Glory Guitars

I’m so excited to be on the Herizon Music podcast with Thea Wood. She’s a bad ass and asked all the right questions to get me talking about things that are important to me. I’ll include her wonderful show description below. 

Herizon Music: The Podcast features interviews with trailblazers and rising stars in the music industry. Whether on stage, behind the scenes, or on air, Herizon Music introduces you to the women who are defining the music industry. Each episode is entertaining, inspiring, and relatable. Join our band of dreamers, rule breakers, and rock stars today! 

In This Episode

• The story behind Erin’s nom de plume GoGo Germaine
• Defining a riot grrrl from her own experience
• Reliving hard memories like her jarring first kiss (trigger warning)
• The anger her girl gang carried and how it manifested
• Her super power: synesthesia, what it is and how it works for her
• Advice for women aspiring to become music journalists and author

LISTEN NOW

“There is a feeling of a soul-bearing all-night conversation about this book—the kind of vulnerable conversation in which new friendships are forged,” said Buddha from Razorcake about Glory Guitars, my memoir. “I’ve read a lot of punk books, and this one stands with the best of them.”

This review came from the punkest fanzine ever; Razorcake is a nonprofit multidisciplinary arts organization that creates Razorcake fanzine, a DIY punk rock fanzine published bi-monthly out of Los Angeles, California. It was co-founded by Todd Taylor and Sean Carswell in 2001.

Some reviewers really get it, and explain your work of art better than you can. This was the case here. The review also explained a lot of the feedback I’ve been getting for Glory Guitars. People tend to reach out to me personally to tell me how it’s touched their lives. It’s so rewarding–after all, aren’t we writers so we can start a conversation about life? However, I started to wonder why all of these rave reviews were confined to my DMs and not in the sunlight of online reviews or awards. I have some, but not as many as the messages I receive. Are people embarrassed to publicly champion this book about drinking 40s in parking lots?

This review set it all straight for me. My memoir is so intimate, it evokes an intimate response. I can get down with that. That being said, intimate DMs don’t sell books. If you like Glory Guitars, tell all of your friends! Especially if your friends are in the millions. And keep telling me personally as well. I love hearing from you.

Read this gorgeous review here!

I had the pleasure of talking with Ben Tanzer for “This Podcast Will Change Your Life.” Ben is a Creative Strategist, Teacher, Storyteller, Coach, and Lover of All Things Book-Related. He is a self-proclaimed “normal” person and I’m a self proclaimed “weirdo,” so we had a compelling conversation. He’s great at asking life-changing, thought-provoking questions.

Check it out! https://tinyurl.com/GogoGermaine

Gogo Germaine is go-going on the road. Glory Guitars, her punk coming-of-age memoir that is slated for release Oct 11, has already graced the cover of Boulder Weekly and was described as “if Howl had been written by a 15-year-old fanzine writer high on life, booze and illicit pharmaceuticals” by UK music site Louderthanwar. Celebrate with her at the following book launch parties:

NYC:

9/28/22 (Wednesday) @ KGB Bar featuring Gogo Germaine, Lee Matthew Goldberg (Runaway Train), and Alex DiFrancesco (Transmutation) | 8-10 PM

DENVER:

10/11/22 (Tuesday)

• 6 PM: Tattered Cover book launch, reading, and signing feat. Gogo Germaine
• 9 PM: After Party at the Crypt featuring The Velvet Horns, punk DJs Brian Polk and Josiah Hesse, and Gogo drinking champagne with books for sale | $5 cash at the door

11/19/22 (Saturday)

Mutiny Information Cafe – Riot Grrrl party featuring very special musical and performance guests to be announced!

FORT COLLINS

10/23/22 (Sunday):

8 PM: FORT COLLINS @ Surfside7 featuring punk DJ Jesse Kulenski and Gogo Germaine drinking champagne with books for sale | free

“Within the pages of Glory Guitars,” writes Nicholas Hutchinson in Boulder Weekly‘s cover story this week, “many readers will recognize that longing for independence and individualism, whether or not they share Barnes’ particular punk-rock life experiences.”

This beautiful feature is all across newsstands in Boulder this week; pick up a copy or read it online here!

xoxo,

Gogo

“If Howl had been written by a 15-year-old fanzine writer high on life, booze and illicit pharmaceuticals….This memoir of a neurodiverse hell-raiser is reminiscent of Cherie Curie’s memoir, Neon Angel, Kathy Acker’s novel Blood And Guts In High School and (occasionally) Linda Jaivin’s sci-fi erotic novel, Rock’N’Roll Babes From Outer Space. In its darker moments, it also brings to mind the films Thirteen and Kids.”

Cazz Blase reviews Glory Guitars for the UK site Louderthanwar here…and it’s glorious. Check it out!

PORTLAND, Oregon – July 13, 2022 – Ensconced in the black hole between childhood and adulthood, a glorious degenerate-grade freedom endures. A rebellion from respectability. An anathema to normalcy. It is the type of defiance that’s hopeful—hurt by the world but looking to reconcile it. 

Enter Gogo Germaine and her girl gang of delinquents. 

As manic teens in the ’90s punk scene, they engage in a vivid spectrum of misbehavior— from truancy to tattoos to trespassing. Here, in the underbelly of adolescence, music is God and the rest is a rush of nihilism. Gogo and her friends stumble through sound and fury into questionable firsts at varying degrees of sobriety. 

Many of us blunder through that black hole. It is a point of universal convergence, manifested by divergent experiences. Gogo’s rebellion may look different from yours, but the soaring highs and visceral lows will be familiar.

For a review copy, or to set up an interview or in-person author event with Ms. Germaine, please contact Erin Barnes, ekbmedia@gmail.com 

ABOUT UNIVERSITY OF HELL

University of Hell Press promotes artists who are creating irreverent and thought-provoking works in quiet corners of their worlds. Specializing in intimate literary arts that communicate the human experience with raw views into the everyday condition, University of Hell Press aligns with like-minded individuals who are making their mark through unique vision and simple, yet heightened, language.

We are a deliberately genre-less press because we like to be surprised by what crosses our desks; we have published books that might not have otherwise seen the light of day if we had been a genre-specific press. We have published a number of poetry and prose collections, memoirs, fiction, and creative nonfiction.