Sonic Youth in Our Band Could Be Your Life
 

Is it just me, or does Michael Azerrad paint Sonic Youth to be be really big assholes? I just got the book yesterday and started with the Sonic Youth part. It really seems like they just used a lot of people to get ahead in the indie rock world.

I saw that book yesterday and was about to pick it up when I was distracted by a Pettibon artbook. What is it even about?

it's the biography of black flag, minutemen, mission of burma, minor threat, hüsker dü, replacements, big black, sy, butthole surfers, dinosaur jr, mudhoney, fugazi and beat happening and how they contributed to the indie rock movement of the eighties.

i hate michael azzerad...i won't be ungrateful because finding the history of most these bands is hard and having the book is pretty good. but i hate how simplistic he puts everything.

in short, he wrote the book to prove where nirvana's roots are which is missing the whole point of indie rock. also, according to him, all bands owe to r.e.m., got shit from p.i.l. and all are hippies in disguise. plus most everything from sy's part of the book is pretty much cut n' pasted from confusion is next: the book, plus some annecdotes aside.

i recommend reading the book but with a fairly critical mind and not believing everything he wrote.

I read this when it came out. I don't remember him portraying anybody in a bad way, my memory is of him being, if anything, a bit obsequious. It WAS a while ago though so I may be mistaken.

It has the history of American underground in the form of 13 chapters detailing 13 bands:
Black Flag
Minutemen
Minor Threat
Mission of Burma
Sonic Youth
Butthole Surfers
Fugazi
Beat Happening
Big Black
Mudhoney
Dinosaur Jr
Husker Du
The Replacements

i read it. i also read that kurt cobain book he did. i don't like him really.

Oh. He did a book on Cobain? That is so lame.

I still think it is an interesting read so far, there are some really good albini quptes in hte Big Black section.

he is a cobain cocksucker, to be more specific.

he once wrote a piece on the pixies for revolver magazine and he briefed their importance on the fact that they influenced kurt cobain on writing "smells like teen spirit"

my favorite albini quote: "the word 'fag' isn't just a gay term, it's funny in it's own -phonetically- like the words 'hockey puck', 'muklucks', 'gefilte fish' and 'canada'"

why do you all hate the book ? I thought it was a great read, he showed more of the importance of making music for music sake. It made me want to be more independent about stuff and it made me want to look for bands that are underneath other radars. I loved the chapters he did on the replacements, husker du, dinosaur jr and mission of burma.

Because he's a pompous fruitcake, not unlike myself.

They're saying they hate the author, not the book.

he did a nirvana biography, but it was put out while they were still togather. so he was talking/hanging out with the band while he wrote it

i read it back when i was a huge nirvana fan, its ok. its interested because its not from the perspective of kurt being dead, and isnt influenced by any major people dying.

I'm not familiar with this particular book, but this reminds me of a similar book on the 80's indie rock movement called "Route 666 On The Road To Nirvana" by Gina Arnold. It's been years since I read it but I do recall it being a pretty good read.... The Azzerad book on Nirvana is called "Come As You Are". I haven't read that one in years either but I read it a couple times back when it first came out and most definitely enjoyed it.

i read it constantly, don't get me wrong, mainly because i love most of the bands on it; it's just that his personal notes he puts in between the lines really irk me.

i love the concept of the book and think there should be more books like that with a broader take on bands.

i also thought it was rather snobby "indie than thou" that he stopped telling the story of these bands once they hit the 90's and/or signed to a major; to me, it kinda says "ohh nothing but nirvana is worth mentioning".

I'm still on the part about The Minutemen.

I enjoy the book, but I think the SY part plagiarises pretty badly from "Confusion is Next" and other books.

It's a good book. Shows how all those bands had to struggle, living in vans, washing dishes for money, just to make it as indie artists, which of course isn't that great of a financial reward. In defense of the author, it seemed well researched. The Butthole Surfers chapter is pretty funny.

Its a dream of mine to one day write a sequel like book about indie rock in the 90s, hmm what would it be called?

Pavement
Nirvana
Yo La Tengo
Sonic Youth (pt.2, how could you not include it)
Smashing Pumpkins
Guided by Voices
Sebadoh
Beck
The Frogs :)

???

I thought it was fantastic and perfect. netowrking is essential, I say again, ESSENTIAL, to succes sin the underground. Sonic youth used noone. the book does not say they did either, it just prints opi nions of some people, jealous people, who say so. Sonic youth helped out so many people, so many labels, so to anyone who says the youth used them, FUCK OFF