Songs from Nowhere Near the Heart
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
In the dark overlap between music and industry, there dwells a group of people whose lives and dealings are every bit as commonplace and fantastic, as high-flung and ridiculous, as noble and sordid as the stories they inspire. Don, Ross, and Chavez comprise Seventeen; Neil, Mika, Darcy, and Darren make up Limna. One is a hard-working club band committed to a music-first agenda and convinced by wily manager Deedee Vanian that this is indeed the road they're on. The other is an unapologetically commercial construct, pieced together and driven into the market by professional hitmakers and by manager Annika Guttkuhn, herself a "discovery" and protegee of Deedee's. Competing for the same recording contract, the two acts are combined on a single bill and booked for a string of appearances from New England to Florida.
But who has orchestrated the ill-fated trip, and why? How far can Annika push her act, armed with nothing but an imaginary following and her trumped-up press releases? And why should Don fro Seventeen be her chief coconspirator? Songs from Nowhere Near the Heart presents an unforgettable and richly textured cast of characters, each trying to outwit and outflank the others, for reasons and with results that won't become entirely clear before a final, hilarious sequence of events in rural Florida.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A fictional alt-rock band with the same name as the author's real alt-rock band battles a fake alt-rock band for fans and record sales in this manipulative second novel by Baird (Day Job). The group Seventeen is managed by Machiavellian Dennis Freedman, better known as Deedee Vanian, who signs them to a not-so-lucrative deal and then assigns his flaky assistant, Annika Guttkuhn, to run their day-to-day affairs. Seventeen's initial gigs are a mess, including a show in Providence that ends in a near-riot, so as part of a convoluted plan, Vanian creates a rival group called Limna that features the tortured musings of Seventeen's hunky former lead singer, Neil Ramsthraller. Tension levels rise when the two groups hit the road together, and the tour culminates in a wild gig in Florida that seals the fates of both bands. Baird paints a decidedly nasty portrait of the alternative music scene as a claustrophobic world in which bands are used and abused on a regular basis, and he tosses out some incisive commentary on the ins and outs of the music business. But the shaky, threadbare "battle of the bands" plot not to mention a cast of limited, unlikable characters makes this a trying read, and Baird doesn't add much to his account beyond his obvious disdain for the industry. He further muddies the waters with a slew of po-mo tricks mostly odd graphic effects, including grainy black-and-white photos and a bizarre assortment of footnotes. The results are at times witty and disturbing, but finally uneven and too disjointed to appeal to those outside the music business.