Off The Record

Cover by Andy Menconi

“Off The Record” is a novel, published in 2000 by iUniverse. A roman-a-clef set in the music business, it’s basically a notebook dump where I worked in every fantastic, lurid bit of rumors, gossip, lies and dreams that I could. Find it on amazon.com, bookshop, iTunes or bn.com.

Check out the multi-media trailer, by my multi-talented brother Andy Menconi (who also designed the book cover).

REVIEWS

“Thrilling…Menconi can get music on the page.”
— Greil Marcus, Salon.com

“The evil twin of ‘High Fidelity.”
— Fred Shuster, Los Angeles Daily News

“The ‘A&R’ that doesn’t suck.”
— Jason Cohen, Rolling Stone

“…alternately horrifying in its realistic take on how young people can be destroyed by the star-making machinery and funny as hell in its wordplay and inside take on how it works.”
— Ken Lieck, Austin Chronicle

“A great read, a gripping tale for people inside and outside the music industry.“
— Ian Koss, Ink 19

“An imaginative, well-constructed plot with enough sex, guns, drugs, death, greed and treachery for a junior Jackie Collins potboiler.”
— Ira Robbins, Hartford Courant

“I’m still jealous.”
— Martin K. Smith, The Blotter

TESTIMONIALS

“A pure American tale of insanity, lust and gonzo, flat-out rock-n-fucking-roll!!!”
— Mojo Nixon

“‘Off The Record’ is funny, touching and all too real to anyone who knows the insides of the music industry. Whether it’s the Southeast scene, the lower East side or the Great Northwest, the tale Menconi tells of a rising band rings all too true. Those who know this world will find laughs in this novel — and those who don’t will find insight into a world of talent, ego and all the things that make great rock ’n’ roll stars worth writing about.”
— Charles Cross (author, “Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain”)

“So you want to be a rock ’n roll star? Read ‘Off the Record’ first. David Menconi understands the music business — from the seamy bars to the towering superdomes — and knows how to spin a first-rate tale. The result is a fascinating between-the-lines look at how the Pearl Jams, Aerosmiths and Kurt Cobains got where they are (or were). A must-read for the serious music fan.”
— Bill Henderson (author, “Stark Raving Elvis”)

“The book kept me laughing and wondering if it was about a real band I’d missed somehow. Intellectually, I knew it wasn’t real; but I went to the website and it looked so real. And it sounded absurd and real. Like all the irritating and funny and creepy things that really happen in this fucked-up business I’m in, but a twist. A really sick twist, and I’m going, ‘What if he’s right? What if, behind all the normal bad luck and jive-ass junk that happens to bands, there are people this insidious?’ And then I think, ‘Hell, he made this stuff up! He must be the ultimate sicko!’”
— Don Dixon

YACKETY YACK

“Living the Dream,” by Angie Carlson (The Independent Weekly, 9/13/2000)

Durham Herald-Sun, by Philip Van Vleck (9/24/2000)

Author chat, The Well (2002)

Spiel