Eric R. Danton | Sound Check

Where's my Atlas of Rock?

We get some strange mail here at Sound Check World Headquarters (er, the Courant building), but this one wins: "Atlas of Creation" by Harun Yahya.

It's a 12-pound tome that, according to the publisher, "displays the invalidity of the theory of evolution by illustrating dozens of fossil remains gathered from various parts of the world." Harun Yahya, the pen name of Turkish author Adnan Oktar, has "become the well-known author of important works exposing the imposture of evolutionists and their invalid claims, and the dark liaisons between Darwinism and such bloody ideologies as fascism and communism."

Dark liaisons? Sounds juicy!

From fox skulls to mayflies, Yahya argues that ancient fossils are exactly the same as modern skeletal remains, which therefore invalidates the concept of evolution. "Fossils in the earth's strata confirm the fact that all life forms have existed in their original state ever since they were first created," he writes in a section titled "Evolutionists' Intermediate-Form Dilemma."

Wow.

Ignore, for a moment, the sheer lunacy of publishing a ravishing 800-page attack on Darwinism — volume 3 of a planned seven-volume set. Why on earth did they go to the expense of sending it to a music writer?

Rock bios display an oral fixation

Alright, enough with the oral histories.

A couple years ago, the big rock-book trend was "in-conversation-with" tomes, which were essentially just transcribed chats between, say, Bono and writer Michka Assayas, or Tori Amos and writer Ann Powers. (Somebody did one with Tom Petty, too, I think.) But they were tough reading for all but hardcore fans, because there wasn't much in the way of structure. Tori Amos, sweet and intelligent as she is in interviews, has a way of wandering off on tangents, and if you're a casual fan looking for an overview, you're probably going to get lost.

This year's trend is oral history books; that is, a series of anecdotes related by participants and onlookers, with little (or no) narrative thread. Warren Zevon's ex-wife, Crystal Zevon, published "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" in May, Rolling Stone just published "Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson" and Minneapolis music writer Jim Walsh has just released "The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting." 

Nikki Sixx pities self in 'Heroin Diaries'

Motley Crue is well known for its decadence, especially during the band's '80s heyday, but Nikki Sixx takes much of the shine off the good-times image in his forthcoming book, "The Heroin Diaries." (A soundtrack by Sixx's other band, Sixx A.M., accompanies the book.)

Based on a diaries he kept starting Christmas Day 1986, an excerpt of Sixx's book paints him as a self-pitying wastoid throwing his life away. The first entry starts:

Merry Christmas.
Well, that's what people say at Christmas, right? Except normally they have somebody to say it to. They have their friends and family all round them. They haven't been crouched naked under a Christmas tree with a needle in their arm like an insane person in a mansion in Van Nuys.

He makes continual ironic references to his "rock star paradise" and his life as a "rock-star junkie." It's tough to feel much sympathy for him, though, considering that he started using heroin for the worst reason ever: "Because my heroes did it ... because I idolize my heroes because they didn't care; and I really don't care about anything."

His heroes include Johnny Thunders and Sid Vicious. Both died before they turned 40. Good role models to emulate, there, Nikki.

Drugs clearly filled some hole in Nikki Sixx's life, and publishing his crackhead journals (yep, he freebased cocaine, too) is a brave, if self-serving, thing to do. But in reading his woe-is-me drivel, you can't help but think: What a jerk.

Save your money for "Gods and Gangsters," next year's tell-all memoir by music-biz insider Tony Defries, who worked with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, among many others.

Harry Potter and the Multitude of Casualties

With fewer than 24 hours before the final book in the series goes on sale, we're nearing the end of an extended period of Harry Potter mania.

Here's our contribution: Actor Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry in the film versions of the books, tells Details magazine that his favorite band is the Hold Steady, calling them "the best band this year by far," NME.com reports.

Maybe we can get behind this whole wizard thing after all ...

Joe Pernice signs book deal

More Pitchfork recapping to come later, but first: Singer and songwriter Joe Pernice has signed a fiction deal with Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin.

The driving force behind the Pernice Brothers (and, earlier, the Scud Mountain Boys), is a third of the way through his first novel for the publisher. As to when readers can expect it, "if you ask him when he'll finish his face turns all red, and he yells, 'When I finish!'" his manager, Joyce Linehan, notes in a press release. "If we were betting people though, we'd bet that that the next U.S. President will be celebrating his or her first 100 days in office around the time it 'streets,' as they say in the music business."

It's best for now to steer clear of inquiring about his subject matter, too. "If you ask Joe what the book is about, he sticks his fingers in his ears and sings 'la la la la la,'" Linehan claims.

Says Pernice, "I am really excited to join the Penguin family, where I get to be label mates with writers like Homer."

It's not Pernice's first foray into prose fiction: He also wrote a book about the album "Meat is Murder" by the Smiths, for the acclaimed 33 1/3 series of books about beloved records, published by Continuum.

Elvis or the Beatles?

I love hyperbolic press releases. This one, for a new book on the subject, starts, "In every bar and on every street corner one argument reigns supreme: who is the greatest pop icon of our time? Elvis … or The Beatles?"

Is it suddenly 1965 again? Who's arguing about this in 2007 (besides the authors of this book)? A better topic might be, why aren't there any comparable pop icons today? And no, Paris Hilton doesn't count.

Anyway, Elvis vs. the Beatles is probably not what people are arguing about on the street corners of Hartford, unless that's what's behind the recent wave of violence. (Hmmm.) And the debate in bars around here is more likely to focus on the Red Sox and the Yankees.

Looks like this is one book you needn't add to the stack of summer reading.

Slash to write memoir

Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash is set to write an autobiography, NME reports.

The guitarist, now part of Velvet Revolver, signed a deal with HarperCollins, and will work with ghostwriter Anthony Bozza, who helped Tommy Lee with the 2004 book "Tommyland."

Here's hoping this doesn't mean Slash is going to include anecdotes "told" by his penis, the way Lee did ...

Kurt and Courtney, in diary form

I found it sort of unsettling and voyeuristic when Kurt Cobain's diaries were published in 2002, mostly because it seemed like such a huge invasion of his privacy. Yeah, true, he's dead and he was a public figure, so maybe that's a specious concern. But I can't imagine he would have wanted his inner-most thoughts collected in book form, despite his early fantasies about stardom.

Now it's Courtney Love's turn. "Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love" is set for publication Nov. 2 by Faber and Faber. And she's alive, and it was clearly her decision to publish them, but I'm still a little squeamish about prying that far into her mind. How much, really, do we need to know about the people we make into stars?

As a side observation, a cursory flip through Love's diaries reveals a far more colorful collection than Cobain's. There are photos and drawings and gig posters and, for some reason, an awful lot of cleavage. The book is an attractive package, I'm just not sure how much of it I can bring myself to read.

A season in hell

I've just finished reading "Exile on Main St.: A Season in Hell With the Rolling Stones" (available Nov. 1 from Da Capo) about the making of the band's 1972 double-album.

What seems incredible after finishing Robert Greenfield's book isn't that the Stones stumbled out of the basement of Keith Richards' rented mansion on the French Riviera with what has come to be regarded as the band's masterpiece. It's that they emerged under their own power, with anything at all to show for it.

Finding Klosterman

There are few more divisive figures on the current pop-culture scene than Chuck Klosterman, and the thing that drives so many people crazy about him is his unwavering certainty that he is right and you disagree with him at your peril.

The author, Esquire columnist and former senior editor at Spin (he left when the magazine changed ownership earlier this year) is the subject of a lengthy profile in The Phoenix. Love him or hate him, it's hard to ignore him.