Book picks similar to
Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution by Stephen Colegrave
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non-fiction
punk
nonfiction
The Trouser Press Record Guide: The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Music
Ira A. RobbinsDavid Fricke - 1983
(1983) published as The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records.2nd Ed. (1985) published as The New Trouser Press Record Guide.3rd Ed. (1989) published as The New Trouser Press Record Guide (Revised Edition).4th Ed. (1991) published as The Trouser Press Record Guide: The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Music.5th Ed. (1997) published as The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock."The Trouser Press Record Guide" has been hailed by music fans and the record industry as "the bible" of nonmainstream rock, stretching across the stylistic boundaries of punk, grunge, indie-pop, techno, noise, avant-garde and ska into hip-hop, new country, metal, roots rocks, folk, modern dance and world music.All new and bigger than ever, "The Trouser Press Record Guide to '90's Rock" definitively covers 2,300 of this decade's most innovative and influential artists, reviewing 8,500 records -- insanely obscure and familiar alike -- from all over the world. Each insightful entry contains pungent critical analysis, biographical information and a complete album disography.Selected praise for "The Trouser Press Record Guide to '90's Rock""My trustworthy fact checker, be-all-and-end-all arguement settler and the last word on modern rock. I don't go on the air without it." -- Gary Cee, WLIR-FM"Still the most comprehensive guide through the labryrinth of indie and alternative rock. WHen you need a refresher course on all of Steve Albini's bands, or if you just want to know what Boy George did after Cultrue Club, this is the book to grab." -- David Browne, "Entertainment Weekly"
Lady Gaga
Terry Richardson - 2011
During the time period he followed Gaga, Richardson took over 100,000 images and attended more than 30 Monster Ball dates around the world. From the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards to the Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal rally in Portland, Maine, to the Thierry Mugler show at Maxime, Paris, Richardson captures Lady Gaga as you've never seen her before. A year-long global odyssey- -all access, nothing off limits--this is the book Lady Gaga fans have been waiting for.
The Day the Country Died: A History of Anarcho-Punk, 1980-1984
Ian Glasper - 2007
With Crass and Poison Girls opening the floodgates, the arrival of bands like Zoundz, Flux of Pink Indians, Conflict, Subhumans, Dirt, The Mob, Omega Tribe, and Icons of Filth heralded a new age of honesty and integrity in the 1980s underground music scene. It was a time when punk stopped being merely a radical fashion statement, and became a force for real social change. Anarchy in punk rock no longer meant "cash from chaos"—it meant "freedom, peace, and unity." Comprehensively covering all the groups and names, big and small, The Day the Country Died also features exclusive interviews and hundreds of never-before-published photos.
Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove
Ahmir Questlove Thompson - 2013
He digs deep into the album cuts of his life and unearths some pivotal moments in black art, hip hop, and pop culture.Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson is many things: virtuoso drummer, producer, arranger, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon bandleader, DJ, composer, and tireless Tweeter. He is one of our most ubiquitous cultural tastemakers, and in this, his first book, he reveals his own formative experiences--from growing up in 1970s West Philly as the son of a 1950s doo-wop singer, to finding his own way through the music world and ultimately co-founding and rising up with the Roots, a.k.a., the last hip hop band on Earth. Mo' Meta Blues also has some (many) random (or not) musings about the state of hip hop, the state of music criticism, the state of statements, as well as a plethora of run-ins with celebrities, idols, and fellow artists, from Stevie Wonder to KISS to D'Angelo to Jay-Z to Dave Chappelle to...you ever seen Prince roller-skate?!?But Mo' Meta Blues isn't just a memoir. It's a dialogue about the nature of memory and the idea of a post-modern black man saddled with some post-modern blues. It's a book that questions what a book like Mo' Meta Blues really is. It's the side wind of a one-of-a-kind mind.It's a rare gift that gives as well as takes.It's a record that keeps going around and around.
