Reviews

 


Frank Chu gives his endorsement !

June 21, 2013 MARIE LECHNER
The Cacophony Society : total chaos “Their adventures are the subject of a fantastic book, Tales of The Cacophony Society, compilation of documents and unpublished photos that tells for the first time the story of this unconventional anarchic network only brought together the fun of the game”* translated from French


June 19, 2013 Elise Thompson
Celebrating the Cacophony Society this Weekend
‘The faux-distressed coffee table book, “Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society” Is filled with stories of the collective’s various antics and chock full of color pictures, fanzines, and even police reports. Learn the secrets of The Dogminican order, trip around with SantaCon and explore underground tunnels through the pages of this book.’


June 11, 2013 Cat Johnson
Shareable’s Top 10 Summer Reads

“A band of pranksters, artists, activists and adventurers that came to define an underground movement, the San Francisco Cacophony Society planned events from the elaborate (a gathering of hundreds of “nuclear holocaust survivors”) to the simple (book and film discussions), and everything in between. ”


May 14, 2013 Nicole Gluckstern
Joyful noise
“the gorgeously-rendered, scrap-and-patchwork anthology Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society … does a pretty good job of conveying not just the external hi-jinks of a group bound together by a yen for the unpredictable, but also the internal philosophical trajectory of many of its members.”

sfchronicle
May 15,2013 Evan Karp
‘Tales of the SF Cacophony Society’ party
The underground Cacophony Society, which in the ’90s spawned outfits in more than a dozen major cities and inspired both Chuck Palahniuk ‘s “Fight Club” and Burning Man, has been given a fresh look in ” Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society ,”

June 19, 2013 Daniel Terdiman Santas and Burning Man and bridge climbing, oh my

The new book “Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society” illustrates the way much of digital-era culture jamming emerged from a few 1980s- and ’90s-era out-of-the-box thinkers 

June 18, 2013 Lisa Derrick
Book Review: Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society

‘Part how-to-manual for rearranging individuals and society, part collection of glorious exploits by madcap pranksters, Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society chronicles the (mis)adventures of a group of Dada-ist creatively maladjusted miscreants responsible for some of the most culture-shifting exploits ever. Using comic-book/graphic novel style that further enhances both the fantastic and the geekastic sides of what some call an “art collective,” Tales tells almost all, and leaves room for you to fill in your own gaps and develop your own surreal stunts.”


May 29 2013 Joe Eskenazi
Whither the Tricksters?

Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society, a hulking hybrid of a comic book, history text, and school yearbook, has just been completed by three of the society’s former stalwarts: Kevin Evans , Carrie Galbraith , and John Law.

May 9th, 2013 Olivier Bonin
The Tales Of The San Francisco Cacophony Society

“You’ve heard about Burning Man, about Santacon (with over 10,000 Santa Claus gathering in Ireland), but have you heard about the Cacophony Society?”


May 7,2013 By Goli Mohammadi
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Things About John Law

…the book “includes almost any kind of ‘making’ at some point in the narrative. Cacophony events and many of the related groups covered by our history often included costuming, building sets, machine performance, street theater, elaborate pranks, and any number of other types of making. However, the main making that went on in the Cacophony Society was the making of culture.”


Jun 16, 2013 Emily Eifler
Telling Tales: The SF Cacophony Society

Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society is both a history text and a role call for the society’s leading members, all wrapped up in the visual texture of an early pop comic book.


May 18th, 2013 C Gerrish
CACOPHONY: YOU MAY ALREADY BE A MEMBER!

This new instruction manual and historical document is cornucopia of cacophony and should prove to be an inspiration to a new generation about to be chained to the “promise” of Google Glass.”


June 19, 2013 Xeni Jardin
Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society with John Law, June 22, 2013 in Los Angeles

It’s a wonderful book

 

TV and Radio Appearances

 
kgw-portland
Rising from the ashes of the mysterious Suicide Club, the Cacophony Society, at its zenith, hosted chapters in over a dozen major cities and influenced much of what was once called the underground. Flash mobs, urban exploration, and culture jamming are a few of the pop culture trends that Cacophony helped kick off.
 
cbsbayareaCBS KPIX Channel 5  
“Come one, come all…..at your own risk.
A template for pranksters, artists, adventurers and anyone interested in rampant creativity, Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society is the history of the most influential underground cabal you’ve never heard of.”
 
