ART DOESN'T EXPRESS. IT INVENTS

Whereas fans of Australian post-punk group The Triffids may profess not to know their Barthes from their elbows, Vagabond Holes begs to differ.

A series of ad hoc performances rather than a definitive chronicle, this book boasts a stellar line-up including Jill Birt, Martyn P. Casey, Nick Cave, David Cavanagh, Laurie Duggan, Robert Forster, Steve Kilbey, Graham Lee, Alsy MacDonald, Robert McComb, Gavin Martin, Wilson Neate and DBC Pierre. Visual art by Sean Dower, Richard Gunning and Thomas Hoareau jostles for attention alongside poetry by John Kinsella, Matt Merritt and Sean M. Whelan; scholarly essays by Claire Colebrook, David Nicholas and Jon Stratton are juxtaposed with short fiction by James Cook and Sam Twyford-Moore; miscellaneous memorabilia, the ephemera of popular culture, appears beside personal memoir by Mick Harvey, Megan Heyward, Phil Kakulas and Rob Snarski.

Illustrated with dozens of colour photographs, many of them never before published, Vagabond Holes offers tantalizing glimpses of the elusive figure at the heart of the group- the brilliant lyricist and musician David McComb, who died aged 36 in 1999. It is required reading for all Triffids fans.