Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From The American Indie Underground 1981-1991

I read Our Band Could Be Your Life at a time when some of these bands were my life. I read and can recall reading half of the book, based on what was currently playing out of my computer speakers. I was a punk rock kid and my much hipper and much older brother (who only listened to bands in the second half of the book) let me borrow it to read about Black Flag, Minor Threat, Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Replacements, and then, begrudgingly, Fugazi (who I had thought at the time took themselves too seriously, let alone how serious their pompous fans took them). This book is one of the best of its kind: punk memoir, ethnography and history.

Music at the time that I read this book was necessary to my life, and it makes sense that I would show more want to read about its vital importance, especially DIY possibilities. I was in love with punk rock, and it consumed me. Now I would sooner read anything else. DIY naivete bores the shit out of me (in the era where Justin Bieber was found on Youtube, and every shithead has a stupid blog), and punk holds very little allure, except as nostalgia and defiant posture. Alas. These bands were my life. And then I found a life outside of them. show less

This book was epic-ally long, but that was okay because it made me feel more like I was there. By the time your done you feel like Bruce Pavitt was your neighbor, Ian Mackaye was your uncle and Cory Rusk was your best friend. By the time you got done reading the chapter on the Replacements you were drunk, by the time you got done reading the chapter on the Butthole Surfers you were hallucinating.

Anyway you get the idea. It's in-depth. As someone who "entered the scene" in '87 it was definitely cool to hear about how it all started in this level of detail. I only really knew Black Flag, Minor Threat and Fugazi, so it was cool to look up all the other bands as I was reading their chapters.

Whenever I read this stuff I always think it show more sounds like some "golden past" when everything was so cool and now it's all just crap. Then I just feel like an old man waving his cane. There are still plenty of bands out there struggling to make music their life and now they have the internet to help them do that. Just hope they have as much fun doing it as I did all those years ago. show less

Effing fantastic history of some of the best and most important bands and record labels of the American independent underground music movement. The stories are inspiring and hilarious and heart-breaking, and Azerrad is scholarly without ever being stuffy - a perfect writer to tell the tale of a brilliantly imperfect scene. A big book that could have been twice the length and still been just as enjoyable.

Perhaps partly because some of these bands are among my all time favourites, I thought this was the best book on rock music I've ever read.

It contains 13 potted biographies of American underground/alternative bands of the early 1980s - Black Flag, Minor Threat, The Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Husker Du, The Replacements, Big Black, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, The Butthole Surfers, Fugazi, Mudhoney and Beat Happening. The cutoff point was the release of Nirvana's "Nevermind" LP in 1991, which effectively took the kind of music these bands made and the attitude they had overground.

All could loosely be described as punks, although the music they made is actually quite varied. From the short sharp speedy bursts of noise made by Minor Threat show more to the arty avant-garde stylings of Sonic Youth to the epic guitar solos of Dinosaur to the amateurish lo-fidelity recordings of Beat Happening, these bands operated outside the mainstream and certainly weren't in the music business to make large sums of money.

Music was a passion for these bands and their fans, hence the book's title, which is nicked from a Minutemen lyric. Some have been moderately successful - I was startled to discover Fugazi have sold 2 million records worldwide - most have merely been influential, even, to use that dreaded rock cliché, seminal. Bands like Green Day would not exist if it had not been for these pioneers.

Azerrad conducted interviews with pretty much all the major players in these bands rather than relying on research material so its certainly thorough whilst being as concise as a 500 page book can be.

These bands had pretty colourful histories and contained some quite eccentric characters, many of them drawn to making music because they were misfits of one sort or another - proto-slacker J Mascis (Dinosaur), misanthropic Steve Albini (Big Black), the rigid "straight edge" morality of Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat/Fugazi - straight edgers do not partake in alcohol, sex or drugs, just rock 'n' roll), the musclebound self loathing of Henry Rollins (Black Flag) and the acid fried lunatics that comprised the Butthole Surfers.

Even though many of these bands emerged only a quarter of a century ago, the world described has virtually disappeared so the book is almost an historical document.

This was a tight knit world of limited edition vinyl singles on independent labels often started by the bands themselves (some like SST, Sub Pop, Dischord and Touch & Go are still going and still release great records), photocopied fanzines, college radio stations, endless touring in battered vans to play all ages shows (many small gigs in the USA are in bars and don't admit anyone under 21, meaning many of the bands' fans would not have been able to see them play live) for low prices (Fugazi had a policy of never charging more than $5 admission) and sleeping on fans' floors.

Some, like Mission of Burma, were hugely successful in their hometowns (Boston in MoB's case) and virtually unknown elsewhere, or inspired fiercely regional scenes as Mudhoney did in Seattle. Nowadays, bands set themselves up on myspace and away they go.

I found it fascinating and raced through it. As I say, whilst the subject matter might not be of interest to all, a brilliant book. Highly recommended. show less

Azerrad's book is a fantastic intro to American indie rock of the 1980s. Full of anecdotes, gossip, and band histories, this is an informative and entertaining read that pokes holes in all those narratives about Nirvana ushering in indie and punk rock in the 90s. However, all his talk about the emancipatory politics of DIY gets quite tiresome and reduces the complexity of indie rock into a simple case of 'us' (i.e. cultured, hip, and cool indie) vs. 'them' (uncouth, square, and corporate mainstream rock). Still a good read though.

What a great book. I found it a bit slow at first while it went over some bands that I wasn't terribly familiar with, but it's such an informative and interesting history of indie rock in the 80s and 90s. It covers the bands and indie labels that evolved into some of my favorite music of all time.

The author has a chapter on each band covered in the book, from Black Flag to Beat Happening and everyone in between. My favorite chapters were on Mudhoney (an excellent history of the Seattle scene and Sub Pop's rise and fall) and Dinosaur Jr. It was also great to read about labels like Sub Pop, SST, K, Homestead, Dischord and Touch & Go (among others) and how they really made a huge impact on the indie scene. Although most of them are gone or show more bought out, their legacies cannot be denied.

The best thing about this book is that it focuses entirely on indie bands while they were indie. This means that the book isn't dominated by the bands I already know so much about, like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and their major label peers.

This book is recommended for anybody who has a passion for music, especially the sounds from the 80s and 90s. show less

wonderfully in-depth birth-to-death stories about a buttload of independent bands in the 80s. It was fun to not just learn about the bands, but to learn about the entire indie ecosystem. The bands, the labels, the clubs, the floors to sleep on after shows. I learned a lot and enjoyed it thoroughly.