mighty Sun Ra is on the cover, and also famously named a record Magic City – which was also the nickname of his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama – a city that gets plenty of coverage here for its long musical legacy! Birmingham was given the "magic city" nickname late in the 19th Century, when it was experiencing a great economic boom – one that helped attract folks from all over the south, and made the city a cultural crossroads for many years to come – especially when it came to jazz, where Birmingham was one of the most important scenes in the south for part of the 20th Century. In addition to the relationship between the city and Sun Ra, the book also features a long lineup that includes Joe Guy, Teddy Hill, Erskine Hawkins, Fess Whatley, Avery Parrish, and others – in histories that criss-cross, overlap, and extend with influences far past the city. This softcover edition is 340 pages, with some very nice black and white images. Book

If you find the image on the cover as striking as we do, wait until you see what's inside – page after page of brilliant black and white photographs, all taken from the long-running Hamburger Eyes publication – still somewhat young when this book came out, but already clearly a leading voice in 21st Century photography! The images vary wildly, but they all have a unifying vibe – material by a range of different photographers who seem to capture a special moment on the street, or an oddity in reality – keen work by a lineup that includes Mark Murrmann, Ryan Furtado, Matt Weber, Ted Pushinsky, Boogie, Vic Blue, and many others – a band of disparate artist who seem to have a great unifying thread in their work. The book is lovingly done in the best tradition of Powerhouse Press – hardcover, very little text, just page after page of explosive images! Book

A detailed look at the "dozens" that long-running African American tradition of trading insults and witticisms – a mode that's influenced music from the blues years onward, with an especially important contribution to the development of hip hop in the contemporary scene! We feared a bit of stiffness in the presentation at first – especially given the academic press – but the book's a surprisingly lively read, and is peppered with examples throughout – which really keeps things interesting. There's a fair bit of history and larger cultural context throughout – and the book 244 pages, hardcover, with a few black and white images. Book

More than street art or more traditional graffiti – and instead a pretty cool book of messages scrawled across the city – some the seeming output of well-crafted projects, others the random outpourings of anonymous souls in an urban environment! The book is full color, and filled with photos taken around the world – of paintings, stickers, posters, wall scrawlings, and other text – even some rooftop art as well – and despite the range of materials, there's a surprisingly unified feel to the whole thing – almost this larger voice of the subject in the city, trying to deal with its surroundings – sometimes with wit, sometimes with frustration. Book is 215 pages, softcover, and full color. Book

A weird and wild take on the traditional Japanese disc guide – one that certainly offers up a range of heavy metal records, as promised in the title – but which also presents sidestreams in punk, jazz funk, and other styles too! As with similar books, the core text is in Japanese, but the huge volume presents page after page of record listings with titles, artists, dates, and labels all in English – plus full color images of the covers, with four albums listed on most page! The book is over 300 pages, divided into chapters with various genres – and while it definitely skews towards the modern metal in the title, it features plenty of older hard rock records too – hundreds of listings in all! There's also small reviews of each record in Japanese, which you can read using Google translate if you don't understand the language. Book