TOSCHES!

NICK TOSCHES was born in Newark, New Jersey and is the author of three novels, eleven books of non-fiction,and three volumes of poetry. His books include: Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story, Dino: High Living In The Dirty Business Of Dreams, Where Dead Voices Gather, In The Hand Of Dante, and Chaldea. He lives in New York City. Born in 1949, may be the youngster in the Kicks Books pantheon, but he has outlived us all with his dangerously candid storytelling, that walks a thin wire between the carefree and the blunt. Tosches can send our mind teetering on a ledge with some far-flung new historical fact (he triple-documents every bit of history told) and pulls us back in with a point-blank segue, edged with a promise that somehow this new tidbit it related. Tosches is, without a doubt, one of a greatest historical writers alive, and the only one who wrestles with the dark side on a regular basis. Kicks Books is privileged to bring forth this double-barreled music biz/dark side/historical hip pocket tome, straight from the hand of the master. 

BUY THE BOOK HERE!

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KICKS BOOKS PRESENTS…

WHEN: FRIDAY SEPT 9 • 8 PM
WHERE: JEFFERSON MARKET LIBRARY, 425 SIXTH AVE (at 10th Street), NYC
telephone (212) 243 4334
FREE ADMISSION

SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR SATAN is set to hot-foot onto bookshelves, and into hip pockets, across America, bringing this long anticipated new NICK TOSCHES scorcher to fans of the inveterate scribe, who is correctly described as “the story-teller from Hell” by French magazine L’Officiel Homme.

SATAN launches with a public afterhours reading in the historic vaulted top floor of JEFFERSON MARKET LIBRARY, located in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Friday September 9th. SATAN is sure to stun stalwarts and sophisticates alike during this rare in-person live appearance by Tosches.

SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR SATAN delivers Tosches at his storytelling best, tackling the squirming roots of rock ’n’ roll history with a finesse previously reserved for night workers at a rendering plant.

One hundred twenty-eight pages are packed into the “hip pocket paperback” format created by KICKS BOOKS, the New York publishing house that has injected a new attitude into the book world with SWEETS (AND OTHER STORIES) by Andre Williams and THIS PLANET IS DOOMED: THE SCIENCE FICTION POETRY OF SUN RA.

Scheduled for release from KICKS BOOKS in November is PULLING A TRAIN: SEX GANG AND OTHER STORIES by HARLAN ELLISON and in February 2012, TALL COOL ONE VOL. 1 by KIM FOWLEY.

NICK TOSCHES is the author of COUNTRY, HELLFIRE, UNSUNG HEROES OF ROCK ’N’ ROLL, CUT NUMBERS, TRINITIES, DINO, THE LAST OPIUM DEN, KING OF THE JEWS, THE DEVIL AND SONNY LISTON, POWER ON EARTH, FRANKIE PARTS 1 AND 2 (with Richard Meltzer), CHALDEA/I DIG GIRLS, WHERE DEAD VOICES GATHER, NEVER TRUST A LOVING GOD and THE NICK TOSCHES READER.

Photo: Lorna Doone (LORNOGRAPHY)

A big screen version of Tosches’ third novel, IN THE HAND OF DANTE, is currently in the works with director Julian Schnabel and actor Johnny Depp.

Jefferson Market Library, erected as Jefferson Market Courthouse in 1874, is a New York City landmark building, designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Clarke Withers. By 1927, the Court was used solely for trials of women. Thousands of female criminals and accused innocents faced the gavel here. Famous cases include the murder trial of architect Stanford White, which inspired the book The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing. Mae West’s 1927 “Sex” trial was set here.

Jefferson Market Library houses a massive collection of New York City historical files and serves the neighborhood, the city, and visitors worldwide as a branch library of the New York Public Library system, and yet with a personality all its own.

Kicks Books and Jefferson Market Library are delighted to present NICK TOSCHES in person and on fire at this free public after-hours reading.

Jefferson Market Library closes at 5 PM on Friday. Doors will open for the event at 8 PM, with the reading set to start at 9 PM.

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SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR SATAN will be available for purchase at the event.
Also available will be TOSCHES, a limited promotional fragrance created specially for readers of SATAN.


Jefferson Market Library 425 Avenue of the Americas (at 10th St.) NYC

Kicks Books PO Box 646 Cooper Station NYC 10276

Contact Kicks Books

kicksbooks.com

Click these pick hits!

NYPL Interviews Author of SATAN

The Nick Tosches Society


In the Hand of Nick Tosches


More Tosches to acquire here... and there, too!

