2009 Reading #82: Our Band Could Be Your Life

[snurri]

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
81. Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.

82. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad. Another loaner from janradder. (I am a terrible book borrower, so I'm trying to get some of this stuff back to him.) Azerrad profiles thirteen bands that were alternative before "alternative" became a marketing category; some of these bands were hugely important for me (Dinosaur Jr, the Replacements), while others I know only by reputation (Beat Happening, Mission of Burma). This is, I think it's fair to say, something of a hagiography; much of the book is nakedly reverent, and even when talking about the foibles of various musicians and label runners it mostly has a tone of fond amusement. I can't say I minded, though. One thing that nagged at me throughout, though, was how many of these stories are boy's stories, and white boys specifically; granted, Azerrad has no control over the nature of indie rock or the timing of when punk broke, but it'd be nice to see someone profile the Runaways, Hole, Babes in Toyland, L7, Sleater-Kinney, etc. in a similar fashion. (Perhaps someone has and I'm not aware of it?) Despite that reservation, this is one hell of an inspiring book--the defiant trailblazing of Black Flag, the DIY ethics of the Minutemen and Fugazi, are humbling, since I feel like I still haven't figured out how to get most of my energy into my art. Punk rock, despite its anyone-can-do-it credo, is as prone to myth-making as the rest of rock 'n roll, and this (along with, say, Please Kill Me) is a sort of Prose Edda of the pantheon. Highly recommended for fans of the era and genre of music.

Comments

[jsridler.livejournal.com]

Loved the book, though I don't recall it being haigiographic for all the bands. And it cut into some of the myth making from the era (Henry Rollins could be a dickhead, the Replacements were assholes 90% of the time to 90% of everyone in their path, including their old manager and bandmates; Bob Mould was not a pleasant human to be around a good lot of the time). At least it tempered things better than when these bands write about themselves (and if you want to read a myth smasher, check out All Over But the SHouting, an oral history of the Replacements. Westerberg's an asshat, and being talented doesn't change that).

I guess I'm not well versed on the female bands of the era that made the same kind of dent that these bands did on indie and then mainstream music via the Nirvana explosion (Hole is too after the fact, as is L7 and Babes in Toyland, I think: their fame and impact came out of the trail blazed by these bands and Nirvana). Were there female bands as big and important as Black Flag and the Minutemen from this era? Outside of bands with female members (Sonic Youth, Pixies), I'm drawing a blank.

But a lot of the book is inspiring, especially the "DYI" and damn the torpedoes attitude of MoB (who are awesome, by the way), Black Flag, Minutemen. Glad you dug it.

JSR

[snurri.livejournal.com]

The weird thing about the Replacements, though, is that people love them even more for being dicks. I guess that's kind of what I meant. I agree, though, that the book doesn't portray everyone as saints; it's just that there's a tone of awe to most if not all of the portraits.

What I was trying to say when I mentioned the timing, etc. was that I know that the all-female bands generally came after this, it's just that the absence of a female presence really stood out to me. Not a deficiency in the book, exactly, but it troubles me a bit that indie rock was no different from any other era in that respect. I'm not sure it's changed still, although I think it's better. So that's something outside of the book, but something I was thinking about as I read it.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I think that one of the reasons there wasn't a huge presence of female punk bands in the eighties (at least, American punk bands) is that hardcore drove a lot of the female musicians away. If you look at pre-1980 you'll see a larger number of women in punk rock (people like Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, and Poly Styrene talk about how the reason they got into punk was because how open it was to women). Post-1980, though -- when hardcore really took over what punk was and when bands like X, Talking Heads, Blondie, and the Go-Go's (among others) were shoved into "New Wave" -- the women disappear with a few notable exceptions. Even things like slamdancing tended to have more girls involved before hardcore. Even though not all of the bands in the book were hardcore, they came from or existed in that world. It wasn't until the late eighties and early nineties that this started to change with bands like Babes in Toyland and Bikini Kill (if you haven't, you should listen to the phone call Kathleen Hanna made to Mike Watt that he put on Ball Hog or Tugboat? -- it sums up the male-driven music of the eighties, at least from her perspective).

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I should say, too; sometimes I think these capsule reviews come across more negative than I intend. To be clear, I liked the book a lot.