There's a loosely related thread on this over in Music (under Critics and Publications) but let's see what kind of uptake we can get here.

Anyone have any music-related books they want to talk about, gripe about, or ask about here? This covers everything from fakebooks to biographies, from record guides to do-it-yourself manuals.

I have at least four good music books that I bought/read this year:

Learning How to Die by Greg Kot (a Wilco bio that's pretty good, but tells at least part of the story depicted in the film "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart")

The Go-Betweens by David Nichols (a Go-Be's bio that was updated after the reunion)

The Wilco Book by Wilco, et al (a cool art/coffee table book with photos and ephemera and a 12 track cd of Wilco odds and ends)

Britpop!by John Harris (a musical/cultural history of Britpop and the rise of the New Labour movement)

I'm still looking to read some of the books from the 33 1/3 music series (including the Joe Pernice book on Meat is Murder), Jim DeRogatis' Kill Your Idols, and the new, revised DeRogatis book on psychedelic music now called Turn on Your Mind, I think.

I recently picked up

"So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer's Life"

by Jacob Slichter from the band Semisonic.

It was slightly better than your average road-diary-style book, but that's about it.

Must have been the snappy title that caught my attention.

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I wanna read that one, too, flem_snopes. Jake's a cool guy...I've known him since the days of Trip Shakespeare.

I love the story, frequently recounted by the band, about being asked, at a college radio station, about the success of "Semi-Charmed Life." That's Third Eye Blind, they were forced to reply.

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
being asked, at a college radio station, about the success of "Semi-Charmed Life." That's Third Eye Blind, they were forced to reply.

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Ooh, that's gotta leave a mark...

Although, I must confess to having gotten Semisonic confused with Better than Ezra more than once in the past.

quote:

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Originally posted by flem_snopes:
I recently picked up

_"So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer's Life"_

by Jacob Slichter from the band Semisonic.

.

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Here are some reviews for those of you who are interested.

Thanks for the tips on the reviews.

Notably cool was the NY Times review, written by notable alt-country musician James McMurtry (son of author Larry McMurtry)!

I still think Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus is probably the best bookon music ever written, heck I think it's one of the best books period. If you like your punk rock over-analyzed to the point where you'll never be able to just listen to it again, this is the one for you. And if you do just want to listen to your classic punk records, well then there's probably something wrong with you. Just a joke, but seriously, Greil Marcus, give it a try.

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Originally posted by keylimetrev:
I still think Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus is probably the best bookon music ever written, heck I think it's one of the best books period. If you like your punk rock over-analyzed to the point where you'll never be able to just listen to it again, this is the one for you. And if you do just want to listen to your classic punk records, well then there's probably something wrong with you. Just a joke, but seriously, Greil Marcus, give it a try.

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I would add, to the over-analyzing punk collections, Jon Savage's excellent book England's Dreaming, which covers the rise and fall of punk both musically and socially. I haven't read the updated, revised version but I assume it's better than the original 1992 version as it covers the Sex Pistols cash-in reunion tour.

Motley Crue-The Dirt!!! Highly recommended! You will go through a myraid of thoughts and emotions while reading this book, both expected and unexpected. A very enjoyable read.

Started reading Richard Meltzer's book Gulcher. Kind of funny, although it reminds me a lot of Lester Bangs worst qualities. I like the little book of Lester Bangs essays I have, but this seems to be much less focused. Almost has a Hunter Thompson feel to it. A little bit too shocking for the sake of being shocking for my tastes.

Jazztalk by Robert D Rusch.

I'm in the process of trying to become a bit more educated about the world of jazz. Picked up this book of interviews with a bunch of good players. I'm reading the Sun Ra interview at the moment. Man that guy was out there.

Considering the spirited discussion in the "indie" thread about indie/alternative genre stuff, I have to recommend a great book from a few years back:

Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad.

It's a collection of medium length bio pieces on some of the biggest names in indie/alternative/underground music in the 80's, including Big Black, the Replacements, Black Flag, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Butthole Sufers, Dinosaur Jr. and more. Nothing groundbreaking (I didn't get any shocking new dirt on these bands), but all very compelling stories and tied together, loosely, by the college rock scene of the early 80's. Probably my favorite music book of the 2000's...I gave it as a Christmas gift to music-fan friends last year. It's now available in paperback (I really had to dig for a first pressing of the hardbound book in my local bookstores) and is well worth a read if you like any of these bands.

Good call on Our Band Could Be Your Life. I really liked everything aside from the Mudhoney chapter-They're a band I just can't get into.

I picked up Mystery Train by Greil Marcus last week and read the Randy Newman chapter. As always with Marcus it is incredibly analytical but I continue to find his books very, very well written. After one chapter, I don't think this is as good as Lipstick Traces (which is still my favorite book on pop music) but seems like it will take its place near the top of my pop culture books.

quote:

Originally posted by keylimetrev:
Good call on Our Band Could Be Your Life. I really liked everything aside from the Mudhoney chapter-They're a band I just can't get into.

I'm not a Mudhoney fan, although the 2-disc best-of provides me some entertainment value, but my beef with that chapter is that is spends FAR too much time talking about the things that happened AFTER Mudhoney left SubPop (read: stuff about Nirvana and Pearl Jam) than it does talking about the band itself. I'd estimate 60% of the chapter is about SubPop and how it got put together and how it made and lost money and only 40% is about Mudhoney. Kind of a cheat when the book is about the 80's "underground" scene...Nirvana's a little outside of the scope, but I suppose he has to pander to the Nirvana fans whose buying habits ("an album of Kurt...um Kurdt...um Curt...Cobain making armpit farts and singing nursery rhymes to Frances Bean? I'll give you $100!!!") would lead them to buy the book merely for the mention of the Almighty Cobain.

After finishing the Elvis Costello biog (I recommend it...quite a good read!), I've moved on to Pat Gilbert's Passion Is A Fashion: The Real Story of the Clash. I've read a couple of other memos of the Clash and/or the British punk days, but this one gets raves for being the best of them. The Last Gang In Town was pretty good, but I'm liking this more, so far. It's a little English for me, though. A lot of Brit slang that I'm not familiar with.

I also noticed, at the bookstore, a new bio on The Pixies and Black Francis which looks interesting. I may have to check that out after I'm done with this one. Summer's such a great time for music books...

I finished a pretty funny book last week called the Rock Snob's dictionary. I had originally seen it as a short article in the da capo 2001 best music writing collection, but they expanded it recently into a full book. They do a pretty good job of covering all the typical rock snob favorites in a funny way. I would have liked it to have been a little longer, it felt a little light for its pricetag and I can think of tons of entries they could have added. Still worth picking up though.

Picked up a couple good books today.

The Heart of Rock & Soul: the 1001 best singles.

De Capo best music writing 2000 and 2002.

I agree Our Band Could Be Your Life is a great book. Great chapters on th Replacements, Minutemen, Black Flag (I don't even like Black Flag). I picked up England's Dreaming today, and I am looking forward to reading it.

Just finished a little book called 'American Troubadours: Groundbreaking Singer Songwriters of the 60s.' It certainly wasn't anything great, but it is in the cheapy bargain bin at Barnes & Noble right now and tells the stories of several underapreciated artists from singer/songwriter movement. Artists discussed in the book are: David Ackles, David Blue, Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin, Fred Neil, Phil Ochs, Tom Rapp, Tim Rose, and Tom Rush. Phil Ochs is by far the most interesting character in the book. I had no idea he went so crazy in his last years.

All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

This book was originally published almost 25 years ago under a different title. Some of the best bits are when they go song by song through The Beatles' catalog and Lennon tells little anecdotes.