Malraux and the Midnight Organ Fight by Alex Green (June 1, 2020)
Malraux and the Midnight Organ Fight is a fast-paced, frenetic YA thriller that falls somewhere between Sherlock Holmes, “Rick & Morty” and the first Frightened Rabbit album. The book is about two teen detectives named Weston and Malraux who are trying to solve a series of grisly murders one summer in San Francisco. After a nasty spat between the boys breaks up their world famous Bohemia Solutions detective agency, Weston accepts a full-ride tennis scholarship to Harvard and leaves behind the idiosyncratic Malraux, who was always the true genius behind the duo’s success. While Weston labors at Harvard, he loses touch completely with Malraux, who not only refuses to respond to his imploring letters, but his anti-technology policy makes him virtually unreachable. Weston comes home for the summer and learns there’s a killer on the loose and a rising body count around the city; even grimmer is the bodies are found minus several of their vital organs. Wanting to solve the crime, Weston tracks down the mercurial Malraux in hopes of convincing him to reopen the agency for the summer and solve the murders that are plaguing their city. The two teens agree to put their differences aside and set to solving this disturbing mystery before the police beat them to it. Malraux’s unconventional sleuthing leads the reunited duo into darker and stranger places than they’ve ever been before. There are back alley midnight surgeries, thrash metal ninjas, devious doctors, bodies in suitcases, black market organ rings, aimless tech start-ups, tween fanboys, shirtless motivational speakers, and a muscle-bound Russian who wears a black leather bird mask and wields a deadly cleaver. There’s also a girl named Eloise who writes for Pitchfork that both boys may be in love with. In between all the mayhem is a philosophical meditation on the mysteries of friendship and love, and a lesson about how to come through when it really counts.
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Sea, Swallow Me by Suki Jones (May 1, 2023)
Written with unflinching honesty, Suki Jones’ Sea, Swallow Me is a memoir of addiction and redemption set against the backdrop of the Bay Area in the early ‘90s. A former model, Jones traces her addiction across the East Bay and along the way introduces the reader to a wild cast of characters that range from the menacing to the heartbreaking. A crushing, often harrowing account of drug addiction while being a single mother with two young children, Sea, Swallow Me is an urgent tale of suburban survival, rock star flings, hotel overdoses, depraved yacht parties and nodding out at after school pick-up. Written with devastating descriptive prowess, streetwise smarts and touching humanity, this is a gripping story of damage and redemption that’s already garnered rave reviews from the Dopey Podcast, Erin Kahr (Strung Out) and Jesse Michaels (Operation Ivy).
Sea, Swallow Me
The King Of Good Intentions III, By John Andrew Fredrick (September 12, 2023)
Here, John Andrew Fredrick’s wickedly hysterical and outrageously poetic 90’s indie rock trilogy crescendos like The Who, live circa 1969, with Pete Townshend windmilling mad Keith Moon and The Ox to thump one more thundering, conclusive, triumphant note (as Daltrey tilts back his majestic, crazy mane and wails away).
As The Weird Sisters return from their first What-Could-Go-Wrong (e.g. everything!) National Tour, bandmates/lovers John and Jenny face (or possibly escape from) their iffy futures together or apart as a gorgeous triple-threat (writer, director, model), the brilliant and mysterious Katie, upends the romantic/artistic balance that’s been precarious-at-best throughout parts one and two.
Just how “L.A.” is part three? (Which, by the by, can be read as a stand-alone novel.) Like, totally. Like, uncannily so; unbelievably so. The unmitigated vanity, the mythopoeic beauty, the megalomania and heartbreak, the exquisite talent and ludicrous hubris–it’s all here in Fredrick’s wonderful, tart-sweet, final fictional installment–one that’s guaranteed to make the reader LOL (horrid phrase, that) at least seven-and-a-half times or more.
“There’s a manic energy to Fredrick’s thought process. It stands out next to the smoothness of his voice, his unruffled vocal delivery.
Ask a question and he offers layers of allusions and caveats, jokes and asides. Come to him, you omnivorous readers with strong
opinions… and you’ll laugh, and furrow your brow, and maybe even raise an objection.”–Los Angeles Review of Books
“The King of Good Intentions II is a fresh novel about the travails [of a band] on LA’s indie rock fringe… in the maximalist style and elevated
diction Alexander Theroux’s books exemplify. We will welcome the conclusion to The Weird Sisters’ spells.”–John L. Murphy, Slugger O’Toole
“With four novels and an ebullient book on Wes Anderson, he is also an accomplished painter… and has somehow found time to make umpteen albums of indie pop about love and loss–with some of the most beautiful songs of 2023.”–popmatters.com
The King Of Good Intentions III
The Adventure Teen All-Stars by Alex Green (October 31, 2023)
Something’s not right about the Adventure Teen All-Stars, the neon-suited band of teenage superheroes that drive around in a technicolor van and wrestle warlocks into submission, capture caves of trolls, chases vampires into the sunlight and win the annual beach volleyball classic. Parents may love them, but the town’s high school kids are suspicious, and for good reason. That suspicion leads to a riveting and violent standoff between the “normal” teenagers and the beloved All-Stars, the outcome of which will not only change the city forever, but in the process reveal who the real all-stars have been all along. A searing suburban take-down, The Adventure Teen All-Stars is a stinging, comedic novella about friendship, solidarity and revenge. It’s a book that Separation Anxiety’s Daniel Coshnear declared will, “….make you feel like the superhero you would have been before high school ripped your heart to shreds.”
The Adventure Teen All-Stars
We Almost Are By Shawn Brown (November, 2023)
In his first collection of poems, Shawn Brown writes with sensitivity and grace about love, loss, and bridging what sometimes seems to be the unimaginable gaps between us. The Portland-based singer/songwriter’s work is bold and unflinching as he bravely stares down the ghosts of adolescence, the demons of college and the brutal business of becoming an adult.
We Almost Are
23 by Dave Cantrell (March, 2024)
Known as the Post-Punk Professor, Dave Cantrell is one of the most respected music critics working today. 23 is a collection of some of his best-known pieces as well as some deep cuts from his work as Senior Editor at Stereo Embers Magazine. From long-form essays on Wire and Gang of Four to reviews of emergent Darkwave bands from all over the world, Cantrell writes of his subjects with eloquence, honesty and sophistication. Culled from his work with the magazine from 2011-2023, this compilation is a fabulous introduction to one of the mightiest pens in contemporary music journalism.
23 Availability for Pre-Order TBD