Synopses & Reviews
Ian F. Svenonius' experience as an iconic underground rock musician playing in such highly influential and revolutionary outfits as The Make-Up and The Nation of Ulysses gives him special insight on techniques for not only starting but also surviving a rock 'n' roll group. He's written an instructional guide on how to do so, which doubles as a warning device, a philosophical text, an exercise in terror, an aerobics manual, and a coloring book. This volume features essays on everything the would-be star should know to get started.
Review
Proscriptive how-to advice ranges over a wide number of subjects (e.g., sex, band photos, etc.) and can be seen both as skewering the cultural idolatry associated with rock and as genuine counsel. Verdict: Svenoniuss sociopolitical analysis of rock and roll is intellectually interesting, as when he posits that the genre was brought about by the industrial revolution, the harnessing of electricity, and the miscegenation of various poor, exploited, and indentured cultures in the USA.'” Library Journal
Review
"Like its author, Supernatural Strategies is part tongue-in-cheek, part deadly serious — a satire of rock's consumerist origins but also a thoughtful treatise on what it means to devote yourself to a collective....Drawing from the wisdom of rock'n'roll's most famous ghosts, Svenonius advice ranges from hilarious to cryptic to surprisingly useful." Pitchfork
Review
Svenonius hasn't written a basic How to Make It in the Music Business' book. Rather, the writer, online talk show host and, most important, singer in a series of breathtaking rock 'n' roll bands (Nation of Ulysses, the Make-Up, Chain and the Gang), is drawing a line in the sand and doing so with what he hopes will finally define the undefinable.” Los Angeles Times
Review
Svenonius has walked the walk....Even today as the frontman of Chain and The Gang and the host of the online talk show Soft Focus he remains cool, cryptic, and impeccably dressed, a mod magician with a trick always lurking up his tailored sleeve.” The Onion AV Club
Review
Because living musicians fear competition too much to share secrets of success, this manual, we're told, was transcribed during a séance where dead rock stars lectured on profound rock and roll truths. Mary Wells, spelling in spaghetti, and Buddy Holly, scrawling in salt, warned of cruel, social-engineering overlords that both control and fear rock revolutionaries. But the greatest prank the book pulls is camouflaging, beneath astrological and geopolitical inanity, the authors passionately conveyed truths about integrity, artistry, repression, perseverance and the cruelties and joys of the music industry. It seems that even when utilizing a stone-faced, pummeling, punch linefree tone, truths are still best told in jest. And it also seems rock and roll will never die, or if it does, it will still be accessible through spiritualism.” Time Out Chicago
Review
"So much of the allure here is in watching Svenonius skirt absurdity. He's always seemed delighted by the fact that the profound and the preposterous can sound awfully alike, a realization that puts him in line with an avant-garde tradition that stretches back before rock 'n' roll crystallized this fact....Svenonius has the spirit of a long-gone punk past, but his book has more to tell us about rock's here-and-now than about its hereafter. Neither bourgeois nor prestigious, Supernatural Strategies may be the rare book by a rock musician to retain any power or threat." Los Angeles Review of Books
Review
If 'write what you know' is one of authorships prime dictates, then Ian F. Svenonius seems uniquely qualified....Svenonius contrarian, anti-establishment rhetoric is his greatest gift....Strategies plays to these same strengths by allowing him to run roughshod riot over hallowed ground he's already trod and sometimes paved more than a few times.” Baltimore City Paper
Review
"Ian's theories are hilarious, insightful, intelligent and well-written, both satisfying for rock history enthusiasts and enlightening for newbies
Showboating your reading material is unconditionally off-putting, but it's hard not to feel cool holding a book called Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'N' Roll Group sitting in a seat on the bus or an exercise bike at the gym. Its pocket size makes it ideal for reading during long rides in the tour van or sitting on a crate backstage in between loading equipment. And of course like Mao's Little Red Book, the size makes it easy to keep on hand for quotations, instruction or spiritual guidance." The Thousands
Review
"Written in a language couched in satire and anchored by years of experience, it is both a rigorous study of an elusive and enduring cultural art and a sobering critique of its many tortured machinations." Portland Phoenix (Maine)
Review
"Supernatural Strategies...takes a spiritual approach to guiding rock star wannabes to success. The book's imagined conversations are very funny (it's clear that Svenonius didn't actually talk with Paul McCartney and probably never sought out a medium). But beyond being humorous, Supernatural Strategies is also very informative and well researched. While Svenonius shares his endless wealth of musical knowledge, this book also serves as a critique of capitalism, consumerism and American imperialism." Brooklyn Based
Review
"As its title indicates, prolific DC underground rocker Ian Svenonius's arch new book, Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group, is 'an indispensable guide for anyone attempting to create a rock n roll group.' With help from late rock gods such as Buddy Holly and Jimi Hendrix, who reputedly advised Svenonius from beyond the grave, Supernatural Strategies prescribes the ingredients for rock immortality, in chapters ranging from 'Group Name' to 'Van' to 'Drugs.'" The Washingtonian
Review
"Svenonius has been interrogating and unpacking the meaning of rock 'n' roll for as long as he's been making it." American Songwriter
Review
"Throughout its 250 pages, the author demystifies the modern rock group with a mixture of veteran insight and intellectual posturing that can be both hilarious and fascinating. There are long tangents about gang culture, music and capitalism, and chapters based around séances calling on dead music stars as wide-ranging as Brian Jones, Big Mama Thornton and Mary Wells." Style Weekly (Richmond)
Synopsis
A how-to book doubling as a warning device, a philosophical text, an exercise in in terror, and an aerobics manual.
About the Author
Ian F. Svenonius: Ian F. Svenonius is the author of the underground best seller The Psychic Soviet (Drag City Press 2007). He was also the host of VBS.tv's Soft Focus, a different breed of chat show, where he spoke to people such as Mark E. Smith, Genesis P. Orridge, Chan Marshall, and Ian Mackaye. As a musician he has created 18 albums and countless singles in various rock 'n' roll combos (Chain and the Gang, Weird War, Make Up, Nation of Ulysses, et al).