 

Online Event & Reading Notices

technewsnow
John Law will be speaking and signing copies of “Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society.
 
guestofaguest
“Join in these pranksters with a party featuring book readings, art performances, a magician, music, and so much more.”
 
laughing-squid-ls-logo-100
The party will feature readings by co-authors Carrie Galbraith and John Lawand Los Angeles Cacophony Society founder Reverend Al Ridenour, as well as performances by Chuckles Klown, The Art of Bleeding, and other friends of Cacophony.
 
flavorpill
Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society
“San Francisco’s culture-jamming subversives the Cacophony Society have almost 30 years of baffling, laughing at, and sometimes pissing (the right) people off under their belt.  The (unofficial) publishing party for Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society, a history of sorts on the organization, will be hosted by Church of the Sub-Genius’ Ivan Stang and features the Yes Men, Improv Everywhere’s Charlie Todd, and Reason magazine’s Brian Doherty, among others.”
 

burningblog
It’s a Cacophony Spring!
“The (unofficial) publishing party for Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society, a history of sorts on the organization, will be hosted by Church of the Sub-Genius’ Ivan Stang and features the Yes Men, Improv Everywhere’s Charlie Todd, and Reason magazine’s Brian Doherty, among others.”

 

Announcements and Readings:

castrobiscuit
Join the legendary madcap crew of the SF Cacophony Society and those who love them for this unique and particularly San Francisco-centric event at the Castro Theatre.
 

willametteweeklylogo
Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society

“a history of the mysterious group for the new book 
Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society. And here you thought your Target flash mob was so original.  “

 
brokeassstuart
Inspiring SF, Fight Club, Burning Man and more…Tonight you have a very cool opportunity to hear from some of the voices who helped shape a lot of the things you think are cool. You’ve never heard of them, but now you can hear straight from them how it went down.
 

newswithtags
“I’m thrilled to report that City Lights completely sold out of Tales books before the readings even happened”

 

72ladiesguide-banner
It’s a Cacophony Spring! Just to give y’all dear readers an idea of the mayhem … City Lights Bookstore SF, where modern American literature was born, announces:Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society LAUNCH PARTY !

 

Pre-Release Announcements

lastgasp-red
Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society
A large-format, full-color, hardbound homage to this protean group, Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society is packed with original art, never before published photographs, original documents and incredulous news accounts.

 

 

150boingboing-logo“Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society”: history of influential culture jammers

“their secret history will be revealed in a gorgeous new book by BB pal John Law, Carrie Galbraith, and Kevin Evans.”

 

laughing-squid-ls-logo-100

Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society

“We’re thrilled that the first images have surfaced from Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society……”

 

raw_story_logo

John Law and Last Gasp announce Cacophony Society history book

Summer Burke – Sunday, July 8, 2012 –  “Existing as the root document for interactive phenomenae like flash mobs, “featherati” festival culture, Fight Club philosophy, and #Occupy, the small-but-wallop-packin’ West Coast subculture known as the Cacophony Society has, at this point in history, executed global operations designed against taking oneself too seriously. ”

 

RADIO

Radio Valencia

A Season in Hell #135: The Cacophony Society Infiltrates Radio Valencia   May 13, 2013 @ 8:00pm
 John and Carrie were kind enough to come into the RV studios (Carrie by phone) to talk about the book, the times, and the events coming up to celebrate it all. Church of the Subgenius’ Puzzling Evidence joined us in the second hour.
 

Nose Hair Lint Gland Show   May 8, 2013 @ 10:00pm
Karen Carpenter, Bob-Marc and Dr. Fiasco interrogate authors JOHN LAW and CARRIE GALBRAITH about the book, doze through their old-timey Cacophony stories and suggest the correct method for reading the works of Hakim Bey.
 


Expanding Mind 

Pranks, clowns, and the aesthetics of chaos: a talk with John Law and Carrie Galbraith, co-authors of Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society.

The history of the most influential underground cabal you’ve never heard of