The first Re/Search magazine to appear in book form. Most interesting for exposing the links between the cut-up writings of William Burroughs, the theories and art of Brion Gysin, and the sound experimentation of Throbbing Gristle. Burroughs writes about Brion Gysin's invention of the cut-up method, Genesis P. Orridge and Peter Christopherson interview Brion Gysin, Simon Dwyer (Rapid Eye) writes about Throbbing Gristle, and the Paris Beat Hotel conceptual sources of Industrial Culture are laid out for all to ponder. SS

Publisher: V/Search
Paperback: 108 pages
Illustrated

“An anthropological inquiry into a contemporary social enigma—the increasing popular revival of ancient human decoration practices such as symbolic/deeply personal tattooing, multiple piercings, and ritual scarification.” Interviews with Fakir Musafar, Don Ed Hardy, ManWoman, Sheree Rose, Hanky Panky, and Genesis and Paula P-Orridge.

Publisher: V/Search
Paperback: 212 pages
Illustrated

Indulge in bittersweet reverie, wading through the past with embittered vinyl freaks who have turned their proud backs on the pedestrian Digital Present. This two-volume survey is at its best when the creators of this diverse music speak for themselves as when moogmeister Jean-Jacques Perrey shares his life story and philosophy [translated from French]; Rusty Warren recounts her antics as a gorgonesque sex-lib comedienne of the cocktail era who made a fortune off of tit fetish humor [“knockers up, gals!!”]; Bebe Barron [co-composer of the Forbidden Planet soundtrack] recaptures the lost era when avant-garde and fun could be vaguely synonymous; Eartha Kitt reveals how she forged her Black-woman-as-human-sex-panther persona into a six-decades-long showbiz career and partied with the likes of Orson Welles, Ernest Hemingway, and Marlene Dietrich as part of the international jet set; and Mexican hi-fi-arranger-extraordinaire Esquivel brings back to life his flamboyant ‘60s floor show; not to mention interviews with the exotica demigods Martin Denny and the metaphysical, turbaned organist Korla Pandit.
Also figuring prominently are such contemporary collector/cult figures as Lypsinka, whose act could convert anyone into a show-tune queen; and the Cramps, who recount hilarious record-finding exploits in the basements and back rooms of overweight drunks and semiliterate crackers all over America. SS/MG

Publisher: V/Search
Paperback: 200 pages

Indulge in bittersweet reverie, wading through the past with embittered vinyl freaks who have turned their proud backs on the pedestrian Digital Present. Once you get past a two-page discussion with Jello Biafra about holes in the ozone layer, Volume 2 begins to cook with his erudite look at the worldwide psych-ploitation phenomenon, including the racy recording past of former California Lt. Gov. Mike Curb. There are also scores of lesser-known collectors rhapsodizing over obscure [and sometimes less so] audio curios. One bizarre example is the Episcopalian minister who discusses the “blue comedy” records of Rudy Ray Moore [actually the raunchiest shit ever set to vinyl!]. Sadly, Incredibly Strange Music can sometimes confirm one’s most drastic suspicions about the dearth of originality in music today. SS/MG

Publisher: V/Search
Paperback: 240 pages

Zines!, edited by V. “formerly co-publisher of RE/Search” Vale, is a collection of interviews with a selection of zine editor/publishers and one zine distributor in the now-familiar Re/Search Q-and-A format. From overeducated thrift shop aficionados and a connoisseur of Ike-era sexual stereotyping to insurgent teen riot grrrls, Zines! profiles some of the quirky personalities behind the xeroxed, self-publishing boom. A high-powered, back-of-the-envelope socioeconomic analysis of the global zine situation (now also a steppingstone to hip, corporate website employment) is provided by Ramsay Kanaan from the anarchist publishing and distribution cooperative AK.
Part of the appeal of a zine is obtaining some very personal insights from people you might never meet (or get up close and personal with anyway) in the usual course of events. While Zines! doesn’t offer the libido-dripping cultural musings of horn-dogger extraordinaire Lisa Carver (Rollerderby) or the turbo-charged venom of Answer Me!’s Jim and Debbie Goad, it does provide some knowing words of wisdom from Ask Gear Queen of Fat Girl—the zine-organ of the dyke “thunder-thighs” sexual-liberation collective of the same name—on ass-wiping for the big-is-beautiful set: “The basic problem is a species design flaw. Arms don’t grow longer as needed. As the depth of your body grows the distance from armpit over belly to asshole increases, and there comes a point where your hand just can’t reach your asshole anymore. But fear not! Depending on the configuration of your body and the arrangement of the toilet area in question, there are all sorts of things you can do… Use something to extend your reach. It can be anything that is long enough, appropriately soft and absorbent, and washable and disposable. I remember women at the NAAFA gathering suggesting the kind of kitchen pot scrubbers with a foam head and hollow handle designed for liquid soap.” SS

