Pitchfork

We're not sure where they found it-- yard sale, grandparent's attic, dark alley behind the corner café-- but somebody at Melbourne, Australia-based multimedia zine The Lifted Brow recently came across a "fake bookshelf."

That is, a construction intended to give the appearance of an actual bookshelf, but, upon closer inspection, merely a collection of stripped spines wrapped around foam. The thing looks like this.

Most would discard such an oddity, or use it to build a beer pong table or something, but not The Lifted Brow! Recognizing the 103 book titles contained on the fake bookshelf's spines as a potent font of inspiration, the zine reached out to a whole bunch of creative friends-- music-minded and otherwise-- to compile the forthcoming "Fake Bookshelf" issue of The Lifted Brow.

Dan Deacon, the Wrens, the Thermals, Xiu Xiu, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Times New Viking, Islands, Shearwater, Handsome Furs, Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum (with No Kids' Nick Krgovich), Sunset Rubdown's Spencer Krug, Frog Eyes' Carey Mercer, Goblin Cock, Le Loup, Frightened Rabbit, Thee More Shallows, Home Blitz, Rock Plaza Central, No Kids, Get Him Eat Him (featuring Pitchfork contributor Matt LeMay), MGMT, and Dan Bejar's Hello, Blue Roses co-conspirator Sydney Vermont are among those asked to select a "fake" book title and get all creative with it.

Most of these folks contributed music to one of the zine's two adjoining CDs-- Elverum and Krgovich linked for a tune called "Marsh Blood", for example, while Rock Plaza Central composed a jolly little number entitled "Honeymoon With Murder". But several embraced other realms of stuff-making. For starters, Mercer took on the title "Saffron's Army" for a tale illustrated by Vermont, Deacon did some drawing, and Krug crafted a short story.

The Lifted Brow's "Fake Bookshelf" issue also abounds with full-time literary types, including Sandman scribe Neil Gaiman and the Jekyll to Lemony Snicket's Hyde, Daniel Handler.

The songs, stories, and scribbles served up by these fine folks and more will eventually comprise issue number four of The Lifted Brow, set to span one book and those two CDs when it finally does find a place next to the Los Campesinos! and Sea Monstre zines on your very real bookshelf.

We don't know exactly when yet (late 2008 is the plan though), because the Brow's editors are still seeking one essential contributor...you! The zine has launched a "Fake Bookshelf" contest, inviting the curious to submit a creative piece based on one of the many silly book titles.

Check out the contest details, the kickin' collection of prize swag (including an original Dan Deacon drawing!), and the complete list of title options right here. You only have until July 1 to come up with something, but just think of the yarns you might spin, the songs you might sing, or the doodles you might, er, doodle to the tune of titles like The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World, The Cheetah Chase, and The World of Professional Golf 1994!