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Chargement... Your Band Sucks: What I Saw at Indie Rock's Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear) (édition 2016)par Jon Fine (Auteur)
Information sur l'oeuvreYour Band Sucks: What I Saw at Indie Rock's Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear) par Jon Fine
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Back in the eighties, I was an avid follower of many obscure [and mostly] East Coast indie rock bands. Most of my favorites came out of scenes in Hoboken NJ, New Haven CT, Athens GA, Winston-Salem NC and Boston MA. I was the textbook music geek, on a first name basis with the clerks at my local independent record store, scouring the Goldmine magazine classifieds for choice bootlegs and avidly awaiting the next issue of Matter magazine (to which Bitch Magnet engineer Steve Albini was a frequent contributor) to get the latest info on bands like The Individuals, Oh-OK, Beat Rodeo, Winter Hours and The Chris Stamey Group, to name but a few. Pretty much every group I loved and came out to support at every dive bar and grotty club within reasonable driving distance never made it beyond playing these small venues for the same group of hardcore fans. Some went a bit farther up the food chain than others – notably The Bongos and Miracle Legion – but ultimately all of them fell into relative obscurity. The music industry playing field is littered with rock and roll’s also rans. And so it was with great interest that I picked up Jon Fine’s Your Band Sucks, which chronicles his years on the indie band circuit long before the days of the internet and social media. While my taste in music is extremely different than his (and I know he’d sneer at every last one of those bands I named), I’m sure the experience of being in a working rock band, on the lowest rung of the music industry ladder, is basically the same for all musicians. At close to fifty, Fine’s take on the whole experience is well-considered and pretty philosophical. However, reading the early chapters, his dogmatic attitude regarding what constitutes good music vs. [basically] everything else, is a little tough to handle. Does one really have to experience all music in their “crotch” for it to be enjoyable? That seems a bit narrow to me, but my husband, a musician with similar experiences to Fine’s and equally strident in his opinions, suggested maybe Fine was writing from the perspective of his nineteen year-old self, so I cut him some slack and read on. The story of Fine’s musical career, particularly with his first and most well-known band, Bitch Magnet makes for interesting reading. As a self-published author (with a book that sold only 250 copies) and the wife of a journeyman guitarist who ultimately settled for an office job, so much of his experience was easy to relate to. In the chapter, “Walter Mondale, George McGovern, and your Sh***y Band,” Fine writes, “You still have to act like you believe, even though the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that no one else does. But that evidence gradually gnaws a hole in you.” It really speaks to the despair felt by any artist who just wants to get his work out there and feels that he’s only failed in so far as he was unable to reach the right people - the people who’ll get it. The structure is interesting and for the most part makes for fun, easy reading. Roughly chronological, but not rigidly so, Fine is mostly interested in organizing the stories based on their relevance to a particular idea he’s trying to convey in each chapter (for example, “The Glory, the Madness and the Van,” hilariously focuses on the horrors of the typical band van) rather than its place on the timeline. Only occasionally did the jumping around confuse me. But I do think the book might be improved by a tighter focus (on Bitch Magnet alone) and, particularly toward the end, much less minutiae. I mean, does the pre-show dump really deserve a mention? Really? I think if Fine had left out some of the material about his subsequent bands and heavily edited the chapters chronicling the reunion tour, the book would be damn near perfect. This is a really great read. Intelligent and introspective, brutally revealing at times and heartbreakingly relatable. If you’re interested in music, musicians or the music scene, this is worth checking out. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
"Jon Fine spent nearly thirty years performing and recording with bands that played various forms of aggressive and challenging underground rock music, and, as he writes in this memoir, at no point were any of those bands 'ever threatened, even distantly, by actual fame.' Yet when members of his first band, Bitch Magnet, reunited after twenty-one years to tour ... diehard longtime fans traveled from far and wide to attend those shows, despite creeping middle-age obligations of parenthood and 9-to-5 jobs, testament to the remarkable staying power of the indie culture that the bands predating the likes of Bitch Magnet--among them Black Flag, Mission of Burma, and Sonic Youth --willed into existence through sheer determination and a shared disdain for the mediocrity of contemporary popular music"--Amazon.com. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)781.660973The arts Music General principles and musical forms Traditions of music Rock {equally instrumental and vocal} History, geographic treatment, biography North AmericaClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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I also love the fact that he often takes his own shit, so to speak, when writing this book. By this I mean that he's almost driven to the point of denigrating his own choices and options, but mostly, he seems straight forward and honest, even though I have no idea whether that's the truth.
However, we do smell our own.
I mostly like how he writes in a seemingly stream-of-consciousness way, at times pointing out little thoughts inside parentheses, while detailing how near-impossible it was to get hold of music that said something to him, child of the late 1980s as he were:
At times, Fine writes of human stuff that I have seen little proof of, where other musicians have taken pen to paper:
...and:
Band names, playing music, writing songs, everything was completely new and nobody knew how to do it, except they had to:
Speaking of musts:
His most known band, Bitch Magnet, were engineered by Steve Albini:
What adds supreme distinction to this book, is Fine's own voice. Partly, it's also what makes the book fail, in my eyes, where other books, e.g. [a:Nick Soulsby|8324685|Nick Soulsby|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s "[b:I Found My Friends: The Oral History of Nirvana|23165893|I Found My Friends The Oral History of Nirvana|Nick Soulsby|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410805028s/23165893.jpg|41989419]", is much more polished, but lacks the fervent first-person view. And the word is fervent.
What I feel Fine has going for him, is the ability to not stop. It's not an inability to stop, mind you. What makes me feel this book should have been more reined-in is also what makes it carry an animus of its own, Fine's style. I like how he describes ATP, endless touring, gripes and wins, how Bitch Magnet reunites much like "Sugarman", which he plays over quickly (noting how that documentary, for sob-story value, skips the part where Rodriguez is actually famed elsewhere than in South Africa, before the documentary upped his artistic legend), before descending into old age and a tale of how touring and playing live suited him at the time of the reunion.
All in all, this book is a rollercoaster of sorts; you get bored at times, you feel some bitterness itch at you, but mostly, it's anecdote-and-story-packed, in a good way, told by a personal voce who does not seem to edit out too much. It's an intoxicating, fun, tragic and most of all human view of our existence, what makes us tick, what makes us hate, be passionate and love, all at the same time. And be bored, of course. But you won't get bored from this book. ( )