Good books about music

And I love Oral Histories but I feel like they need to have people's bios after their name every single time because I couldn't keep up with it.

I'm about ~150 pages into it and yeah it's a ton of fun. All the characters are really interesting and she does a good job of sketching out the scene through interviews. I've never been to New York but this book makes it sound like quite the experience (though it's probs very different now).

This is the first oral history I've read, do they usually have bios after the names? It's a chore to keep up with it all but I'm just trying to get used to it

No I don't think they usually have bios. I actually never read Please Kill Me but I read the one about the LA punk scene, We've Got the Neutron Bomb. This book just covers a big enough scope that if you can't remember the name of the dude from The National you might get confused.

Here's Kid from Oneida's take:

http://www.talkhouse.com/was-this-it/

His interest kind of points to one of the things missing from the book. If I was to simplify it greatly, I think the book could've spent more time on the Brooklyn scene, and also more discussion of the dance music scene(s) and how they related. But even both of those things at least got their shout-out at some points. A lot of is just about the author's perspective and where she and her friends were coming from. Namely they were manhattan-based bloggers and Spin and Rolling Stone writers, so it's not surprising they'd miss out on some of that. Reading Rob Sheffield talk about Brooklyn like it was some scary foreign land says a lot. There's no question that manhattan was more important than brooklyn at that point, 90% of the shows and parties and bars etc were all still in the east village and lower east side, but most of us living in brooklyn and whatever underground scene had been there for many years was bubbling over. The book does talk about that, especially in the TV on the Radio section, but not enough. I'm also surprised Animal Collective didn't come up once.

I can't totally speak to how different New York is now as I don't get out that much, but it's hard to explain what was exciting. I mean New York is always New York and there's always 1,000 things to do and a million new people moving here every year to make it or whatever, but the book is right that things were dull in a way for a while, and I always go on about what I felt was boring, you had noise rock indie rock bands in the Sonic Youth to Blonde Redhead type world and people would go to those shows and stand around and you had techno parties where they just played a specific kind of techno and house clubs and it was all very separate and what the book touches on, about that time when the Strokes hit and the DFA started up, it coincided with/caused all these bands to move to New York. Maybe the year before is SF or Portland or Chicago, but suddenly it was New York again and I met a new band every day, and the scene isn't that big, like, maybe in other cities you go to one party than maybe you drive to some other party, but in NY you just walk out the door and down the block to the next party. And disco-punk and electroclash and who knows what else started breaking down those walls between styles and you would find yourself dancing to disco after a night of noise bands or whatever.

It seemed new at the time. Maybe it was just because it was my mid 20s and I was part of it but also knew my history enough to get that it was cyclical and we were academic about it. We'd sit around and talk about The Mudd Club and Danceteria (Madonna played with A Certain Ratio! Let's do that!) or we'd talk about madchester or whatever. I know I was going out in NY in the late 90s and I felt the difference, and I specifically remember being at an art opening w/ Nick Zinner, who was older and who'd been struggling in NY bands for a few years and saying "is it me or are things just getting better? I know I wasn't going out that much before but now it seems like there's cool stuff all the time" and he said "no you're right, it's changed and it's definitely better".

Not to say there was nothing special going on, but like, I was more interested in seeing Elliott Sharp at the Cooler or something. The young rock bands weren't that exciting. I mean there was some good indie/noise rock stuff and a lot of what I keep referring to as the Johnny thunders poseurs, a kind of new york cool rock band vibe that was really lame and boring. So when you suddenly had all this stuff happening at once, it was pretty exciting. And there was a lot of dancing. And you didn't have to do any drugs, despite what most of the people in the book say.

rereading that post I will say that some of what made NY special during that period has been lost because of gentrification and real estate...namely, that ability to just hop from party to party in the east village is kind of fading away as all the cool stuff is spread out through ridgewood or some other distant locals. Parts of bushwick might have that feeling now and some of Williamsburg, but I can't imagine anything like what it was like when manhattan was still fun, and I can't imagine that existing in most other cities.

Great posts, dan. Thanks!

Great posts, dan. Thanks!

He said, twice.

thanks. there's a lot more where that came from. I covered a lot of that from my perspective here some years ago: http://acuterecords.com/blog/?p=32

I'm reading Elijah Wald's How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll, which (so far at least, and I'm about halfway into it) is not about the Beatles at all, mercifully. It's about what was actually popular throughout the 20th century in America, vs. what critics prefer to remember about the music of the 1920s-1950s. One major example: Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings are commonly regarded as his best/most important work, but those groups were entirely assembled for the studio, and never played live. In many ways, his reputation was established entirely on the back of records, but what he was actually doing most of the time in the 1920s (playing as a featured soloist with big dance bands and orchestras) is forgotten.

