Morgan Brown

Van Halen are arguably America's greatest ever rock n' roll band. From inauspicious roots as a backyard covers outfit, they went on to revolutionise and revitalise heavy rock, creating a world-conquering blend of heavy metal power, punk energy and pop hooks. Armed with staggering musical virtuosity and irresistible charisma, they sold millions of records and spawned legions of imitators. From their humble origins and meteoric rise, through some dark, troubled years, to their triumphant rebirth, the band produced a remarkable body of work. In this thorough and illuminating book, Morgan Brown guides us song by song through the band's classic albums, charting their development from Sunset Strip upstarts to multi-platinum stadium rockers and beyond. We'll examine the music's ingredients and inspirations, and meet the characters behind the songs, including visionary guitar genius, the late Edward Van Halen, motormouth master showman David Lee Roth, and his replacement, powerful vocalist Sammy Hagar, who ushered in a new era for the band. Equally suitable for inquisitive new listeners or long-time fans, this book is both an in-depth guide to, and an enthusiastic celebration of the career of a truly legendary band. Feel like diving in? Well, as Roth said, go ahead and jump!

The Damned are a great British rock n’ roll institution. They have helped to plot the course of guitar music over the last 45 years, putting UK punk on record for the first time in 1976, and going on to lay the groundwork for the hardcore, Goth, post-punk, indie-pop and horror-punk movements that have thrived in their wake. Ever underestimated by critics, their string of classic albums has nevertheless been hugely influential, from the trailblazing punk of Damned Damned Damned, to the epic, eclectic sprawl of The Black Album, through the glossy dark-pop of Phantasmagoria, to the genre-spanning triumph of the recent Evil Spirits and beyond. In this book, Morgan Brown takes a fascinating deep dive into each of the band’s groundbreaking records, unearthing the stories and inspirations behind them, picking apart their musical building blocks, and examining both the creative process and the creators themselves - visionary early leader Brian James, iconic frontman Dave Vanian, madcap genius Captain Sensible, volatile percussive dervish Rat Scabies and many more. Curious new listeners and long-time aficionados alike will find this book the perfect companion on a voyage of discovery into the strange, chaotic, wonderful world of the Damned.

Growth is now the first thing that investors look for in assessing and valuing companies. HACKING GROWTH is a method for growth that involves cross-functional teams and continuous testing and iteration. It focuses on customers - how to attain them, retain them, engage them, and monetize them - rather than product. This book deals with this topic.

The definitive playbook by the pioneers of Growth Hacking, one of the hottest business methodologies in Silicon Valley and beyond.It seems hard to believe today, but there was a time when Airbnb was the best-kept secret of travel hackers and couch surfers, Pinterest was a niche web site frequented only by bakers and crafters, LinkedIn was an exclusive network for C-suite executives and top-level recruiters, Facebook was MySpace's sorry step-brother, and Uber was a scrappy upstart that didn't stand a chance against the Goliath that was New York City Yellow Cabs. So how did these companies grow from these humble beginnings into the powerhouses they are today? Contrary to popular belief, they didn't explode to massive worldwide popularity simply by building a great product then crossing their fingers and hoping it would catch on. There was a studied, carefully implemented methodology behind these companies' extraordinary rise. That methodology is called Growth Hacking, and it's practitioners include not just today's hottest start-ups, but also companies like IBM, Walmart, and Microsoft as well as the millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, managers and executives who make up the community of Growth Hackers. Think of the Growth Hacking methodology as doing for market-share growth what Lean Start-Up did for product development, and Scrum did for productivity. It involves cross-functional teams and rapid-tempo testing and iteration that focuses customers attaining them, retaining them, engaging them, and motivating them to come back and buy more. An accessible and practical toolkit that teams and companies in all industries can use to increase their customer base and market share, this book walks readers through the process of creating and executing their own custom-made growth hacking strategy. It is a must read for any marketer, entrepreneur, innovator or manger looking to replace wasteful big bets and "spaghetti-on-the-wall" approaches with more consistent, replicable, cost-effective, and data-driven results.

In a Rationalist Critique of Deconstruction, Morgan A. Brown engages in the most thorough criticism of Deconstruction and Structuralism to date, working from the standpoint of rationalist philosophy. Not only does he outline exactly what Deconstruction is, but he also outlines the methodology at the root of Jacques Derrida's pet philosophy of language. Brown draws amply from the insights of Austrian Economics in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. Hayek, and guides the reader through his critique with a self-consistent structure of methodical argumentation. Part epistemology, part linguistics, and part microeconomic theory, the book is a veritable textbook for the Humanities and a handy reference for the libertarian and conservative intellectual. Deconstruction is best examined through the lens of microeconomic rationalism, since Derrida's theory is at base a literary incarnation of Vilfredo Pareto's Indifference Theory.

In A Rationalist Critique of Deconstruction: Demystifying Poststructuralism and Derrida's Science of the "Non," Morgan A. Brown engages in the most thorough criticism of Deconstruction and Structuralism to date, working from the standpoint of rationalist philosophy. Not only does he outline exactly what Deconstruction is, but he also outlines the methodology at the root of Jacques Derrida's pet philosophy of language. Brown draws amply from the insights of Austrian Economics in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. Hayek, and he guides the reader through his critique with a self-consistent structure of methodical argumentation. Part epistemology, part linguistics, and part microeconomic theory, the book is a veritable textbook for the Humanities and a handy reference for the libertarian and conservative intellectual. Deconstruction is best examined through the lens of microeconomic rationalism, since Derrida's theory is at base a literary incarnation of Vilfredo Pareto's Indifference Theory.