Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991

Bought the book twice. Gave it to someone who needed to read it. Picked it up again for some DIY inspiration.

great writer, great bands, and amazingly fun to read, I have read his record reviews before, ( and they too, are outstanding) , but this book is written very well, and tells the stories behind some extremely important , legendary, bands. A must have book, for any music fan, of anything outside of the mainstream

I picked up a copy of this book, almost expecting it to be like medicine: here are bands that I should have been more familiar with during my teen years in the eighties, so I'd better buckle down and learn about them.As it turned out, I was hooked from the first chapter about the shenanigans of Black Flag. This is a very entertaining read, not only for the standard stories of punk rock misbehavior (the Butthole Surfers chapter alone is worth the cost of the book), but also because the reader can't help but be struck by the dedication and sacrifices made by these artists. Their work ethic was astounding, and the rewards few and far between. Every spoiled college student, every armchair punk who sniffs about their once-favorite band selling out should be have this book carved into their sunken chests.Azerrad does a great job of combining entertaining storytelling with insightful analysis. Each band profiled had a different personality (or several), but they all show up in each other's stories, and the reader is afforded a view of the larger picture that is often lacking in individual bands' stories. As you read, you understand why he chose the bands he did, though there are a few more I would like to have seen profiled, as they are mentioned so often in the book as influences, e.g.: Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains and Meat Puppets.I finished this book right around the time the Video Music Awards were on MTV, and I'm ready to start an underground band now. We need another revolution! Any volunteers?

Well researched and well told history of the 80’s indie music scene, from LA (SST) to DC (Dischord) to NY/Boston (Homestead) to the Midwest (Twin tone) to Seattle (Sub Pop / K).I listened to all of these bands nonstop in the late 80’s and played them on the college radio station I dj’ed for. Reading this book more than 30 years later brought back great memories.Even better, playing the albums on Spotify while reading the book was a real treat, and probably not something one could easily do until the last few years.

I don't know what all the complaints are about. Azerrad has written a solid account of the punk/underground music scene in 1980s America, and it is authentic, because he was partaking of the scene at the time. I still snicker when I recall big-media coverage of the breaking "alternative" scene in 1991-92, and slick magazine hacks writing clueless articles about supposedly groundbreaking bands like Nirvana (who played loud and screamed, like <sarcasm>no one had ever done before</sarcasm>). Azerrad isn't about that, he clearly knows and loves the music of the bands he's chosen to profile, and as far as I'm concerned, having seen several of these bands perform in cramped clubs in the Decade of Reagan, he is accurate. And we get the warts too: his profile of Sonic Youth is not particularly flattering from a personal standpoint. So if you weren't around to see giants like Husker Du and Minutemen at the time and want to know how amazing they were, or if you want to revive your memories of those exciting years (when, to quote the Germs, "what we did was secret...SECRET!"), get this book.At the very least, this book is largely responsible for the revival of the careers of Mission of Burma and Dinosaur Jr, so it gets five stars just for that.On the con side: why no discography??

Love how the book is set up chapter/band: it’s very well written: concise but I think anyone, fan or not, could enjoy. I’m mid 30s and there were new band stories I had never heard. Well written as well. Not just another book of rock ‘n’ roll tall tails.

A great history of punk rock from the late 1960s through the 1990s, when the grunge explosion happened. Azerrad is one of my favorite rock journalists and he doesn't disappoint with this book, although in places it almost seems to get too detailed. It's a series of essays about the backstories of the most influential indie bands - Black Flag, Fugazi, The Replacements, Mudhoney, etc. Each section is dense and this was not a "fast read" for me. I learned a lot about the history of bands I've been listening to since I was a young teenager. Great for fans of the music genre, but if you are a die-hard fan of an individual band I'm sure you would be better off reading a book just about that band.

Our Band Could Be Your Life is a very throrugh book with about 590 pages to read. If you are of the age group of the 'Indie' records, you will identify and like reading about the known groups. If you missed the generation and always wondered what it was all about, you'll learn about what these groups went through just for getting their music heard. I was impressed with their desire to make their own songs, have a friend make the labels and distribute their records the old fashion way, locally. All this with boyhood angst, they created a new genre. I might add, there are quite a few youtubes with footage from many of their gigs, so you can listen to them. I found this most helpful whilst reading each chapter. ~

This is one of those books that you can name drop in discerning company and there’s going to at one person who’ll have had read and also thinks it’s great. A really fun read and not one of those books that you’ll give away once you’re done. Definitely part of my permanent book collection.

Oitenta e quatro reais - e o livro chega assim. Quero só ver como vai chegar o disco de vinil que está sendo transportado neste instante pela mesma firma

Libro scritto bene e approfondisce alla perfezione una decade di musica rimasta all epoca perlopiù ignorata in Italia e che ha portato al fenomeno dei Nirvana, e quindi di quanto noi consideriamo la quintessenza degli anni 90 non sia altro che la punta dell' iceberg di un fenomeno underground, strettamente americano e totalmente anni 80.

I have read a lot of rock music books. However, this is my favourite. The bands are not always familiar and there could be some that feel it should go into more detail on each band. However, this really does give a flavour if the indie (and really indie) underground in the 80's and its chronological dealing of the bands helps to put everything in context.If you recognise and like one of the bands then this book will probably leave you wanting to listen to others like Replacements, Husker Du and others.

La presentación es muy básica -se espera siendo que es pasta blanda- sin embargo poder conseguir este libro al precio en el que lo vende Amazon, es una ganga - en el Museo del Chopo esta arriba de los mil pesos-.Si te gustan bandas como Dinosaur Jr, Fugazi, Black Flag, etcétera, este libro te va a encantar, como a mi .