Hit & myth (Chesapeake Juke Box Band)

Jilted John - True Love Stories (Castle)

David Axelrod: The Edge of Music: An Exploration of 50 Years in Music
Axelrod was a 1950s jazzer who became a star producer at Capitol in the 1960s. His signature sound was spacious and groove-heavy: the drums were always to the fore, which means that he has been sampled more than anyone bar James Brown and the Meters.

Their art on their sleeves
The Music Library By Jonny Trunk
Nostalgia for the album sleeve has brought a flood of books. But most enjoyable are the covers of records that you'll have never bought

Books in the news
Instant stardom
Calling their song Overnight Sensation was asking for it. The Raspberries’ 1974 single never bothered the record books the way that the Arctic Monkeys have. A debut single straight in at No 1 and the fastest-selling debut album yet. They will have to get used to being called the New Beatles.

Let's hear it for Slag Bag!
Who needs real pop stars when the best music movies are about fake bands?
Note: Bob Stanley writing about his Pop Fiction Film Festival At The Barbican on Feb 7, 21, and 28 See Timeline

Darkness on the edge of town
THE MEADOWLANDS: Wilderness Adventures on the Edge of New York City by Robert Sullivan

The Concretes
In Colour

The Golden Age of American Rock'n'Roll
Bubbling Under (Ace)

Birth of the uncool
With cardboard drums and songs about hating sharks, the DIY music movement was tiny - but intense. Bob Stanley celebrates the UK's most underground underground scene

El Perro Del Mar
El Perro Del Mar

Martin Hannett
Zero: A Martin Hannett Story (Ace)

Nina Simone
Silk And Soul (Sony/BMG)

Hello, hello, 1972 is back again
Johnny Come Home by Jake Arnott

Lost under a mushroom cloud
Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom by Andy Letcher

Guitar men, golden voices

Slade
Old New Borrowed And Blue (Polydor)

A musical litmus test: if acid is added, does it become red hot?

The vinyl frontier
Accruing knowledge from gazing at the small print on 45s isn't really something to show off about, but decades of this kind of activity has finally earned me a proper job. Universal - the largest record company in the world - has offered myself and Saint Etienne buddy Pete Wiggs our own reissue label, Eclipse.

Lou Rawls
You'll Never Find Another (Capitol)

Broadcast: The Future Crayon

Don't look now it's another remake
Why revamp The Wicker Man? Like so many other imitations, it will not match the original

Adam, always heading for a fall
A repeat pattern of mania and failure
Stand And Deliver by Adam Ant

The Who
Endless Wire (Polydor)

Various Artists
Forever Changing: The Golden Age of Elektra Records (1963-1973)(Elektra)

After this cheeky corporate raid I'm yearning for the real Beatles

Mad about the boys
NO BIG BEATLES OR ELVIS tomes emerged in 2006, leaving the way for the super- middleweights to enter the ring. Brian Wilson hasn’t been served by a decent biography since David Leaf’s long out-of-print The Beach Boys.