My new book _The Amplified Come as You Are_ is out today! It's the original _Come as You Are_ but with a whole new book's worth of annotations, illuminations, emendations, expositions and clarifications. And: first time in hardcover!
Just heard "Orinoco Flow" in the supermarket, which reminded me of one of my favorite things anyone has ever said to me in an interview:
@official_Enya
explaining why some people find her music to be spiritual — "It's the amount of reverb we use."
RIP Spot. He recorded iconic LPs by Black Flag, Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, Descendents, Meat Puppets and the Misfits, among many others. He was also an excellent critic, photographer and musician. But most importantly, a lot of people loved him.
(photo: Photobill/Bill Daniel)
I don't know what to say about Steve Albini's passing. He had a brilliant mind, was a great artist and underwent the most remarkable and inspiring personal transformation. I can't believe he's gone.
By rejecting royalties on _In Utero_ alone, Steve Albini turned down about two million bucks. Putting principle before personal enrichment is one reason why he's one of the extremely few producers (sorry, Steve) whom great numbers of people would mourn. Money isn't everything.
Daniel Johnston was a genius. How else to alchemize pain and fear into timeless songs that made people feel not so alone.
Drove those demons
Out of my head
With an organ and a pencil full of lead
And when I'm dead
I'd like to have it said
He drove those demons out of his head
RIP Frank Kozik, whose day glo nightmare show posters and album covers were the visual soundtrack of the more brutal precincts of '90s indie/alt-rock. He also founded Man's Ruin Records, releasing Kyuss, Killdozer, Turbonegro, Melvins and many other superb blights on pop culture.
Twenty-three years later and I will never cease to be amazed — well, honored, really — that people continue to find that book relevant and resonant. Thanks, readers!
@iantheCROAT
@robsheff
Always this. If you’ve ever loved a band, been in a band, wanted to be in a band but weren’t, loved music, had friends who loved music, seen music as an important part of your life or even if you’ve never loved music & want to understand people who do, read this
@michaelazerrad
It's the birthday of d. boon of the Minutemen, a most inspiring person. I wonder what he would have thought of this moment. But then I wonder that every year.
(photo: Marty Lyon)
.
@Nirvana
's _In Utero_ starts w/Dave clicking his sticks—something usually edited out of a commercial album. Then a gigantic dissonant guitar chord: a big, gnarly declaration of chaos, uncertainty, and rage, it's the Big Bang that gives birth to a world of ugly beauty.
#InUtero30
Punk's not dead, it just goes to bed at a reasonable hour: the former members of Minor Threat get back together for a photo. And it's heartwarming AF.
#SeniorThreat
It just got real.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine in 1993 that, 30 years later, I'd revisit _Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana_. But that's what I did, and I put my heart & soul into it. Thanks to
@HarperOneBooks
and
@HarperCollins
for believing. (Pub. date 10/24)
Fred Schneider of
@theB52s
couldn't really sing but he wanted to be in a band. So he invented his own way of being a vocalist. That's how he became one of the most inspiring and beloved rock musicians of the late 20th century. So party out of bounds because today is his birthday.
Illustration for Eddie van Halen's U.S. patent
#4
,656,917 for a guitar support so he could "explore the instrument as never before." I think we can safely say it worked.
Every OG indie music community you’ve ever heard of had its Spot: Jack Endino, Steve Fisk, Steve Albini, Don Zientara, Rick Harte, et al., people who understood the bands and would record them cheaply. Crucial because back then, it cost money to record — _and there was no money_.
.
@TheB52s
made great records, were a killer live band, were wildly inventive, helped lead an exciting new chapter in rock, inspired everyone from
@JohnLennon
to
@Nirvana
— and staged the greatest, most inspiring comeback in rock history.
Why are the B-52s not in the
@RockHall
?
When I interviewed
#ThankYouSteveAlbini
for _Our Band Could Be Your Life_, he gave me a tour of his studio Electrical Audio. His friends did construction, electrical, plumbing. He stopped, spread his arms wide and proudly proclaimed, "This whole place was built by punk rockers!"
It's Kurt Cobain's 57th birthday. Sadly—and yet boldly—Kurt helped open up a national discussion about mental health: not just of celebrities, but of people in general. Mental health didn't used to be talked about so much. Now it is. That's one of the best parts of his legacy.
Not gonna lie: hearing
@theLouBarlow
’s seven-year-old daughter sing along while her dad covered
@pavement_band
’s “Cut Your Hair” on the loading dock of a lamp factory in Bushwick in front of 60 or so lovely people on a beautiful spring evening got me a little choked up.
RIP longtime Butthole Surfers drummer Teresa Taylor, 60. She was, as her bandmate Paul Leary put it, "such a trooper." Here she is with Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad.
Photo:
@PatBlashill
Today marks the eight anniversary of this magnificent photo of
@DinosaurJr
's J Mascis and friends at the Provincetown carnival. I defy you not to smile.
Why are the '90s hip right now? Because nostalgia runs in 20-year cycles.
