
Our Band Could Be Your Life
Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991
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By:
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Michael Azerrad
About this listen
This is the never-before-told story of the musical revolution that happened right under the nose of the Reagan '80s - when a small but sprawling network of bands, labels, fanzines, radio stations, and other subversives reenergized American rock with punk rock'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 has been recognized as an indie rock classic in its own right.
Among the bands profiled: Mission of Burma, Butthole Surfers, The Minutemen, Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Big Black, Hüsker Dü, Fugazi, Minor Threat, Mudhoney, The Replacements, Beat Happening, and Dinosaur, Jr.
©2012 Michael Azerrad (P)2019 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Nirvana came out of nowhere in 1991 to sell nearly five million copies of their landmark album Nevermind, whose thunderous sound and indelible melodies embodied all the confusion, frustration, and passion of the emerging Generation X.
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Time Capsule
- By Keith on 06-10-19
By: Michael Azerrad
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Where Are Your Boys Tonight?
- The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008
- By: Chris Payne
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead, Chris Abell
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Music journalist Chris Payne experienced emo's mainstream takeover from sweaty crowds and mosh pits growing up in New Jersey. In Where Are Your Boys Tonight? he offers an authoritative, impassioned, and occasionally absurd account told through interviews with more than 150 people, from the scene's biggest bands, producers, and managers to the teenage fans who helped redefine American music culture.
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I REALLY Wanted to Like This
- By Fuzz414 on 08-18-23
By: Chris Payne
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Do What You Want
- The Story of Bad Religion
- By: Bad Religion, Jim Ruland
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Do What You Want's principal storytellers are the four voices that define Bad Religion: Greg Graffin, a Wisconsin kid who sang in the choir and became an LA punk rock icon while he was still a teenager; Brett Gurewitz, a high school dropout who founded the independent punk label Epitaph Records and went on to become a record mogul; Jay Bentley, a surfer and skater who gained recognition as much for his bass skills as for his antics on and off the stage.
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Are they really this big of D-bags?
- By Tabitha on 09-18-20
By: Bad Religion, and others
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Nirvana
- The Amplifications
- By: Michael Azerrad
- Narrated by: Michael Azerrad
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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It has been three decades since Nirvana upended the pop cultural landscape with Nevermind, the landmark album that became the soundtrack of Generation X, capturing its confusion, frustration, and passion. In 1993, Michael Azerrad published what stands as the definitive biography of this revolutionary band and its star-crossed leader Kurt Cobain. Written with the band’s complete cooperation—the only book to feature interviews with Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl—it became a massive bestseller and, in the words of Cobain, "the best rock book I’ve ever read.”
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Excellent follow up!
- By Ryan on 02-05-24
By: Michael Azerrad
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Smash!
- Green Day, The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and the '90s Punk Explosion
- By: Ian Winwood
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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With astounding access to all the key players of the time, including members of Green Day, The Offspring, NOFX, Rancid, Bad Religion, Social Distortion, and many others, renowned music writer Ian Winwood at last gives this significant, substantive, and compelling story its due. Punk rock bands were never truly successful or indeed truly famous, and that was that - until it wasn't. Smash! is the story of how the underdogs finally won and forever altered the landscape of mainstream music.
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Horrible narrator
- By Robert Mennona on 05-05-19
By: Ian Winwood
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NOFX
- The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories
- By: NOFX, Jeff Alulis
- Narrated by: NOFX, Jello Biafra, Tommy Chong
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories is the first tell-all autobiography from one of the world's most influential and controversial punk bands. Fans and non-fans alike will be shocked by the stories of murder, suicide, addiction, counterfeiting, riots, bondage, terminal illness, the Yakuza, and drinking pee. Told from the perspective of each of the band's members, this audiobook looks back at more than 30 years of comedy, tragedy, and completely inexplicable success.
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*%#!
