Jacob McMurray

A love letter to Nirvana? To be fair the book was put out by "Experience Music Project, Seattle's museum of music and popular culture" so there is bound to be a skew towards their most famous residents. The book was less of a book than a museum catalog with artifacts on one page and various stories or quotes told on the opposite page. It was interesting, I learned new things, but perhaps it seems somehow too recent to have a retrospective of a 3-4 yr (?) period in time.

Borrowed this from the library & the DVD was missing, which may have led to the feeling of incompleteness or glossing over any real story this book had to tell. The book also seemed to try to tell the story of punk/grunge/music in a broad (int'l?) context but then include minutia about local bands that were not known outside of the Northwest.

Curious if the the book is slanted towards what is in the museum's collection, or by who they were able to contact and interview, but it felt like all the quotes were from the same people or perspectives. A very glossy look at a time/scene that was known for its dirt and grittiness.

Three to three and half stars as a museum catalog, two stars as a book.

Oh and the subtitle of the book is From Nowhere to Nevermind, and I have to admit I don't know what Nowhere is referring to, perhaps it is alluding to the NW being "Nowheresville USA"? or maybe there was an album or work of art called Nowhere?… (more)