Miriam Linna
Encyclopedia
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
-based independent record label Norton Records
Norton Records
For the Canadian independent record label of the same name, see Matt Minglewood.Norton Records, a New York City based independent record label founded by musicians Miriam Linna and Billy Miller, maintains a focus on primitive, retro rock'n'roll, rockabilly, garage punk, garage rock, lounge music...
since 1986 with her husband—the producer and singer-songwriter Billy Miller. Her skill as a drummer earned her a "May I recommend?" nod from Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
on his XM Theme Time Radio Hour
Theme Time Radio Hour
Theme Time Radio Hour was a weekly, one-hour satellite radio show hosted by Bob Dylan originally airing from May 2006 to April 2009...
program (episode 37) in January 2007.
Born in Sudbury, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Linna is part of the collective of musicians that emerged from the Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
punk rock scene, including the Dead Boys and Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu is an experimental rock music group from Cleveland, Ohio.Père Ubu may also refer to:* Ubu, the enigmatic central figure of a series of French plays by Alfred Jarry, including Ubu Roi, and subsequent plays Ubu Cocu and Ubu Enchaîné...
. When the re-formed Rocket from the Tombs
Rocket From The Tombs
Rocket From the Tombs is an American rock music band originally active from mid-1974 to mid-1975 in Cleveland, Ohio.Heralded as an important protopunk group, they were little known during their lifetime, though various members later achieved renown in Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys...
performed in Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
in 2003, singer David Thomas
David Thomas (musician)
David Lynn Thomas is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.He was one of the founding members of the short-lived protopunkers Rocket From The Tombs , where he went by the name of Crocus Behemoth, and of punk group Pere Ubu . He has also released several solo albums...
dedicated the band's signature song "Amphetamine" to her.
Linna as musician
Linna was the drummer with The CrampsThe Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...
, a brief but curiously lingering association in the minds of many (she appears on none of their legitimate releases) that lasted only from September 1976 to August 1977. Linna left The Cramps to join the rock and roll band Nervus Rex
Nervus Rex
Nervus Rex was a New Wave pop band whose roots were in the New York City independent music scene, its members frequenting clubs like CBGB's and Max's Kansas City...
. After performing with the Zantees, Linna and Miller launched The A-Bones
The A-Bones
The A-Bones is a garage rock band from Brooklyn, New York. Their name was derived from a song by The Trashmen. The band was formed in 1984 by vocalist Billy Miller and his wife, drummer Miriam Linna; the couple had previously been the editors of the pop culture journal Kicks and later launched...
(named for a 1964 tune by the Trashmen
The Trashmen
The Trashmen are a rock and roll band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1962. The group's original lineup was Tony Andreason on lead guitar and vocals, Dal Winslow on guitar and vocals, Steve Wahrer on drums and vocals, and Bob Reed on bass guitar...
). The A-Bones released the 10" EP Tempo Tantrum in 1986, followed by the EP Free Beer for Life! (1988) and four full albums between 1991 and 1996. The A-Bones have regrouped in recent years and continue to perform, most recently in Spain with Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
, Andre Williams
Andre Williams
Andre Williams is an American R&B and punk blues musician who started his career in the 1950s at Fortune Records in Detroit.-Biography:...
and the Great Gaylord. She also played drums on Maureen Tucker
Maureen Tucker
Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker is a musician best known for having been the drummer for the rock group The Velvet Underground.- The Velvet Underground :...
's 1994 album Dogs Under Stress
Dogs Under Stress
Dogs Under Stress is the fourth studio album by Maureen Tucker. It was released in 1994.- Track listing :All tracks written by Maureen Tucker except where noted.#"Crackin' Up" – 4:52#"Me, Myself and I" – 2:37#"I've Seen into Your Soul" – 5:40...
. On July 7, 2007, Linna and A-Bones bassist Marcus "The Carcass" Natale were guests on a recording session by the protopunk band Figures of Light
Figures of Light
Figures of Light is an American proto-punk band formed in 1970 by Wheeler Winston Dixon and Michael Downey. Their latest project, the CD "Drop Dead," was recorded in Brooklyn, New York at Mitro's Studios, June, 2011, and produced by Mick Collins of The Dirtbombs, featuring fifteen new tracks from...
, produced by Miller for Norton Records. She also handled the drums on Figures of Light
Figures of Light
Figures of Light is an American proto-punk band formed in 1970 by Wheeler Winston Dixon and Michael Downey. Their latest project, the CD "Drop Dead," was recorded in Brooklyn, New York at Mitro's Studios, June, 2011, and produced by Mick Collins of The Dirtbombs, featuring fifteen new tracks from...