- By Jonas on 10-10-16
By: NOFX, and others
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Tranny
- Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout
- By: Laura Jane Grace, Dan Ozzi
- Narrated by: Laura Jane Grace
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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One of Billboard's 100 Greatest Music Books of All Time: The provocative transgender advocate and lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me! provides a searing account of her search for identity and her true self. It began in a bedroom in Naples, Florida, when a misbehaving punk teenager named Tom Gabel, armed with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a headful of anarchist politics, landed on a riff. Gabel formed Against Me! and rocketed the band from its scrappy beginnings-banging on a drum kit made of pickle buckets-to a major-label powerhouse.
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Powerful story and performance.
- By Beerarchy on 02-11-17
By: Laura Jane Grace, and others
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Sonic Life
- A Memoir
- By: Thurston Moore
- Narrated by: Thurston Moore
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Thurston Moore moved to Manhattan’s East Village in 1978 with a yearning for music. He wanted to be immersed in downtown New York’s sights and sounds—the feral energy of its nightclubs, the angular roar of its bands, the magnetic personalities within its orbit. But more than anything, he wanted to make music—to create indelible sounds that would move, provoke, and inspire. His dream came to life in 1981 with the formation of Sonic Youth, a band Moore cofounded with Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo.
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Disembodied Art and Intellect
- By Kris on 11-02-23
By: Thurston Moore
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My Damage
- The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor
- By: Keith Morris, Jim Ruland
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Keith Morris is a true punk icon. No one else embodies the sound of Southern Californian hardcore. Short and sporting waist-length dreadlocks, Morris is known the world over for his take-no-prisoners approach on the stage and his integrity off of it. Over the course of his 40-year career, he's battled diabetes, drug and alcohol addiction, and the record industry. My Damage is more than a book about the highs and lows of a punk rock legend, however.
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keith rocks.
- By Jeff on 05-13-18
By: Keith Morris, and others
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The Greatest Band That Ever Wasn't
- The Story of the Roughest, Toughest, Most Hell-Raising Band to Ever Come Out of the Pacific Northwest, the Screaming Trees
- By: Barrett Martin
- Narrated by: Barrett Martin
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1992, the Screaming Trees were expected to become the next big band to come out of the Seattle music scene during the heyday of grunge. Except it never happened. It wasn't because the band didn't have great songs—indeed, the Trees were revered for their ability to write a great song that was both artistically original and commercially viable, which is no easy task. Other Seattle bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden were fans of the Screaming Trees, playing shows with them and collaborating on albums, long before their own bands broke through into the mainstream.
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Not Quite the Whole Story
- By Gorgatron on 09-18-24
By: Barrett Martin
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Trouble Boys
- The True Story of the Replacements
- By: Bob Mehr
- Narrated by: Mary Lucia
- Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Written with the participation of the group's key members, including reclusive singer-songwriter Paul Westerberg, bassist Tommy Stinson, and the family of late guitarist Bob Stinson, Trouble Boys is a deeply intimate and nuanced portrait, exposing the primal factors and forces - addiction, abuse, fear - that would shape one of the most brilliant and notoriously self-destructive bands of all time.
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Oh Sister!
- By Cherrybomb on 06-29-17
By: Bob Mehr
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Girls to the Front
- The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution
- By: Sara Marcus
- Narrated by: Julie McKay
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Girls to the Front is the epic, definitive history of the Riot Grrrl movement - the radical feminist punk uprising that exploded into the public eye in the 1990s, altering America's gender landscape forever. Author Sara Marcus, a music and politics writer for Time Out New York, Slate.com, Pos, and Heeb magazine, interweaves research, interviews, and her own memories as a Riot Grrrl front-liner.
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Great Story!
- By Amoryn Smith on 02-05-20
By: Sara Marcus
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Lou Reed
- The King of New York
- By: Will Hermes
- Narrated by: Will Hermes
- Length: 20 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Since his death ten years ago, Lou Reed’s living presence has only grown. The great rock-poet presided over the marriage of Brill Building pop and the European avant-garde, and left American culture transfigured. In Lou Reed: The King of New York, Will Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed’s life and legacy, dramatizing his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fans, critics, fellow artists, and assorted habitués of the demimonde.
