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so it seems right to us to use super text-heavy mode (against every web designer’s advice) to tell you about them. Rising from the ashes of indie-rock magazine Puncture, Verse Chorus Press has now published close to 20 books, starting with Camden Joy’s now cult-classic novel The Last Rock Star Book, or: Liz Phair, a Rant, through to Kill All Your Darlings, a “best of” essay collection from brilliant cultural critic Luc Sante, published in collaboration with the excellent art-music-lit zine YETI.

collects 215 of Jon Langford’s unique paintings, plus his writings about music and art, and a CD with 18 new recordings of Mekons and Waco Bros classics/rarities, all for $29.95! There are still a few copies of the special edition which includes a limited, signed color print.

Check out our complete catalog, which includes biographies of AC/DC legend Bon Scott and The Go-Betweens, novels by Susan Compo and John Dixon, and a wickedly funny and smart cartoon history of rock. Also: a new, expanded edition of Inner City Sound, the legendary history of Australian punk and post-punk, packed with photos, articles, and reviews.

We’re also proud to offer you DeFord, by David Shetzline -- a modern fiction classic. Shetzline was part of a Cornell circle that included Richard Fariña and Thomas Pynchon, who called DeFord "an extraordinary book . . . comic; and impassioned; and always deeply moving."

No Certainty Attached, Robert Dean Lurie’s much-anticipated biography of Steve Kilbey and his band, the Church, is out now. Details

The Devil's Jump, the second in Peter Doyle's classy crime fiction series, is in bookstores now. The irrepressible Billy Glasheen is on the run from the crims and the cops, not to mention a shady private army. They all think he has the thing they want, and will kill to get hold of it. Unfortunately for Billy, he doesn’t know what it is . . . but he’d better find it fast. Order now!

Forthcoming from VCP in 2009-10:

• Wild About You, a stunning collection of photos and interviews with 1960s Australian and New Zealand garage bands: the Easybeats, Missing Links, Masters Apprentices, and many more.

• the Puncture anthology: 60 interviews and features that deliver a unique account of the evolution of indie rock in the 1980s and 1990s, from Throwing Muses and Camper Van Beethoven to Neutral Milk Hotel and Sleater-Kinney.

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