The '70s-->the '50s: Happy Days, Sha Na Na
The '80s-->the '60s: the Doors comeback, paisley underground
The '90s-->the '70s: grunge
The 2000s-->the '80s: chillwave etc.
Look for a Strokes revival in 2022.
Forty years ago this month, Mike
@WattFromPedro
and D. Boon founded the life-changing band the Minutemen in this house in San Pedro, California. Incredible stuff can come from seemingly unlikely places. Always remember that.
.
@STErlewine
is arguably one of the most influential music critics in the world. He's written hundreds, maybe thousands, of authoritative reviews of a staggering variety of music on Allmusic — and we, his colleagues all refer to them. Someone smart will give him a great job.
After some 32 years, I have been laid off from Xperi, whose music editorial database is featured on Allmusic. I enjoyed working there and will miss having steady work. If you have any leads or opportunities, let me know. I'm open to writing, editing and consulting.
If you're an _Our Band Could Be Your Life_ type of person you'll enjoy this Q&A with
@BobMouldMusic
— lots of great stuff about the early days of Hüsker Dü.
He was the acknowledged engine of a band that gave two or three of his bandmates their entire identity, but he didn't care about pop stardom; he really just wanted to play jazz. That's how cool he was.
Never has a drummer kicked ass so elegantly.
RIP Charlie Watts.
Today marks the tenth anniversary of one of the greatest photographs in human history: J Mascis of
@DinosaurJr
, his daughter, and a Wookiee at the
#Provincetown
Carnival.
Happy 62nd birthday,
@HenryRollins
.
This meme w/lifelong pal Ian MacKaye makes fun but both are still punk AF: punk rock might be for the young but *being* punk is for all. No shame in going to bed at a reasonable hour if you wake up the next morning and fight the good fight.
.
@FooFighters
Taylor Hawkins was an archetypal rock drummer — I mean, just look at the guy. He lived and played really hard and really well and really joyously, and that was very inspiring. His passing is a shock and a terrible loss.
(photo: Amy Harris)
Greg Norton, bassist for the great Hüsker Dü, has just been diagnosed with prostate cancer. It's going to be really expensive to deal with. By all means, kick in a few bucks if you can.
Friday night I saw
@DinosaurJr
and it reminded me of one of my favorite things about music: how a particular group of musicians can make their own magical collective sound, a unique combination of tones, pitches, and rhythmic idiosyncrasies that adds up to something ineffable.
One of the endearing things about the late Martin Phillipps was that he wasn't just a gifted songwriter and musician, he was a big music fan: he was One of Us. He knew the rush we get from hearing a favorite song. In fact, he named his band after that feeling: the Chills. RIP.
"We had one tape we listened to in the van… On one side was the Smithereens… That tape was always getting played, turned over and over again. I think back now and go, 'Yeah, maybe that was an influence.'" —
@KristNovoselic
RIP Pat DiNizio
Mike
@WattFromPedro
on "jamming econo": "We just could never see mass acceptance of our music... [So] if we were going to do it, we had to make sure the dream fit the tent. A massive bourgeois tent would be too much deadweight. Let’s just carry enough to get us there."
#OBCBYL
I am so honored to announce that one of the greatest rock journalists ever,
@Kurt_Loder
, is narrating the audiobook version of my book _Come As You Are: the Story of Nirvana_. It's out April 23rd with Penguin Random House Audio (
@PRHAudio
).
Attention must be paid: Screaming Females have called it a day. They made a lot of great, passionate punk rock. They were DIY to the core. And they're just really nice people.
Best of luck,
@Screamales
, and thanks for the tunes and the shows!
My Jeff Beck story: Intvwd him for
@RollingStone
for his
@RockHall
induction w/Yardbirds. Asked if he'd jam with them. He said, "Maybe if I had a couple of Guinnesses in me." At the show, I brought him two Guinnesses. He drank them. But he didn't jam with the Yardbirds. The end.
Did you know that you can take guitar lessons from Mission of Burma's great Roger Miller? In person — if you're in the southern Vermont area — or via Skype.
Some of my favorite docs are about bands I'm not that into: Rush, Anvil, Metallica, etc. _Wham!_ is another—a poignant look at intraband dynamics that can apply to many other kinds of partnerships. Worth watching even if you don't want anyone to wake you up before they go-go.
.
@Spotify
is giving users the option to mute artists — I'm sure they'll keep charts of who gets muted the most. Realistically, who do you think will be in the Top 5?
Tom Verlaine, whose band Television was one of the most influential to emerge from the New York punk rock scene centered on the nightclub CBGB, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 73.
Happy to finally unveil the season that I've been dropping hints about OUR CINEMA COULD BE YOUR LIFE, inspired by the bands of 'Our Band Could Be Your Life' and writing of
@michaelazerrad
:
I'm thoroughly annotating _Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana_: adding amplifications, corrections, illuminations, cultural context, reminiscences, anecdotes, insights from re-reading the book, and a new chapter. Tons of interesting stuff. No publisher yet but I'm on it.
