Music writers like Michael Azerrad are more thorough and passionate about their subjects and much better reads. Leslie Simon is the author of Wish You Were Here: An Essential Guide to Your Favorite Music Scenes and co-author of Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide to. I realize I'm not in the target demographic for this book, but to call it 'essential' is a stretch.

Many of the histories are incomplete (Lawrence, Kansas apparently never had any bands until Boys Life showed up-you can say what you want about the likes of Paw, but they drew attention to this town way before the Get Up Kids did) or glossed over (nothing has happened in Seattle since grunge, apparently, but there sure are plenty of hipsters to make fun of).

It's more about making fun of the people behind the music, and those who enjoy it. It's all snark, parenthetical asides, and carefully made casual name drops in the hopes of establishing cred.ĭon't read it expecting to learn much about the actual music that makes or made regional scenes. You know those episodes of The Simpsons where Lisa meets a smart-and-sassy-but-super-cool older girl and wants desperately to be her friend? Reading this book was like listening to the dialogue the writers give to these characters, or maybe like reading their LiveJournals. From the coauthor of the cult-worthy Everybody An Essential Guide to Emo Culture comes Wish You Were Here -a combination travel guide and tortured history covering everything from what constitutes proper rock critic etiquette in Minneapolis to why pop-punk bands in Chicago have so much suburban angst, to how freegans in the Bay Area can feed themselves on a budget that would make frugal Rachael Ray's face blush. Taking Back Sunday and Brand New battled for emo supremacy and the fragile hearts of a million teenage girls. A young Conor Oberst, aka Bright Eyes, started writing and performing gut-wrenching love songs at the tender age of thirteen. Ian MacKaye and Fugazi inspired the straightedge culture, which had kids everywhere drawing black X's on their hands in magic marker. (although we've got those cities covered too!): In Washington, D.C.

A snarky, fact-filled look at the people and places that made the indie/punk scene what it is today The American underground music scene is exploding everywhere-not just in New York City and L.A.

Wish You Were Here by Leslie Simon