Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir

I caught her on a TV channel called Portlandia and liked her so much that I got this book. It is well written. She studied a language-type subject in college. I would like more detail on that because she is so interesting. She is also cute.

Without seeing Carrie Brownstein on a television talk show, I can guarantee my Kindle library list would never included "Hunger Makes Me a Modern Woman:A Memoir." However, seeing her guest appearance on theLate Night Show with Stephen Colbert revealed Brownstein as an intelligent, funny, articulate woman that I wanted to know more about. I am not a musician; I detest punk rock; know very little about the girl bands and the indie musical movement in the Northwest begun in the 1990s. Sure, I was familiar with the names Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, but that was the extent of my knowledge about the world of Carrie Brownstein, guitarist for the all-girl band Sleater-Kinney. I had never even heard of a band by that name, or the many other bands she mentions throughout her book. However, as I read this memoir, I became impressed and fascinated by her vocabulary and use of language. As a reader I connected more with her sharing herself as an avid reader, her disfunctional home life, and her deep introspection as she searched to understand herself: where she had been and where she was going. The string of evidently "well-known" bands and individual artists within this genre meant nothing to me. Yet, I found her word smithing compelling and most intriguing. For that reason, this book is worth reading. I never glimpsed the total woman I saw on the talk show, but saw glimmers of her here and there. The work certainly burst my stereotypical vision of punk rockers and busting stereotypes is always a good thing. I would love to see Brownstein pursue a literary career; if her use of language could keep me reading through all the material in this book that completely disinterested me, just imagine how enjoyable she could make a good fictional story!

Carrie Brownstein writes from the gut. She tells the truth and leaves out the boring "in-betweens." She shapes her persona, starting with a creative, funny, yet poignant description of her childhood exploits, many revealing a restless soul. She then maps out the frenzied and frenetic business of "keeping up" with music, soaking it all in, immersing herself in the rich Olympia scene, until she is ripe and ready to fling herself into the musical foray. Brownstein and two friends form the band Sleater-Kinney. The whole book is infused with self-deprecation, keen social observations, and fresh and surprising personal and social insights. She describes viscerally the ups and downs of touring, recording, success, and maps the various trajectories that each experience takes her. I fell in love with this book from the outset. It is so personal and honest. It is so great to hear from someone who went through all of this and still wound up a delightful, insightful, balanced artist who maintains her creativity.

If you want me to tell you all about Sleater-Kinney, Riot Grrrl, and Portlandia...I can't. I know nothing about any of these topics. I know that S-K were a band (and are, as they've reformed), and I have heard the term "Riot Grrrl" thrown around in books about music in the Nineties. And Portlandia is some show that I've heard of only in passing. So maybe I'm not the ideal audience for this book...but then again, maybe I am."Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl," by Carrie Brownstein, was the subject of a review on the Onion's AV Club that I came across recently. The review piqued my interest in a book written, admittedly, by a musician whose work was (and still is) unknown to me. In much the same way that I let curiosity steer me towards Questlove's memoir without really knowing much about the Roots, I found myself interested in reading this book even though I was in the dark about Sleater-Kinney or Brownstein's other endeavors.For a non-fan, this is actually a really interesting, enjoyable book. The subject is not so much Brownstein's life (though it is the main thrust of it) as it is creativity, and her search for artistic fulfillment and meaning. Having a voice, having something to say, is the noblest reason to pursue artistic success, and Brownstein shows that she found that voice and that message through her work inside and outside of music. She shines a light on the music scene in the Northwest circa 1992, when Nirvana was hitting big and any band with a Seattle zip code and a wardrobe of flannel could find success (even though S-K, according to her, always remained on the margins of commercial success, they did find a rabid fan base that exists to this day). She also addresses the sexism that rock music has ingrained within it (reading some of the reviews S-K got that she includes in the book is cringe-worthy, even from the journalists who meant well). This memoir might be written for the S-K fan, but even non-fans like me can find their way through without too much of a map to navigate the various ups and downs of the band's history.I may not be the go-to guy on Sleater-Kinney or Carrie Brownstein's other projects, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy her memoir. And I will likely be checking out S-K in the near future.

Excelente.

