DIY SST to K

June 23, 2004

Our Band Could Be Your Life
Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad

I was jacked to read this book, a set of thirteen rock biographies on some of the most influential bands of the American underground in the 1980s. Michael Azerrad did a great job picking out the bands, starting with Black Flag’s relentless assault and running all the way to Beat Happening’s quirky-fey indie approach. In between are chapters on the Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Husker Du, The Replacements, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Butthole Surfers and Mudhoney.

I plowed through it in a few days, but I’m not sure there’s a lot of meat here. There are some great stories mixed in, but most of the bios are straight timeline recollections that bounce around from fact to fact without any particularly strong narrative. The strength of the book are the band personalities that happen to shine through, from Mike Watt’s awkward exuberance to Ian MacKaye’s grim determination. All the band stories seem eerily familiar, as almost all of them follow the same career trajectory of bored kids -> big ideas -> modest success -> implosion. The details are enough to keep it together though, and hearing MacKaye describe the straight-edge ethic or just hearing any good Mats’ drinking story will keep you flipping the pages.

One problem I had, and this is the case for many music books, is that if you’re not fairly familiar with the material then it’s a lost cause. Azerrad walks himself into no man’s land here, as most of the prose isn’t interesting enough to convert non-fans and fans are probably well versed enough that they don’t need the long explanations about every single band release. With that in mind, I’d recommend it to anyone with a passing interest but nix it for those who just don’t give a fuck.

Posted in Dogeared