Music journalist Dave Tompkins (Vibe, The Village Voice, Wax Poetics, etc) tracks the vocoder’s evolution from a speech scrambling weapon to a pop music institution in How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip Hop, the Machine Speaks, the debut release from Stop Smiling Books.

Tonight the author will discuss his new work, named for a misunderstanding of the vocoderized phrase “how to recognize speech,” at Book Court in Brooklyn. If you can’t make it, try McNally Jackson on the 7th or Labyrinth Books on the 8th.

Dave Tompkins at Book Court
April 5, 7PM
163 Court Street
Brooklyn, New York
Moderated by Joseph Patel and David Kahn

Dave Tompkins at McNally Jackson
April 7, 7PM
52 Prince Street
New York, New York
Moderated by Jon Caramanica

Release Party at Trophy Bar
April 7, 9:30PM
351 Broadway (between 9th and Keap Streets)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
DJs Chairman Mao (ego trip), Duane Harriott (Negroclash/Other Music/Bim Marx), Veronica (Minimal Wave) and Monk-One (Wax Poetics)

Dave Tompkins at Labyrinth Books
April 8, 5:30PM
122 Nassau Street
Princeton New Jersey
Moderated by Piotr Orlov