Gabba Gabba We Accept You

Heads up pipsqueak punks! We are delighted to announce the imminent publication of “Gabba Gabba We Accept You,” a children’s picture book about your hero and ours, Monsieur Joey Ramone. Written by Lowbrow editor Jay Ruttenberg and illustrated by ace Lowbrow contributor Lucinda Schreiber, “Gabba” hits stores this June. The book, in lovely hardcover, is being published by Chicago’s mighty Drag City, our favorite cultural hosting company. It joins DC’s handsome roster of books by talents including David Berman, Rudolph Wurlitzer, Harmony Korine, and—oh hey, look at that!—the Lowbrow Reader.

“Gabba Gabba We Accept You” falls in the grand tradition of picture book biography. But it is also about punk itself, considering the music as a liberating force that encourages kids and adults alike to follow their own path. And the illustrations are ravishing. In short, we’re excited! The book is out in June, but it’s available for pre-order as we speak. You can order it on the usual web portals, but we recommend getting it straight from Drag City. (You can pick up a King Kong or John Mulaney record while you’re at it.) So snap up “Gabba” for any kids in your life—and if there are no kids in your life, find some, pronto! Order “Gabba Gabba We Accept You” today, and thank yourself tomorrow!

Nathan Gelgud: Zines, Shirts, and Totes!

Among the majestic talents gracing the Lowbrow Reader’s pages is Nathan Gelgud, a nimble cartoonist whose work zeroes in on cool corners of art-house cinema. Check out Gelgud’s piece in our latest issue: “Elaine May Is Missing!,” a four-page cartoon about the fraught birth of May’s Mikey & Nicky.

Honestly, there’s no such thing as too much Gelgud. Now, smart readers can inch into the holiday season with a veritable bounty: Through his newly launched Patreon series, the cartoonist is offering stylish film-related shirts and totes, online content, and a series of zines that can be delivered to your mailbox by your friendly neighborhood postal worker. (Already, there are three: Movie Major, Reel Politik, and Movie Matters.) We can think of few other artists better suited to guide readers through brainy byways of cinema. There also may be opportunities to treat your walls to Gelgud originals. So dig into Gelgud’s Patreon at once! Look sharp in his T’s and sharpen your mind with his zines!

Burt Kearns’s “Shemp!”

As we have been reminded yet again, America can be a cold-hearted and vaguely moronic place. But let the optimistically inclined remember that, along with contemporary political disasters, these very qualities can lead to occasional glories—none more cold-hearted and moronic than the endlessly fabulous Three Stooges.

Even the lowliest bumpkin can celebrate Larry, Moe, and Curly. But Stooge cognoscenti have long bowed to those alternate Stooges who, at various points in the group’s history, emerged from the bullpen. Of those players, perhaps none has been as beloved as the singularly odd Shemp Howard, older brother of Moe and Curly. Lowbrow Reader subscribers read Drew Friedman and M. Sweeney Lawless’s odes to Shemp back in issue #10. Now, the Stooge receives a graceful, full-blown biography in the form of Shemp!, by the sharp-eyed author Burt Kearns, featuring a foreword by (him again!) Friedman. Thorough, engaged, and loving, the book explores a long-gone entertainment ecosystem through an unlikely hero. To read it is to love Saint Shemp even more than before.

So perk up and turn this autumn around! Run to a real (or, if you must, virtual) bookstore and pick up Shemp! today. For if Abraham Lincoln can be the subject of more than 15,000 books, Shemp Howard certainly deserves at least this one, right?

Announcing…Lowbrow Reader #13!

We are thrilled to announce the publication of our new issue, Lowbrow Reader #13. Honestly, you do not want to sleep on this one. The issue features a long Q&A with our hero, Joan Rivers, conducted at her penthouse apartment in 2007. And that’s just the start! It also brings a new humor piece by Jesse Eisenberg, Nile Rodgers talking about his work on Coming to America, a Nathan Gelgud comic about Elaine May, and a newly discovered children’s manuscript by Amos Vogel. Eat our dust, Vanity Fair!

Lowbrow #13 costs $5, shipping included. Order it via our ordering page!

Check out the Table of Contents:

Hess Is More’s CÆKE

The word of the year is, “CÆKE.” That’s right: “CÆKE!” Don’t ask us to explain what it means or, dear god, to pronounce it, but that’s the word soon to be passing through the lips, or at least the minds, of fashionable music fans worldwide. For “CÆKE” is the title of the new LP by the esteemed Copenhagen (jazz-damaged, avant-garde-inclined, electronic-pop) band Hess Is More. And this handsome record is due later this month on the chic Danish label Music for Dreams. To hear it will be to enjoy it—we promise!

After a series of smashing albums that found the band’s singer and drummer, Mikkel Hess, leading his finely tuned New York-based band, “CÆKE” brings Hess Is More back to its early days, featuring Hess performing mostly alone and in his native Denmark. It’s a charmed collection that will have you whistling its songs for years to come. Unless there is something wrong with you, of course. Then, we just can’t help you. Those in Denmark can catch the band on tour in May and June. But never fear, rest of the world! You can soon enjoy “CÆKE” from the comfort of your home, and on lovely pink vinyl, at that. (And hey! The LP features liner notes by Lowbrow editor Jay Ruttenberg.) Order it today, then wait nervously for your postman, day after day, until the record finally arrives later in the month. As the old saying goes: Sometimes, you get lucky!

Fashion Projects: 15 Years of Fashion in Dialogue

Fashion Projects, a home-baked, thinking person’s fashion journal, was born in New York in 2005, in the same Chelsea apartment that housed the Lowbrow Reader. From the get-go, the little magazine, edited by Francesca Granata, had a more rarefied vibe than the Vogues and Elles of the world. Here was a rigorous study of artistic fashion revealed through deep-dive Q&A interviews. It spawned five whipsmart issues (all long sold-out), each arranged around a different theme, along with a trove of online-only material. The high-minded magazine shared more DNA with the Lowbrow Reader than one might have guessed: Both journals examined art forms that have often been critically ignored or disparaged.

