Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991

Michael Azerrad

Dec 2012 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

One after another, children of elite military-industrial complex families. Henry Garfield "Rollins" the shadiest of the lot. Wonder just how big Minuteman Mike Watt's father (honored on a Watt album cover) was in the Navy. Just a continuation of the dirty tricks of Jim and his father Admiral "I faked the Gulf of Tonkin" Morrison, all of it. These people all made a lot of "sacrifices"--

an inspirational 'dip in' book that you can come back to again and again and get something different every time. An all time rock tome.

A brilliant read. Absolutely fantastic. Learned so much about many of my favorite bands like Husker Du and the But those Surfers.

About the author

Michael Azerrad is the author of the books Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991, and Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana. His writings on music and musicians have appeared in numerous magazines, including Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, Spin, and the New York Times. He lives in New York City.