After Bruce Springsteen, it had to be Carrie Brownstein. Born To Run, The Boss’s autobiography, gives way to Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl, autobiography of the guitarist with Pacific North West band Sleater-Kinney.Up until a couple of years ago, Sleater-Kinney only barely registered on my radar, and Carrie Brownstein not at all. That changed with a visit to Seattle’s EMP museum, surely the coolest museum in the world. On the back of wandering through EMP’s Nirvana exhibition I bought the catalogue that complements it. That spurred the purchase of a few S-K CDs and curiosity regarding the origins of the songs.In Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl, Brownstein in part at least addresses that curiosity, but more importantly provides an insight into a rock’n’roll mind. Some of the perspective is slightly different from Springsteen’s: as with him there’s a little bit of a hint that Brownstein was trying to impress the girls in choosing music as a career, but the table is slightly more tilted to the overwhelming desire to play music and send a message, where with The Boss the initial impression at least is that it was for him the other way round.Brownstein’s account of her early years sees her faced, amongst other things, with the instability of her parents’ marriage on the back of her mother’s anorexia. The anorexia in a way leads Brownstein to become a child expert on that and a number of other ailments. That in turn provides her with an opportunity to give us an amusing, if somewhat macabre, vison of her young self as a quasi-therapist to the adults around her, engaging in informed discussions of their symptoms and remedies. It is reminiscent, in a way, of the doctor character Lucy assumes in the Peanuts comic strip.As a teenager she wrangles with common teenage issues regarding the direction she wants her life to head in. She is mostly torn between following a respectable(-ish) path through college and into a regular job and taking herself off that path in order to be a musician. She talks of the many early musical influences in her life, including Nirvana, Bikini Kill and, pivotally, Heavens to Betsy, whose singer Corin Tucker begins as an inspiration, later becomes her mentor as their bands tour together, and eventually becomes the song-writing half of the driving duo behind Sleater-Kinney alongside Brownstein.Throughout this period, although the details are different, the general feel of paying your dues is a theme in common with Springsteen’s account, underlining in both the intense motivation to succeed. Life on the road is gruelling and, often, quite yukkily unhygienic, and then there is the issue of finding the right musicians as accompaniment, one which adds further amusing episodes.Having noted the similarities with Springsteen, however, there are numerous outstanding differences. First is typified in Brownstein’s account of S-K recording their first album, Call The Doctor. Where Springsteen at the equivalent stage was all confident, professional alpha male, Brownstein is more diffident, and the approach is far more DIY, learn-on-the-job stuff, where Springsteen has an experienced crew on hand.The other critical difference relates to gender and sexual orientation and how these are treated by the media. First example: it is doubtful that Springsteen was ever asked why he chose to be in an all-male band (pre Patti Scialfa); yet it seems at least one journalist feels it legitimate to ask S-K why they chose to be in an all-female one. Second, at a time when Brownstein herself had yet to decide on her sexual orientation, another journalist decided it was in the public interest to “out” her as a lesbian. I don’t remember Springsteen ever being outed as a heterosexual. And third, there are the frustrations Brownstein expresses at live reviews that focus more on the clothes the band wore than on the music itself.That the press, in Barney Hoskins’s words in his intro to Reckless Daughter, tend toward “the crass and the facile” is of no surprise, unfortunately. Who can forget this headline in the Daily Mail: “Charli XCX flashes her underwear as she takes to the stage at Glastonbury in naughty schoolgirl outfit”? Hoskins’s words referred to the sort of reportage experienced by Rolling Stone’s erstwhile “old lady of the year”, Joni Mitchell, another female star who, as that accolade illustrates, suffered throughout her career at the hands of the dreg-end of the fourth estate. All ambitious female stars, in whichever profession, continue to face this kind of treatment.So, to the music. Amongst other things, Brownstein writes about the influences and inspirations behind the decision not to have a bass in the band, the song Jumpers, the album One Beat, and the sound on The Woods (as I suspected, Led Zep were involved). There’s an account of the role played by the Olympia/Seattle scene, punk and Riot Grrrl in the formation of the S-K style. And she amusingly recounts the experience of supporting Pearl Jam: she has nothing but admiration for the band, and especially Eddie Vedder; they found out quite early that the things S-K were able to say to their own fans didn’t necessarily go down well with the wider kind of audience at Pearl Jam shows; and while S-K struggle on with a road crew of three, Pearl Jam have an entire army.Towards the end of the book, with her health spinning downwards whilst the band are on tour, Brownstein brings about their disbandment. Fortunately we know there’s a happy ending, and in the Epilogue she briefly writes about their reconstitution and “low key” comeback gig in Spokane, to which fans travel from all over the world.

I'm only half way through the book but I am soooo happy I purchased it. I know very little about her, basically nothing about her music but it's still such an interesting read. So many great passages, I might re-read it actually.

A​h, another rock memoir. Hunger Made Me A Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein came out pretty much on my birthday (Oct 28) and it was by far one of the best birthdays presents I could have gotten (for myself). I am a HUGE Sleater-Kinney fan and have been for a while, but unlike some bands where I need to know every single thing about everyone involved, I actually haven’t read much into the band or the band members personally and admire them solely for their music. So this was a very interesting snapshot behind the scenes for me and going in blind actually made it a very cool.​This didn’t read like a typical memoir to me. It wasn’t laced with accomplishments and stories that basically show how cool Brownstein is. In fact, it was quite the opposite; full of insecurities and personal doubts and embarrassing struggles. It was very intimate in that sense, intimate yet still somehow able to keep the reader at arm’s length. There were personal stories and feelings and insights, but everything still felt pretty guarded.Mostly, though, this was a verbal account of Brownstein’s musical career. From her early obsessive fangirl days, to trying to form her first bands, to forming Sleater-Kinney and walking the reader through recording sessions of each Sleater-Kinney album. It was more about what she was thinking and feeling while writing and recording these albums as opposed to any kind of broad general life analysis, which I thought was awesome, considering it is the music that drew me to them in the first place. It resonated with me deeper than anything else would have. Reading back on their early days and discovering their story through Brownstein’s words and memories was a great reader experience.The description of that first moment when it all clicked​ for her,​ when she listened to Bikini Kill and suddenly, her entire life was explained in one song. THAT is what music is for me. THAT is a feeling ​I​ will never forget and never get tired of. And that was my favourite part of the book. It was the descriptions of music by someone so passionately a fan of music, that’s what makes this book so great.I have read a ton of music books and memoirs and I don’t think any of them are as rawly descriptive about the writing and performing and touring as this here is. ​This was great.Originally posted on citygirlscapes.com

The memoir of the Sleater-Kinney member, Carrie Brownstein, it's the testimony of the Gold Era of the feminist Punk music. It works in many levels, from the personal diary, to the historic narration and through the tale that includes common experiences with other musicians. The rawness, but also the fidelity with which Brownstein writes, makes this book a must-have for any music lover.