Our Band Could be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground… (original: 2001; edição: 2001)

I read Our Band Could Be Your Life at a time when some of these bands were my life. I read and can recall reading half of the book, based on what was currently playing out of my computer speakers. I was a punk rock kid and my much hipper and much older brother (who only listened to bands in the second half of the book) let me borrow it to read about Black Flag, Minor Threat, Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Replacements, and then, begrudgingly, Fugazi (who I had thought at the time took themselves too seriously, let alone how serious their pompous fans took them). This book is one of the best of its kind: punk memoir, ethnography and history.

Music at the time that I read this book was necessary to my life, and it makes sense that I would want to read about its vital importance, especially DIY possibilities. I was in love with punk rock, and it consumed me. Now I would sooner read anything else. DIY naivete bores the shit out of me (in the era where Justin Bieber was found on Youtube, and every shithead has a stupid blog), and punk holds very little allure, except as nostalgia and defiant posture. Alas. These bands were my life. And then I found a life outside of them. ( )

This book was epic-ally long, but that was okay because it made me feel more like I was there. By the time your done you feel like Bruce Pavitt was your neighbor, Ian Mackaye was your uncle and Cory Rusk was your best friend. By the time you got done reading the chapter on the Replacements you were drunk, by the time you got done reading the chapter on the Butthole Surfers you were hallucinating.

Anyway you get the idea. It's in-depth. As someone who "entered the scene" in '87 it was definitely cool to hear about how it all started in this level of detail. I only really knew Black Flag, Minor Threat and Fugazi, so it was cool to look up all the other bands as I was reading their chapters.

Whenever I read this stuff I always think it sounds like some "golden past" when everything was so cool and now it's all just crap. Then I just feel like an old man waving his cane. There are still plenty of bands out there struggling to make music their life and now they have the internet to help them do that. Just hope they have as much fun doing it as I did all those years ago. ( )

Effing fantastic history of some of the best and most important bands and record labels of the American independent underground music movement. The stories are inspiring and hilarious and heart-breaking, and Azerrad is scholarly without ever being stuffy - a perfect writer to tell the tale of a brilliantly imperfect scene. A big book that could have been twice the length and still been just as enjoyable. ( )

indie rock, 1980s ( )

Recommended by Ben Apatoff - Gift from Ben Apatoff

Read through Chapter 3, then set aside to read books with due dates. I intend to come back to this! (Especially since I received an accompanying mix CD.)