To celebrate the paperback release of Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, I’m reading on Monday, May 23, at the excellent Book Court in Brooklyn. (It’s at 163 Court Street, between Pacific & Dean.) The reading is at 7 pm, open to all, and free as my hair. So mark your calendar for May 23, the sweet spot right between “Morrissey’s birthday” and “Bob Dylan’s birthday.” (Alas, nobody seems to have a birthday on May 23 except Joan Collins.)
More info on the reading here.
Great new review of Talking to Girls About Duran Duran in the New York Times Sunday Book Review for September 26, 2010: “Sheffield’s love letter to the songs that saw him through will resonate with anyone who ever took solace in the radio when no one else seemed to understand.”
Read it here.
Simon Le Bon, lead singer of Duran Duran, calls Talking to Girls About Duran Duran “a rather splendid book”!
Simon recorded a couple of audio clips of himself reading excerpts from the book out loud. Download them free from Simon's book blog on the Duran Duran official website: http://www.duranduran.com/bookclub/
My playlist for the New York Times' Paper Cuts “Living With Music” blog, giving a little love to David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Comsat Angels, Takako Minekawa, Lou Reed, Ke$ha, the Rolling Stones, Boris and Michio Kurihara.
Read it here. “Nothing says ‘80s like a lush, glossy, vaguely homoerotic ZZ Top power ballad.”
I went on WNYC’s Soundcheck Smackdown to debate the legacy of the rock & roll saxophone solo. Listen in as Sophie Harris, host John Schaefer and I break down “Baker Street,” “Walk on the Wild Side,” “Careless Whisper,” so many more.
Flavorwire presents: Rob Sheffield’s 11 Favorite ’80s Songs to Talk About with Girls. In other words, the beyond-awesome Heidi Vanderlee and I drink beer and eat pizza and talk about MTV and before you know it we’re arguing about Eddie Money vs. Lene Lovich. Click here for love (and video links!) for Heart, Girlschool, Springsteen's “Bobby Jean,” New Order, Apollonia, Neneh Cherry, and (shockingly) Haysi Fantayzee.
On my home turf of Rolling Stone, an interview on the wild side of Eighties pop, by my friend, colleague, and fellow Smiths fan Andy Greene. You can read Rob Sheffield’s Eighties Odyssey here.
Excellent review from Entertainment Weekly here: "A funny, insightful look at the sublime torture of adolescence in any decade."
Huffington Post interview about Talking to Girls About Duran Duran with the great Kristi York Wooten, including her story about the day she met the band. Read it here. Also check out her expanded version here, where we get waaay into the semotics of John Taylor's penchant for wide-brimmed hats.
Village Voice interview here with my Virginia homie John Ruscher, a long night of bar-hopping and discussing music: "It's strange how much of the book was written in a drunken stupor in karaoke bars in my pocket notebook at three in the morning, when I would think, 'Oh my God, Sheena Easton is a genius!' That's the kind of thought that occurs to you at a karaoke bar. God knows it doesn't occur to you anywhere else. It's almost a mystical thing."
The unbelievably awesome Martha Quinn, the original MTV VJ goddess, Sirius XM DJ, and all-around Eighties sweetheart, wrote on Twitter & Facebook: “Reading fab book everyone here would LOVE, Talking To Girls About Duran Duran by Rob Sheffield.”
I did an incredibly fun five-part interview with Fluxblog madman Matthew Perpetua on about Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince, Gaga, Henry Rollins, Phil Collins, Sonic Youth, Scritti Politti, Stacey Q, Erasure, and Kon Kan. Check it out here: videos, pictures, and tunes, plus the spiritual connection between “Billie Jean” and “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” Also Parts 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Here's the other epic interview we did a couple of years ago, about mix tapes, fanzines, "Waterloo Sunset" and Pavement.
In the Barnes and Noble Review, a tour of Eighties music with my man Bill Tipper, debating the connections between Duran Duran and Vladimir Nabokov, with videos from Cyndi, Go-Gos, Bowie and more here: “Ah, the bond between English boys and California girls. For those of us who aren't either, it's a bond that fascinates and mystifies. So much of the world's favorite music comes out of that relationship.”
For Nerve, I was honored to do an “Improve Your Taste” column here, giving it up to Ann-Margret, Charles Bronson, Christopher Marlowe, Oran “Juice" Jones, Tommy James, Erase Errata, and LCD Soundsystem.
Two rock critics + free coffee refills = danger. For Emusic, the brilliant Michaelangelo Matos gives me the blindfold test to start a discussion of music criticism, and things get rapidly out of hand, right about here.
Some great pictures and stories from Blaise Allysen Kearsley’s amazing How I Learned reading series: check it out here.
Goodreads asked me for a list of my favorite music books of all time, for their seductively titled In Bed With Rob Sheffield. Hard to keep the list down to a top 5, but here’s what I came up with.
Girl from the Ghetto, you rule, and so does this. I also love her idea: “If I ever write a rock book I’m calling it Talking to Boys About Rush.”
Boston Globe interview—Love In The Time Of Duran Duran—here, with Natick's own Sarah Rodman, on hometown memories, New England radio and the “Save a Prayer” video. "I was smiling like John Taylor topless on the back of an elephant."
Superb review from Capital, from the perspective of actual English person Luke Dempsey. Read Duran Duran and the Bogus Era here.
Extremely cool piece in the Dallas Morning News, by the extremely cool Chris Vognar, here. When we met he was wearing a Public Enemy t-shirt.
Spinner's kind review of my Brooklyn reading, noting my longstanding love for Rockwell, my newfound love for Laura Branigan, and my totally terrible attempt at a Manchester accent.
The LA Times nominated me (along with several other music critics) as a replacement judge for American Idol. Honored! Not qualified, but honored!
The L Magazine interview with Amy Steele here: "I'm the kind of Bowie fan who will tell you that Earthling is a great album. I think there are about six of us."
More reviews or features for Talking to Girls About Duran Duran now in Time Magazine, Miami Herald, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, GQ, Redbook, Family Circle, Philadelphia City Paper, and more. It's one of Glamour's DO Books of the Summer, and #1 on Marie Claire's July TO-DO list. Read reviews here.
Thanks to everyone who's come out to the readings from Talking to Girls About Duran Duran:
Thursday, July 15 at 7PM
Powerhouse Arena
37 Main Street-DUMBO Brooklyn, NY
www.powerhousearena.com
Tuesday, July 20 at 7PM
Borders –Columbus Circle
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY
Wednesday, July 21 at 7:30PM
Barnes and Noble—Park Slope
267 7th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Wednesday, July 28 at 7 PM
BookPeople
603 N Lamar Blvd
Austin, TX
Talking to Girls about Duran Duran will be published July 15, 2010
Check out what early reviewers are saying.