's latest project, "Drop Dead," recorded June, 2011, and produced by Mick Collins
Mick Collins
Mick Collins is a musician from Detroit, Michigan.- Biography :Collins first played in a band called the U-Boats in 1981 and then in the Floor Tasters from 1984 to 1985. In 1986, the 20-year old Collins helped form the seminal garage punk band, The Gories...
of The Dirtbombs
The Dirtbombs
The Dirtbombs are an American garage rock band based in Detroit, Michigan, notable for blending diverse influences such as punk rock and soul while featuring a dual bass guitar, dual drum and guitar lineup...
.
Kicks Books
In 2009, she launched her paperback book company, Kicks Books, with Sweets and Other StoriesSweets and Other Stories
Sweets and Other Stories is the 2009 debut novel by soul singer Andre Williams. It features an introduction by author Nick Tosches and an editor's note by Miriam Linna of Kicks Books.-About Sweets:...
, followed by This Planet Is Doomed (2011). a collection of Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
poetry.
Linna's line of past magazines includes Kicks (co-edited with Miller), Smut Peddler and Bad Seed. In 1997, she published The Great Lost Photographs of Eddie Rocco, a book about photographer Eddie Rocco, who contributed to Charlton's Ebony Song Parade and freelanced for Fort Worth's Sepia
Sepia (magazine)
Sepia, a photojournalistic magazine styled like Look and sometimes compared to Ebony, featured articles based primarily on the achievements of African Americans. It was published in Fort Worth, Texas by Good Publishing Company , owned and operated by George Levitan, who was not black himself...
magazine. Printed on quality stock with duotones in an attractive graphic design, The Great Lost Photographs of Eddie Rocco collects many unknown, previously unpublished 1950s and 1960s images, including shots of Ruth Brown, Esquerita
Esquerita
Esquerita was the stage name of singer, songwriter and pianist Eskew Reeder Jr, originally known as Steven Quincy Reeder Jr. and also known as S.Q. Reeder and SQ Jr. A native of Greenville, South Carolina, he was born on November 20, 1935, and died in Harlem, New York on October 23, 1986, of AIDS...
, Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
and the Treniers. After finding a copy at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History bookstore, Dr. Ink (aka Dr. Roy Peter Clark
Roy Peter Clark
Roy Peter Clark is an American writer, editor, and teacher of writing who has become a writing coach to an international community of students, journalists, and writers of many sorts. He is also senior scholar and vice president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a journalism think-tank...
) highlighted the importance of Rocco's work in an April 2, 2003 review of the book.
Linna as author
Her lengthy liner notes for Norton and other labels display an unusual writing style of wild word play and imaginative humor. In 2004, she co-edited Sin-A-Rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties (Feral House), also contributing an article, "Ron Haydock aka Vin Saxon," about the twisted career of novelist-musician Ron HaydockRon Haydock
Ron Haydock was an American actor, screenwriter, novelist and rock musician.His band, Ron Haydock & the Boppers, was sometimes compared to Elvis Presley...
.
Linna owns one of the world's largest private collections of vintage paperbacks, including complete runs of Avon
Avon (publishers)
Avon Publications was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. As of 2010, it is an imprint of HarperCollins, publishing primarily romance novels.-History:...
, Beacon, Signet
New American Library
New American Library is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948; it produced affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works, as well as popular, pulp, and "hard-boiled" fiction. Non-fiction, original, and hardcopy issues were also produced.Victor Weybright and Kurt...
and others. Her collection includes over 500 juvenile delinquent paperbacks, and she featured the covers of some of these in her book, Bad Seed: A Postcard Book, published in 1992 by Running Press
Running Press
The Running Press is a member of the Perseus Books Group, the imprint is the publisher of fiction, non-fiction, cooking, humor, and kit books. The publisher's offices are located in Philadelphia, but many of the corporate functions take place in New York City....
.
On May 15, 2009, she launched her autobiographical blog, Kicksville 66, documenting everything from Ashtabula
Ashtabula, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 20,962 people, 8,435 households, and 5,423 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,775.9 people per square mile . There were 9,151 housing units at an average density of 1,211.8 per square mile...
angst to the Strand Bookstore, illustrated with promo flyers, handwritten letters and grainy photos.