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Best Biography I’ve Ever Read
- By Sammy Criscitello on 11-21-24
By: Will Hermes
What listeners say about Our Band Could Be Your Life
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- PDW
- 02-05-21
Interesting, Well Researched Production
This book chronicled the csreers of several American punk bands. There were 13 bands and different musical artists narrated for each band. This kept the story interesting. I only have two complaints: the chapter on Fugazi was 10% too long and it ignored all women punk bands during the era. This could have easily rectified by including a chapter on Babes in Toyland. Otherwise, this was an excellent audiobook. The production was great and the narration was captivating.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-17-24
Love this Book
Ok if you are into music,especially college radio, this is a great book.
If you grew up with punk post punk power pop from the late 70’s early 80’s this book will make you stop listening so you can catch up bye listening to the bands on a streaming service (or brake out your vinyl).
So much fun and inspirational for Just Grind it out for the love of it.
Thank you to all the folks that make this book possible.
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- Patrick Boberg
- 06-25-19
Essential
This book blasted open a door I had only ducked my head through. The audiobook adds a layer of accessibility that makes it all that much more powerful. I can't to relisten. The chapters on The Butthole Surfers, Big Black, The Minutemen, and The Replacements are life-changing.
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- JJ Lehmann
- 04-10-25
Narrators
I actually haven't finished the book, yet.
While listening, I wanted to know who was narrating each chapter, but it doesn't tell you in the title details.
So, here is the list:
Black Flag- Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors
The Minutemen- Jeff Tweedy of Wilco
Mission of Burma- Jonathan Franzen (author)
Minor Threat- Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!
Hüsker Dü- Colin Meloy of The Decemberists
The Replacements- Jon Wurster of Superchunk & The Mountain Goats
Sonic Youth- Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards
Butthole Surfers- Fred Armisen (actor)
Big Black- Corey Taylor of Slipknot
Dinosaur Jr- Sharon Van Etton (singer)
Fugazi- Michael Azzerad
Mudhoney- Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie
Beat Happening- Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields
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- Brian Fullford
- 01-20-20
For those who love music. Period.
More of my friends were into punk, well, early punk, than I was. It’s a shame because seeing The Minutemen open for REM at Jacksonville’s Swisher Gymnasium should’ve been a bigger deal. Not being a fan of play fast, and frankly not being exposed to many ideas outside of white middle class, I gravitated towards more accessible mischief via whatever Rush, Iron Maiden, or the party life of some hair metal band. Sure there were moments of 7 Seconds and Minor Threat (thank you Tom) but I generally failed to enjoy the musical style which meant I missed the message.
The truth is that Nirvana’s “Nevermind” was my gateway back into the “punk” scene. Once there, I rediscovered Husker Du, The Replacements, and Fugazi, all groups MTV and local alternative radio had given me.
Apart from some bleeping of words during the Black Flag chapter, Azerrad’s book is a beautiful walk through a complicated ethos, that ends with questions similar to what feminism encountered in its many waves. The question of who is the subject and what is the medium is dutifully told as you hear the stories is those who adhere to the original ethics of non corporate, and those who wanted a career that needed corporate.
The greater appreciation of community, and the lamenting of that loss in the closing chapter, calls the listener to ask whether the DIY ethos that allows for everything to be done on a computer is a positive or a negative. Still, I can’t help but appreciate the virtue or vice (your call) of commercial success that allows for access to the music by those who would have never heard it otherwise. I’m not sure it’s Michaels job to answer that and thankfully he doesn’t try.
I walk away from this book grateful for the courage of early punk rock and even more excited to see Jawbox in two weeks (very happy they are mentioned in the book). You don’t have to love or even like punk rock to enjoy this book. Hell, you may find a band you hook into that you’d never considered (I’m looking at you Big Black).
As a child of the 80’s, I appreciate the reflections on what this genre meant to music and culture. I plan on using it for my work to teach philosophy in prisons.
In closing I’ll highlight the bestie of the book: the varying voices who chronicle these bands. It’s nice to have someone influenced by the music get a chance to tell the stories.
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- Briboflavin
- 06-12-19
Serious as a heart attack!
