McSweeney's And eMusic Team Up For Second Exclusive Audio Book
Sweet Nothings and Essential Slow Jams Includes Readings By Noted Authors Tony D’Souza and Sheila Heti
NEW YORK, August 5, 2008 -- eMusic the specialty digital entertainment retailer and first digital service to offer audio books in the MP3 format, and McSweeney’s, the taste-making literary journal and book publisher, have united again to release the second exclusive audio book based on stories from McSweeney’s authors.
McSweeney’s Field Recordings, the audio book, is a collection of readings created specifically for, and now available worldwide on eMusic. As with all eMusic audio books, it is available in the universally- compatible MP3 format. The second installment entitled Sweet Nothings and Essential Slow Jams is, in McSweeney’s word: “a lovely compendium of tender kisses and tireless devotion,” as a gallery of all-star readers from the McSweeney’s stables discuss their best first dates, while making gifts for their significant others at Build-a-Bear workshops around the country. Well… not really.
Volume 2 is a short collection of unique recordings, by up and coming authors including Tony D’Souza, whose book The Konkans was published in February to much acclaim. D’Souza has also contributed to The New Yorker and appeared on “The Today Show,” BBC and NPR, among others. Also included in this installment is up and coming Canadian writer Link: Sheila Heti whose novel Ticknor was released in 2005 to positive reviews. Heti is also the creator of Trampoline Hall, a popular lecture series based in Toronto and New York, at which people speak on subjects outside their areas of expertise. The New Yorker praised Heti’s series for "celebrating eccentricity and do-it-yourself inventiveness."
McSweeney’s will continue to publish future chapters of Field Recordings with eMusic on a quarterly basis.
“This is a fun experiment for us, and eMusic has been a great partner,” said Eli Horowitz, publisher of McSweeney’s. “These are stories and voices normally absent from the audiobook world, and we’re excited by the opportunity to bring these works to a new medium,” Horowitz added.
“McSweeney’s is a perfect fit for the independent-minded eMusic customer who is passionate about discovering great content outside the mainstream,” said Rob Wetstone, eMusic Vice President of Label and Publisher Relations. “We’re excited to introduce the second edition of their Field Recordings exclusively to our subscribers and give them the chance to experience McSweeney’s unique voice,” Wetstone added.
McSweeney’s Field Recordings: Volume 2 includes:
Pia Ehrhardt: How it Floods (from McSweeney’s Issue 14) Pia reports from the banks of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, where the Army Corps of Engineers continues to repair and rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. There, with the sound of the lake lapping against the shore, she reads her heartfelt story about love in the time of natural disaster.
Sheila Heti: The Sort of Woman Freeman Loved & The Princess and the Plumber (from The Middle Stories) These two pieces are from Sheila’s short story collection The Middle Stories. In “The Princess and the Plumber,” Sheila spins a dystopian fairy tale complete with talking frogs, a princess (obviously), and a dour little girl. “The Sort of Woman Freeman Loved” centers on a married couple who try to buy bliss from a door-to-door salesman. In a classic scene of life imitating art, the reading takes place following a bit of domestic discord in the Heti household. She reads both stories from the backyard of her Manhattan sublet.
Tony D’Souza: The Man Who Married a Tree (from McSweeney’s Issue 14) From his self-described “crappy apartment” in Austin, Texas, Tony single-handedly takes on all of the numerous roles in his well- crafted paean to man-tree love. Among the many faces of Mr. D’Souza: the townsmen, the postman, God, the mountains, and the coroner.
Ben Ehrenreich: After the Disaster (from McSweeney’s Issue 24) “After the Disaster” is a beautifully composed tale of a post- apocalyptic love triangle between man, woman, and giant squid. The story centers on the human protagonists rescuing said squid from imminent destruction at the hands of vandals wandering the now unguarded halls of New York’s American Museum of Natural History. Ben reads the story of Bruno, Mildred, and their mollusk friend from the shade of a tree in Los Angeles’s Elysian Park.
Chris Bachelder: My Son, There Is Another World Alongside Our Own (from McSweeney’s Issue 23) Chris reads us his epistolary short story, appropriately enough, from beside his mailbox in Amherst, Massachusetts. As the occasional car passes by, Chris passes on the advice of a “biannual custodian” to his adolescent son. In this irreverent and hilarious letter, a father confirms his progeny’s suspicions that all around him, behind every bush, people are constantly and eternally engaged in all manners of filthy congress.
eMusic offers more than 3500 audio books from major publishers including Blackstone Audio, Hachette, Naxos audio books, Penguin, Random House and Simon & Schuster. eMusic audio books are encoded in high-quality 64 kbps bit rate -- twice the audio quality available from iTunes and Audible. As with its music service, eMusic offers audio books at a great value. Customers can sign up for monthly subscriptions priced at $9.99 for one book or $19.99 for two books — and get one bonus book as part of an introductory offer.
About eMusic
eMusic is a specialty digital entertainment retailer that has been at the forefront of offering MP3 downloads and customer-friendly prices since its inception in 1998. The company is focused on serving customers aged 25 and older by offering independent online music and audio books in a universally compatible format at a great value. It is the world’s largest retailer of independent music and the world’s second-largest digital music service after iTunes, with more than 4 million tracks from more than 40,000 of the world’s leading independent labels and thousands of titles from top audio book publishers. To super-serve its more than 400,000 customers, eMusic provides award-winning editorial content, a vibrant online community and unrivaled music discovery tools. eMusic’s subscription-based service offers free music downloads or one free audio book at sign-up, giving consumers an inexpensive, low-risk way to explore great new music and books they wouldn’t find otherwise. Based in New York with an office in London, eMusic is available in the U.S. and all 26 E.U. nations. eMusic.com Inc. is wholly owned by Dimensional Associates, Inc., the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc.
About McSweeney’s
(http://www.3rdpartywebsite.com)McSweeney’s is an independent publishing company based in San Francisco. Its projects include McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, a literary journal; The Believer, a monthly magazine; Wholphin, a quarterly collection of short films; Voice of Witness, a series of social-justice oral histories; and McSweeney’s Books, including works by Nick Hornby, William T. Vollmann, Lydia Davis, Lemony Snicket, Michael Chabon, and Salvador Plascencia. McSweeney’s literary and design work has been honored by the O. Henry Awards, the Best American Short Stories, the National Magazine Awards, the National Book Critics Circle, the America Institute of Graphic Arts, the Independent Press Awards, and the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial.
NOTE: eMusic is a registered trademark and eMusic.com is a trademark of eMusic.com Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Media Contacts:
Cathy Halgas Nevins
eMusic
212-201-9201 or cnevins@emusic.com
Denise Yantin
eMusic
212-300-2885 or dyantin@emusic.com
