The Lowbrow Reader

Souled American by The Lowbrow Reader 4.8.26 The band Souled American was a creature of Chicago’s heady music ecosystem of the late ’80s and early ’90s, releasing half a dozen albums between 1988 and 1995, each one capturing a sluggish and deeply secretive beauty. Although occasionally celebrated in the alt-country realm, the band was ultimately one of those genre-of-one entities: It subsisted outside the boundaries, doomed to flourish for the benefit of the few.

Cometbus by The Lowbrow Reader 2.23.26 The wonderful journal Cometbus was hatched in the Bay Area punk world of the early ’80s and continues to flourish from its perch in New York, unleashed on a deliciously sphinxlike publication schedule. Its most recent numbered issue (#59!) an excellent “post-mortem” investigation of the underground, came out a few years ago. We have been craving more ever since. In a sense, the Cometbus drought ends here.

Sound Collector Audio Review by The Lowbrow Reader 12.23.25 The smart independent music magazine Sound Collector first published in the late ’90s, a period ripe with smart independent music magazines. Sound Collector was a thick, perfect-bound journal with a soft spot for quirky deep dives.

Basic Paper Airplane by The Lowbrow Reader 12.5.25 The Portland, Oregon zine Basic Paper Airplane was born in 2005. In the ensuing years, it has issued a series of issues varying by topic but united by the exquisite prose of its editor, Joshua James Amberson.

Gabba Gabba We Accept You: Philadelphia Event by The Lowbrow Reader 11.21.25 “Gabba Gabba We Accept You: The Wondrous Tale of Joey Ramone” is a picture-book biography of our beloved Joey, written by Lowbrow editor Jay Ruttenberg and illustrated by Lucinda Schreiber. It was published earlier this year by Drag City. Buy it today straight through Drag City or even that website that owns Whole Foods! Actually, why don’t you buy a few and give them out to neighborhood children over the holidays?

Drew Friedman: Vermeer of the Borscht Belt by The Lowbrow Reader 11.2.25 Drew Friedman is as among our favorite working artists, crafting eerily lifelike faces that leap off a page in all their warted glory; he is also a highly opinionated cultural sponge deeply schooled in odd nooks of showbiz, particularly old-school American comedy. Over the years, we have been thrilled to feature his work in the Lowbrow Reader. Also thrilling?

Fashion Projects: 15 Years of Fashion in Dialogue—The Paperback by The Lowbrow Reader 9.15.25 Last year, the chic British publisher Intellect Books shed a glimpse of light onto our dark world with Fashion Projects: 15 Years of Fashion in Dialogue—a superb anthology of the brainy fashion journal Fashion Projects. The book ran over 200 pages, packed with the astute interviews and essays for which the New York fashion zine was long celebrated.

Gabba Gabba We Accept You: Chicago Event by The Lowbrow Reader 8.10.25 The children’s book “Gabba Gabba We Accept You: The Wondrous Tale of Joey Ramone” was unleashed on the known universe earlier this summer by Drag City. Written by Lowbrow editor Jay Ruttenberg and illustrated by Lucinda Schreiber, the book has met with some lovely praise—do check out these kind write-ups in Moonbuilding and the Kirkus Review.

Gabba Gabba We Accept You: London Events by The Lowbrow Reader 7.18.25 The Joey Ramone picture-book biography “Gabba Gabba We Accept You” was brought into the world last month by Drag City Books—and, really, what could the world want more than a children’s book about Joey Ramone?

One-Liners and Bits by Andrew Barlow 7.15.25 “54321”?!! I thought numbers only went up! A bird flew into a window but its reflection kept on going. Its reflection tried to live the life that the bird would have lived, but it could only fly in a straight line. In fact, this is what always happens with birds. The bird-reflection flew back into the window, then flew into another window and rescued itself—“almost!,” said the bird’s reflection.