Fun Stuff > BAND
Our Band Could Be Your Life
Jackie Blue:
...are you being serious, tommy?
Really?
I'll admit I laughed at a lot of the stories (especially a stoned Lou Barlow bumping into J Mascis right after Nirvana blew up and telling him that Dinosaur Jr. could have done it and didn't because J is a douchebag) but the book is more than the stories. If the book were JUST the stories I'd probably like it, though I'd still say that it focuses entirely on, for lack of a better term, "pre-grunge" music and ignores literally everything else that was happening in the 80s.
Maybe it's an age thing, I've never heard anybody over the age of 25 or so say anything positive about it.
EDIT:
--- Quote from: Spinless on 14 Dec 2007, 15:09 ---It's just a book that talks about some popular bands in their original context!
--- End quote ---
But my contention is that it presents itself as being more than just that, that many people take it as being more than just that, and that it contains factual errors and hack-journalistic writing. Hence my question being "Why do people like it?" because I honestly can't understand why.
KvP:
No offense, zerodrone, but it seems like every time you post you seem agitated and outraged about something. I don't see what the big deal is.
a pack of wolves:
--- Quote from: zerodrone on 14 Dec 2007, 15:23 ---...are you being serious, tommy?
Really?
I'll admit I laughed at a lot of the stories (especially a stoned Lou Barlow bumping into J Mascis right after Nirvana blew up and telling him that Dinosaur Jr. could have done it and didn't because J is a douchebag) but the book is more than the stories. If the book were JUST the stories I'd probably like it, though I'd still say that it focuses entirely on, for lack of a better term, "pre-grunge" music and ignores literally everything else that was happening in the 80s.
Maybe it's an age thing, I've never heard anybody over the age of 25 or so say anything positive about it.
EDIT:
--- Quote from: Spinless on 14 Dec 2007, 15:09 ---It's just a book that talks about some popular bands in their original context!
--- End quote ---
But my contention is that it presents itself as being more than just that, that many people take it as being more than just that, and that it contains factual errors and hack-journalistic writing. Hence my question being "Why do people like it?" because I honestly can't understand why.
--- End quote ---
It's a non-fiction and non-academic book, so unfortunately it will present itself as being more than it is. 'Scenes from the American indie underground' just sounds better than a plain description of it and given the nature of marketing that's what they'll go for. I'm not saying I like it but I'd be very surprised if you could find a book in a similar genre from a commercial publisher that didn't do something extremely similar, so unless you want to stick to academia (which has its own problems) you'll have to live with this kind of thing.
As for the factual errors, I don't remember any but your industrial example proves there were some (I know about as much about industrial as Azerrad apparently does). Again, not a good thing at all but also something I'd be surprised not to see in a book of this kind so I'm willing to accept them.
Hack-journalistic writing? Hmm, I do see what you mean about Azerrad's style. I don't mind it myself but there you go.
Fundamentally, I suppose it boils down to what Tommy said. If you write a better book about some of my favourite bands of all time like the Minutemen, Black Flag and Minor Threat then I and a lot of other people will no doubt dearly love it, but at the moment there isn't much competition and Our Band... stands out as being very superior to what there is. If you know of anything about similar bands that you believe to be better I'd love to know.
KvP:
I see. Maybe it's because I haven't been here for very long. Or maybe it's because everything I worship is incredibly bland, which is very possible.
Jackie Blue:
--- Quote from: tommydski on 14 Dec 2007, 15:31 ---More importantly, Greg Ginn started SST. This label put out records by the Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth, the Minutemen, Saccharine Trust, Husker Du and Dinosaur Jr. Regardless of what you think of these bands, they were a gigantic influence on a lot of bands you probably quite like. Without Greg Ginn's persistence and strange lunacy in this particular aspect of his life, I don't think SST would have been possible. Without SST we would not have many of the bands or labels we have enjoyed since.
--- End quote ---
I understand that, what I'm saying is that there was so much more happening than "the SST thing".
Can you at least admit that the focus of the book is extremely narrow?
As for "other books that do it better". Well, how about Get In the Van? How about Confusion Is Next? How about any book written by people who were actually there instead of a rock journalist?
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