Philadelphia Weekly

Henry H. Owings has come a long way since storming the gates of the University of Georgia library to pirate a computer and punch out copy for Chunklet--the caustic, drop-dead hilarious genius of a magazine he founded 15 years ago. He's long been a promoter, a tour manager, a producer, a Grammy-nominated designer and a record releaser. Now he can add full-fledged author to his robust resume.

Enter The Rock Bible, Owings' second book. With the help of a lengthy list of contributors, Owings has cobbled together a handy guide he hopes bands will carry on tour in their glove box, a quick reference tool to help them learn what the rock gods would consider unacceptable behavior from any band.

Broken up into different gospels, the book lays out in entertaining fashion the most egregious sins band members can make while trying to entertain. Example from the Gospel According to Guitarists: "No one's looking at your guitar strap. Don't ever spend more than the cost of an average meal on something that can be replaced by a particularly hearty piece of string."

In last week's PW I ripped off a line from Chunklet.com, calling Of Montreal a ninth-generation Spiders From Mars. How often do you think Chunklet is ripped off?

"It sounds big-headed, but I'm rather accustomed to people ripping us off. How often? I don't know. I'm kind of numb to it at this point. Look at Maxim or FHM. They rip us off. Spin, NME. It's sad that the most watered-down version--the copy, the replica--is what many see, and the original becomes the insider secret. But Chunklet ripped off a fair amount early on, so it's the circle of life or something."

The Rock Bible came together rather quickly--from concept to "Holy shit, there's this bound and beautiful book in my hands." How'd the idea come about for the book and how long did it take to execute?

"It originally started as a concept for an issue called 'the Rock Rules' spawned from [Chunklet contributor Brian] Teasley's blog. I sent an email blast to contributors--a lot of musicians, tour managers, road crew, promoters, designers, comedians, more musicians--saying here's our idea, and the riffing I got back was unbelievable. These are people who've gotten their hands dirty in the mechanisms of the music biz. So it went from Teasley to me to the list to various MySpace bulletins to chunklet.com and all back around and in the course of two to three weeks, no exaggeration, the bulk of the content was written. And then I hunkered down at a local coffee shop and organized everything, rewrote a lot of stuff."

I imagine you have to keep a consistent tone throughout.

"I took every line through a very specific editing process. I didn't want any band names, meaning no name-dropping. And I didn't want profanity. After that I just took each entry and punched it up as need be. I tend to be very task-

oriented. I just put the blinders on and get it done so I can go onto the next project. It was roughly a month of sipping lattes and bouncing more things off writers and friends. The book was done in approximately seven weeks front to back. No different than Chunklet, really. It was certainly a rewarding project."

What's great about the book is that it's full of moments that make the reader say, "Yes. Thank you. I hate it when singers rhyme 'fire' with 'desire' too."

"Yeah. When it was coming together I kept thinking, 'Why hasn't this been done before?'"

This is a relatively small book tour. How'd Philly make the cut?

"I love Philly. In the late '80s I used to take the train into Philly from York, Pa., where I was living at the time. Philadelphia Record Exchange changed my life. I spent countless hours at the Khyber--saw Halo of Flies, the Jesus Lizard, every great late-'80s and early-'90s band there. I saw Nirvana on South Street. So yeah, I love Philly, and Tom Lax [of Philly's Siltbreeze Records] specifically for turning me on to so much incredible stuff. God bless that guy. His knowledge of music--even in the late '80s--blew anybody else's away. Go into PRX. I guaran-goddamn-tee you you'll walk out with three records you've not heard of and Tom knows everything about them. Siltbreeze starting up again is an inspiration. Sic Alps? Times New Viking? Eat Skull? It's just like '94! The guy is batting 1,000. He's a tastemaker in the most sincere sense of the word."