Book Report(ing):The Last of the New Wave Rebels

If a ghost is neither seen nor heard, is it really a ghost?

In the annals of forgotten souls waiting to be discovered, the late Peter Ivers has been waiting since his murder on March 3rd, 1983 for redemption. For a man who can be seen as the connection between David Lynch, Chevy Chase and Fear, that redemption is long overdue.

Josh Frank, author of Fool the World: An Oral History of a Band Called Pixies and his partner Charlie Buckholtz have created an homage to Ivers with their newest offering In Heaven Everything is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre, an impressively researched book that documents Iver's eccentric career.

Ivers was, among other things, the man Muddy Waters called "the greatest harp player alive", a songwriter whose composition (which the book's title shares) would go on to be the most well known moments in the David Lynch film Eraserhead, and host of the influential but criminally overlooked television show, New Wave Theatre from 1981-1983.

In 295 pages the book also tries to investigate the mysterious murder of Ivers which to this day is still unsolved, the tragic end of the largely undocumemted story of a man who lived a life that could only be experienced in gritty early 80's LA.


Peter singing "In Heaven Everything is Fine"



Weirdos on New Wave Theatre




Writer Josh Frank talking about Peter and the book