Do you remember these great pop stars and their hits? Deerhoof's "The Man," "The King," "The Girl" Butch Hancock's West Texas Waltzes and "Dust Blown Tractor Tunes," Swamp Dogg's "Cuffed, Collared and Tagged," Michael Head's "The Magical World Of The Strands," John Trubee's "The Communists Are Coming to Kill Us, "John Phillips's "Wolf King of L.A., and" Michel Magne's "Moshe Mouse Crucifiction"?" "You will when you read" Lost in the Grooves," a fascinating guide to the back alleys off the pop music superhighway.<BR>Pop music history is full of little-known musicians, whose work stands defiantly alone, too quirky, distinctive, or demented to appeal to a mass audience. This book explores the nooks and crannies of the pop music world, unearthing lost gems from should-have-been major artists (Sugarpie DeSanto, Judee Sill), revisiting lesser known works by established icons (Marvin Gaye's post-divorce kissoff album, "Here My Dear"; The Ramones' "Subterranean Jungle"), and spotlighting musicians who simply don't fit into neat categories (k. mccarty, Exuma). The book's encyclopedic alphabetical structure throws off strange sparks as disparate genres and eras rub against each other: folk-psych iconoclasts face louche pop crooners; outsider artists set their odd masterpieces down next to obscurities from the stars; lo-fi garage rock cuddles up with the French avant-garde; and roots rock weirdoes trip over bubblegum. This book will delight any jukebox junkie or pop culture fan.

"For the past 12 years, the L.A.-based magazine Scram has championed the work of musicians who might otherwise fly beneath the mainstream critical radar. Here, Scram co-editors Cooper and Smay display the sense of fun that distinguished their previous collection, Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth, in an immensely entertaining, informative and sometimes exasperating encyclopedia, in which more than 75 contributors offer over 250 entries (a series of 'miniature love letters') about their favorite artists and albums. With praise offered for works by Captain Beefheart alongside the Cowsills, no genre or artist is considered outside the sphere of this book's interests: a sampling from the 'Ks' includes late-'60s pop master Andy Kim, mid-'90s blues minimalist Junior Kimbrough, early-'70s conceptual art-rockers King Crimson and an overlooked 1971 masterpiece by the Kinks, Muswell Hillbillies, which influenced plenty an alt-country boy. While most of the albums and artists fall into the vast category that is pop music, there are also interesting offerings in the areas of Latin jazz (Cal Tjader), dub reggae (Scientist) and soul (Swamp Dogg). Spirited, knowledgeable writing by rockers (Meat puppets drummer Derrick Bostrom), novelists (Rick Moody and George Pelecanos) and a host of self-proclaimed music geeks might actually make you want to go out and buy Buckner & Garcia's Pac-Man Fever." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)