The Empty Page: Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Sonic Youth
 

www.saucerlike.com

In 2007 Serpent's Tail Press will release The Empty Page: Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Sonic Youth, featuring stories by: J.Robert Lennon, Arthur Nersesian, Ben Myers, Carlton Mellick III, Christopher Coake, Christopher Sorrentino, colette Phair, Emily Carter ,Emily Maguire, Kevin Sampsell, Laird Hunt Matt Thorne, Nathan Tyree, Mitch Cullin, Nick Flynn, Paul DiFilippo, Sam Ligon, Sam Lipsyte, Shelley Jackson, Steve Sherill.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile...488859-7962521

An interview with Nate Tryee (one of the writers):

http://www.bookmunch.co.uk/view.php?id=1655

Awesome!

what????

thanks for info.

hi there
i'm the editor of the book - here is the list of contributors together with the songs that they're doing...


Protect Me You (1983) – Eileen Myles
The World Looks Red (1983) – Carlton Mellick III
Brother James (1983) – Emily Maguire
Freezer Burns / I Wanna Be Your Dog (1983) – Steven Sherrill
Shadow of a Doubt (1986) – Rebecca Godfrey
Death To Our Friends (1986) – J Robert Lennon
Providence (1988) – Paul Di Filippo
Kissability (1988) – Laird Hunt
That's All I Know (Right Now) (1990) – Katherine Dunn
Disappearer (1990) – Matt Thorne
My Friend Goo (1990) – Shelley Jackson
Come & Smash Me (1990) – Peter Wild
Dirty Boots (1990) – Samuel Ligon
Wish Fulfillment (1992) – Mary Gaitskill
Swimsuit Issue (1992) – Kevin Sampsell
Androgynous Mind (1994) – Colette Phair
Bull in the Heather (1994) – Scott Mebus
Tokyo Eye (1994) – Mitch Cullin
In the Mind of the Bourgeois Reader (1994) – Nathan Tyree
Sunday (1998) – Hiag Akmajian
Rain on Tin (2002) – Jess Walter
Unmade Bed / Pattern Recognition (2004) – Christopher Coake

Arthur Nersesian and Emily Carter Riolphe are also contributing but they haven't chosen their songs yet. The book will be published in the latter half of 07 but so far it's looking really good ...


If you have any questions, let me know!

That's certainly interesting news. Sounds like a great idea for a project.

It's funny that Death to our Friends is going to be one of the songs considering its an instrumental, how it will inspire fiction i do not know. They certainly will have a lot of room for interpretation.

I should also say: this is the 2nd book in a series of 6: the first (out next June) is called Perverted by Language: Fiction inspired by The Fall; the second is Sonic Youth .. after that, there'll be Ramones, Joy Division, Velvet Underground ...

Oh, that sounds really cool. Thanks for the info.

That is cool. Death To Our Friends should be a good one.

No one choose a song from Washing Machine?!

freezer burn is going to be very, very rad.

but yeah, what alex said. i'd like to see a take on a washing machine tune.

i'd wish they took on a Sister tune. pipeline/kill time, that would have been so cool.

yeah, really. four experimental jet set tunes, but nothing from sister. not knocking ejs, but... yeah.

wow this is such a cool way to pay tribute to sonic youth. An innovative idea for an innovative band. Ill def read this when it comes out.

I didn't realize that there wasn't a Sister tune. I think I only noticed the WM thing was because there were so many EJST&NS ones that I paid more attention there.

I guess it comes down to the fact that each author took a look at the back catalogue (in isolation from one another) and chose the song that lit their creative fires... it's only really me (the editor) and you (the reader) who get to see the book in its totality. and all I can do, really, is invite cool writers to contribute. I can't really say - you have to pick a song offof a particular album because that's too ... prescriptive ... so you get what you get, I suppose ...

On second look of that list, i have something else to say.Tell one of the authors that "Thats all I know Right Now" ISNT A SONIC YOUTH SONG, its a neon boys song.