1/5/10

ANDRE WILLIAMS & NICK TOSCHES:
SWEETS & OTHER STORIES

Join us as these twenty-first century titans appear together for the first time in recorded history to celebrate and enunciate, as The Poetry Project at St Mark's Church hosts the NYC launch of Williams' fiction debut, SWEETS AND OTHER STORIES.

The countdown is on.... thirty days until blast-off!

PRESS RELEASE FROM KICKS BOOKS NOW AT POETRYPROJECT.ORG

Nick Tosches & Andre Williams
Friday
February 5, 2010
10:00 pm

Nick Tosches was born in Newark, New Jersey and is the author of three novels, eleven books of non-fiction,and three volumes of poetry. His books include: Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story, Dino: Living High In The Dirty Business Of Dreams, Where Dead Voices Gather, In The Hand Of Dante, and Chaldea. His latest, Never Trust A Living God, is a collection of poetry illustrated by Gravieur. He lives in New York City.

Andre Williams was born in Bessemer, Alabama in 1936, migrating with his family to Chicago when he was a child. After the death of his mother in 1943, he was sent South to the care of his grandparents. The North-South transition was unbearable for young Andre, who was to return to live in the Windy City with his father, a steel mill worker.

With little parental supervision, Andre traded into a penny ante career as a juvenile delinquent, barely escaping Illinois State Reformatory by using his older brother’s ID card to enlist in the US Navy. His career in the Armed Forces came to a halt when it was discovered that he was underage.

As a civilian once again, he chose to avoid the pitfalls of Chicago and relocated to Detroit, Michigan, where his musical legend began, on joining the Five Dollars, and with writing and recording for the legendary Fortune Records label. Bacon Fat, Greasy Chicken, and the extraordinary Jail Bait would be the tip of the iceberg of Andre’s musical contributions. From his start at Fortune in the 1950’s, he went on to work at Motown with Stevie Wonder, Mary Wells and the Contours. He produced (and co-wrote) the Five Du-Tones’ 1963 hit Shake A Tail Feather ( #28 on BILLBOARD R&B charts) and wrote Alvin Cash’s 1965 R&B chart topper  Twine Time.  In the late sixties, he produced solo hits including the standout Cadillac Jack for Chess Records. He has composed several hundred recordings and continues to be one of the most widely  collected and respected of original soul and rhythm & blues artists.
Hard drugs eventually took a toll on Andre, leaving him homeless and destitute. In 1995, his career was revived by George Paulus, who produced the acclaimed comeback album GREASY for Norton Records. Andre continued to record for Norton, as well as for In The Red, Bloodshot and Pravda, while touring internationally to great acclaim. The 2007 film AGILE, MOBILE, HOSTILE documented a year in Andre’s life.

With the return to constant touring and performing came a return to old vices. He was in and out of short-term rehabilitation, but always, there was the return to hard habits. Hitting the age of seventy without a permanent address and with his health rapidly deteriorating, Andre checked into a six week program at a Chicago substance abuse facility.

At a friend’s urging, he began trying to write fictional stories, in an attempt to keep his mind and hands busy. Writing became his self-imposed rehabilitation, and his hand scribbled no holds-barred tales evolved into a short set of various-length entries which he immediately began referring to as “The Book”.
This debut volume from 73 year old Andre Williams is Sweets (And Other Stories). The title story is a narrative novelette which takes you for a wild ride from Chicago to Houston, New Orleans, and New York City, as a teenage girl finds herself in a family way, without a family. Forced to fend for herself, she is taken under the wing of a local pimp who entices her into prostitution. The adventures that follow are a free for all foray through the fantastic world of pimps and their women, funeral directors, gangs and drug running, with sidebar anecdotes that are guaranteed to appall, alarm and astonish.

Extreme entries remain unedited, and none of Williams’ raw drawl storytelling style has been tampered with in this standout fiction debut. Sweets is the first hip-pocket paperback from New York publisher Kicks Books.

• RADIO FEB 4!  Dave The Spazz to host the duo on his Feb. 4 WFMU radio show! (Music To Spazz By with Dave the Spazz, WFMU 91.1 FM online and archived at wfmu.org Thursday February 4th 8-11pm)

• ANDRE WILLIAMS & NICK TOSCHES READING! Andre Williams debuts his first fiction book SWEETS with this historic tag team effort with Nick Tosches! 10 PM at The Poetry Project at St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, NYC poetryproject.org

• TWIN SPIN AFTERSHOCK FEB 5!  Late nite Smashed Blocked pop-in after reading event! Join SB kingpin Josh Styles as he hosts this velvet rope stop-in pop-in! (Andre rumored to spin seven of his sevens! Smashed Blocked at The Beauty Bar 231 East 14 Street, NYC smashedblocked.com)

• FAN FETE FEB 6!  Top secret Greasy Chicken farewell fan fete fracas TBA! Stay tuned kicksbooks.blogspot.com


Press Contact: Paige Turner at Kicks Books
kicksbooks.com

And from the peanut gallery... Chicago cartoonist John Battles remarks...