Publisher: V/Search
Paperback: 184 pages
Illustrated

Includes interviews with John Marr (Murder Can Be Fun), Otto von Stroheim (Tiki News), Dishwasher Pete, the Revolutionary Knitting Circle, and Keffo (Temp Slave). “Many of these interviews have a ‘workers rights’ slant.”—V/Search

Publisher: V/Search
Paperback: 184 pages
Illustrated

Daniel Mannix is the author of the classic Ballantine sado-historical paperbacks Those About To Die (a vivid account of the Roman gladiatorial games), The Hellfire Club (about the blasphemous and decadent English secret orgy society) and the aptly titled History of Torture. Long fascinated by the carny life and an experienced sword-swallower and fire-eater (see his Memoirs of a Sword-Swallower), Mannix did not get around to completing his book on freaks (originally titled We Who Are Not As Others) until 1976. It was summarily yanked by the original publisher after only one month in print. Mannix recounts with love and respect the life stories of Prince Randian the human torso, Pop-eye Perry, Sealo the “Seal Boy,” Johnny Eck (the legless star of Tod Browning’s Freaks), Percilla Bejano “The Monkey Woman,” Mignon “The Penguin Girl,” Frank Lentini the three-legged man with “double sexual organs,” fat men and fat ladies, hermaphrodites, Siamese twins, pinheads, randy midgets and other remarkable human oddities. This recent edition includes many previously unpublished photos from Mannix’s personal collection. SS

Publisher: V/Search
Paperback: 124 pages
Illustrated

Originally published as Step Right Up!, Mannix’s account of life as a sword swallower and fire-eater on the road with a carnival in the ‘30s is an acknowledged classic. Who, after all, doesn’t like to read about fakirs, neon-tube swallowing, and freaks? But even people lucky enough to own copies of the long-out-of-print original are going to have to run out and buy this one. As has been often noted, the only thing missing from the original was pictures, an oversight the good folks at V/Search have corrected in spades. This new edition features dozens of photos from Mannix’s scrapbooks. Now we can finally see what Krinko, Jolly Daisy, the Impossible Possible and, of course, Billy the Stripper looked like.
“I probably would have never become one of America’s leading fire-eaters if Flamo the Great hadn’t happened to explode that night in front of Krinko’s Great Combined Carnival Sideshows.” JM

Publisher: V/Search
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated

During those glory days of early punk [1977-1979), Search & Destroy was widely considered to be one of the most eclectic and intelligent publications going. Based in San Francisco [a magnet, itself, for misfits), it covered not only the local scene, but those evolving in Los Angeles, New York, the British Isles and Paris. Whenever the magazine interviewed somebody the writer would frequently include a list of the subject’s favorite books and records or even interesting things that happened to be on the coffee table or desk. A reading of these issues, which have aged remarkably well, captures the sense that something new and exciting was happening. The staff of Search & Destroy knew how to guide an interview into intelligent subjects and would throw in a monkey wrench if an interview got too self-serving or rote. Many of the most interesting interviews are the ones with people who didn’t go on to become famous. So clear off a table and set the Way-Back Machine. SA

Publisher: V/Search
Paperback: 142 pages

During those glory days of early punk [1977-1979), Search & Destroy was widely considered to be one of the most eclectic and intelligent publications going. Based in San Francisco [a magnet, itself, for misfits), it covered not only the local scene, but those evolving in Los Angeles, New York, the British Isles and Paris. Whenever the magazine interviewed somebody the writer would frequently include a list of the subject’s favorite books and records or even interesting things that happened to be on the coffee table or desk. A reading of these issues, which have aged remarkably well, captures the sense that something new and exciting was happening. The staff of Search & Destroy knew how to guide an interview into intelligent subjects and would throw in a monkey wrench if an interview got too self-serving or rote. Many of the most interesting interviews are the ones with people who didn’t go on to become famous. So clear off a table and set the Way-Back Machine. SA

Publisher: V/Search
Paperback: 148 pages