jfv wrote: Sat Sep 03, 2022 3:55 pm I have been listening to early Sonic Youth lately and as a result have been revisiting their chapter and some of the other chapters in Our Band Could Be Your Life.

Any recommendations on books that cover similar/related topics you all would recommend?

I was considering reading the Kim Gordon memoir.

I have a copy of The Story Of Anvil that you’re welcome to have.

jfv wrote: Sat Sep 03, 2022 3:55 pm I have been listening to early Sonic Youth lately and as a result have been revisiting their chapter and some of the other chapters in Our Band Could Be Your Life.

Any recommendations on books that cover similar/related topics you all would recommend?

I was considering reading the Kim Gordon memoir.

Trouble Boys, about The Replacements, is excellent if occasionally gross.

I read the recent book about the rise and fall of SST Records not long ago and enjoyed that well enough.

^ Thanks for the recommendations!

A rock book I'd recommend is the late Rob McCuen's Shut Up and Listen: Me vs. Me: Confessions of a Bipolar Rock and Roller. It's a quick read, has a quasi-Bukowskian angle (see below), but that doesn't quite encompass all of it. McCuen was a drummer and sometimes vocalist in several bands mostly relegated to Milwaukee, the most well known probably being Plasticland. We had a few mutual friends and he was known for being "a piece of work." Only met him once, at a Kinko's on the East Side, where he was with his girlfriend getting some flyers made, and he came off pretty well. To-the-point but affable. The book deals with his upbringing and band experiences and some of his demons related to his mood disorder, alcoholism, and assorted ups and downs. It manages to be pretty funny at times, irreverent, which I can't really do justice to here. But the last few paragraphs of the book have stuck with me:

At last count, I have plied my trade in 29 states and 14 countries on rock and roll's dime, and have appeared as either singer or drummer on 23 records.
My life's work now lives in bargain bins all over the world.
All the while, my musical "career" has been repeatedly interrupted by the annoying reality of earning a living, an endeavor in which I continue to fail miserably. In the 31 jobs I have been force-fed throughout my slapstick life, there is but one common denominator: They all sucked.

Worth looking into.

jfv wrote: Sat Sep 03, 2022 3:55 pm I have been listening to early Sonic Youth lately and as a result have been revisiting their chapter and some of the other chapters in Our Band Could Be Your Life.

Any recommendations on books that cover similar/related topics you all would recommend?

I was considering reading the Kim Gordon memoir.

I have around here somewhere a copy of "Confusion is Next : The Sonic Youth Story" by Alec Foege. I read it some years ago and my recollection was that it was interesting but not excellent. On the one hand, like OBCBYL, I didn't so much care for the writing - found it too fan-y.

On the other hand, I think it was a picture of that time in NYC as SY emerged from the early '80s scene. It covers the band from pre-formation to about the Experimental Jet Set era. Lots of personnel and musical evolutions over that time period so the book was fairly good from that perspective. Overall, NC.

Jimbo wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 2:01 pm I'm reading the full Dune series, and just finished Heretics of Dune for the first time. I read it while sitting on a dune as well. My first time reading the series I got up through Children of Dune and then got sidetracked on a bunch of other things, so I bought the whole series and started over from the beginning. I gotta say, things in that series get really weird from God Emperor onward.

Gosh I should get on to this!

seby wrote: Mon Sep 05, 2022 5:54 pm

Jimbo wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 2:01 pm I'm reading the full Dune series, and just finished Heretics of Dune for the first time. I read it while sitting on a dune as well. My first time reading the series I got up through Children of Dune and then got sidetracked on a bunch of other things, so I bought the whole series and started over from the beginning. I gotta say, things in that series get really weird from God Emperor onward.

Gosh I should get on to this!

for people in need of a refresh / too lazy to read this video is nice

Just noticed comic books are the perfect light reading.

I take a long time to fall asleep and often have to get up and do something. I usually don't have the mental energy to read, and I can't be at the computer 'cause it'll fuck up my sleep. Comic books are the perfect midway.

Similar for lunch breaks at work.

Been dipping into a book of Kafka's short stories. They are very short, some as short as a single page. Surreal and baffling apparent allegories with dark undercurrents. Characters seem helpless, their actions futile. They are little vignette-sized nightmares.

Not right now but soon will be - This recent publication I found on one of the authors' twitter page:

Fractured: Race, Class, Gender and the Hatred of Identity Politics

Identity politics has been a smear for decades. In Fractured, the authors move away from the ahistorical temper of the identity politics debate. [They] argue that these categories are inseparable from the history of class struggle under British and US capitalism. Through an appraisal of pivotal historical moments in Britain and the US, including Black feminist and anticolonial traditions on both sides of the Atlantic, the authors question the assumptions of the culture war, offering a refreshing and reasoned way to understand how historical class struggles were formed and continue to determine the possibilities for new forms of solidarity in an increasingly dangerous world.

Very stoked.