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The Locust has been one of my favorite bands for a while, mostly because of how consistently baffling they are. This book is a personal account of Justin Pearson's life, from childhood through Locusthood.

Pearson's writing is mostly a play-by-play of 'what happened that day.' Most of the chapters are 2-6 pages long, and the names of all the chapters are like leftover Locust track titles.

If you're familiar with The Locust's music (and enjoy it), you have probably asked yourself how in the world they do it. More happens in a single Locust song, many of which are no longer than a minute, than happens in the entire career of most musicians. There are no hooks, barely any repeated riffs, no choruses--just relentless, calculated storms of music unlike anything.

Unfortunately, this book didn't provide what I secretly wished it would: a tell-all of Pearson's thought process in constructing The Locust. In fact, he talks about it just like any average bassist would talk about being in any plain old rock band. I guess that's just what comes out of Pearson (and the other Locusts).

Pearson is an odd character to become acquainted with. Some of the parts of his stories seemed completely pointless to include in a book, such as how a foe on the street spit on the sidewalk and it landed right next to Pearson's shoe. He mentions a couple times that he's witty, and that he often outwitted his critics, but the only time he actually tells us about this wit, he had told someone that they have "hepatitis A, B, and C," which seemed sophomoric to me. He mentions not being a violent person, although he never seems to have avoided physically retaliating or vandalizing when he saw fit. He mentions his veganism, and especially his "ethics" a lot without ever expounding on his beliefs or their justification.

Pearson has had it tough. Nothing has ever been handed to him, and although he lets his ego slip a little ("People can think what they want, but I'd like to see them try to replicate what we do."), I think he's earned it.

The book is incredibly enjoyable, especially if you're into The Locust or have any interest in the lifestyle of a man who gives everything he's got for the sake of music that almost everybody hates.

If you're at all a fan of biographies and non-fiction, I would highly recommend this book. I tend to gravitate towards autobiographies, as I enjoy seeing a peek into the lives of others. With this book, you're not just getting a peek into JP's life, but a front-row seat.

Even knowing a lot of these stories before hand, I actually found myself laughing and gasping at many parts of this book. JP paints a vivid picture of teenage antics, life on the road, and the chaos that seems to gravitate to him. At the end of it all, you'll shake your head wondering how someone lived through this and managed to tell the tales. You'll also likely reconsider any notions you previously had about becoming a musician and hitting the road.

If you're a fan of The Locust, All Leather, or any of JP's other projects, then you're bound to appreaciate this behind-the-scenes view. Even if you've never heard of any of these bands or the author, I think you'll find this an entertaining view to a world you maybe didn't even know existed.

I pre-ordered this book about a month ago and just now got the chance to sit down and read it cover to cover. It has instantly become my favorite book published in the last four or five years; enthralling, often hilarious, and just an incredibly interesting read. I kept being surprised when I'd see the names of fairly obscure bands I know and love being mentioned or talked about, although it shouldn't be surprising at all considering the author. It's just a bit of a shock to be able to go into a Barnes and Noble and pick up a mass-produced paperback that includes those kinds of references. A very welcome shock, though.

The best thing about this book is that this all really happened, most of it not too terribly long ago and much of it documented. It's great to be able to see a song or album mentioned or described and then to go back and listen to it to hear for yourself what he's talking about, or to be able to read a chapter describing some show or event and then do an online search for it and find videos, articles or pictures of it. Reading about his firsthand account of the Jerry Springer incident and then watching the actual video is one of the better examples of this.

What I found most entertaining, and also a bit surprising, were all the accounts of crowd violence or general dickery against his various bands at shows and how he and the other band members would retaliate. I've been to plenty of hardcore/punk/noise/whatever shows and have never seen anything like this myself even once...maybe it's more of a west coast thing. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that appreciates this kind of music and would probably still even recommend it to those who don't. 5/5 stars!

Autobiographies are written by a person to offer a glimpse of their lives to their readers and don't necessarily need to be works of great literature. However Pearson's writing doesn't really illuminate his life in a meaningful fashion. It's more of a list of all the garbage that has been tossed on him from his early years till now, a back and forth hodge-podge of loosely tied events that result in him being...angry at things.

At the end of the book he states that he somehow lost the original draft of the book, which would explain the hurried and annoyed fashion in which he wrote this. In that he's writing this about himself one can't say that it was bad since he's telling us about his life in the way he naturally would. I bought the book because I'm a huge Three One G fan and I admire his musical output much like anyone else who bought it. It's interesting to get any granule of self-reflective information from someone that passes for one of your musical idols. Just don't go into this book thinking you'll learn much of anything or expecting to read any good prose. Pearson is a crazy interesting musician but based on this book he wouldn't get very far as a writer unless you're hell bent on living vicariously through him.

I bought this book because I liked the music put on on ThreeOneG. Reading it, I had no idea what it was about to say, but as I read it I started to like it more and more. Can't wait to read some of his other books. This book was funny by all means, and it gives you a real insight on Justin's life and where he came from and why he is, why he is.

I actually bought this directly from JP the other night, When All Leather played here in Cleveland. This book is just amazingly fun, yet totally horrifying at the same time, just like all his bands. Totally candid, brutally honest and 100% straightforward, just like he is in person. I could not put it down!

When I first heard Justin Pearson was making a book I was immediately interested. I initially thought it'd be a fiction book, when I found out it was a memoir of sorts I surprisingly wasn't let down just from reading the little sample page. I read the first 116 pages in one sitting, only stopping to go to work. After work I finished the book, this was all in 12 hours. Needless to say this book ruled! It's not just about JP's life, like any good memoir, you can learn a lot from it too. For instance, I never thought about how poorly kids are treated for having a messed up family. Pearson gives insight into his constant rotation of childhood friends, many of whom apparently experienced a nasty fight between his parents that he slept through on a sleepover he was throwing. I don't think the book comes off as to pretentious or even overtly self-indulgent. At least not by memoir standards. The most interesting stuff, as a fan of JP's music, was reading about his experiences with Head Wound City, the few but entertaining experiences with Holy Molar, his feelings on what would become Some Girls and their transformation, and of course, with the Locust (great tour experiences included). There was also a hilarious chapter about his Jerry Springer experience and his attempt to get on Blind Date, which succeeded, but had to decline the date because he was going to be on tour the day it was going to be filmed. This guy's got a wicked sense of humor, I literally laughed out loud in this chapter and a few others. I seriously started crushing on JP reading through this book. I've been talking about this book to anyone willing to listen. I'm not quite sure this would be of much interest to those who aren't a fan of JP's music, but if you ever want to kill a few hours reading an interesting story and have a deep interest in music in general I think this music-tinged memoir would be ideal. I found this book to be inspiring, musically and intellectually, and I now I seriously want to meet this guy. Also, the book looks great. There's a cool font for chapter headings, and the first line is highlighted in black with white font and there's finger prints scattered on the bottom and sides every few pages. Highly recommended.