GUITAR SMASH

NOW AVAILABLE FROM ATLANTA’S 3RDNESS PRESS:

GUITAR SMASH, the debut poetry chapbook by Brian Howe.

GUITAR SMASH is what happens when you force-feed language to technology until it vomits!
It’s c r a z y …

GUITAR SMASH is available by way of purchase, trade, bully tactics, flattery, comp.
Contact Brian for details.

Thanks to John Lowther for making this possible.

**

It’s official: everybody’s talking about GUITAR SMASH! Here’s what they’re saying:

"GUITAR SMASH
an irksome burr on the flank of poetry
worth a couple bucks though"
- Araki Yasusada; fake poet

"WAAAAAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAAAAH! … *gurgle* … WAAAAAAAAAAH"
- An adorable baby rescued from a well

"So I was just rolling the trash to the curb, minding my own business, when suddenly … there it was, plain as day, sitting smack dab on the lawn, not really doing anything, but somehow mocking me, seemed like. Damnedest thing I ever saw."
- An innocent bystander

"At a time when poetry is more marginalized and maligned than ever before, GUITAR SMASH reminds us why this might be the case."
- Ezra Pound (via Ouija board)

"Everyone’s talking about this that and the other … but when are we going to think about what's really important here, the children? Where were the parents in all of this, I’d like to know."
- A concerned citizen

"We are so proud of you for making this bizarre, incomprehensible thing, Brian. Does it come with health insurance?"
- The parents

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…."
- A vacuum cleaner

"It’s great; I use mine to thin paint, align crown molding, unclog gutters, repel intruders, and to protect my car’s paint from the elements. Wound up buying the wife one for our anniversary so she'd stop borrowing mine, and they make great stocking stuffers. And when you're done using it, it easily folds into compact size great for people on the go. Dishwasher safe!"
- Paid testimonial

"Sack-ray BLOO! Zee GEETAR SMASH, zhe ees mag-nay-FEEK, non? Oui!"
- An egregious stereotype

"Okay, but can you eat poetry? Can you put it in your gas tank? Can you wear it on your feet? …well yes son okay, I know that you can; but is it going to do you any good? Stop being such a damn smartass; they were rhetorical questions and you know it.”
- A savvy realist; nobody's fool

"What the fuck is GUITAR SMASH?"
- Billy Collins; famous poet

Disclaimer: Some or all quotes may be fake. Except the Yasusada one; it’s totally legit.

**

I just went to Atlanta to give a reading for the release of GUITAR SMASH, a much mellower trip than my last. I used my sampler to do some live voice manipulation on GUITAR SMASH and read the "SONG" sequence from F7. Here are some pix (some by me, some by the lovely Laura Carter, who refuses to be photographed herself):

Eyedrum, exterior:

The auditorium, pre-reading:

One of many cavernous rooms:

Aliens!:

John Lowther, head of the APG and GUITAR SMASH publisher:

Members of the APG perform a "ployphon" of GUITAR SMASH:

Me, preparing to commit violence upon GUITAR SMASH with my sampler:

Look at that boy twiddle them knobs!:

He's getting really into it!:

Get that mic out of my eye! Still twiddling:

OK, you can stop now:

Thanks:

That billowy thing is pretty but I worried it would fall on me:

So I drank my fear away:

That's so me!:

Post-reading; John, Tracey and Allison at Manuel's Tavern:

My Pitchfork colleague Cory Byrom, pensive:

One of my editors at Paste, Jason Killingsworth: