Rock Critic Law

Rock Critic Law PDF Author: Michael Azerrad
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062696750
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Straight out of his beloved Twitter feed @RockCriticLaw, acclaimed rock journalist and author of the classic books Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana and Our Band Could Be Your Life, Michael Azerrad turns his trenchant eye to the art of rock writing itself, hilariously skewering 101 of the genre’s seemingly endless litany of hackneyed phrases and tropes. One of the finest music writers today, Michael Azerrad has catalogued the shortcuts, lazy metaphors and uninspired prose that so many of his beloved colleagues all too regularly rely on to fill column inches. In 2014, he began his wickedly droll Twitter feed @RockCriticLaw to expose and make fun of this word-hash. Now, he consolidates these "Laws" into one witty, comprehensive and fully illustrated volume. Rock Critic Law includes timeless gems such as: If a band pioneered something, you must say they are "seminal." That is the Seminal Law of Rock Criticism. If a recording features densely layered guitars, then you MUST use the phrase "sonic cathedrals." Even when it’s easy to find out with research, by all means ask a band how they got their name. Please feel free to deny an artist’s individuality and say they are "the new [x]." If two guitars play a melodic line in harmony, you MUST say they are "twin lead guitars." All 101 Rock Critic Laws are accompanied by original illustrations from Ed Fotheringham, beloved Seattle scenester and highly regarded artist who has created album covers for everyone from, well, seminal grunge band Mudhoney to iconic jazz label Verve Records, as well as illustrations for TheAtlantic, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and more, making this book a must-have for music lovers everywhere. A unique appreciation of music writing from one of its own, Rock Critic Law irreverently captures all the passion and furor of fandom.

Rock Critic Law

Rock Critic Law PDF Author: Michael Azerrad
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062696750
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Get Book

Book Description
Straight out of his beloved Twitter feed @RockCriticLaw, acclaimed rock journalist and author of the classic books Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana and Our Band Could Be Your Life, Michael Azerrad turns his trenchant eye to the art of rock writing itself, hilariously skewering 101 of the genre’s seemingly endless litany of hackneyed phrases and tropes. One of the finest music writers today, Michael Azerrad has catalogued the shortcuts, lazy metaphors and uninspired prose that so many of his beloved colleagues all too regularly rely on to fill column inches. In 2014, he began his wickedly droll Twitter feed @RockCriticLaw to expose and make fun of this word-hash. Now, he consolidates these "Laws" into one witty, comprehensive and fully illustrated volume. Rock Critic Law includes timeless gems such as: If a band pioneered something, you must say they are "seminal." That is the Seminal Law of Rock Criticism. If a recording features densely layered guitars, then you MUST use the phrase "sonic cathedrals." Even when it’s easy to find out with research, by all means ask a band how they got their name. Please feel free to deny an artist’s individuality and say they are "the new [x]." If two guitars play a melodic line in harmony, you MUST say they are "twin lead guitars." All 101 Rock Critic Laws are accompanied by original illustrations from Ed Fotheringham, beloved Seattle scenester and highly regarded artist who has created album covers for everyone from, well, seminal grunge band Mudhoney to iconic jazz label Verve Records, as well as illustrations for TheAtlantic, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and more, making this book a must-have for music lovers everywhere. A unique appreciation of music writing from one of its own, Rock Critic Law irreverently captures all the passion and furor of fandom.

They Fought the Law

They Fought the Law PDF Author: Stan Soocher
Publisher: Schirmer Trade Books
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
"This account of the most famous lawsuits in rock history ... traces the difficulties rockers have faced dealing with bad contracts, personnel problems, litigious fans, and crooked managers and accountants."--Jacket.

Our Band Could Be Your Life

Our Band Could Be Your Life PDF Author: Michael Azerrad
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316247189
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
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.

The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic

The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic PDF Author: Jessica Hopper
Publisher: Featherproof Books
ISBN: 0983186367
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Jessica Hopper's music criticism has earned her a reputation as a firebrand, a keen observer and fearless critic not just of music but the culture around it. With this volume spanning from her punk fanzine roots to her landmark piece on R. Kelly's past, The First Collection leaves no doubt why The New York Times has called Hopper's work "influential." Not merely a selection of two decades of Hopper's most engaging, thoughtful, and humorous writing, this book documents the last 20 years of American music making and the shifting landscape of music consumption. The book journeys through the truths of Riot Grrrl's empowering insurgence, decamps to Gary, IN, on the eve of Michael Jackson's death, explodes the grunge-era mythologies of Nirvana and Courtney Love, and examines emo's rise. Through this vast range of album reviews, essays, columns, interviews, and oral histories, Hopper chronicles what it is to be truly obsessed with music. The pieces in The First Collection send us digging deep into our record collections, searching to re-hear what we loved and hated, makes us reconsider the art, trash, and politics Hopper illuminates, helping us to make sense of what matters to us most.

