Sorta like a sneering Bob Dylan with walls of distorted guitar, riffs, and solid songs from beginning to end...by turns ugly, angry, tortured, wistful and exhilerating.

21 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Modern Rock, ROCK: 90's Rock



Details:
â(â¦great songsâ¦) framing smart and cruel works within classic pop and rock arrangements.â

--Alternative Press (Issue #33)

âI don't know of another more passionate singer/songwriter in rock music today.'

--In the Underground (Issue #3)

'Add Jim Shelley to your list of highly prolific, consistently proficient DIY artists. Shelley delivers the goods one song after anotherâ¦Highly recommended.â

--Bryan Baker - Gajoob circa 1993)

âThose interested in excellent songwriting in its purest, most immediate form must pick up on this guy!'

--Alternative Press (Issue #49)

'Jim Shelley's Book of Kills is sorta like a sneering Bob Dylan with walls of distorted guitar, riffs, and solid songs from beginning to end. Shelley's output is amazingâ¦â

--Gajoob Magazine Online (October 26, 1998)

âShelleyâs music is) by turns ugly, angry, tortured, wistful and exhilerating. A handful of lost souls worship this guy.â

--Alternative Press (Issue #77)

âThe problem with Jim Shelley putting out a 'best of ' tape is that most of his tapes already sound like best of's because he puts out such consistently good stuff.'

--Gajoob (August 5, 1995)

â(These) songs will not get out of my head. Book of Kills will be a part of your otherwise bleak future.'

--Rip Snap Meow #3

âShelley has been spilling his gutsâ¦for years, chronicling the ups and downs of a small town-school teacher-cum punk rocker. Which I certainly don't mind because he's a songwriter of the first rank. Shelley's music is raw, desperate, incisive and unsparing; if Dylan grew up a punk, listening to Iggy Pop instead of Woody Guthrie, he'd write tunes like (this). Do all three of us a favor - you, me and Shelley - and check this guy out.'

--DemoUniverse (July 16, 1995)

âHIGH energy guitars jangle against hiz disturbing rant and rave style ov vox. This is NOT th' formula crapola ya'd hear onna RADIO! MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED from th' Zzaj!â

--Improvijazzation Nation (August 15, 1995)

âThe music is almost unbearably catchyâ¦'

--Tranquil Breezes (#1)

âWhazzit sound like? Not the Who, that's fer sure. How 'bout: Lou Reed, Bob Mould, Neil Young, GBV, John Lennon, Bob Dylan...and fookin' Book of Kills. Comparisons are an insult. The man is an original, and if you chumps don't pick up on it, that's your loss. He and I will get on jes' fine.'

--Jim Santo's DemoUniverse (October 1, 1997)

âThat no label, major or indie, has seen fit to put the man in a proper studio is case-closed evidence of the intrinsic bankruptcy of the music business. Are they all deaf?â

--Jim Santo's DemoUniverse (November 29, 1997)

'Veteran home taper and reviewer, Jim Shelley has been there and done that. That his own music should be so good should come as no surprise. His lyrics are sharp and his folk rock style befits him. To me, occasionally he sounds melodically like The Cure but frankly his music is more compelling. Well produced and uniquely delivered.'

--Don Campau, No Pigeonholes (January 1999)


'Book of Kills is the one-man recording project spearheaded by Jim Shelley. Shelley is a longtime home-taper who is a true musical chameleonâ¦One minute he sounds like Neil Innes...the next minute it's Tommy James...and yet a song or two later he sounds like John Lennon. But whatever the comparison, the thing that shines through clear and true is a man who has a genuine knack for writing sincere and moving introspective pop tunes. The arrangements are sparse, allowing the listener to fully appreciate the melodies and chord changes. This is so much more real than most of the doodoo being squat out by record companies. This is, perhaps, because the idea isn't to sell product...but to produce truly quality music with integrityâ¦An excellent obscure delight. (Rating: 5 Babysues.)')

--BABYSUE Magazine (July 1999

'One of the reasons we started Homemade Music was our growing frustration at knowing many true artists whose work had little exposure and no real champion. This release was a sort of centerpiece for us because of the sheer magnitude of Jim Shelley's (aka Book of Kills) and that feeling that So Far In Every Direction was, we felt, a culmination of what motivates hometaping artists to continue to create beautiful music in spite of it all. This is a must-have addition to any homemade music collector's collection.'

--Written by Bryan Baker of GAJOOB as an introduction to SO FAR IN EVERY DIRECTION (August 2000)

â(BOOK OF KILLS) is a wonderful thing.â

Mad Monkey (AutoReverse Winter 1999))

"Jim Shelley is the quintessential home taper."

--GAJOOB (March 1999)

â¦One of America's great "unknown" songsmithsâ¦'

--Jim Santo's Demouniverse (October 2003)

'Jim Shelley is something of a cult hero as far as home-recording goesâ¦If more home-recorded efforts demonstrated the care and refinement Shelley demonstrates here, DIY music might not be an outsider artform.'

--Garrett Splain - Splendid Ezine (February 2004)

ââ¦this matchless lyrical alchemist turns rock into goldâ¦â

--Jim Santo - DemoUniverse (June 2005)