THE BOOK Is Coming…

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to make a big announcement today, so there’s no need for me to beat around the bush. I’ll just out and say it.

I’m getting married.

No, just kidding. HA! That’s not it at all. Sorry. Here it is:

On July 12th, 2005 I set out on a cross-country road trip. Not many of you read this blog that summer, but you might have browsed through the archives at some point and stumbled across my travel diary. That was only part of the story of my summer. The reason I was traveling was because I was attempting to write a travel book about America as seen through the eyes of “underground” musicians. It was my first shot at literary journalism, and the resulting manuscript — which remains unpublished six years later — chronicles my travels and my conversations with various figures from the American indie-rock landscape. I broke the book down into sections based on cities and regions, so chapters were devoted to Louisville, Chicago, Austin/Dallas, Tucson, and Southern/Northern California. Over the course of 40 days I was able to interview folks like Jeff Mueller (June of ’44, The Shipping News), Tim Midgett (Silkworm, Bottomless Pit), Steve Albini, Jason Molina, Bubba Kadane (Bedhead, The New Year), Joey Burns (Calexico), Bill Swan (Beaulah), Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Jim Redd (Tarentel) and more. I also chronicled everything that happened over the course of those six weeks.

The result was 10,245.1 miles driven, $3,553.85 in expenses, 1132oz. of alcohol consumed, 876 photographs, and 19.5 hours of audio tape to sift through upon my return. Everything has been transcribed. The manuscript was finished during the winter of 2005. I started sending inquiries to publishers, editors, and agents. I played that game for two years before I gave up and moved to Los Angeles. I think it’s time I just publish it myself. Right here. The 88 composition notebook pages of stories, the little notes-to-self I spoke into my tape recorder as I drove thousands of miles alone with my thoughts, the full interviews, every embarrassing crush on a local girl, every poem and late-night drunken diatribe. This is like my WikiLeaks. I’m finally prepared to dump all this data on you.

Starting next Tuesday, July 12th (on the six year anniversary of my departure from New Jersey) I’m going to start sharing the manuscript. I’ll do my best to break up the long, tedious interviews with funny asides, photographs, emails to friends back home, music and video clips to keep things interesting. Rather than assault your eyes with a four-hour interview in one piece I’ll spend multiple days on the longer sections and spice it up with various media. I charted every album I listened to, so when I describe the desert between Tucson and San Diego I know exactly what was playing on my car stereo. I spent so many hours talking to myself there are sure to be some cringeworthy-funny audio snippets you can hear regarding how cool roadkill is or how many cemeteries there are between Austin and Abilene. It’ll be like you’re there with me every step of the way. I think it’ll be really fun. At least one person is excited. Hint: it’s me.

Mark your calendars. Tuesday July 12th it will begin.

That said, I’m flying back east for 10 days on July 11th, so if you want to keep up with me you’ll have to either follow me on Twitter or “Like” Swan Fungus on Facebook. I won’t be blogging about NY/NJ while I’m in town. I won’t be blogging about anything that happens in LA when I return. I will focus specifically on the book until every last page has been published.

You know, I never did come up with a title for the book…Maybe we should put it to a vote? According to this top ten list there were some pretty bad choices. I always preferred Bumps Of No-Doz In Cracker Barrel Bathrooms, but if anyone can think of a better title please let me know before Tuesday.

Shit…now how am I supposed to fill blog space between now and the 12th? Maybe I should have thought this through better.

Modern Lovers – Roadrunner
John Jacob Niles – Look Down That Lonesome Road
Holy Modal Rounders – Down The Old Plank Road