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5 best things Justin Pearson has read

By Josh Spilker » The Locust's ex-frontman talks to his dog via telepathy.

Justin Pearson

Justin Pearson has been in many, many bands, including The Locust, Swing Kids, and Some Girls. His music verges on the noisy and nuts, but his life even more so. He makes audiences at shows and Jerry Springer angry alike. Read about all this in his new book, From The Graveyard of the Arousal Industry out now on Soft Skull.

Here are the five best things he's read recently:

01 The Loom Of Ruin blog. I’m a long time fan of Sam McPheeters work from back in the Born Against days all the way up to this blog (and assumingly well into the future). I heard he is “publishing” a book via Twitter. Apparently you have to check his twit each day to get a sentence or two, eventually getting the entire book. Great idea, but I have bowed out since I don’t twit and since I’d rather stay one step back from becoming a Cyborg.

02 Henry and Glenn Forever by Igloo Tornado. A good friend of mine sent this comic book to me. It was waiting to be read among the bills, and junk mail that piled up for me during the tour that I just got home from. I’ve been lucky to have met both Henry Rollins and Gelnn Danzig over the years. Henry is a pretty rad guy. Glenn, not so rad. Especially when he was wearing overalls in Vons and wanted to kick my ass for talking to his girlfriend, who was a good two feet taller than his short-and-wide build.

03 Merriam-Webster’s Spanish-English Dictionary. I wish I could speak Spanish. I read some of this dictionary recently since I really should be able to speak the language. I mean, I can see Tijuana from the roof of my house. Anyhow, since my book just came out, and I had some book reading/singing events to do in conjunction to the tour I was on, I landed myself in Phoenix, AZ with one of the said events. I thought it would be a brilliant idea to not read from my book, but to have Jung Sing, the drummer for All Leather, read it for me. He happens to be from Mexico and primarily speaks Spanish, and well, he did the reading in his native tongue. Now that Arizona is showing its true colors in the ass backwards year of 2010, we called the event “Vayan De Vuelta A Europa”.

04 Stencil Graffitti by Tristan Manco. I stumbled upon this book since I just saw the film “Exit Through the Gift Shop”. I’m a huge fan of smart art, and an even bigger fan of smart street art. The social and political context is important and a huge tool in communication in some of the over/under developed areas that we humans “live” in. Needless to say, this book had cool stuff and gave me some awesome ideas and inspiration for things that I would like to try to pull off artistically… and politically.

05 Runner up list of things that probably don’t count (but do count to me):
-       My dog’s thoughts: I swear she talks to me via telepathy.
-       NPR: I would read it if it existed. Instead I listen.
-       Text messages from my girlfriend: The weird and rad stuff she tells me via text.