Moon Pix

33⅓ Main Series #164

by Donna Kozloskie

Moon Pix was conceived during a hallucinatory waking nightmare in the South Carolina home of Chan Marshall one fateful day in 1997. Spirits violently swam up around her house, looming at the windows, beckoning her to join them. Her and her acoustic guitar warded them off song after song, nearly the entire album rushed forth onto a tape recorder that night. Facts, fictions and visions ripple throughout the accounts of Moon Pix from every angle- memories of screaming at an audience, spirals of drunkenness, swimming with sharks in Australia, intense, resonant lyrics and thunderstorms ringing through speakers. Like all legends, the aura surrounding them is an impression, a sensory feeling of unreliable memories: layers of stories become histories.

Through interviews with key players, audience member accounts, fictional narrative imaginings, a collection of record reviews and other explorations of truth, this book, like Moon Pix itself, is an ode to the myth within the music and the music within the myth.

Genres: Music

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2022

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

My problem with Cat Power is that I find a lot of her albums boring. Her fourth, Moon Pix is not one I am super keen on but there are quite a few special tracks, namely Metal heart and Cross Bones Style.

Donna Kozloskie's approach is anything but boring. It's a dynamic kaleidoscopic book which surprises the reader in every chapter: there's a story, a dialogue about break up albums. a collection of reviews from both the album's release and more contemporary ones, A look at people who influenced the album and some archival interviews. Considering not much is written about Cat Power's past, bar the more obvious relationship gossip, this was an entertaining volume.

[degelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to admit that I was very disappointed. Moon Pix is by far my favorite Cat Power album, but this book hardly scratches the surface. When it does, most of what you read are things you could look up (articles, interviews, criticism, 1st person accounts on forums) or watch/listen to on the internet (bootlegs, live shows, etc.) in your spare time.

Each chapter is named after a song, but the content is pretty free form and doesn't directly address the subject. The bulk of the text is tangents and digressions about people who have met or never met Chan Marshall. There is an entire chapter where the author has discussions with her ex-boyfriends about break-up albums. Another is nothing but reviews about other versions of "Moonshiner." Other sections profile a tour mate who took a picture of her on the road, a music video director, a photographer, a critic who wrote a review about her disastrous show at the Bowery Ballroom and a few others. Most of them talk about their background, career trajectories and personal lives more than the artist or the music. There isn't a lot of insight. Much more about the who (them), the when (the '90s) and the what ("it was my job...") but not much about the why behind this project. The effect is frustrating and confusing, as Marshall becomes obscured by the noise of others- in particularly, the author's.

I learned almost nothing new about Moon Pix. I really didn't expect that. Could it be due to a situation in which an author doesn't have access to the main players so they have to make do with limited information? Possibly. However another 33 1/3 installment- David Smay's Swordfishtrombones- takes on a notoriously private artist (Tom Waits) and manages to paint an intriguing and impressionistic read on each song that is as Waitsian as can be. He turns the songs into symbolic myths that weave in and out of the artist's life, both personally and professionally.

What is behind Moon Pix, both in the personal and professional sense? That remains to be seen, at least in my case. Although it was most likely not intentional, this book makes it more of a mystery than ever.

[scottwiv · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cat Power's 1993 magnum opus Moon Pix is shrouded in mystery. The album was created in the midst of an intense mental episode in which Chan Marshall (Cat Power) saw hallucinations of the world around her crumbling. Once she came back to Earth, she began work on Moon Pix. The unstable mental state Marshall was in is suffused within the music — each song feels like Marshall realizing catharsis through the only way she knows how: music. The mythology behind the album's creation has always intrigued me, so in hopes of learning more about one of my favorite albums ever made, I picked up this book. Surely there was no way you could botch a book about Moon Pix — the mystery behind it is beyond fascinating!

Unfortunately, however, Donna Kozloskie's book on Cat Power's fantastic Moon Pix is a complete mess. Instead of exploring what makes the album so good, or even talking about the music, Kozloskie instead dedicates most of these pages to superfluous information regarding the various renditions of the blues standard "Moonshiner" to interviews of 90's indie critics who never even met Chan. One chapter is about the author and her then boyfriend in the 90's going to concerts and talking about "break-up albums" they like. Almost every chapter ends with extensive writing on what Marshall's live performances were like, ultimately rehashing the same experiences over and over again. Many of the sources Kozloskie uses are from dead internet forums from the late 90's. A quick skimming of the Moon Pix wikipedia page would yield more interesting knowledge than all 120+ pages of this book.

