***Ever wonder what independent musicians do the other twenty-three hours a day when they’re on tour? Real Fun answers this question with over one hundred photographs of musicians and bands in their downtime—sleeping, eating, fishing, and just goofing off. Ashod Simonian has traveled with scores of the finest bands in indie rock. His dreamy, lush Polaroids capture the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon, Pavement, Elliott Smith, The Shins, Sleater-Kinney, Broken Social Scene, Wilco, and more. Many of these bands also contributed essays and memoirs to the book, making it an essential collection of wisdom and memories from the road by bands both popular and obscure. Real Fun is accompanied by a CD of exclusive tracks by bands featured in the book, including: All Smiles, Califone, Dios, Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble, Fuck, Irving, Kaito, Les Georges Leningrad, Jason Lytle, Mt. Eerie, Norfolk & Western, Panty Lions, Pine Marten, Preston School of Industry, Radar Bros., Sleeping States, Slumber Party, and Stereo Total. These tracks were selected by Simonian especially for Real Fun. They are a kind of public soundtrack to this compendium of private moments.
“Is there anything more indie than the Polaroid? Okay sure, probably a lot of things [insert digression on multi-faceted definition of "indie" here], but that little square-shaped instant memorypiece with the white border has, one must admit, endeared itself to indie culture to a significant extent.
Indie Polaroids of indie artists, therefore, equals double the indie for your dollar-- and that's just what you'll get with ASHOD SIMONIAN’s forthcoming tome Real Fun: Polaroids From the Independent Music Landscape. Simonian plays in Panty Lions and has lent his talents to Earlimart and Preston School of Industry, and this time spent amid the indie "landscape" has afforded him ample opportunities to catch indie America with its pants down, so to speak.
Real Fun hits bookshelves June 1 via PictureBox Inc. and includes candid Polaroid shots of such relatively well-liked bands as Pavement, the Shins, Spoon, Broken Social Scene, Sleater-Kinney, Jenny Lewis, Wilco, and Death Cab for Cheetos. Members of some of these bands and others also contribute anecdotes to supplement the sumptuous buffet of visuals.
Now you're probably thinking, "Whatever am I going to listen to whilst perusing the glossy pages of this exquisite volume?" Well Simonian's got you covered. All copies of Real Fun come bundled with an 18-track CD boiling over with all-exclusive cuts from everybody from Califone, Mt. Eerie, and Grandaddy's Jason Lytle, to Norfolk & Western with M. Ward, Slumber Party, Dios (Malos), Stereo Total, and Fuck. Preston and Panty also crop up.”—Pitchfork