Forgotten by whom? His live activity is noted in bios---for instance, the night he got to be the first black man introducing a jazz band/speaking on live radio in Louisiana, because the white announcer couldn't bring himself to do it--and fairly well documented recording-wise, especially in later decades of course.

Prob not that many live recordings from the 20s, given tech-related odds.

Great post dan! Does the book cover Motherfucker, or any of those parties that mixed dance and rock and pop? I feel like MF was crucial to that changing feeling of scenes starting to mix. Along with a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting now. Plant Bar? A Wednesday night party at Sway? It all blends together. Anyway sounds like the book would be fun to read.

Yeah, Motherfucker gets a fair amount of coverage and Justine D. is a regular voice. It definitely sat in a weird crossover, primarily it grew out of that Jackie 60/Mother gay/drag/glam scene, crossed with the Tiswas/britpop parties but with an ear to electroclash/dancepunk/techno etc. They absolutely did not need to book me and Simonetti twice but they did. The idea was to have Michael T play David Bowie or whatever (or Dave P play more banging stuff) in the main room and I'm in the basement playing house and post-punk or whatever.

Lots of discussion of Plant Bar. Plant, DFA, the Rapture etc get as much ink as the Strokes. She really shoulda talked to me! Anyway, I never really went to Sway though it's best remembered for the sunday night Smiths night hosted by Ben Cho, who's getting a lot of memorials this week due to his recent loss from an overdose. Smiths night was Ben and Brian Degraw from Gang Gang Dance started around the time or just after Brian was doing monday nights at Plant Bar after me. I used to see Ben there but didn't know him. As I mention in that blog post, Luke and I really thought some of that fashionista scene would dig our music and start spending more time and earlier nights at Plant, but they'd still just show up for Brian and Leo Fitzpatrick, and when they left for Lit, any chance we had of Chloe Sevigny being a regular went out the window.

Wed nights scene was prepartying at Black and White where Parker Posey would always be hanging out then going to Spa which was hosted by Justine D as well.

Yeah I don't think that was Parker Posey, I think it was a girl named Carolyn who was sometimes mistaken for her

Ha yes it was Wednesdays at Spa! Of course.

I fondly remember Lit (and "The Hole"?) as two of the only places you could still smoke..

I'm Reading Elijah Wald's Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues which is pretty interesting. I think I've come across a lotof his argument before but nice to have this in detail.
The whole idea of what got recorded, what the limitations on recording were and what the other contributing factors as to what was represented were. So a bluesman was probably a more diverse musician but only certain things were of interest to those recording. & the idea of somebody being a 'songster' being a different category being utterly artificial since it was just another way of saying one who sings songs.
Those recording didn't think there was a market for more primitive or whatever versions of show tunes when there were much more professional ones available so that whole area wasn't represented when ity might have made up a large part of any local musicians repertoire.
Interesting book so far. & we haven't even met Robert johnson yet.

Still find his take on Robert Johnson somewhat infuriating.

Lizzy Goodman was on Seth Myers tonight. I am thinking of picking up her book as even the critical stuff about it still makes it sound interesting to me.

And I like oral histories.

I always wished for a "This Band Could Be Your Life" version for the Aughts. I know that's not what this is, but it may scratch that same itch a bit.

Excited for this one:

http://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062463692/good-booty

The Richard Morton Jack Psychedelia arrived yesterday after I was let down on a different order of it last month.
It's subtitled 101 Iconic Underground Rock Albums 1966 - 1970 and does work as a bit of a 101 intro to the music.
Only 1 lp per artist but covers a lot of ground and if you get all of these it might trigger further investigation.
I actually don't have a few after buying in the area for decades.
Also first time I've seen a large size repro of SRC's s/t lp sleeve.
Nice.

Excited for this one:

http://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062463692/good-booty

― some sad trombone Twilight Zone shit (cryptosicko), Friday, June 16, 2017 7:14 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, nice. Wish listed that one. I haven't read a book by Powers yet, just articles now and then.

Don't know about 'good' but Peter hook's Joy Division book is 99p on Amazon.co.uk at the moment

(kindle version)

Noel Monk's Runnin' with the Devil is really good. He was Van Halen's manager from 1978-1985, and he gives up everything: how shitty their initial contract was (and how he got them out of it), how fucked up they were and how much they grew to hate each other, how badly the brothers and Roth fucked over Michael Anthony...it's totally fascinating if you're at all interested in the music business.

