Jim Guthrie: Who Needs What tells the story of a musician whose twenty-year career has been spent either at the forefront of Canada’s indie rock renaissance or in the background of some of the most popular indie games, films, and ad campaigns of the past decade. Through interviews with Jim, his collaborators, and fans, this book explores how a self-described “Seabiscuit” earned a cult following and became a major influence to musicians at home and abroad—all without really having to leave his basement.
Maisonneuve Magazine called Andrew Hood “one of Canada’s most criminally undervalued writers.” Both his works of fiction, The Cloaca (Invisible Publishing) and Pardon Our Monsters (Véhicule), received wide praise, winning him multiple accolades, including the Danuta Gleed Award. Hood lives in Guelph, Ontario.
Listen to the mix tape companion piece to the book, Documenting Perks Part 2, hand-picked by the author himself, Andrew Hood. It covers a 20 year period of Jim’s recorded material.
“Hood is adept at making inside-baseball anecdotes seem accessible, and he doesn’t overdose on the sorts of adoringly hyperbolic adjectives that often overwhelm fan-generated appreciations of an artist’s career. His admiration for his subject is evident, and by the end of Who Needs What it’s likely that readers will share it, even if they still wouldn’t be able to pick its subject out of a lineup of Canadian rock stars.” — Quill & Quire
“Andrew Hood’s sentences spark and snap like firecrackers… Music lovers are lucky to have Hood behind the wheel.” — The Bookshelf