Staff
Reviews 99 Soundoffs 73 News Articles 1 Band Edits + Tags 35 Album Edits 58
Album Ratings 2455 Objectivity 79%
Last Active 01-01-70 12:00 am Joined 01-01-70
Review Comments 10,215
| Good Music Books?
Anyone have recs for good music books? As in good books about music? As in books that discuss music culture, history, particular genres and artists, philosophy, psychology, other ologies? Pls give recs. List is a handful I’ve read. | 1 | | Venom Black Metal
Andrew O’Neil - A History Of Heavy Metal
Fun jovial light reading run through of big metallic milestones. Ties its roots to rock/blues in a way I found interesting, and provided helpful guide dismantling black/thrash/death metal. Useless as a resource on sub genres and sub sub genres scenes and cultures, and very western focused, but still a fun lil thing. | 2 | | Talking Heads Remain in Light
David Byrne - How Music Works
Part autobiography, part wide-ranging chats around all that music is, e.g. discussing music as performance, differences between cultures, individualistic vs. collective creativity, musings on “the artist”, the music industry, particular genres, how sound works, gig culture, learning how to exist, trying oh so very hard to exist, etc etc etc. Chaotic and enjoyable. | 3 | | System of a Down System of a Down
Rick Ruben - The Creative Act
More about “creativity” itself than it is about music, but it’s Ruben and his stories are fascinating and have caterpillars crawling inside of them. V v v spiritual and relatable if you seek to do the creative things, whatever they may be. | 4 | | John Coltrane Blue Train
Ted Gioia - How to Listen to Jazz
I bought this as a primer on what the heck jazz is supposed to be for, before I’d really heard any. V helpful entry point re genre history / change from 30s to 70s, and the key players, BUT also quite pretentious (unfortunately). Off the cuff remarks re jazz being better than literally everything, that all other music is rudimentary and compromised, like they’re defensible statements w/o further elaboration. Idk, I love jazz (now) but this rubbed me the wrong way in multiple directions. Still v useful introductory resource. | 5 | | Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus
Val Wilmer - As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution (1957 to 1977)
I’ve been fucking with free jazz lately (just jazz in general tbh) and so have bought this but not yet read it. | |
AsleepInTheBack
01.14.24 | Any genre deep dive books (e.g. for house or techno or harsh noise) would be nice | Ryus
01.14.24 | “our band could be your life” is a necessity | Mort.
01.14.24 | james acaster - perfect sound whatever
In 2017, Acaster broke up with his girlfriend and terminated his relationship with his agent.[2][3] He was also exhausted from recording several live stand up specials and an unrelenting touring schedule. This combination of events left him feeling depressed and lost.[4] Acaster found solace in purchasing music albums from the year 2016, initially as an effort to reconnect with music, something he had previously got great joy from, and felt that he had lost.[5] Eventually, this project saw him purchasing over 500 albums from various artists and genres, the only thing connecting them being the publication year of 2016.[6][7] Eventually, Acaster becomes convinced that 2016 was 'the best year for music ever'.[8][1]
The book lists all the albums that Acaster purchased as part of his project, with a brief description of each one, accompanied by various stories from Acaster's earlier life, his experience playing in the band 'The Wow! Scenario' and the events that led up to the project. | Mort.
01.14.24 | ^ i read it a few months ago and thought it was quite funny. he does indeed listen to a wide range of bands and the mini reviews should please a sputnikker.
there also a podcast where he interviews some musicians mentioned, like the fella from Mclusky/the future sound of the left | JKing92
01.14.24 | I remember seeing that Rick Rubin book in a library many years ago. Given my appreciation for his work, sometimes I wonder why I didn't pick it up... | cylinder
01.14.24 | Noise/Music by Paul Hegarty
Awesome analysis of all kinds of noise music from a philosophical perspective | cylinder
01.14.24 | Also, Decibel Magazine does a Hall of Fame thing where every year (if I recall) they induct an extreme metal album and interview everyone that played on it. Part of the criteria is that they have to be able to interview everyone that played on it, so any bands that have members that have since passed can’t be inducted unfortunately. But there’s a book called Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces, edited by Albert Mudrian (editor in chief of Decibel). It’s the complete interviews from 25 albums that are in the hall of fame (including Jane Doe, Calculating Infinity, In the Nightside Eclipse, Reign in Blood, just to name a few)
Albert Mudrian also wrote a book called Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore that is also very good
| AsleepInTheBack
01.14.24 | Thanks friends/colleagues/inmates
I’ve heard good things about that acaster book (and also enjoy his stand up) so will take a lookie
Ryus what is that book about
Cylinder that hegarty and choosing death book sound excellent thank thank thank | AsleepInTheBack
01.14.24 | Also just watched deep cuts video on music books and am gonna grab the one about DRONE and the history of jazz written by Gioia I hope I don’t regret
Video here: https://youtu.be/EoIx82sYjqY?si=6cKoJRaykw7rzPvn | dedex
01.14.24 | Our Band Could Be Your Life [2] | SlothcoreSam
01.14.24 | Laura Jane Grace's book is good.