Ooh that sounds good

This review of NPR music critic Ann Powers new book,GOOD BOOTY
Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music, is kinda mixed --

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ann-powers/good-booty/

excerpt:
The author then settles into her occasionally diffuse narrative that connects Congo Square to Beyoncé and bemoans the devolution of Ma Rainey’s bawdy to the pornified, auto-tuned hip-hop of today. Where Powers successfully connects the dots, light bulbs flash: it is fascinating to watch her join the gay subculture of disco to the success of the sisters Labelle, nee the Blue Bells, remade in “a previously unexplored space where glam met funk met soul via strictly female interplay.” (Well, perhaps not strictly female, since, as Powers notes, the designer of Labelle’s outrageously flamboyant costumes went on to invent the costumes of the swaggering cartoon band KISS.) Even where she does not successfully make those connections, as with her notes on the apache (“pronounced A-POSH, not like the Native American tribal name”) dance and its not-so-subtle masochism, which never quite caught on in the larger culture, she ventures interesting theses. Mostly, the author strings together bright tidbits of cultural trivia to reconstruct and deconstruct the kinship of dirty blues and gospel, the shared underage girlfriends of now-iconic British rock stars, and other points of prurient interest.

A mixed bag, sometimes entertaining, sometimes arid, but full of useful insights; readers won’t look at Lady Gaga or Nicki Minaj the same way

Finished "How the Beatles Destroyed Rock and Roll" today.

A well researched and convincing history of popular music in America circa 1890-1970, often taking a materialistic approach stressing the importance of sheet music, dancing, publishing, radio etc and focusing on continuity between genres often described as oppositional.

Perhaps relies a bit much on familiarity with the 'standard narrative' it challenges. Slightly academic but full of good quotes and fresh perspective.

Best and chunkiest parts describe early jazz, Beatles take up a minimum of space despite the provocative title. If you're wondering how the Beatles destroyed rock and roll, they did it by inventing a hegemonic genre uninterested in singles and dancing, segregating white rock (music for listening) from black soul (music for dancing) in a hitherto unseen degree.

Great fun to read a book like this with Spotify handy, wish I'd made a playlist along the way.

Looks like most of the Elijah Wald books are at least interesting. I need to finish the blues one, got an eye on the Dylan and electricity one since its around locally.
& that Beatles/R'n'r one sounds like it should be worth checking out.

that book sounds fascinating. just ordered myself a copy.

look forward to hearing your thoughts on it

How the Beatles... made me want to read (hell, write) a full-on biography of Mitch Miller.

Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan is not a book about music per se but has great essays on Christian Rock, Michael Jackson, Axl Rose, John Fahey, pre-war blues and Bunny Wailer

I wish he would come out with something new, I read Pulphead quite a few years ago I think and it was outstanding.

Has he written anything after that Sunday NY Times blockbuster?

Christian Rock piece is all time

He was supposed to be working on a book about this guy

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Gottlieb_Priber

But haven't heard anything about it in a while

His journalistic methods in that Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie story on 78s, kinda turned me off a bit

That's the NY Times one

I'm trying to work outif i need the latest vernon Joynson A Melange Of Musical Pipedreams And Pandemonium which has apparently added a section on African rock alongside Australia, New Zealand, Africa (expanded to include 'Afro-rock' music from Sub-Saharan Africa) and, for the first time, Turkey and the Middle East, between 1963 and 1976.
There was a previous book by him on the Antipodean stuff called Dreams, Fantasies and Nightmares from Far Away Lands which also covered South Africa and latin America. & I think I have both editions of.

But looking for a good source on African rock & psychedelia.

So has anybody read it? & can comment?

Nope, but does look intriguing

850 copies worldwide. Several places have it at discount.

Is apparently being followed by a volume dedicated to Canada and Latin America

This could be good: https://slate.com/arts/2017/10/the-jann-wenner-biography-and-the-hbo-doc-reviewed.html

Referring to the book, not the doc...

Reading it right now. SUPER juicy, really great so far. Jann is a complete sociopath.

I read that Wenner doesn't like it, which is probably a sign that it's good.

There's a Lou Reed bio that just released as well...

has anyone read the new 33 1/3 on the raincoats' s/t?

Yeah, what's great about that is Jann is one of the primary sources & cooperated with the author throughout the writing process. I mean you really have to read it to believe it, the guy is just nuts.

has anyone read the new 33 1/3 on the raincoats' s/t?

I have - it's very good. It's not one of those that attempts any formal or structural experiments but it's smart and sound and well-written and gave me plenty of bits to think about.

My only small gripe (and I totally know this is my problem as much as it's the writer's) is that it leans a bit heavily on noting the impact the record had on American alt-rock/indie icons of the 90s - the fact that Kurt liked the Raincoats is a matter of pure indifference to me. I understand that Bikini Kill, Calvin, Kurt will be cultural touchstones for most of the people who buy the book, I get that the cultural reception of the record in the US is interesting, it's just that it pops up repeatedly in the book.

Got the Wenner biography for half-price today--been looking forward to it. Everything I've seen has been really positive, with the exception of Marcus calling it vile in his column yesterday. That did not dissuade me.