OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE: SCENES FROM THE AMERICAN INDIE UNDERGROUND 1981-1991 BOOK

PAGES: 528 DIMENSIONS: 5.8 x 1.8 x 8.5 Inches FORMAT: Softcover AUTHOR(S): Michael Azerrad ESSENTIAL READING! Michael Azerrad is a music journalist who humanized Kurt Cobain in Come As You Are. This book, however, deserves a lifetime achievement award. Azerrad demonstrates the vital relevance of thirteen highly influential punk, hardcore, and twee bands of the 1980s that never made it into the mainstream. From Black Flag to Beat Happening to Mission of Burma, Azerrad proves the importance of subversive musicians during the time of hte hit industry. He also shines a lot on the oddity, poverty, and drug-addled dilemmas each band faced on its mission to expressing itself and relating with fans. Azerrad shines because he writes in a voice that simultaneous makes his subjects interesting to anyone while simultaneously not being obnoxious for people who spend their lives reading zines. The book focuses on 13 bands: Black Flag (from Hermosa Beach/Los Angeles, California) Minutemen (from San Pedro/Los Angeles, California) Mission of Burma (from Boston, Massachusetts) Minor Threat (from Washington, D.C.) Hüsker Dü (from Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota) The Replacements (from Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota) Sonic Youth (from New York City, New York) Butthole Surfers (from San Antonio, Texas) Big Black (from Evanston/Chicago, Illinois) Dinosaur Jr. (from Amherst, Massachusetts) Fugazi (from Washington, D.C.) Mudhoney (from Seattle, Washington) Beat Happening (from Olympia, Washington)