RIP the great comedian, actor, musician and painter Martin Mull (_Fernwood 2 Night_, _Roseanne_, _Arrested Development_).
As far as I can tell, Mull is the one who said, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" and is thus a giant of rock criticism.
The _Our Band Could Be Your Life_ audiobook features the voices of: Sharon Van Etten, Fred Armisen, Jonathan Franzen, Merrill Garbus, Colin Meloy, Dave Longstreth, Jon Wurster, Stephin Merritt, Jeff Tweedy and many more luminaries.
This is SO great. What Ben didn't know is that Ian MacKaye composed many Minor Threat songs on piano. Ian played a couple for me—on the same piano—when I interviewed him for Our Band Could Be Your Life. I wish he (or Ben) would do an entire album of them.
Our beloved friend Mark Lanegan passed away this morning at his home in Killarney, Ireland. A beloved singer, songwriter, author and musician he was 57 and is survived by his wife Shelley. No other information is available at this time. We ask Please respect the family privacy
Just looked it up: I've seen
@Deerhoof
32 times. But that's only since 2011, when I started my iCal — I first saw them play in 2004. So they're the band I've seen the most times, and every show has been absolutely exhilarating. Bottom line: see Deerhoof play whenever you can.
It's John Coltrane's birthday, which means you can listen to his passionate, brilliant, and life-affirming music all day long on
@Columbia
University's beloved
@WKCRFM
here:
(photo: William Claxton)
Exciting news: out in spring, the
#audiobook
version of _Our Band Could Be Your Life_ w/Grammy-winning
@HachetteAudio
. Folks who were inspired by the bands in the book read chapters.
First up:
@JeffTweedy
from
@Wilco
reads the Minutemen!
A buncha other incredible artists tba.
Grunge fans will want to read Barrett Martin's _The Greatest Band That Ever Wasn't_, a memoir about his time drumming with Screaming Trees (and Mad Season). There's a moral to his rollicking story: in the words of William Blake, "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."
Many have speculated about the origin of the musical term "grunge." Well, now we know: this was published in 1985, two years before
@SubPop
's
@BrucePavitt
described Green River's _Dry as a Bone_ EP as "ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed the morals of a generation."
#YoureWelcome
One of rock’s best writers has done it again.
@michaelazerrad
goes deeper and further into the Nirvana story with more than double the background of the original Come As You are.
Humbled to be included in this along with my first band, Verböten.
When "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the first single from Nirvana's _Nevermind_, was released, people were mystified by the lyrics—in particular, “A mulatto, an albino/A mosquito, my libido.” But it’s just two pairs of opposites, a funny way of saying the narrator is very horny.
With most articles, you think, hey, that was a cool experience to interview that musician.
And then some articles are life-altering. That's what this one was for me, published 30 years ago to the day.
Thank you,
@Nirvana
and
@RollingStone
.
_Our Band Could Be Your Life_ turns 20 this year — and somehow it's still a part of the conversation, as in
@MarkRichardson
's thoughtful Wall Street Journal (
@WSJ
) review of
@DinosaurJr
's blazingly poignant new album _Sweep It Into Space_.
Young lovers Erick Purkhiser and Kristy Wallace: together they would go on to found the Cramps.
It's the 50th anniversary of this photo. I just find it incredibly moving.
"
@TheSonicYouth
came to embody for many musicians and music fans an aspirational ideal of creative freedom — and, by extension, freedom in general."
On the occasion of
@NowJazzNow
's fine new memoir, I pontificated on a very inspiring band for
@YaleReview
.
Fan mail: "'Our Band Could Be Your Life' literally got me through the last 30 days at Oregon State Correctional Facility... I have to honestly admit I felt somewhat privileged being probably the only motherfucker in the whole institution being able to read about Big Black."
I should probably have noted that all three of these songs begin with a lone dissonant chord. The second one is probably a tribute to the first. And the third one is probably a tribute to the first and the second.
Fascinating that
@BobDylan
chose this photo of Little Richard, Alis Lesley & Eddie Cochran for his upcoming book. It's from the 1957 Australian tour when Little Richard saw Sputnik 1 streaking skyward after launch, had a religious epiphany and dropped out of pop music for years.
Interviewer: What is the most the important thing about rock & roll you've learnt in your life?
David Thomas (Pere Ubu): Rock music is about moving big black boxes from one side of town to the other in the back of your car.
Really stoked to announce that
@SharonVanEtten
is reading the
@DinosaurJr
chapter of the _Our Band Could Be Your Life_ audiobook. Out May 21 w/the Grammy-winning
@HachetteAudio
.
More readers tba.
p.s.: Sharon's LP _Remind Me Tomorrow_ is out 1/18 and it's intensely beautiful.
It's difficult not to see the stunning Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit "Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll" as a materialistic tomb for the rock & roll era. And yet I had to stop myself from genuflecting before Keith Moon's drum set.