This Is Book’s Music

ThisIsBooksMusic.com is a website created by music journalist and producer John Book, where one will be able to find not only music reviews, but DVD, books, food and whatever pops up within the domain.  The website will also be an informative one featuring news items, discographies, a concert database (coming soon), and links to websites of interest.

ThisIsBooksMusic.com is about two things in general: it will be about my own music under the name Crut.  I have released music under various pseudonyms, but it’s very much about my music, Book’s Music.  However, the core of this website is also about the music in my collection, what I listen to on a regular basis, and why I think these artists, albums, songs, digital files, etc should be listened to by you.  I’ve been a fan of music my entire life, and this place is a way to share my opinions and thoughts, and pass it along to you.  Bookmark the website, as I explore the potential of this new web domain.

I’ve been a music journalist for 23 years, starting out with small fanzines before building up to such publications as “The Rocket“, “MaximumRockNRoll“, “Goldmine“, “DISCoveries“, and “Reflex”.  I also started my own fanzine, “Intensity“.  At one point I had contributed to at least 60 different publications, sometimes one or two reviews before the zine folded.  In this time I was referred to a book editor as someone with “metal expertise”.  It would lead to becoming one of the original contributing editors for a brand new music reference book called “All Music Guide“, released in 1991.  Some of my original reviews can still be found in the Allmusic/AMG database.  A brief break away from writing lead to my own discovery of the internet.  In 1995 I started the Unofficial Wu-Tang Clan Mailing List (U-WU, pronounced “ooh-wu”), where I wanted to be able to create a digital newsletter about one of my favorite groups at the time, and to do it in a way that I had not been able to do in print, particularly on the importance of record collecting and gathering discographies to show an artist’s complete catalog.  The U-WU lasted for six years, and at its peak was 5200 members strong, which was huge considering the only way I could mail out the newsletter was 100 e-mail addresses at a time.  I also did fan pages for Ozomatli and Prince Paul, and it was around this time I felt I should focus on my work, both as a writer as an artist.

In the 21st century I have been a contributor to Rap Reviews, Funkier Than Thou, and FudgeFM.  I currently contribute to the Reviews section at Okayplayer.  In 2004 I started my own reviews column at MusicForAmerica.org called “The Run-Off Groove“.  When the website lost its funding, the column was without a home for a few minutes, but I decided to keep it going by running it at Blogspot.  “The Run-Off Groove” will now become a part of ThisIsBooksMusic.com.

In the near future, I will present some of the other projects I have in store, including books and documentary films and videos.  Through ThisIsBooksMusic.com, I want to be able to help people in their own projects as a production supervisor or musical director.  If someone needs to find music and/or artists for a television, movie, or video game project, I would like to be able to bring those projects to completion through my knowledge of music and connections with people in the industry.  Let’s build through “real world” moves.