LOS ANGELES – Warner Music Group (WMG) is proud to introduce SINGLE NOTES, a new line of short form, digital-only books about music and pop culture. The new line will launch June 12 with five titles on the Rhino imprint that will be available at Amazon’s Kindle store and on the iBookstore. A new ebook will be released every week following launch, each available as a digital download for $1.99.
The SINGLE NOTES launch titles from Rhino build on the catalog label’s award-winning reputation for insightful and entertaining liner notes and expands upon it by giving today’s top music scribes artistic license to explore just about any music or music-related topic that stokes their passions, be it a particular artist or an entire genre. Each SINGLE NOTES ebook includes newly designed cover art and also features links to purchase music specific to artists or genres covered in the book.
To mark the debut of SINGLE NOTES, Rhino will release five books on June 12 with subject matter ranging from Grateful Dead and Chic to Beastie Boys and Duran Duran. Rounding out the SINGLE NOTES available on launch is “My Life In The Ghost of Planets: The Story of a CBGB Almost-Was,” an enthralling tale of the most revered CBGBs act you’ve never heard of. The book, written by The Planets’ frontman Binky Philips, paints a picture of bad timing and missed opportunities in the ‘70s New York City rock scene is available now for a limited time as a free download from Amazon’s Kindle store and on the iBookstore.
Following are overviews of all five SINGLE NOTES launch titles. For more information, please visit www.rhino.com/singlenotes.
“My Life In The Ghost of Planets: The Story of a CBGB
Almost-Was” by Binky Philips recounts his days of raucous
fun and furious heartbreak as the guitarist/songwriter for
The Planets, the semi-legendary CBGB band.
“Every Day I Take A Wee: The Beastie Boys and the Untimely
Death of Suburban Folklore” by Spin senior editor Christopher
R. Weingarten details how discovering the Beastie Boys at age
seven led to his lifelong fascination with the tales music fans pass
along like a secret handshake.
“Dark Stars and Anti-Matter: 40 Years of Loving, Leaving and
Making Up with the Music of the Grateful Dead” by veteran
music writer and radio show host Gene Sculatti. He looks back on
his time growing up, music-obsessed, in the Bay Area and how his love of the Grateful Dead waned with the dawn of the punk era only to be rekindled later in life.
“Careless Memories of Strange Behavior: My Notorious Life as a
Duran Duran Fan” by Yahoo! Music managing editor Lyndsey
Parker reveals how the Nagel girl’s beguiling smile on the Rio cover
led to the scary extremes of her hardcore “Duranmania.”
“We Won’t Settle For Less: Chic at the End of Disco” by
magazine contributor and author Michaelangelo Matos explores
the immeasurable influence exerted by the unstoppable bass
from Chic’s 1979 chart-topping single “Good Times.”
SINGLE NOTES will begin its weekly release schedule June 19. Future stories will cover The Ramones’ collaboration with Phil Spector, the making of David Bowie’s Hunky Dory, as well as essays about Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, Todd Rundgren, Nirvana, Rick James, and The Shangri-Las.