Essential Reading in your Control Room

losthighway · Post by **losthighway** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 9:15 am

It seems pretty common for control rooms to have a little library to keep drummers who are done tracking occupied (busy hands). I was curious what some of your staples are that clients can't resist. I put tape op mags in mine, but only the tech minded partake. As much as I want everyone to cherish my Picasso book, it seems nothing beats "Get in the Van" the tour journal of Henry Rollins during the Black Flag years.

I also have "It's Not Easy Being Green" an anthology of Jim Henson quotables, and insights. The females tend to go for that a bit more.

Aquaman · Post by **Aquaman** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 9:31 am

The new Geoff Emerick book has been a favorite this last year among the control room couch crowd.

A non-music hit is the book of historical regional photographs and landmarks - great fun for local & visiting artists alike.

Also, Betty & Veronica Double Digests seem to hold a strange fascination for the horn players.

But the in-studio wifi has pretty much replaced books, for the most part. You could keep a beater little mini-laptop tucked in the corner for downtime web browsing.

A.David.MacKinnon · Post by **A.David.MacKinnon** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 10:21 am

The Dirt (about Motley Crue) and Slash's autobiography are big hits with almost every band. Even the most mild mannered singer songwriter has an inner metal-head.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:11 am

I've probably got 80 books in the control room where I do most of my work. Lately, the Geoff Emerick book has been getting picked up a lot, but the Miles Davis autobiography is the clear winner with the Onion A.V. Club's The Tenacity of The Cockroach running a clear second. No one ever seems to pick up any of the recording books. I do try to rotate books every once in a while since I have limited shelf space and a lot of returning clients. I recently had someone comment on the number of drummer books and Pink Floyd books that I had, so I have been working on more evenly distributing the collection a bit.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

charlievela · Post by **charlievela** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:47 am

I keep Bob Katz's Mastering Audio on hand so when the session is over we can discuss it without me having to explain the whole process.

Also America The Book by Jon Stewart and co. There's something entertaining on every page, and you don't have to sit for hours to get enjoyment out of reading it, which is perfect to keep people occupied for short stints.

And of course Tape Op vol 2 while im spending long stretches backing up sessions.

The Scum · Post by **The Scum** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 2:58 pm

Jughead Double Digest does it for me.

And a little collection of insights from the Dalai Lama.

Artwise, it's the K guys - Klee, Kandinsky, Klimt.

And Kafka.

I've got an R. Crumb anthology that people seem to pull out regularly.

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 3:37 pm

Man, I love this post.

The singer/guitarist in my band gave me "The Worst Album Covers of All Time" two years ago for Christmas and I swear, it is clearly the number one. It gets picked up without fail by pretty much everybody.

Other stuff I have:
The Mixerman Diaries, The Esquire Issue with Halley Barry on the cover from a few months back gets a lot of attention and this great 70's book called, "How to Put Out Your Own Album". That is totally awesome on so many levels.

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:41 pm

My essential reading comes in the form of the menu book! Thai? Indian? and always a good sandwich!

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:01 am

T-rex wrote:The singer/guitarist in my band gave me "The Worst Album Covers of All Time" two years ago for Christmas and I swear, it is clearly the number one.

Wow!
Has this been published? If it's any of the compilations from on-line, then I'm all about that!

@?,*???&? wrote:My essential reading comes in the form of the menu book! Thai? Indian? and always a good sandwich!

On a day-to-day level, my menu book doesn't get nearly the attention that The Tenacity Of The Cockrach does while vocals are being cut. When it comes times to make the dinner order, that's different story.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:58 am

I was wrong on the title, it's "Horrifically Bad Album Covers" and it lives up to it's name. Although I saw about three or four other books on Amazon called the Worst Album Covers Ever. Great, great stuff.

Here is a link:
http://www.amazon.com/Horrifically-albu ... 409&sr=1-4

I have always wanted to get the Tenacity of the Cockroach, I will totally buy that for my room. It has, I think, my two favorite Onion stories ever; the one about the roof is on fire and the one where a club burned down during a Yo La Tengo show and all the record store employees in town were hurt or killed.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:22 am

Thanks for the link!

The Tenacity of the Cockroach is the interview book from the Onion AV Club. It's got some really great interviews, but no Onion news stories. There are, however, several excellent Onion news story compilations.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:16 am

Cool, thanks for the clarification! That would be good to have also, but I still want to get the first collection of new stories.

Lowtone · Post by **Lowtone** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:51 am

Just for ironical purposes, it would be funny to have "If you give a Mouse a Cookie, He's gonna want some Milk." So whenever a band is really getting on your nerves, just tell them to sit back and read.

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:28 pm

T-rex wrote:I was wrong on the title, it's "Horrifically Bad Album Covers" and it lives up to it's name. Although I saw about three or four other books on Amazon called the Worst Album Covers Ever. Great, great stuff.

Here is a link:
http://www.amazon.com/Horrifically-albu ... 409&sr=1-4

My wife bought me this one on sale at Borders for about $5. Between that and those little "20 questions" egg shaped electronic games, the idle clients keep themselves entertained for hours!

EvanMidds · Post by **EvanMidds** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 1:07 pm

Recording The Beatles- great info and excellent photos.

This Is Your Brain On Music along with The World In Six Songs has some pretty nifty insight in it.

I also like to pick up old books on Recording from the 60's or earlier. Always some cool info and great diagrams etc.

One I've wanted to pick up is Temples of Sound, anyone checked that out?

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Essential Reading in your Control Room

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