The Books

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The Books were an American duo, formed in New York City in 1999, consisting of guitarist and vocalist Nick Zammuto and cellist Paul de Jong. Their releases typically incorporated samples of obscure sounds and speech. They released three critically acclaimed albums on the German label Tomlab, and released their fourth studio album, The Way Out, on Temporary Residence Limited in July 2010.

History

1999–2002: Thought for Food

Zammuto and de Jong first met in New York City in 1999 as they shared the same apartment building. De Jong invited Zammuto to dinner at his apartment, where he played him some of his collection of audio and video samples, including a Shooby Taylor record. Zammuto said of their meeting that "we both kind of knew at that moment that we listened (to music) in interesting ways and had similar approaches to music." Soon after, they began playing what they considered to be pop music, in comparison to their own works, under the name The Books.

Books (EP)

Books is an EP released by Belle & Sebastian in 2004 on Rough Trade Records. The EP features "Wrapped Up in Books" from Dear Catastrophe Waitress, two new songs — "Your Cover's Blown" and "Your Secrets" — and "Cover (Version)", a remix of "Your Cover's Blown" by the band's keyboardist Chris Geddes. The front cover features Alexandra Klobouk. The EP reached #20 in the UK singles chart.

The Japanese release of the EP included a Japanese version of "I'm a Cuckoo" and a version of the Young Marble Giants song "Final Day" (slower than the version released on the 2003 Rough Trade compilation Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before) as the fifth and sixth tracks.

Track listing

CD and DVD

7" vinyl

Release details

Personnel