The concept-band called (Charles) Book&Record includes Taj Easton, Zack Wentz (who sang and played percussion in Kill Me Tomorrow, Dabbers, and Tender Buttons), and Shelby Wentz (formerly Shelby Gubba-Reiner of Dabbers and Braaiins). Their debut album Leftover Magic is comprised of eleven songs.
The first three (Charles) Book&Record songs have accompanying videos which, when viewed together, create a three-part story, exemplifying the band's idea of “sonic-cinematic art.”
The first video to surface in November 2012 was entitled “Pointing South.”
Zack Wentz (who has worked at local M-Theory Music) is no stranger to storytelling, having been published several times, and the line between his writing and music-making has already blurred in the past. For example, his 2006 sci-fi novel The Garbage Man and the Prostitute worked in conjunction with the 2004 Kill Me Tomorrow album of the same title. In addition, Zack is also founder and editor of NewDeadFamilies, an outlet for underground sci-fi writers.
Compositions by (Charles) Book&Record are created by Taj Easton and Zack Wentz, who also direct the videos. Zack refers to Easton as the “mad scientist behind the screen.”
Their music is not easily categorized: Call it post-electro nu-beat-narrative. The band describes themselves as “invigorating, densely-textured, darkly-melodic pop that owes as much to classic calypso, traditional song, and crooner-era swing as it does to ‘80s art-rock, Berlin school electronic music, and vintage R&B.”
“Pop is personal,” Zack says. “I like the kind that produces the sort of floaty, blissed-out, whirling dervish vibe — songs I can put on repeat for years, the quietly exploding shit that talks to your DNA.”