Talking to Girls about Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut
Rob Sheffield - 2010
"No rock critic-living or dead, American or otherwise-has ever written about pop music with the evocative, hyperpoetic perfectitude of Rob Sheffield." So said Chuck Klosterman about Love is a Mix Tape, Sheffield's paean to a lost love via its soundtrack. Now, in Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, Sheffield shares the soundtrack to his eighties adolescence. When he turned 13 in 1980, Rob Sheffield had a lot to learn about women, love, music and himself, and in Talking to Girls About Duran Duran we get a glimpse into his transformation from pasty, geeky "hermit boy" into a young man with his first girlfriend, his first apartment, and a sense of the world. These were the years of MTV and John Hughes movies; the era of big dreams and bigger shoulder pads; and, like any all-American boy, this one was searching for true love and maybe a cooler haircut. It's all here: Inept flirtations. Dumb crushes. Deplorable fashion choices. Members Only jackets. Girls, every last one of whom seems to be madly in love with the bassist of Duran Duran. Sheffield's coming-of-age story is one that we all know, with a playlist that any child of the eighties or anyone who just loves music will sing along with. These songs-and Sheffield's writing-will remind readers of that first kiss, that first car, and the moments that shaped their lives.
Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside and Outside of AC/DC
Mark Evans - 2011
Two days later he was playing his first show as bass player with AC/DC; within a week he was on Countdown, rocking out next to wildman Bon Scott, who was dressed as a pigtailed, cigarette-smoking schoolgirl - and waving a mallet - and Angus who was - of course - decked out as a schoolboy. And all for the princely wage of $60 a week!Then came nearly being burnt alive on the video shoot for 'Jailbreak', and working with legends Vanda and Young on the massive album TNT, on which Mark's take-no-prisoners basslines anchored such immortal hits as 'TNT' and 'It's a Long Way To the Top'. Within a year, the band had relocated to London and were on the road to rock 'n' roll stardom, living the life of rock gods and making the most of all that had to offer. Until the tragic death of his good friend Bon Scott changed everything.Dirty Deeds is the first book about AC/DC written from the inside, by an insider - which is gold for any AC/DC fan. It is an honest, gripping, sometimes laugh-out-loud account of a band that lived fast, played hard and broke every one of the rules - before they broke all the records. It is also a revealing and frank memoir of a man who's had to contend with everything life has thrown at him - a rough-as-guts upbringing, lucky breaks and soaring highs, as well as terrible personal tragedy and loss. The hard lessons Mark has learned along the way will inspire any reader.
Kate Bush: The Biography
Rob Jovanovic - 2005
The author traces the story of Kate Bush's career, from her up-bringing in the Essex countryside through her first forays into music with a series of home recordings, to her number one debut album that propelled her to international stardom.
Lennon Remembers: The Full Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970
Jann S. Wenner - 1971
Featuring new introductions by Ono and Wenner, and containing substantial material never before seen in print, Lennon Remembers presents a compelling portrait of a complex musical genius at the height of his career. Sometimes anguished and angry, often tender and poignant, these interviews are indispensable to understanding who John Lennon was and why his legacy continues to resonate today.
Cruel to Be Kind: The Life and Music of Nick Lowe
Will Birch - 2019
He has been a pop star with his bands Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile, a stepson-in-law to Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and is the writer behind hits including "Cruel to Be Kind" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding." In the past decades, however, he has distinguished himself as an artist who is equally acclaimed for the second act of his career as a tender yet sharp-tongued acoustic balladeer. Biographer Will Birch, who in addition to being a music writer was a drummer and songwriter with The Records, has known Lowe for over forty years and melds Lowe's gift as a witty raconteur with his own authoritative analysis of Lowe's background and the cultural scenes he exemplifies. Lowe's parallel fame as one of the best interviews in the business will contribute to this first look into his life and work--and likely the closest thing fans will get to an autobiography by this notoriously charming cult figure.This is not an authorized biography, but Lowe has given it his spiritual blessing and his management and label are fully on board. Cruel to Be Kind will be the colorful yet serious account of one of the world's most talented and admired musicians.
