The drug you thought was gone never left. And its story has never been told like this.

From the outlaw biker clubhouses of Toronto and Baltimore to the streets of Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Los Angeles, Angel Dust Memories uncovers the hidden, hallucinogenic underworld of PCP—also known as “angel dust”—through a blend of immersive journalism, true crime grit, and gonzo psychonaut anthropology.

Freelance journalist Sam Iravani (VICE, Filter, TalkingDrugs) follows the trail of PCP from its psychedelic roots in Haight-Ashbury to its adoption by criminal motorcycle gangs, street-level chemists, and the “dust bunnies” and “wetheads” who use it today. While other books skim over this taboo substance or reduce it to medical caricature, Angel Dust Memories plunges readers deep into the volatile heart of one of America’s most misunderstood drugs—and the subcultures it shaped.

Inside you’ll find:
• First-person accounts from former PCP kingpins, users, and law enforcement insiders
• Shocking tales from the heyday of biker-run PCP empires
• Urban legends dissected—and sometimes proven true
• The racial, social, and economic realities of a drug that lives off the radar

Whether you’re a true crime obsessive, a counterculture historian, or just someone who’s heard the stories and wondered, “Is any of that real?” — this book has your answer.

Fans of Lords of Chaos, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Drug Use for Grown-Ups, or Say Why to Drugs will find Angel Dust Memories a mind-bending addition to their shelf.

The Clean: In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul The definitive story of The Clean in their own words.

Now, you said it was yesterday, yesterday’s another day

Heading round in make believe, I don’t know if it’s you or If it’s me oh,

I don’t know, I don’t know

Tally ho, tally ho!

In 1978 in Dunedin , New Zealand, the Kilgour brothers, Hamish and David, and their schoolfriend Peter Gutteridge, got together to form a band called The Clean. When Robert Scott joined in 1980, the band found a combination that endured for nearly forty years.

The Clean profoundly changed alternative music: hitting the New Zealand charts for months with a single made for $50, ‘Tally Ho!’; helping establish Flying Nun and a music scene independent of the big labels; pioneering a low-fi, do-it-yourself approach to rock music; and touring internationally to influence bands like Pavement and Yo La Tengo.

Raw and immediate, this is the story as told by members of The Clean and their inner circle – fellow musicians such as Chris Knox, Martin Phillipps, Graeme Downes and Ira Kaplan, friends and family, pub promoters and sound engineers, and their good friend, Richard Langston. From teenagers in a Dunedin practice room to New York City on 9/11 – this is the band’s history as it unfolds.

“The Clean . . . pioneered the loose psychedelic sound that made its country famous in underground circles in the 1980s. Any visit from the Clean would thrill aficionados. Each song pulsated as if it had its own circulation system, with subtle movements in tone and melody shifting the stream.” – New York Times

“It fell to the men of the Clean – David Kilgour, his brother Hamish, and various associates – to unveil the New Zealand sound in its full shabby glory. They began as rank teenage amateurs, and to a certain extent they stayed that way. Even when David learned to play guitar, he avoided pedantries of exact pitch in his vocals. But the songs had an indelibly catchy lilt, pop glamour surging out of the basement, and David’s hoarsely shouted lyrics spoke to the existentialism of artists on the dole . . . Even though “Tally Ho” and various later efforts climbed into the New Zealand charts, this was a band with which executives were not wont to tamper.” – Alex Ross, New Yorker, author of The Rest is Noise

“The Clean made some of the music that has meant most to me in my life. The band’s exuberant style effortlessly fused post-Velvets garage drone with the spacious, edge-of-the-world feel of the New Zealand landscape, birthing a euphoric, naive and inexhaustibly affirmative form of DIY that opened the floodgates for the NZ pop revolution.” – David Keenan, novelist and author of Volcanic Tongue

“I’m a fan of everything they ever did.’”— Ira Kaplan, Yo La Tengo

“The Clean delivered raw current with laconic beauty. I’d never known anything like it. It made me ecstatic. It proved other worlds.”— Alastair Galbraith, The Rip

“The Clean continued to mesmerise . . . they really were the ultimate cool, independently minded band . . . they showed us the way.” — Roger Shepherd, founder of Flying Nun Records

“Aotearoa has many musical heroes, but only a handful can claim to have changed the culture. The Clean did with their very first handful of releases.”— Simon Grigg, writer, founder of Propeller Records and AudioCulture Iwi Waiata

“There has yet to be a book that tells the story of the band at the heart of New Zealand underground music and that became synonymous with things like Flying Nun Records and the “Dunedin Sound” that travelled around the world. It is much needed and long overdue. It is written by the ideal author who was not only there when it all happened, but who also recognised why it really mattered more than most.” – Matthew Goody, author of Needles and Plastic: Flying Nun Records, 1981–1988

“I think Sammy Petrillo is fucking Amazing! If he was starring in The Jerry Lewis Story, he would deserve an Academy Award. This is not hyperbole!” — Quentin Tarantino

“This book will save America.” — Patton Oswalt

Your Time Is Now: The Sammy Petrillo Story is the first full-scale biography of the legendary Jerry Lewis look-alike whose strange, funny, and often heartbreaking life unfolded in the long shadow of one of America’s most famous comedians. With a foreword by award-winning screenwriter Scott Alexander, this deeply researched work of comedy history delivers a rare dual portrait: a parallel biography of Sammy Petrillo and Jerry Lewis, two performers bound together by imitation, rivalry, resentment, and an uneasy mutual awareness that lasted decades.

Drawing on original interviews with Petrillo, Lewis, respective family members, show-business insiders, and surviving mid-century comedy figures, the book reconstructs the improbable life of a journeyman comic who both benefited from and was trapped by his uncanny resemblance to a superstar.

Blending biography, film history, and cultural criticism, Your Time Is Now explores the strange ecosystem of postwar show business—from live television and burlesque stages to poverty-row film studios and cult movie houses. Readers discover the bizarre making and afterlife of Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, Petrillo’s complicated relationship with Jerry Lewis, and previously untold connections to figures such as Barbara Loden and the early development of television comedy culture. The result is a richly detailed, often darkly comic examination of identity, fame, imitation, and failure in American entertainment.

Features original cover art by Drew Friedman and dozens of archival and personal photos.

Dave Abramson, also known as Dave the Spazz, is a New York City–based writer, radio personality, and cultural historian whose work documents the margins of American entertainment, underground music, and outsider show business. Since 1987, he has hosted Music to Spazz By on legendary freeform radio station WFMU, where his deep knowledge of pop ephemera, novelty records, comedy, and cult culture has earned a devoted international following. Abramson is the editor of The Best of LCD: The Art and Writing of WFMU, published by Princeton Architectural Press, and a longtime contributor to WFMU’s influential program guide and media ecosystem.