Songs from the Underground. The finest collection of literature to be published this century. Contemporary names alongside famous cult authors of the past. The importance of this collection cannot be underestimated.
In this book you will read the truth, the reality of the universe, and encounter zero censorship. Unlike the mainstream, where publishing conglomerates employ legions of nefarious sensitivity readers to weed out anything that doesn’t fit the party line, Songs from the Underground, embraces total creative freedom.
Sure, you’ll be offended, now and again, but so fucking what? I mean, if you want to go through life without being offended, then you might as well buy a one-way ticket to Disneyland.
Featuring work by none other than William Blake, John King, Joseph Ridgwell, Stevie Smith, Sonia Hadj Said, John D Robinson, Henry Lawson, Sophie Parkin, Ford Dagenham, Jose Arroyo, Mike Mahoney, The Marquis de Sade, H P Tinker, Hosho McCreesh, Daphne du Maurier, John Clare, Mark SaFranko, Li Po, Michael Keenaghan, Cookie Muller, Terry Southern, Richard Brautigan, Cathi Unsworth, Jacob Louis Beaney, Sandy Denny, Philip Larkin, Jonathon Swift, Dame Sasha Henry, Valerie Solanas, Otto Rene Castillo, Emily Dickinson, Gwil James Thomas, Omar Khayyam, Bonnie Parker, Penelope McCormack, Tom Buron, Elizabeth Taylor, Martin Appleby, Nizami Ganjavi, and many, many more....
Printed on superior paper to mainstream paperbacks, with a gatefolded cover, colour illustrations, and artwork by the original witch of Kings Cross - Rosaleen Norton. This objet d art will enhance any book shelf or coffee table, and will be the talking point of any dinner party with a host intelligent enough to have purchased a copy.
Songs from the Underground. The finest collection of literature to be published this century. Contemporary names alongside famous cult authors of the past. The importance of this collection cannot be underestimated. In this book you will read the truth, the reality of the universe, and encounter zero censorship. Unlike the mainstream, where publishing conglomerates employ legions of nefarious sensitivity readers to weed out anything that doesn’t fit the party line, Songs from the Underground, embraces total creative freedom. Sure, you’ll be offended, now and again, but so fucking what? I mean, if you want to go through life without being…
Every once in a while a volume of poetry, prose, eulogies to lost love, work, death, junk, get drunk sing weep lie cheat love, the pissed-off cars from hell, comes along that renews one’s faith in Mankind. Songs of Desperation and Revenge by Jose Arroyo, is such a book.
Published in a limited edition of 50 copies, (which have already sold out) by Hickathrift Press, this important volume showcases Arroyo’s instinctive innate talent as a poet and wordsmith. And crucially this poet has lived, not just one life, but two or three of the fuckers, and it shows in the power and candour of the poetry.
I once wrote an article about the need for writers to have lived a little before putting the word down, and Arroyo’s art is a perfect example of this axiom… All those melt’s rolling off the conveyor belt of the creative writing factories, sure they can write, but they can’t produce anything honest and credible. All they produce are leaden and lubriciously written fairy tales and candy floss. Authenticity is what’s missing, and if you ain’t authentic, you might as well take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut!
Mink Hollow Cabin Songs is a short series of poems written in the Summer of 2018 in woods near the Esopus Creek in New York during a cabin getaway with my love at the time, and then later designed, printed & handbound in Wallingford, PA in 2019.
The poems here are the companions of the prose piece To Infinity, Within, also handbound by the author, and written during the same trip in 2018.
‘I’m no longer prepared to be a pawn in their sick game. I’m gonna return to the land and the earth, where my forefathers came from. All that electronic gadgetry we’re supposed to own – it means zero to me.'
From the mean streets of East London to the intoxicating thoroughfares of Mexico City emerges a tale of two young men disconnecting from all forms of technology and society at large in a mad chase for freedom. Fed up with the monotonous trap of dead end jobs in the city, Joe and compadre Ronnie need out by any means necessary.
Burrito Deluxe tells of drunkenness, East End underworld escapades, thieving, prostitutes, drug-fuelled trips to sacred Mayan temples, psychedelic peyote visions, hippy lifestyles, romantic liaisons, and the search for the legendary Lost Elation at the mystical Beach of the Dead.
A study in pathological behaviour at close quarters, this is the first of cult author Joseph Ridgwell’s unique novels - the true story of two young men in search of freedom and adventure, but finding nothing but lies, dreams, insanity and death. Described by the author as a ‘cosmic road novel’, it chronicles the end of youth and idealism, and a total rejection of the modern world.
