This probably seems like a weird place to write about a book, seeing as it’s a live music blog, but considering the subject matter, I just had to make an exception.
Also it’s my blog, so really I can write whatever the hell I want 😉
I first heard of this book - as with many thing nowadays - through Facebook, through a friend’s post about working on it. I used to work in publishing, yonks ago, and still have friends that work in the industry. I had no idea this book had been in the works, so I was very excited to hear about it.
This is pretty much the first cultural history book that I could directly relate to. As in, I was there. I got the CD, I bought the concert ticket, I picked up the badge - the whole works.
I expected good things from it. A good record of what it was like to be in New York City during the early aughts and to be a rock and roll fan.
What I got instead was a far too wordy detailing of near-overdoses, enough cocaine to bury the Empire State Building, strange feuds between people I’d barely ever heard of, the word cool being waay overused, and oh yes, a biography of The Strokes.
Maybe this book was just trying to do too much. A ten-year span about rock and roll in New York City? That’s a sizable chunk of time. But that’s another weird thing about it. It doesn’t really talk about the second half of that time. Most everything happened before 2006. It should really be subtitled, “…in New York City 2001-2006”.
The Strokes were important. They kind of showed up first and after that everyone was looking for the next Strokes. That is true. But they were never as huge even in NYC as the book implies.
And as far as all the platitudes about their amazing and cool performances? Total BS. I was there. They would stand around and act bored out of their minds…though having read this book, I guess many times they’d be high as a kite.
But hey, that’s just my opinion. You think that their live performances are great and always enjoy yourself tremendously? Hurrah for you. But don’t try to pull the wool over the readers’ eyes by claiming they were great live performers.
Even the cover of this book is misleading, trying to entice people to buy it. The back cover has a cornucopia of band names…most of whom have at best a brief mention in the book, like The National or The Libertines. I don’t think three sentences in passing about a band merits it being featured on the back cover of a 622 pp. book.
As I’ve said earlier, this is mainly a book about The Strokes. With quite a bit about James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem thrown in as well. It is not a comprehensive account of this particular music scene.
As I’ve said earlier, this is mainly a book about The Strokes. With quite a bit about James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem thrown in as well. It is not a comprehensive account of this particular music scene.
And then the format of this book…
What exactly did Ms. Goodman write? She interviewed all this plethora of people. And I do mean plethora. Soo many people. So many non-musicians and hangers-on interviewed.
But we never see any of the questions. And there’s no real context about any of this. People just talk. Presumably not in the same room, so it’s a collating of disparate chats into some sort of narrative. Half the time I had no idea who was saying what and it just became a chore to constantly flip back to the “Cast of Characters” at the beginning, to only find out that it was some random publicist. And I just didn’t think it really worked in the end.
Most everyone came off so badly. They say you should never meet your idols, if you don’t want to be disappointed. Well, there should be an addendum about never reading an oral history about them either. Geesh.
Everyone (almost) is either a huge coke head, or a huge meth-head, or a junkie, incredibly shallow, and/or just unpleasant to be around. And sure, it’s all rock and roll, what did I expect? But I guess I’m just not really interested in reading all about Albert Hammond Jr.’s injecting himself with heroin 20 times in a day (side note: How is he still alive?? Must have some of those Keith Richards’ genes).
I wanted to know about what it was like for these bands to come together, not about what hipster bar they and their hanger-ons frequented. And about their inspiration and drive, not to find out how many full figured ladies Carlos D from Interpol bedded (which btw, was a weird thing. The fact that he liked “bigger” ladies was mentioned a bunch of times, as if that was such an oddity).
But we never see any of the questions. And there’s no real context about any of this. People just talk. Presumably not in the same room, so it’s a collating of disparate chats into some sort of narrative. Half the time I had no idea who was saying what and it just became a chore to constantly flip back to the “Cast of Characters” at the beginning, to only find out that it was some random publicist. And I just didn’t think it really worked in the end.
Most everyone came off so badly. They say you should never meet your idols, if you don’t want to be disappointed. Well, there should be an addendum about never reading an oral history about them either. Geesh.
Everyone (almost) is either a huge coke head, or a huge meth-head, or a junkie, incredibly shallow, and/or just unpleasant to be around. And sure, it’s all rock and roll, what did I expect? But I guess I’m just not really interested in reading all about Albert Hammond Jr.’s injecting himself with heroin 20 times in a day (side note: How is he still alive?? Must have some of those Keith Richards’ genes).
I wanted to know about what it was like for these bands to come together, not about what hipster bar they and their hanger-ons frequented. And about their inspiration and drive, not to find out how many full figured ladies Carlos D from Interpol bedded (which btw, was a weird thing. The fact that he liked “bigger” ladies was mentioned a bunch of times, as if that was such an oddity).
There is one thing this book did get right and that’s how few women would actually go to these live shows. Once The Strokes were playing Radio City Music Hall with The White Stripes, there was more of a mix, with a lot more women in the midst. But before then, and subsequently for every other band that wasn’t The Strokes - aka all the non-model looking ones - the female to male ratio was always really, really low. I went to a lot of shows during these years - a ridiculous amount of shows - where my female friend and I would be two out of maybe ten women in the whole place. It was just one of those weird things that we didn’t even notice after a while.
So, in summary, if you’re interested in finding out what this era was like musically, I’d recommend actually listening to the music, searching out reviews of shows of that time, reading old music blogs (ahem ;o) ), and the internet in general.
On the other hand, if you want to catch up on how many crazy drugs everyone was doing, what “cool” bars they were getting their drugs from, and all the strange, undecipherable feuds they were having with each other, then maybe this book is for you after all.
On the other hand, if you want to catch up on how many crazy drugs everyone was doing, what “cool” bars they were getting their drugs from, and all the strange, undecipherable feuds they were having with each other, then maybe this book is for you after all.