This is one of my favorite books, so it's a real treat to finally have it in my Audible library. As we move closer to total global corporate domination, it's never felt more relevant or refreshing to delve into the worlds of these creative misfits following their passion, doing it all on their own, and making shit up as they go along. The bands covered (Black Flag, The Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat, Husker Du, The Replacements, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Fugazi, Mudhoney, and Beat Happening each get a chapter) range from capital-G *Great* (Fugazi, 'Mats) to capital I *Influential* (Surfers, Mudhoney), and many are deserving of full-length chronicles in their own right. Until then, Azerrad's book remains an indispensable inside look at some of the best bands that most people have never heard of. (It would have been super cool if snippets of each band's music could have been included in their respective chapters, but I suppose that would have been a copyright nightmare.) You'll fall in love with D. Boon and Mike Watt, become enamored of Ian MacKaye's uncompromising attitude, and have a hard time deciding whether you hate J. Mascis or Lou Barlow more. Mostly, though, you'll be inspired to rediscover some tremendous music and appreciate it all over again with a better understanding of the lives and circumstances from which it emerged.
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- Rachael Flores
- 10-13-23
An absolute classic
I’ve read this book several times. Love being able to listen to it while doing chores or working out.
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- dylan2k
- 04-07-20
I thought I knew all this stuff!
This invaluable resource wil shed light on the aspects of indie that you never even cvonsidered - or at least I didn't. Some of the history is rather ugly, some is good enough to be justification for the behaviors I always was like "WTF?" I Listened rabidly and am going to now read other histories by Mr Azerrad. Highly recommended.
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- David W.
- 08-05-19
Loved it
I loved this book when it came out, and found that love hasn't faded over the years.
If you grew up with, are a fan of, or have any interest in the American underground/indie music scene of the 70's/80's/90's, definitely check this out.
One chapter per band, stopping when the bands broke up, or signed to a major - which as a fan of nerd-level details, I initially thought wouldn't be enough. However, I feel these abbreviated bios really capture the spirit of these bands that I'd gotten from their music over the decades, which many of the bloated bios don't do.
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- Jeff Koeppen
- 12-22-19
Comprehenisve History of Some 1980s Indie Bands
When I found out about Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life I knew I would find interesting and I thought I would enjoy it, and it exceeded my expectations! This long book (21 hours on Audible) devotes almost two hours each to a deep dive in to the history of thirteen punk / indie rock bands. The author did his homework. This book is full of great quotes and interviews, and by the time each chapter is over you feel like you know each band member. I have very different opinions (better and worse) about quite a few musicians after listening to this.
I knew a lot of these bands through college radio (Radio K - University of Minnesota) and Twin Cities alternative radio stations in the mid to late 1980s and really haven't listened to them much since, with the exception of Sonic Youth, The Replacements, and Hüsker Dü. The Hüskers were one of my favorite bands and Bob Mould remains my favorite musician to this day (Azerrad also co-wrote Bob's autobiography See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody). I've seen Bob live countless times in Minneapolis and twice in Chicago, and met him a few times at events. But some of these bands I wasn't a huge fan of back in the day, and haven't heard at all since the 80s or 90s. It was fun going back and listening to their albums again.
Each chapter is narrated by a musician or author who was inspired by that particular band. The bands an narrators are:
Black Flag - Corey Taylor (singer, Slipknot)
The Minutemen - Jeff Tweedy (singer, Wilco)
Mission of Burma - Jonathan Franzen (author, The Corrections)
Minor Threat - Laura Jane Grace (Against Me!)
Hüsker Dü - Colin Meloy (singer, The Decemberists)
The Replacements - Jon Wurster (drummer; Superchunk, The Mountain Goats, Bob Mould)
Sonic Youth - Merrill Garbus (singer, Tune-Yards)
Butthole Surfers - Fred Armisen (drummer, comedian)
Big Black - Dave Longstreth (singer, The Dirty Projectors)
Dinosaur Jr. - Sharon Van Etten (singer/songwriter)
Fugazi - Michael Azerrad (author)
Mudhoney - Phil Elverum (singer, Mount Eerie)
Beat Happening - Stephin Merritt (singer, Magnetic Fields)
If you were / are a fan of any of the aforementioned bands or are interested in the punk / indie rock scene of the 1980s I would highly recommend this book to you. Rock on!
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14 people found this helpful