U2 Show
Diana Scrimgeour - 2004
Everything about U2 is huge-from their music to their tours to their influence on popular culture and politics worldwide. They are cultural icons as well as multimillion-album-selling pop stars. Underpinning the band's popularity, from the beginning, is their passion for touring. For more than twenty years, U2 has been primarily a live band-hardly ever off the road. Performing live is what they love to do best. And it is their touring that defines their creativity and reflects the direction of the band. From the first bare-bones Tick Tock Tour of 1980 through the massive, seminal Joshua Tree and ZooTV tours of the eighties and nineties to the most recent, more intimate Elevation Tour of 2001, it is their live shows that have set U2's agenda. For the first time, the band has agreed to chronicle this vital part of its creative energy. More than 500 photos from hundreds of performances have been handpicked from a twenty-five-year archive. Many of these photos are behind-the-scenes shots that have never been published before. The book includes commentary by Diana Scrimgeour, the official photographer on recent tours, as well as first-person accounts from band members, the core creative team, friends, and associates. "U2 Show" is the music publishing event of 2004.
Hickory Wind: The Life and Times of Gram Parsons
Ben Fong-Torres - 1991
A biography of a pioneer in country rock discusses Parson's privileged childhood, fame, friendship with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, drug problem, and mysterious death.
Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell
David Yaffe - 2017
In Reckless Daughter, the music critic David Yaffe tells the remarkable, heart-wrenching story of how the blond girl with the guitar became a superstar of folk music in the 1960s, a key figure in the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1970s, and the songwriter who spoke resonantly to, and for, audiences across the country.A Canadian prairie girl, a free-spirited artist, Mitchell never wanted to be a pop star. She was nothing more than “a painter derailed by circumstances," she would explain. And yet, she went on to become a talented self-taught musician and a brilliant bandleader, releasing album after album, each distinctly experimental, challenging, and revealing. Her lyrics captivated listeners with their perceptive language and naked emotion, born out of Mitchell's life, loves, complaints, and prophecies. As an artist whose work deftly balances narrative and musical complexity, she has been admired by such legendary lyricists as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen and beloved by such groundbreaking jazz musicians as Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock. Her hits—from “Big Yellow Taxi" to “Both Sides, Now" to “A Case of You"—endure as timeless favorites, and her influence on the generations of singer-songwriters who would follow her, from her devoted fan Prince to Björk, is undeniable.In this intimate biography, drawing on dozens of unprecedented in-person interviews with Mitchell, her childhood friends, and a cast of famous characters, Yaffe reveals the backstory behind the famous songs—from Mitchell's youth in Canada, her bout with polio at age nine, and her early marriage and the child she gave up for adoption, through the love affairs that inspired masterpieces, and up to the present—and shows us why Mitchell has so enthralled her listeners, her lovers, and her friends. Reckless Daughter is the story of an artist and an era that have left an indelible mark on American music.
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
Brett Morgen - 2015
For the first time, his story is told in Brett Morgen’s Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, a fully authorized feature documentary released in 2015. Brett Morgen is writer, director, and producer of Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck. Visual artist Frances Bean Cobain, Cobain’s daughter, is executive producer. This riveting book accompanies Morgen’s documentary and delve further into the material created for the film, presenting an illuminating and honest portrait of the Nirvana frontman that captures the contradictions that made up his character. The book is composed of the extended versions of the exclusive interviews featured in the film. The book also showcases the film’s incredible visuals with a mixture of animation stills, rare photography, and other treasures from Kurt Cobain’s personal archive. Director Brett Morgen also offers his personal thoughts on the creation of the film and the need to shatter the mythos that surrounds Cobain.
And I Don't Want to Live This Life: A Mother's Story of Her Daughter's Murder
Deborah Spungen - 1983
But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control--who almost destroyed her parents' marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family.
Britpop!: Cool Britannia And The Spectacular Demise Of English Rock
John Harris - 2003
Founded on rock music, celebrity, boom-time economics, and fleeting political optimism, this was "Cool Britannia." Records sold in the millions, a new celebrity elite emerged, and Tony Blair's Labour Party found itself returned to government. Drawing on interviews from all the major bands including Oasis, Blur, Elastica, and Suede, and from music journalists, record executives, and those close to government, Britpop! charts the rise and fall of the Britpop moment. In this wonderfully engaging, page-turning narrative, John Harris, currently the hottest young music journalist in the UK, argues that the high point of British music's cultural impact also signaled its effective demise. After all, if rock stars were now friends of government, how could they continue to matter?"Cool Britannia was an empty promise that was bound to end in tears. John Harris captures the moment when New Labour, desperately wanting to seem hip, invited Britpop into Downing Street. Irresistible."-Billy Bragg