Contributors & Included Essays

BILL TUOMALA

* Best Band in the Land * Exiled on Main Street *

A fantasy wherein the universe is reimagined if Van Halen were an obscure bar band and the Ramones a household name

TERRY MCDERMOTT

* Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics * Los Angeles Magazine *

NWA and the making of 'Straight Outta Compton'

LYNN HIRSCHBERG

* Who’s That Girl? * New York Times *

How to manufacture a pop star

PAUL TOUGH

* City Still Breathing: Listening to the Weakerthans * Geist *

A profile of Winnipeg, Ontario, through the music of local stars the Weakerthans

CHUCK KLOSTERMAN

* Viva Morrissey! * Spin *

Meet Morrissey's most devoted fans: heterosexual Latinos.

LAWRENCE JOSEPH

* The Music Is * Tin House *

A history of Detroit R&B

ELIZABETH GILBERT

* Play It Like Your Hair’s On Fire * GQ *

Profile of Tom Waits

MICHAEL HALL

* Mack McCormick Still Has the Blues * Texas Monthly *

Profile of an incredible archivist of the Blues

PAUL BESTON

* Life and Death on “The Late Show” * American Spectator *

Covers Warren Zevon’s weeklong appearance on Letterman and the songwriters fight with terminal cancer

EDITORS OF THE ONION

* “37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead in Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster” * The Onion *

Satirical piece

MICHAEL COCHRAN

* Exhuming the Legend of Washington Phillips * Austin-American Statesman *

Tracking down the myths that surround Washington Phillips

PHILIP GOUREVITCH

* Mr. Brown: On the Road with His Bad Self * New Yorker *

Profile of James Brown

GARY GIDDINS

* Post-War Jazz: An Arbitrary Road Map * Village Voice *

Jazz map through the century

MITCH MYERS

* A Lone Star State of Mind * Magnet *

Consideration of the life of Doug Sham

WIL S. HYLTON

* The Master of Everything (and Nothing at All) * Esquire *

Profile of Beck

G. BEATO

* Not Bad for a White Girl * Spin *

White, female rappers

SUSAN ORLEAN

* The Congo Sound * New Yorker *

How a record store in Paris became a center of Africa music

GREIL MARCUS

* In the Secret Country * Los Angeles Magazine *

Walter Mosely, Doo Wop, and '50s LA

JAY MCINERNEY

* White Man at the Door * New Yorker *

Profile of the founder of Fat Possum records

MARK SINKER

* Math Destruction * Village Voice *

Profile of Greek composer Iannis Xenakis

ELVIS COSTELLO

* Rocking Around the Clock * Vanity Fair *

24 hours of what Elvis would listen to and why