Rock legends trade their electric guitars for pen and paper in this story collection assembled by musician, deejay and novelist Kihn (Horror Show). The collection features new and previously published literary morsels in a variety of genres from luminaries like Pete Townsend, Robyn Hitchcock and Steve Wynn. An excerpt from Irish-American rocker Larry Kirwan's comic novel, Liverpool Fantasy, stars the Beatles themselves, at the pivotal moment when they fire manager Brian Epstein. Punk pioneer Richard Hell delivers another excerpt, a sexy, gothic yarn about a closeted poet from A Novel in Progress, and Kinks founder Ray Davies details an afternoon shared by a painter and his battered model in the troubling "A Little Bit of Abuse." The shorter entries are just as entertaining. "Vampires make lousy lovers. They got no soul," begins the hypnotic story by Joan Jett, "They Love Rock and Roll," which gives Buffy the Vampire Slayer a run for her money. Michael Gira contributes his tale of cannibalistic obsession with "Why I Ate My Wife." The Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek's lush, atmospheric tale of a Napa Valley migrant worker closes out the anthology on an inspirational note. There are riffs to satisfy a wide array of literary tastes in this groovy, idiosyncratic anthology. (June)
