Baby Got Books

Our Band Could Be Your Life

Tim previously posted on this one and then lent it to me when he was done with it, and I owe him a huge thanks for that. I am an unabashed music freak/snob/know-it-all, and the fact that I had never read this book (published in 2001) is a tragedy. Our Band Could Be Your Life, by Michael Azerrad (subtitled Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981 – 1991) is an amazing book. It provides a chapter-style, documentary-like, behind-the-scenes history of a dozen or so bands that truly defined what it meant to be an indie or punk band during the 1980′s, with stories and facts that shed such a new light on each of the featured bands that I feel like a dope for thinking I knew anything about them before reading the book. The fact that such a work could exist (i.e., a book that could provide so much unknown information to someone who thought they knew so much) is attributable in large part to Azerrad’s incredible ability to gather facts and information and then write about them as if he were there to witness what really happened.

The bands he covers (each of whom gets its own chapter) are Black Flag, the Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat, Husker Du, the Replacements, Sonic Youth, the Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Fugazi, Mudhoney, and Beat Happening (the last of which, in my opinion, was a throwaway that didn’t need to be in the book and must have been included to meet a “total pages” obligation that Azerrad had to his publisher). In any event, Azerrad’s skill at telling the stories behind these bands and the people who played in them is mesmerizing. Put it this way: the book is roughly 500 pages in length, and even with my short attention span, I didn’t think twice about whether I was going to read every page or not — I couldn’t wait to read whatever came next.

As for the guts of the book, the most startling thing is how it’s changed my impression of so many artists that I thought I knew. So many of these ground-breaking artists were complete and total ***holes. Henry Rollins, Ian Mackaye, Bob Mould, Steve Albini, Gibby Haynes, pretty much all of the Replacements — these guys do not come across as guys I’d like to have a beer with. They come across as selfish, arrogant jackasses that I wouldn’t listen to if I’d read this book before I’d heard their music. But that gave me a completely new lens to look through at these guys, and for that I’m grateful. And believe it or not, not only did it not make me not want to listen to any of them, I’ve bought a bunch of their stuff because of it. Go figure.

If you graduated high school (or were at least supposed to graduate) any time between the early 1980′s and the mid-1990′s and have any interest whatsoever in music, you absolutely must read this book. While it tells the story of bands that truly lived the indie/punk lifestyle, it also sheds a brand new light (not always favorable) on the people in those bands. Fascinating stuff.

Side note: Sonic Youth seem like cool cats, and the Minutemen were the coolest band ever. R.I.P. D. Boon, and Mike and George and Ed, how about a fIREHOSE reunion sometime?

Tags: Michael Azerrad, Our Band could be Your Life

Books, Non-Fiction, To Checkout | Shaft | August 25, 2008 8:07 am

10 Comments

By Tim, August 25, 2008 @ 10:54 am

I’ve been listening to Mission of Burma and The Minutemen since finishing this book. I need to find more of Azzerad’s writing.
By Shaft, August 25, 2008 @ 12:35 pm

If he invests as much time in his next book as he must have invested in this one, I’d expect a release date sometime around 2015.
By Tim, August 25, 2008 @ 1:50 pm

He does have a few other titles.
By Pete, August 25, 2008 @ 2:05 pm

Admittedly, Beat Happening is the odd man out in this collection. But in many ways that band exemplified the DIY, this-is-our-thing-and-we-don’t-give-a-rat’s-ass-whether-you-like-us-or-not ethos that Azzerad champions.
By Flavawheel1, August 25, 2008 @ 10:04 pm

Yeah, Beat Happening is virtually unlistenable yet oddly endearing, and back in the day I enjoyed many an evening torturing my neighbors to their droning skronk.

I have to say, though, I don’t find it that surprising that some of these guys were jackasses. For instance, it doesn’t come as huge shock that Steve Albini, who brought us “Songs About F@cking” and the band Rapeman, might not be the nicest guy in the world. And as far as I can tell, Gibby Haynes has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. According to the Daniel Johnston documentary, for example, it seems as though Haynes took no small joy in feeding the unstable, schizophrenic Johnston all the LSD he could get his hands on. That’s nice.

But as glowing review after review comes down the pike, I realize that I’d have to be an idiot not to get my hands on this book. I’m making it my mission this week.
By Shaft, August 26, 2008 @ 8:12 am

I initially thought about toning down my comment about these guys’ personalities, but then I decided to let my gut reaction stand.

As for your mission, I’ll be handing the copy Tim and I read back to Tim tomorrow at lunch . . . .
By Tim, August 26, 2008 @ 11:04 am

I think that Paul nailed it, Beat Happening are in the book because of their DIY ethos – they founded K Records, which is still doing their thing,and at one time were considered cool enough that Kurt Cobain had their logo tattooed on his arm.

Make it happen, Flava
By Frank E., August 21, 2011 @ 7:23 pm

It’s important for such books to document, however belatedly, that era of American underground culture – although it is unfortunate that such books often have the last (or only) word on the characters of the persons it describes; that such books can amount to little more than academically-legit hipster gossip. I knew personally some of the people whom the book describes, and for the author to have unanimously conveyed to readers that those guys were “a-holes” says more of the writer than of the gents in question. Some of them may not have liked Mr. Azzerad; the reader should take such things into consideration. Also worth considering is that, to have successful musical careers, as they had, under such conditions at the time, required a healthy dose of healthy arrogance (that is to say, belief in their music and the awareness that it was head-and-shoulders above most bands’) and assiduous, vexingly intransigent drive. Bear in mind having to threaten or commit violence in order to get paid for a gig or a tour, living in a van with three to five others for months at a time, being physically attacked by yahoos and drunk people, financing the recording and manufacturing of their own records with the hard-earned money from gigging, dealing with the indescribable weirdness of people in the underground scene at the time, and eating in soup kitchens, when necessary, on tour, and it’ll make for some serious-minded folks who aren’t about to kiss some journalist’s butt.
By Frank E., August 21, 2011 @ 7:39 pm

Please let me add that the music of the “a-holes” in question would never have been made, nor gained its prominence, nor have endured as both influential and time-tested, if not for the healthy arrogance and vexingly intransigent drive of those musicians. One pays homage to those qualities in honoring and enjoying the music of the bands profiled in this book.
By Tim, August 23, 2011 @ 9:14 am

Have you read the book? Azerrad doesn’t inject his opinion of the characters in question – it’s more an opinion that reader gets after reading accounts of some of their more questionable exploits. One of the guys who came off looking like a jerk – Bob Mould – was impressed enough with Azerrad’s work that he co-wrote Mould’s own memoir.

Read our other review of the book for more. It really is a well-balanced book and is surprisingly inspirational, too: http://www.babygotbooks.com/2008/07/18/our-band-could-be-your-life/