AN IDEAL FOR LIVING: A Celebration of the EP Extended Play by Corey du Browa BOOK

202 pages, softcover. First edition of 600 copies.

Highly recommended.

The extended play recording. Not quite an album. More than a single. And not only an artifact of the vinyl era - the EP has survived and even thrived at every turn of the music industry’s evolution, from vinyl to tape to CD to stream.

This definitive book unearths the EP’s origins, history and cultural impact and enlists nearly 50 music-industry veterans (musicians, scribes, producers, executives, superfans) to create a list of the 200 Best EPs ever recorded and shapes these opinions into a book that seeks to trace the arc of the EP’s development and, in so doing, chart the history of the music industry writ large. From Dangerhouse to Touch And Go to Sub Pop to Flying Nun, and all roads in between, savvy labels have used the EP to great effect and its been the way to introduce bands in a less risky mid-sized format for decades. This super-interesting guide shows how the format developed and how it took on a life of its own, from early jazz and rock’n roll through the beat & psychedelic rock era, right on through punk, new wave, and post-punk, and into the alternative/indie rock era, right up to the modern age. This rousing guide through the mid-sized mindset features a huge swath of guest writers galore, each offering up their enthusiastic opinions on which E.P.s deserve your attention, divided by decade, along with all of their details on long-forgotten B-sides and extras that couldn’t fit on the 7” version, yet easily pad out a 12”.