Publisher Description
The definitive chronicle of underground music in the 1980s tells the stories of Black Flag, Sonic Youth, The Replacements, and other seminal bands whose DIY revolution changed American music forever.
Our Band Could Be Your Life is the never-before-told 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-energized American rock with punk's do-it-yourself credo and created music that was deeply personal, often brilliant, always challenging, and immensely influential. This sweeping chronicle of music, politics, drugs, fear, loathing, and faith is an indie rock classic in its own right.
The bands profiled include:
- Sonic Youth
- Black Flag
- The Replacements
- Minutemen
- Husker Du
- Minor Threat
- Mission of Burma
- Butthole Surfers
- Big Black
- Fugazi
- Mudhoney
- Beat Happening
- Dinosaur Jr.
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“Azerrad crisscrosses the American landscape of nineteen-eighties ‘underground’ rock music…[and] profiles thirteen bands that came of age before Nirvana closed the gap between alternative rock and the mainstream market, and the best stories here are the most marginal…Azerrad does a fine job of demonstrating how the post-punk prime movers of the eighties echoed the original rock-and-rollers of the fifties—springing from a complacent political climate to reject the sentimental excesses of the music that preceded them.”
—
New Yorker
About Michael Azerrad
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. His 1993 biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana was named by Q as one of the fifty 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.
About the Narrators
Colin Meloy once wrote Ray
Bradbury a letter, informing him that he “considered himself an author too,”
when he was ten. Since then, he has gone on to be the singer and songwriter for
the band the Decemberists, where he channels all of his weird ideas into weird
songs. With the Wildwood Chronicles,
he now channels those ideas into novels. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his
family.
Corey Taylor is the lead singer of the hard rock bands Slipknot and Stone Sour. A native of Des Moines, Iowa, he divides his time between that city and Los Angeles.
Jonathan Franzen is the author of five novels, including four New York Times bestsellers, and seven works of nonfiction. The Corrections won the National Book Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the German Akademie der Kunste, and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Tim Curry has created a rich array of memorable characters
for both the screen and stage, most notably the role of the scientist in the
Broadway and film versions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He’s been
nominated for Tony Awards for his roles in My Favorite Year and The
Pirates of Penzance. His film credits include Muppet Treasure Island,
The Shadow, Clue, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, The
Three Musketeers, and many, many more.
Laura Jane Grace is a transgender musician best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me! Since coming out as transgender in a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, she has become an outspoken advocate for transgender awareness. Grace has a daughter and lives in Chicago.
Jeff Tweedy is the founding member and leader of the Grammy Award–winning American rock band Wilco, and before that he was the cofounder of the alt-country band Uncle Tupelo. He is considered is one of contemporary music’s most accomplished songwriters, musicians, and performers. He has released four albums, written original songs for thirteen Wilco albums, and is the author of the bestsellers Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. and How to Write One Song.
Neil Hellegers grew up in New Jersey and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a BA in theater arts and a minor in psychology before getting an MFA in acting from the Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. He moved to New York City in 2003 and, since then, has made a career of theatrical performance, percussion, theater education, and audiobook narration. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.