Earles Named In Pelecanos-heavy Washington City Paper review of Lost In The Grooves.

Cashews Get Their Due

George Pelecanos is somewhat taken aback when asked to talk about his
contribution to Lost in the Grooves: Scram’s Capricious Guide to the
Music
You Missed. “I got an e-mail from my agent a couple years ago,” says
the
Silver Spring­-based writer. Scram, a magazine “dedicated to rooting out
the
cashews in the bridge mix of unpopular culture,” wanted him to write a
piece
about underappreciated music. “I just sent it. I never talked to them
or
anything,” he says. “Then this book shows up.”

Lost in the Grooves compiles essays - sometimes of just a few lines - about
perennial critics’ darlings (the Go-Betweens’ 16 Lovers Lane), odd
faves of
odd people (Vivian Stanshall’s Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead), albums you
weren’t supposed to like (Alvin and the Chipmunks’ The Alvin Show), and
whatever else its writers, including locals Ken Barnes (USA Today, ’70s
zines
Flash and Fusion), and Vern Stoltz (Cannot Be Obsolete) and Memphis,
Tenn. based Washington City Paper contributor Andrew Earles, favor.

Pelecanos wrote about Curtis Mayfield’s 1973 Curtom release Back to the
World. “I just picked a record that I thought was really
underappreciated in
its category, especially coming after Superfly.”

The overlooked disc “was of a time when people were making records that
were
sort of thematic,” says Pelecanos, and it’s easy to see why the crime
novelist and story editor of HBO’s The Wire would relate to lines like
these: “In these city streets, everywhere/You got to be careful/Where
you
move your feet, and how you part your hair.”

Pelecanos’ review ends with a shot at the dean of rock critics: “Robert
Christgau gave this a C.” Another reason, in my opinion, to check it
out.”
Pelecanos is quick to point out that he has nothing against Christgau,
but,
he says, “I object to that kind of criticism….A guy, or a woman, sits
in a
dark room for a year and writes a book, and then someone blows it off
with a
D-minus or whatever.”

Pelecanos’ appreciation for music is almost as well-known as his
novels,
which chronicle a Washington far from filibusters and presidential
coronations. The “tour music” section of his Web site offers a playlist
much
like that in Lost in the Grooves: When he hits the road to promote his
new
book, Drama City, in March, his CD wallet will be stocked with
Slobberbone,
Lalo Schifrin, the Isley Brothers, Iron + Wine, War, and Graham Parker.
And
his previous novel, Hard Revolution, featured a “soundtrack” CD given
away
at readings.

Next for Pelecanos, besides the book tour, is news on whether The Wire
will
be picked up for a fourth season. The future of the drama may be grim,
given
HBO Chair Chris Albrecht’s quip that “I have received a telegram from
every
viewer of The Wire, all 250 of them.” Perhaps Scram should cover
unpopular TV
in its next book.

‹Pamela Murray Winters

(Slobberbone? Good Godflesh, I’m afraid of getting old. - Earles)