My rule is - if the band have performed it, it's a song title the authors are allowed ... Given that Sonic Youth have done a heck of a lot of covers in their time, it struck me as a little off to invite authors to contribute and then say, 'Oh you can't have that one because it's a cover...' Plus, I checked with Kim and Lee and they were fine with it, so ...

Well, of course. I was just suprised that Washing Machine didn't light anyone's creative fire.

A couple of writers (Arthur Nersesian and Emily Carter) have still got to pick so maybe they'll set the record straight. I'm surprised nobody went for Teenage Riot ...

I was surprised that no none picked The Diamond Sea. Many fans consider it to be SY Magnus Opus. I remember that most of us went for it as the best Sy funeral song.

There are dozens of great titles ... That's why they are such a great band for this. I have a real soft spot for Cinderella's Big Score too

i once wrote a short story with a live cut of she is not alone as my soundtrack.. it was an eerie sci-fi piece...

On December 13, the Serpent's Tail editor will be meeting up with Sonic Youth in Paris so the band can read the manuscript and ponder the introduction they'll be writing for the book which should be out on October 2007.

Thanks Moshe, for the info.

hey Peter--title correction
 

Hey Peter--that title should be "freezer burn/I wanna..." , not "freezer burns/..."-----

Looking fwd to the book--psyched that Mary Gaitskill chose Wish Fulfillment!

LR/SY

isnt donna tarte the empty page?

kick ass

http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=1462

Muskrat Love: Fiction Inspired by Captain and Tenille

September 27th, 2006: Posted by Jess Walter

So I'm at work this morning, torturing the home keys, and listening to an old Tom Waits album (Rain Dogs). There's almost always music playing when I'm writing. I recently wrote a short story for an anthology called The Empty Page: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth. The book is the brainchild of a talented and tireless British writer and editor named Peter Wild, whose website Bookmunch is one of my favorite stops for book reviews.
Peter gathered an impressive group of authors (myself excluded) to write short stories that share titles with songs by Sonic Youth, the landmark alt-rock band. I chose a later song, "Rain on Tin," from the album Murray Street. Like the others, my story has nothing to do with the song except that it shares the same title.
The Sonic Youth book is one of a series that Peter is editing for a British press. The first book, Perverted by Language, features stories inspired by the English post-punk band The Fall (the only band I know named after an Albert Camus novel). He's also doing collections of stories inspired by The Smiths, The Ramones, Joy Division and The Velvet Underground.
Peter's spot-on taste in music and literature got me to thinking about which bands and musicians this kind of anthology would work for and which it wouldn't. For instance, at first glance, you'd think an intellectually-charged band like Radiohead would be perfect, but when you look at their song titles, there really aren't that many great story titles ("Paranoid Android"? "We Suck Young Blood"?).
Tom Waits doesn't work for an entirely different reason — so many of his songs are stories themselves. (Would you really want to try to improve the beginning of "Frank's Wild Years": Frank settled down in the Valley and he hung his wild years on a nail that he drove through his wife's forehead.)
The exercise also got me to thinking about some anthologies that will likely never see the light of day (please, feel free to suggest your own):
Ridin' the Storm Out: Fiction inspired by REO Speedwagon.
Good Vibrations: Fiction inspired by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.
Flirtin' with Disaster: Fiction inspired by Molly Hatchet.

Yeah, The Fall book should be fun. Apparently Mark E Smith has done one of the short stories himself...

Maybe the contributor's thought that would be the obvious choice, so they may have chose to stay away from it. Either way, a VERY interesting project.

Well EJS was Sonic Youth's highest charting album, surprisingly.

Set to be published by Serpent's Tail in April 2008. Here is the cover:

 

who?

what?

where?

when?

why?

how?!

You are allowed to ask just one question. :)

Should be good! I hope it will be

thurston moore - gary oldman
lee ranaldo - robert deniro
kim gordon - scarlett johannson (aged about 50 years)
steve shelley - steve baldwin after losing about 50 pounds

that's my story.

wow, a story inspired by Shadow of a Doubt... hope it's as fucked up as the song is

Sounds good. Will I be able to buy this in Portugal?

I would have thouhgt The Diamond Sea would be brilliant for this kind of thing... Oh well.

Looks cool, I'll probably get it.