Rock Bottom

Rock Bottom PDF Author: Erin Brockovich
Publisher: Vanguard
ISBN: 1593156677
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
From New York Times bestselling author and internationally renowned environmental and consumer advocate Erin Brockovich comes Rock Bottom, a debut thriller and first in a series of novels that introduces one of the most fascinating and memorable characters in suspense fiction. Ten years ago, a pregnant seventeen-year-old, Angela Joy Palladino, fled her hometown, Scotia, West Virginia, as a pariah. Over time, AJ succeeded in establishing herself as an environmental activist, dubbed “The People’s Champion,” only to be forced to retreat from the spotlight in the wake of a crushing media disaster. When AJ is offered a job with a lawyer who is crusading against mountaintop removal mining, she is torn. As a single mother of a special needs nine-year-old boy, AJ can use any work she can get. But doing so will mean returning to the West Virginia hometown she left in disgrace so long ago. Upon arriving in Scotia, AJ learns of the sudden death of the lawyer who hired her. Soon after joining forces with his daughter, Elizabeth, threats begin to surface, bodies begin to pile up, and AJ discovers that her own secrets aren’t the only ones her mountain hometown has kept buried. Hitting rock bottom, AJ must face the betrayal of those once closest to her and confront the harrowing past she thought she had left behind. In Rock Bottom, Erin Brockovich combines passionate intensity, first-rate storytelling, and her real life experiences in a novel that will leave you breathless.

William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll

William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll PDF Author: Casey Rae
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477316507
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
William S. Burroughs's fiction and essays are legendary, but his influence on music's counterculture has been less well documented—until now. Examining how one of America's most controversial literary figures altered the destinies of many notable and varied musicians, William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll reveals the transformations in music history that can be traced to Burroughs. A heroin addict and a gay man, Burroughs rose to notoriety outside the conventional literary world; his masterpiece, Naked Lunch, was banned on the grounds of obscenity, but its nonlinear structure was just as daring as its content. Casey Rae brings to life Burroughs's parallel rise to fame among daring musicians of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, when it became a rite of passage to hang out with the author or to experiment with his cut-up techniques for producing revolutionary lyrics (as the Beatles and Radiohead did). Whether they tell of him exploring the occult with David Bowie, providing Lou Reed with gritty depictions of street life, or counseling Patti Smith about coping with fame, the stories of Burroughs's backstage impact will transform the way you see America's cultural revolution—and the way you hear its music.

Real Life Rock

Real Life Rock PDF Author: Greil Marcus
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300196644
Category : Newspapers
Languages : en
Pages : 599

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Book Description
The Washington Post hails Greil Marcus as our greatest cultural critic. Writing in the London Review of Books, D. D. Guttenplan calls him probably the most astute critic of American popular culture since Edmund Wilson. For nearly thirty years, he has written a remarkable column that has migrated from the Village Voice to Artforum, Salon, City Pages, Interview, and The Believer and currently appears in the Barnes & Noble Review. It has been a laboratory where Marcus has fearlessly explored and wittily dissected an enormous variety of cultural artifacts, from songs to books to movies to advertisements, teasing out from the welter of everyday objects what amounts to a de facto theory of cultural transmission. Published to complement the paperback edition of The History of Rock & Roll in Ten Songs, Real Life Rock reveals the critic in full: direct, erudite, funny, fierce, vivid, astute, uninhibited, and possessing an unerring instinct for art and fraud. The result is an indispensable volume packed with startling arguments and casual brilliance.

The Essential Ellen Willis

The Essential Ellen Willis PDF Author: Ellen Willis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780816681204
Category : MUSIC
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Offering a compelling and cohesive narrative of Willis's liberationist "transcendence politics," the essays--among them previously unpublished and uncollected pieces--are organized by decade from the 1960s to the 2000s.... [It]concludes with excerpts from Willis's unfinished book about politics and the cultural unconscious, introduced by her longtime partner, Stanley Aronowitz. An invaluable reckoning of American society since the 1960s, this volume is a testament to an iconoclastic and fiercely original voice. "--

Come As You Are

Come As You Are PDF Author: Michael Azerrad
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307833739
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
The definitive biography of the revolutionary band Nirvana and its star-crossed frontman Kurt Cobain, hailed by Rolling Stone as “the first [book] to comprehensively tell the band’s tale from Aberdeen, Wash., to world domination” “Amazingly raw and candid . . . an unsparing and extremely honest depiction of the group’s highly tumultuous history . . . Come As You Are is as good as rock bios get.”—Billboard “Just tell the truth. That’ll be better than anything else that’s been written about me.”—Kurt Cobain 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. Come As You Are is the close-up, intimate story of Nirvana—the only book with exclusive in-depth interviews with bandmembers Kurt Cobain, Krist Noveselic, and Dave Grohl, as well as friends, relatives, former bandmembers, and associates—now updated to include a final chapter detailing the last year of Kurt Cobain's life, before his tragic suicide in April 1994. Vivid, evocative, and thought-provoking, Come As You Are is an essential document not just for Nirvana fans but for anyone interested in the cultural legacy of the 1990s.

Appetite for Definition

Appetite for Definition PDF Author: Ian King
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062688898
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 543

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Book Description
“King brings an informative voice that will enlighten all fans of rock music in its many permutations. This encyclopedia of rock is sure to spark many heated conversations.” — Publishers Weekly “Recommended to all interested in the history of rock music, those looking for new music recommendations, and anyone who wants to improve their rock and roll vocabulary.” — Library Journal “Works as casual reading, a handy reference tool, inspiration for listeners stuck in a musical rut, and a welcome addition to library music collections.” — Booklist