[Paul O'farrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like this series of books about classic or significant albums. I also like how each one can take a very different style - an insider’s take on the process of creating the record, a social observation on the context and reception of the record, a fan’s perspective, a critique.

This one however is pretty limited. It starts off well with some interesting insights into Chan Marshall’s approach to the record but then just… drifts.

The second half of the book consists of badly curated accounts of a gig, a detailed but largely pointless listing of over artists who have covered one of the songs Cat Power sings and an interview about breakup albums that is tangential to Moon Pix at best.
It feels like the writer just ran out of ideas or time and shovelled some words into the pages.

A shame as it is a brilliant album

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Stories are the distillation of memories rounded, simple, clean—they can be made to conjure up warm nostalgia or painful pasts, none of which depict a real-life lived or what really happened. Sometimes there are truths buried deep within the fictions or representations, a glimmer of what was. But it is the retelling that lingers on, a porous memory smoothed with age and constantly viewed through different lives. Collectively, it is decided what parts of what stories will remain and what futures these stories can become”

[Robnrel · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is no voice that soothes and calms me quite like Chan Marshall. Moon Pix was the first of Cat Power’s albums I ever heard, over two decades ago. So as you can imagine, an entire book devoted to that album was quite the gift. I love the 33 and a 3rd series. They range from good to great as a general rule, depending on the author and the approach taken. Any good music book should have you listening to an artists work with fresh ears and hopefully some new found knowledge. On that front this book indeed delivered.

‘𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨⁣
𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨’

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in 2004 (I think), a friend and I drove from NYC to NC with some stuff (I was moving back) and it just happened to coincide with a Cat Power show at the Arts Center in Chapel Hill. So, exhausted from the drive and from moving boxes and furniture inside the house, we rallied and walked up to the show. And, with the lights low, her voice soft, and the music quiet, I promptly fell asleep. Maybe he did too (or he was too polite to wake me) but regardless I heard maybe 2-3 songs at most, and I don't remember which ones I heard. But I do remember it being fun...

[Keeley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful 33 1/3. The author gracefully and respectfully paints a picture of Cat Power as a person and artist. That narrative is made stronger by the author relating her own life and experiences to the album, something we all do with the art we hold most dear. I learned so much about Cat Power, the making of the album and what it's like to be a fan and how that relationship can help you process your own life. I loved the voice of this book so much, it felt like a discussion with a friend.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

"'That album, for me, is like this raw emotion with just splashes of interesting color around it. . . .[It's] kind of like you're floating in an ocean, and it's storming outside, but then you put your head under the water, and there's all this activity happening, this color, there's fish swimming around and all this excitement. Little dabs of color.'"

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better entries in this series, well-written, thoroughly documented, and organized in a compelling manner. My only complaint is that the supernatural vision haunting this album wasn't explored in enough detail to show its influence on the music. This book doesn't quite penetrate the mysterious aura of the album, though that may be an impossible task anyway. Captivating read.

[Alex Bielovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn't want this to end - really felt transported to the '90s. Moon Pix was in heavy rotation for me in the late 2000s, and learning about how the Dirty Three was involved was fascinating. I think there's something about Australia being so remote and removed from the rest of the world (especially back then before widespread internet) that produced such a unique album.

[readbytasha]

i didn’t know anything about cat power (aside from enjoying her music) before going into this but i was expecting more of a deep dive into the album itself - the process, the songs etc. it’s instead more kind of context…? i guess? and interviews with fans, reviewers of the time, stories about the tour - that kind of thing

[Dearwassily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not exactly sure how to rate this book. On the whole, it was fine. It wasn’t so much about Cat Power, Moon Pix, or Chan Marshall but about the people and world around Chan. I wanted more depth, less breadth.

[aa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great album, underwhelming book.

[Brad · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars.

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, the book just doesn't really have a perspective or a narrative. The writing is interesting, and the book's easy to read, but there's not really a point to it, at least from the side of this reader. I liked the bits and pieces, and the way some of the storytelling works, but it just seems like a collection of random ideas organized and put into the book. Maybe its my failure, and in all honesty, I felt like I could easily give it a 2.5, but not quite there for a three. Just doesn't offer much in terms of the Cat Power story or this album.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

More scene-and-industry reminiscence than I would have liked, and consequently there's less on the music itself than I think would be ideal, but that's pretty commonly the case for these books, I guess.