Favorite Punk-New Wavey book?

[profpike]

I'm thinking of getting rip it up and start again-anybody here to say yay or nay?

Anyway, my fave rave read on this topic is Our Band Could Be Your Life-good stories and coverage of a lot of American "post-punk" bands-many of whom I could not live w/out back in the day.

Greate revelations from this book? The Buttholes Paul Leary is an accountant and did a fabulous job marshalling the group's scarce financial resources so that they could actually live and make a living.

For all their outsider cred-Sonic Youth were relentless self-promoters who were ingenious at getting seen and mentioned in all the right places.

I never new how big drugs were with the black flag crew-I guess I always thought that with Henry present they were kind of "straight edge."

For me the big hero who emerged from this book was Ian McKaye-one of those rare punk rock idealists who, generally speaking, walked the walk and talked the talk.

Oh, and apparently the replacements drank from time to time.

[rotator]

Pavement's "Perfect Sound Forever" is a great book ----name checks all their influences the two biggest being The Fall, and Echo And The Bunnymen....

[wendy m]

A little more on the punk side, but "We Got the Neutron Bomb" covers LA in the late 70s - early 80s very well.

[hutter]

"I Was A Robot" by Wolfgang Flur.

[Ollie Stench]

Rip It Up And Start Again is really good, but if you're going to buy it make sure you get the UK printing. It's got 200+ more pages than the US version.

Both We Got The Neutron Bomb and What We Do Is Secret are really good books about the nascent LA scene.

From The Velvets To The Voidoids is a good introduction to proto-punk.

Englands Dreaming is the best book on 70's UK punk.

All I got out of Please Kill Me was Legs McNeil saying "we did it before the Brits and Patty Smith has huge knockers".

[WolverineSyr]

I liked Making Tracks from Chris Stein & Debbie Harry. It had a good look at the early NY scene from their perspective - great photos too. I loved reading about their life before Blondie got a record deal - the whole band living in squallor in a Bowery loft, the CBGBs scene, etc.

[Ollie Stench]

For the flip side of the same story check out Gary Valentin's "New York Rocker".

[bpdp3]

The only one not already mentioned I can think of is "Ranters and crowdpleasers" by Greil Marcus.

Oh there was also a really nice tome of "Sniffin' Glue" with all the issues included in it. that was nice.

[rotator]

I m going on vacation - a cruise to Mexico, and I've got three (hopefully) great books to read:

•True Faith: An Armchair Guide to New Order : Joy Division, Electronic, Monaco and The Other Two (a track by track trainspotters guid to NO)

•The Smiths: Songs That Saved Your Life (dunno what this ones gunna be like)

•Stripped: The True Story of Depeche Mode (apparently deals alot with their early carreer --which Im more interested in)

[ben_at_work]

I remember in 85 while in the Army reading "And I Don't Want to Live This Life" written by Nancy Spundgeons (sic) mother. Pretty sad stuff but a good read none the less.

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by rotator[/i]
<br>
•True Faith: An Armchair Guide to New Order : Joy Division, Electronic, Monaco and The Other Two (a track by track trainspotters guid to NO)
[/quote]
I'd look forward to your review. I've heard this is riddled with factual errors and general sloppy coverage...but it's hard to tell if that's uber-fans just being upity.

[Ollie Stench]

2 books that have been mentioned in past threads are the onse by Glenn A Baker: The New Music and The New Rock and Roll. These 2 books did so much in the course of expanding my musical knowledge.

<img src="http://www.billwymanshop.com/acatalog/00427a%20Baker%20Aus%20Book.jpg">

Also the 2 George Gimark (sp?) books Punk Diary and Post-Punk Diary are worth tracking down.

[profpike]

Well Ollie it must be a great book 'cause you're the dud around here who seems to knwo the most

[ben_at_work]

[quote][i]Originally posted by profpike[/i]
<br>Well Ollie it must be a great book 'cause you're the dud around here who seems to knwo the most
[/quote]

"No.... Heeeeeee's the DUDE! or Duder or Dude-orino!"
(shameless Big Lebowski quote)

[rotator]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by rotator[/i]
<br>
•True Faith: An Armchair Guide to New Order)
[/quote]
I'd look forward to your review. I've heard this is riddled with factual errors and general sloppy coverage...but it's hard to tell if that's uber-fans just being upity.
[/quote]

Well, one third of the book was given to Joy Division, one third to NO and the other third to the side projects. As Blir stated, It was disjointed and short on the "comments" section, there wasn't alot of facts I did'nt already know, and again, a little short on insight but I would recomend this to people just starting out collecting New Order (et al) records. It was very informative if you collect bootlegs or are a 'gig'-spotter (which I do not, and am not.)......

Better yet was the Smiths 'Songs that saved..." absolutely brilliant -- super informative, and I learned a ton about (one) of my favorite bands ---I would HIGHLY recomend this book to ANY Smith fan weather you have a black belt in the Smiths or just got your brown.

EVERY song the smiths have ever done commented on in full (sometimes a little too exhaustive when it comes to describing the radio,TV shows and gigs that particular song appeared on---but still interesting)

....this is the new edition with added Marr commentary and added/ammended content----search this second edition out before buying the first....

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