Sonic Sewer Vol. 1 – Robin Bougie Swaps Smut for Sound in His Dirtiest Detour Yet!
Canada’s Robin Bougie is a trash legend, a genuine one, I’m not just saying that. He’s been building an empire since the ‘90s via his Cinema Sewer books.
After an eternity of wandering down the deepest darkest dirtiest alleys in movie city, writing countless reviews, essays, and trivia pieces on horror, action, and porn (a lot of porn) — and providing hundreds of lush cheeky dripping sketches for illustration purposes — Robin has unleashed something concentrating upon his other obsession: music.
Sonic Sewer Volume 1 is similar in a few ways to its ancestry, nifty artwork, handwritten pages, loads of trivia, but don’t arrive onboard expecting tons of porn again (there’s a couple of bits – Ray Parker Junior) but Sonic Sewer is more straightforward and straightlaced, feeling more serious. Robin is older now (even his self illustrated cartoon faces appear elderly in this) and he’s devoted to this subject.
There are plenty of genres covered, pop, jazz, soul, hip-hop, and such by himself plus a small group of contributing folks. It’s lacking the ol’ metal though which is a shame. Maybe in Volume 2, as he states at the end this should be an ongoing series.
Sonic Sewer iscertainly a diverse and varied book, topics like how David Bowie was nearly killed by Mark Chapman, Stacia of Hawkwind (one of my personal faves), the story of Phil Collin’s Easy Lover (who gives a fuck???!!!), Hako Yamasaki, Bobbie Gentry, Kim Wilde, a hilarious article on Robert Crumb, Joan Jett, a nice point about Yoko Ono, the top 10 albums for teenage lesbians (including the excellent L7, of course), Yo MTV RAPS, and so much more. Oh yeah, there’s a wonderful chapter on underrated R&B albums plus a great piece about Jimmy Page meeting William S. Burroughs and the conversation they had.
The only thing is, unlike Cinema Sewer, which was readable cover-to-cover no matter the genres, this can drag in places and, if you aren’t interested in certain artists and music styles, it’s page skipping sometimes, but that’s due to personal taste of course. I honestly expected more depth however, maybe more nasty trivia because there’s a lot of gritty grim tales out there — though the deaths of Roger Troutman and Rick James’s incredible discovery, Teena Marie are both gutting and tragic. I didn’t know about poor Teena.
However, Sonic Sewer is worth the purchase for completists of Robin Bougie creations, plus anyone after a slick quick trivia read for the coffee table, beside the bed, or in the toilet (my highly recommended reading place).
Book: Sonic Sewer Vol. 1
Edited by: Robin Bougie
Written by: Robin Bougie
Year: 2025
Published by: Fab Press
Official Website: Cinema Sewer