Now, in its greatest move yet, Fashion Projects has entered the book world. This week, Intellect Books is publishing Fashion Projects: 15 Years of Fashion in Dialogue, a charmed anthology featuring work from all five print editions, plus selections from the website. Lovingly edited by Granata, the book features a ton of captivating interviews. Subjects include curators (the Met’s former costume chief Harold Koda, the Museum of F.I.T.’s Valerie Steele), journalists (the New Yorker’s Judith Thurman, the Washington Post’s Robin Givhan) and, of course designers. It’s a fascinating read and a handsome book, presented in lush hardcover from the Bristol, U.K. publisher. (A paperback edition is imminent.) So don’t hesitate a single moment! Do yourself a favor and order the long-in-the-making Fashion Projects book anthology. Buy a copy or three through Intellect or their Stateside arm, the University of Chicago Press…stat!

KVS’s Dwayne Johnson in Review

By now, astute music fans of the world have had the pleasure of immersing themselves in A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night, the handsome new LP by the charmed singer and songwriter Katie Von Schleicher, released by the newly launched Sipsman label. What—have you not noticed attractive young people walking the city streets humming these songs?

These days, you’re lucky to get a dash of liner-notes to peruse with an album. The industrious KVS, however, walks an extra mile: Those fortunate enough to order her record are receiving an entire zine, published by the musician just for the occasion. Titled Dwayne Johnson in Review, the 52-page publication features Von Schleicher and a gang of miscreants—writers, label owners, fellow musicians—examining the filmography of Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, from 2001’s The Mummy Returns through last year’s Fast X. It’s a laudably insane effort that yields a breezy survey of the muscled actor’s oeuvre. Writers take different approaches: some serious, others ridiculous. Johnson “appears and disappears in 37 seconds, like a sand castle,” the musician and writer Jana Horn notes of his early effort, Longshot. Elsewhere, the Ba Da Bing Records honcho (and Lowbrow contributor) Ben Goldberg muses on the actor’s “first billed appearance with a sentient being’s name rather than that of hardened minerals.” All told, it’s a funny, cool read—several yards better than most of the work it’s discussing. And, gosh, what an album! Don’t hesitate! Buy A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night, and with it Dwayne Johnson in Review, pronto!

Please Confirm

–Hi, this is Cathy from New York Dental. You are scheduled for a cleaning on Monday at 11:20. If you can call us back to confirm, it would be great!

–You have an appointment at New York Dental at 11:20am on Monday. Please text “1” to confirm your appointment.

–It’s Cathy at New York Dental. We’re looking forward to seeing you Monday morning for your dental cleaning. If you could please get back to confirm, it would be appreciated!

–Hi, it’s Mom. I just got a call from a woman who has been trying to reach you—I don’t know how she found me. Her name is Cathy, and she works at your dentist’s office. What a nice young lady. Would you believe that her father grew up in the same neighborhood as me? Anyways, she wanted to make sure that you confirm your appointment with the dentist on Monday. She said that you just need to call their office and press the “1” button. And maybe the pound key? I can’t remember, but I’m sure Cath can sort you out. Well, I hope the weather is better in New York than it is here. Dad says hello.

–You are scheduled for a dental cleaning on Monday at 11:20am. Because of advancements in artificial intelligence, in order to confirm your appointment, simply look into your phone and blink.

–LeMahieu goes down on strikes. And that will bring up Aaron Judge. Joining us now in the booth we have a special guest—Cathy, from New York Dental! Cathy, I believe you have an important message for Matthew Kurland about his dental cleaning on Monday morning?

–Arggggh! Now listen up, Matthew Kurland, because I’m talking to you! It’s Mr. T! It’s a gorgeous day, the sun is shining, and I’m on this Cameo. Now hear me, Matthew Kurland, you need to do Mr. T a favor. It’s time to quit your jibba jabba and confirm your dental cleaning. You gotta keep those teeth clean, Matt, and you gotta confirm that appointment. Listen to Mr. T—call them today! Cathy and the gang will hook you up. Because I pity the fool who don’t confirm their dental cleaning, this Monday, at 11:20, at New York Dental! (more…)

Beyond the Duplex Planet

A few years back, it seemed as if every band on the planet was being trailed by a documentary film crew. Zine editors? Not so much! What gives, documentarians of America? But if there’s one homemade publication that deserves a movie to call its own, it is very clearly Duplex Planet. Born in Boston, in 1979, the magazine featured singular chats between its editor, David Greenberger, and the quirky and oftentimes funny souls residing in nursing homes. The brilliant little magazine spun out 187 issues and spouted a cottage industry that has extended to books, spoken-word albums, comics and more. (It even entered the Lowbrow Reader; a Duplex Planet excerpt appeared back in issue #8.)

Thrillingly, one such documentary is in the works. Beyond the Duplex Planet, by Beth Harrington, is nearing completion and looks like a winner. Check out a slice of the film here. Alas, movies aren’t made for free—dastardly money is needed. And we want to watch this movie!

Look, let’s be honest: Whatever holiday presents you are planning to buy your loved ones are likely to be losers. Why don’t you take some gift money and direct it in the way of this gestating film instead? Then, simply write a note to your five-year-old or your doorman or whomever, explaining that you are skipping their Christmas present this year to help fund the Duplex Planet movie. They will clearly thank you. It even appears to be tax deductible. (Your accountant will be happy, too; word is, he’s a Duplex Planet fan.)