THE2NDHAND No Media Kings Akashic Books

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INDIE PUBLISHERS UNLEASH HIPSTER HELLSPAWN ON WORLD

TORONTO, ON, August 6, 2004 — Three rogue publishers have made an unholy pact to send the literary world straight to hell. NewYork-based Akashic, Toronto's No Media Kings, and Chicago's Elephant Rock are sending their authors on a whirlwind seven-city-in-eight-days tour on underground book circuit The Perpetual Motion Roadshow. Nefariously named novels Hairstyles of the Damned and An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil will be launched by author performances in locations that include a Toronto Victorian ballroom, a converted Montreal pharmacy, and an historic Kentucky parlor once owned by the inventor of the Tommy Gun.

These are odd locales for book launches, but fairly common for The Perpetual Motion Roadshow, a two-year old “bastard child of a vaudeville show and a punk rock tour.” Under the ringleadership of founder Jim Munroe, almost fifty indie performers have gone on the road doing shows with the guarantee “No Boring Readings or Your Money Back.” Meno and Dills are veterans of the Roadshow, and given the sacriliciousness of their performances this time they have dubbed this the Hipster Hellspawn Tour :

• Todd Dills will be playing his prose covers of Metallica songs from the anthology ALL HANDS ON.
• Jim Munroe will be reading ominous postcards sent to him by the blogger protagonist of his novel An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil and will screen “My Trip To Liberty City,” his video travelogue of being a Canadian tourist in the oft-demonized setting of videogame Grand Theft Auto III.
• Joe Meno will be reading from Hairstyles of the Damned, a book inspired by growing up punk and Catholic in Chicago's south side.
• Presenting her sinister laboratory results from the superfeminist collection Girls Who Bite Back will be mad scientist Susan Bustos.

However, there's a limit to how much evil even they can stomach. Jim Munroe's debut novel came out with HarperCollins, but he found himself disgusted by the right-wing powerplays of the publisher's owner. He founded No Media Kings as a response to Rupert Murdoch-style consolidation and published his second and third books himself in his native Canada. They came out in the US through Four Walls Eight Windows but for this book he's decided to expand No Media Kings and publish An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil himself. From his home in Toronto, he says mildly, “I figure I'm ready to invade the United States.”

Joe Meno also found HarperCollins, who published his second novel, a little rich for his blood. His new publisher Akashic Books, who advocates for the “reverse-gentrification of the literary world,” is a better fit for this garage rocker and Nelson Algren Literary Award winner. An editor at skateboard magazine Bail and a columnist for Punk Planet , his novel will be the first in the newly minted Punk Planet Books imprint.

Todd Dills was named by Chicago's New City as one of the city's fifty top local lit movers: they seem to think he's on his way, “up from the literary underground.” Although that makes it sound like he's from Hades, he actually hails originally from South Carolina. He moved to Chicago, started a literary broadsheet called THE2NDHAND, and five years later managed to hook up with local Elephant Rock Books and Seattle's TNI Books to release the best-of anthology ALL HANDS ON. About the Hipster Hellspawn tour he says, “Throw your denim jackets into the fire. This'll be a wild ride, ya'll.”

Hipster Hellspawn Tour Schedule

Toronto: Wed. Sept. 1, 8pm. Gladstone Ballroom (1214 Queen W.) [PDF flyer]
Ottawa: Thurs. Sept. 2, 8:30pm. The Study Lounge, Embassy Hotel (25 Cartier St.) [PDF flyer]
Montreal: Fri. Sept 3, 8pm. Pharmacie Esperanza (5490 St. Laurent at St. Viateur) [PDF flyer]
Brooklyn: Sun. Sept. 5, 8pm. The Lucky Cat (245 Grand St., Williamsburg) [PDF flyer]
Pittsburgh: Mon. Sept. 6, 7:30. Garfield Artworks (4931 Penn Ave.) [PDF flyer]
Newport, KY: Tues. Sept. 7, 8:30pm. Southgate House (24 East. 3rd St.) [PDF flyer]
Chicago: Wed. Sept. 8, 8pm. Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia) [PDF flyer]

Contact and more information:

Todd Dills : Elephant Rock Books, (773) 278-7034, info@the2ndhand.com, www.the2ndhand.com.

Jim Munroe : No Media Kings, (416) 920-3199, press@nomediakings.org, www.nomediakings.org.

Joe Meno : Akashic Books, (212) 433-1875, Akashic7@aol.com, www.akashicbooks.com.

The Perpetual Motion Roadshow : www.nomediakings.net.

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