Mike Edison’s Epic Story Of David Bowie & Mystery Dust

Famed author, musician and raconteur Mike Edison reads from his new book You Are a Complete Disappointment in a new video, featuring ex-Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert on bongos and Mickey Finn (Boss Hog) on piano.

 

David Bowie, hot pants & mystery dust

Bowie fans will recognize the music as a “beatnik version of ‘Heroes’ mashed up with a slippery secondary riff, made more famous by a certain Seattle grunge band.”

The performance was recorded this month on Edison’s “Completely Awesome Book Tour,” at East Village locale 2A on their Sunday night music series, The Treehouse.

The story may seem to be just about a great night at a Bowie concert in 1978, but at the end Edison comes back to the book’s theme – he is living in the moment, whereas his father had always too worried too much to let go and enjoy himself, and berated his son for “having more fun than I do.”

In the end, he quotes legendary comedian Bill Hicks – “If you are living for the future, you will always be one day behind.”

You Are a Complete Disappointment (Sterling) is the hilarious yet deeply heartbreaking memoir of a dysfunctional father-son relationship. Edison takes us on a warped suburban odyssey that pulls no punches when it comes to the adversity and adventures of growing up in the 1970s and ‘80s, “the tail end of an age of bewildered enlightenment” – sibling rivalries, Ronald Reagan, the Rolling Stones, abysmal family dinners, sex, drugs, terrified parents, and Jewish guilt are just the beginning of an adolescence forged in equal parts of boundless self-exploration and needless doubt.

Read an excerpt here: http://ift.tt/1qvNOc5

Edison is famous for turning book readings into happenings, and raising the bar for authors to make their readings “more than obligations to bore people in bookstores because that is what is expected.” In the past, he has been joined by a rogue’s gallery of musicians to help him bring his books to life, including long-time collaborator Jon Spencer of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Gary Lucas (Jeff Buckey, Capt. Beefheart), and Howie Pyro (D-Generation, Danzig), among others.

I bring my guys into bookstores, and the booksellers are easily confused. They say, ‘You are going to do reading and music? Which are you going to do first?’ And then when they see it, they have their chocolate in the peanut butter moment, and really get it. They are used to authors reading from podiums and putting people to sleep, that’s the norm. But that’s not how I roll. I don’t do boring. – Edison

Have you ever seen Mike in action? Share your memories on social media or in the comments below.

Praise for Mike Edison:

“Smart, filthy, and funny, Mike Edison is no ordinary author… Edison brings the stories from his book to life with the performance chops of a seasoned rock’n’roller.” – Spin Magazine

“Mike Edison could read from a tractor manual and I would be interested.” — Supermodel Paulina Poriskova in HuffingtonPost 

For more information, review copies, and any other requests, please contact RocketTrain@hotmail.com

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