The Book

Praise for "Off the Record"

Review By Widgett
I Need Coffee (March 11, 2002)

Meet Tommy Aguilar and his band. They're called, interestingly enough, the Tommy Aguilar Band, or TAB. The stars align themselves with the sole purpose of getting them places. And there's a reason for this: They're good. Sure, they're a local band, but they're damn good. Between Tommy on vocals and guitar, Michelle on bass and Ray on drums, they wage a musical war onstage for control of the songs--and the blitzkrieg is something else to hear. Bob Porter, head burrito at the local bar/musical joint The Each, is in the mood to do something different: to manage a band. Ken Morrison, local rock critic, is in the mood to hear something different: an interesting band. And Gus DeGrande, the Grand Moff Tarkin of tour promoters, wants to do something different too: to own a band. So the blitzkrieg goes beyond the boundaries of the stage and begins to get interesting.

David Menconi is a rock critic, so he knows of what he writes when he plonks down this novel in front of you. So he can tell you what he thinks about Radiohead, but can he write a novel? The answer is, thankfully, not just yes--but hell yes. Despite being a first time outing into the realm of fiction, it's an infectious page turner. The "gotta" hits early and sticks around.

This is primarily due to two things. One, Menconi creates some really interesting characters. Granted, they might just have been conglomerates of people that Menconi has known/interviewed, but who cares? They're fully fleshed out and breathing. And at first, all the little diatribes that we're taken on, down the paths of their past lives, seem superfluous. But instead, they're useful later on when we see the people interacting with one another. Two, the dialogue is spot on and again — believable.

The main thing to know about the book is that it's a terrific read. This is coming from me, who's been in three bands and as I read, I winced more than once as a little jab shot home. A really nice tome, I'm interested to see what Menconi does for his encore.