I've read all of Greg Graffin's books, Punk Paradox is probably the best.
Also the NOFX book is a fun time. The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories | Ryus
01.14.24 | its a history of some of the best american indie bands from the 80s like minuteman fugazi dino jr etc | AlexKzillion
01.14.24 | Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock by Nik Cohn
written in the early 70s(?), its essentially a 60s music critic's history of british and american popular music up to that point from the perspective of someone who grew up at the time, and an assessment of the state of popular music circa 1968-72 and where he thinks its going. reading 50 years later, this dude says some wild shit (most memorably, rubber soul or sgt peppers being the death of the beatles and predicting a few artists and albums i'd never heard of would outlast that era of the beatles in pop culture)... very interesting read and shows even the people most "in the know" have no idea what music will and won't last. reads like edgy sput posts at a lot of points too almost lol. | AsleepInTheBack
01.14.24 | Interesting, may give that a go, thanks!
Likewise re Ryus. I read slow as heck though so may take some time. | Sinternet
01.14.24 | 2 is one of the best books i've ever read regardless of genre
im a big fan of memoirs, and whilst its much more about her relationship with her mum than her music, michelle zauner's book crying in k-mart is an absolute must-read
got the miki berenyi memoir up next which should be good, and looking to pick up the kathleen hanna book soon. really need to read our band could be your life | AsleepInTheBack
01.15.24 | Big thank
2 is a weird book I think it was poorly marketed as it’s a lot more than what I thought it would be | dedex
01.15.24 | Girl in a Band is really good too! | ToSmokMuzyki
01.15.24 | https://www.recordshopx.com/book/children_of_bodom/alexi_laiho_chaos_control_guitar/ | nickisnotarapper
01.15.24 | Our Band Could Be Your Life [3]
I read this in middle school lol incredible roster/bio of some of the best indie rock bands ever.
I finished Thurston Moore's "Sonic Life" and Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath's "Into The Void" recently. Thoroughly enjoyed both, Sonic Life dragged on a bit but I'm obsessed with Sonic Youth and powered through.
Geezer's book is shorter and very easy to get through. One of the only accounts of a band not being impressed with Rick Rubin's methods at all (Mars Volta were also pretty critical).
Jeff Tweedy from Wilco's books are good and very inspiring. | nickisnotarapper
01.15.24 | Gonna pick up Goth by Lol Tolhurst of the Cure soon | nickisnotarapper
01.15.24 | Oh, John Doe of X's books are incredible. Under the Big Black Sun.
Henry Rollin's Get In the Van is a great diary-format book of his Black Flag days.
Brian Eno's A Year with Swollen Appendices is also diary-style, a bit less interesting so far imo but it was not originally intended to be a book.
sorry for the excess comments! | AsleepInTheBack
01.16.24 | Thank you!
For starters I ended up ignoring you all (oops sorry) and bought:
Ted Gioia - The History of Jazz (self explanatory)
JR Moores - Electric Wizards (history/discussion re all heavy music)
Greg Miller - Perfecting Sound Forever: The Story of Recorded Music (also self explanatory)
Harry Sword - Monolithic Undertow (another big book about heavy / drone based music)
Priorities after those are probs Our Band Could Be Your Life and Noise/Music | dedex
01.16.24 | ha yeah Gioia's History of Jazz has been in my backlog for a loooooong time | SlothcoreSam
01.16.24 | Have you read Laura Jane Grace book yet? You have against Me 5'd, so it's consider it essential reading | AsleepInTheBack
01.16.24 | I have not - what kinda angle does it take? About her/against me or more about the folk punk scene? | SlothcoreSam
01.16.24 | It's more a look at LJG's self discovery within the punk scene. | mindleviticus
01.16.24 | Wonderland avenue: tales of glamour and excess
Pretty wild book about the manager/friend of jim morrison and the doors and iggy pop and how big of a drug addiction he got in the process | neekafat
01.18.24 | My mom just bought that Rubin book! She had no idea who he was lol but she likes it a lot | Havey
01.18.24 | as far as genre deep dives go, the one that sticks out in my mind is michael e veal's DUB |
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