Geniuses of Crack — Jeff Gomez

From the author of Our Noise, an engaging and touching tale about the misadventures of a Virginia-based rock band Bottlecap that's “an intricate and richly detailed study in twentysomething generational manners and mores that's almost encyclopedic in scope” (Bret Easton Ellis).

Bottlecap, the Virginia-based group introduced in Jeff Gomez's cult favorite Our Noise, traded in life as a small band on a struggling independent label for a lucrative contract with a big Los Angeles company. This should mean more money, more attention -- more of all the stuff that comes with fame. But from the minute Mark, Steve, and Gary arrive in Los Angeles, they enter a world they don't quite understand.

Mark, as leader of the band, tries to keep things under control, but his own life and his relationship with his new girlfriend Corinne -- a native Angeleno and inveterate mallrat -- begin to spin out of control. Steve falls under the influence of a neighbor with bad habits while Gary scours the city's thrift stores searching for Atari memorabilia and a love of his own.

Confusion reaches its peak when the record company's plans take an unexpected and, to the band, unacceptable turn. They must either completely sell out and surrender the band or take a stand, relegating themselves to commercial obscurity. Or is it already too late?

With humor and insight, Gomez limns the lives of three young men who are geniuses at everything except what matters. Fans of Our Noise will welcome this update of Bottlecap; newcomers will find a writer with a rare talent for capturing the mood and the voice of a generation.