Joel Gion

If you can judge a book by how well-thumbed it is, the copy passed from Resident to Resident, sporting a cover with more wrinkles than a well bathed shar pei, must have been at the centre of a romantic epic.

This book is attention-absorbingly brilliant. Fellow record shop staffer Joel documents the carnivalesque experiences of the BJM in a beautiful, hilarious, and transfixing stream-of-consciousness style from a drug-addled mind, slyly slipping grand notions of the universe into stories of clip-clopping shoes, or bin-diving for burgers. His use of personification to bring the story to life means, for example, that we follow the tale of frontman Anton Newcombe’s drug usage / detachment through the growth of his moustache, and then watch in horror as that facial appendage takes on a life of its own, haunting every decision and turning band members against one another.

You needn’t be au fait with BJM to dig this as, by the time you flip that final page, you’ll be tracking their records down, streaming Dig!, and snagging tickets for their February tour. Just watch out for flying tambourines if you’re near the front...