Check out the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church NYC!
http://poetryproject.org/tag/andre-williams

1/19/10 ANDRE WILLIAMS MIDNITE RAMBLES

ANDRE WILLIAMS NYC BOOK BLAST DEBUT! Introducing "SWEETS" from KICKS BOOKS... request it at fine minded book shops nationwide or order direct Limited first edition available online only-- numbered, boxed, inscribed by both Mr. Andre Williams and Mr. Nick Tosches. Mr. T scheduled to read with Andre exclusively at the Poetry Project. Read, and take heed.

ANDRE WILLIAMS NYC SCHEDULE UPDATE
as divulged on our favorite radio blog
http://wfmuichiban.blogspot.com




FEB 4 MUSIC TO SPAZZ BY WFMU RADIO INTERVIEW 8 PM Three hour all-Andre radio show! Dave the Spazz hosts Mr Rhythm with very special guests and very incredible Andre Williams records. Tune in live to Music To Spazz By

FEB 5 SIRIUS RADIO! 12:30 PM- 1 PM Tune in, siriusly! Andre live on Freewheelin' with Meredith Ochs and Chris T on the Road Dog Trucking channel, Sirius 147, XM 171


FEB 5 POETRY PROJECT AT ST MARK’S CHURCH MAIN EVENT! Andre Williams and Nick Tosches read from "Sweets & Other Stories". Cavalier magazine legend Lenny Kaye to emcee for the rare pair at this literary landmark! poetry project info 10 PM $8 ($6 students & seniors/$5 PP members) Authors will be on tap to sell-n-signify afterward! Mr. Tosches scheduled to appear with Mr. Williams only at this event.



Once the Poetry Project reading wraps up, shake a tailfeather up to Josh Styles’ SMASHED BLOCKED all-45 RPM record dance at the Beauty Bar where Andre is due to guest DJ (and more!) at 12:30.Free admission. Follow the crowd to Beauty Bar at 231 W. 14 St. between 2nd & 3rd Ave. Smashed Blocked Site!


FEB 6 SATURDAY NIGHT FISH FRY • GREASY CHICKEN MIDNITE RAMBLE Celebrate "Sweets" with author Andre Williams at the fabulous Tip-Top Bar and Grill in historic Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn! Andre to hold court at this all-out dance blast for our glittering illiterati. Andre will read to rumored accompaniment, and will hawk and Hancock "Sweets" and assorted ltd edition accoutrements, all available at this swingin' Saturday soiree. Musical director Dave the Spazz (WFMU's Music To Spazz By) to blast all Andre floor fillers all-nite-long! Come hungry for fins and feathers - fried fish and chicken, plus $3 beers and $4 hi-balls at the long, well stocked bar! Midnight ramble, you all! Admission free to anyone with the password (barnyard utterance from Greasy Chicken). See you at the Sweets Soiree, Tip-Top Bar & Grill, 432 Franklin Ave (between Madison & Putnam) Brooklyn (718) 857-9744 9 PM-?



BAIT & SWITCH PERFUME FOR VALENTINES DAY AND BEYOND! Limited edition BAIT & SWITCH PERFUME "Fragrance By Andre" Be transported to the mean streets of Sweetsville with Andre's signature perfume. Badass half ounce bottle in badass gift box. Label depicts our heroine with Andre and Nick sauntering on by. Limited numbered edition. Available only at the Poetry Project and the Tip Top. A seasonal Hi-Lo product, of course.


THE REVIEWS FOR "SWEETS" ROLL IN

A tawdry slab of old-school, Iceberg Slim-style pulp fiction with characters -- from the sexed-up, drug-dealing spark plug of the title story to a preacher-loving nymphomaniac with a terrible family secret-- straight out of Williams' own colorful life. - AOL Spinner

Could easily serve as a Bible for Tiger Woods - Now Dig This (UK)

Fans of Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines will find themselves right at home in the pages of ‘Sweets’: a headlong run through a gritty underworld written with the intimate veritas of someone who has most definitely lived there. - Broken Headphones

Andre Williams adds to his R&B legacy by penning an adventure that's funny, truthful and scary. Sweets is a breezy and scandalous fun house ride that reads like an X-rated police blotter. An original literary event that is not to be missed. - Dave the Spazz (WFMU)

http://culture.wnyc.org/articles/features/2010/feb/03/cult-figure-gets-down-dirty-again-new-book/

Voice interview Feb 2!