Our Band Could Be Your Life : Scenes from the American Indie Underground

About the book

Finally in paperback, the story of the musical revolution that happened right under the nose of the Reagan Eighties - when a small but sprawling network of bands, labels, fanzines, radio stations and other subversives re-energised American rock with punk rock's d-I-y credo and created music that was deeply personal, often brilliant, always challenging and immensely influential. OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE is a sweeping chronicle of music, politics, drugs, fear, loathing and faith that is already being recognized as an indie rock classic in its own right. Among the legendary bands featured are: Black Flag, the Minutement, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat, Husker Du, the Replacements, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr., Fugazi, Mudhoney and Beat Happening.

Reviews

"Altogether rockin'...Azerrad's coup here is in getting most of the major players to talk...A scrapbook from the last time music mattered."-Patrick Beach, Austin American-Statesman

Quotes

Azerrad has done so much interviewing that the material will be fresh even for those whose lives these bands were. - Village Voice * A timely reminder that Cobain and company were merely a key regiment in the motley al-rock army.... OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE narrates, down to the homemade posters and tour van repairs, how these bands gradually built up an audience large enough to make *

Michael Azerrad Biography

Michael Azerrad is an American author, music journalist, editor, and musician. A graduate of Columbia University, he has written for publications such as Spin, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. Azerrad's 1993 biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana was named by Q as one of the 50 greatest rock books ever written. His 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life, a collection of profiles on prominent indie rock bands, received similar critical acclaim.

Early life

Azerrad grew up in the New York City area and received his BA degree from Columbia College in 1983. His father was an art director at NBC, and his mother a senior consultant at Art and Technology, a computer consulting firm in San Francisco. During his college years, he was both a roommate and a bandmate of keyboard virtuoso Marc Capelle (who later went on to become a member of American Music Club.) May 21, 1988 he married Julia Barnett Just.

Music journalism

After college, Azerrad played drums in various small bands while pursuing a career in music journalism. Besides writing features for Spin, Musician and Details, and a stint at MTV News from 1987 through 1992, Azerrad wrote several hundred pieces for Rolling Stone from 1987 through 1993, including cover stories on The B-52's and Nirvana, and was eventually named contributing editor. He has since written major features for The New Yorker, Mojo, Italian GQ and the New York Times, as well as cover stories for Spin and Revolver. In 1993, Doubleday Books published Azerrad's definitive, best-selling biography of Nirvana, Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, which appeared six months before bandleader Kurt Cobain died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Azerrad spent many months interviewing the band members and their friends, relatives and associates, and Cobain and the other members of the band shared a wide variety of archival materials with him, many of which are reproduced in the book. In 2000, Q magazine named it one of the 50 greatest rock books ever written.His subsequent book, Our Band Could Be Your Life (Little, Brown and Company, 2001) was a collection of profiles of thirteen prominent indie rock bands of the 1980s and early 1990s, including Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Minutemen and The Replacements. In 2006 The Guardian rated the book as one of the 50 best music books ever written. In 2009, Paste magazine named it one of the 12 best music books of the decade; the Los Angeles Times listed it as one of "46 Essential Rock Reads" and in 2011 Pitchfork listed the book in "Words and Music: Our 60 Favorite Music Books."Azerrad wrote liner notes for various albums and DVDs by artists including: Paul McCartney, Miles Davis, Gang of Four, Violent Femmes, Screaming Trees, Guided by Voices, Meat Puppets, the Jesus Lizard, the B-52's, the live comedy series Invite Them Up and the 1991 cult TV series Fishing with John. He has spoken at various music festivals and conventions, including SXSW (USA), CMJ (USA), Insou ... Read full biography