Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas by Fernando A. Flores

Here in the 11th anniversary edition, the iconic stories in Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas form a compendium of underground musicians and artists from the Rio Grande Valley who achieve moments of greatness unwitnessed, stardom that lasts for only a brief, transcendent moment. But, intoxicated by the electric pitch of screamed lyrics, dingy bass lines, and surreal performance art, the unknown artists careening through these stories are reckless enough to imagine the triumph of the art form against all odds.

From the author of Brother Brontë, Valleyesque, and Tears of the Trufflepig, this debut marks the beginning of Flores’s one-of-a-kind style, speeding full tilt toward narrative structures, and leaving us starstruck by the inevitable collapse.

They say that everyone who reads this book goes on to start a band. What a godsend, the defiant ambitions of youth that peal through these psychedelic fairy tales, these immigrant stories in disguise that mark their groove in the golden record of rock and roll.

✦ “Almost alone among writers making up bands to write about, when Flores puts the lyrics he’s made up on the page they read like something people would actually sing. That the revelation fades, that people who for a brief time put something new into the world go back to the alcoholics and layabouts they always were, takes nothing away from their accomplishments, which glow on the page, making you wish you’d been there.” — Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone

Fernando A. Flores is the author of Tears of the Trufflepig, Valleyesque, and Brother Brontë. This is his first book.