About the Book – YOUR BAND SUCKS: What I Saw At Indie Rock’s Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear)
A few actual celebrities emerged from the American independent music underground of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Jon Fine is not among them.
But his evocative and perceptive YOUR BAND SUCKS: What I Saw At Indie Rock’s Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear), a memoir of the rise and fall and persistence of the indie-rock movement, written by a musician who spent decades deeply immersed in it, is the definitive chronicle of this time and milieu. A passionate veteran of bands including Bitch Magnet, Don Caballero, and Coptic Light that never broke into the mainstream but nonetheless deeply impacted the indie-rock culture, Fine is uniquely suited to say “I was there.”
A superlative coming-of-age story not just for Fine but for this entire culture, YOUR BAND SUCKS (Viking Press) traces indie America’s arc over three decades, from its early idealism in the ‘80s to its flowering and disappointment, and its belated reckonings with adult realities. Long before “indie” became scrubbed clean and yuppiefied, bands like Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth carved out a substantial space in North American culture through sheer determination, disdain for the musical status quo, and a ferocious do-it-yourself work ethic — back when record stores were the primary hubs of musical discovery, and the closest things to blogs were smudgy Xeroxed ‘zines.
Like Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, YOUR BAND SUCKS is an insider’s look at a fascinating outsider culture. Like Patti Smith’s Just Kids, YOUR BAND SUCKS is a unique account of a particular cultural moment, albeit one that lasted for decades. Enriched by in-depth interviews with scores of prominent indie-rock veterans — and plenty of wit and sharply-worded opinion —YOUR BAND SUCKS is a unique story, an unmatched evocation of life on the lower rungs of the music industry, and the best account of life within the indie-rock underground. Consider it both a love letter and a kiss-off to one of the most important musical cultures of the last 50 years.
About the Author:
Jon Fine is the executive editor of Inc. magazine and a New York-based writer, commentator, and musician. As a guitarist in a series of underground bands — most notably Bitch Magnet, Coptic Light, and Don Caballero — he has performed in 15 countries on three continents and appeared on MTV. His writing has appeared in GQ,The Atlantic, Details, and ESPN the Magazine. His long-running BusinessWeek column, “Media Centric,” won both American Society of Business Publication Editors and National Headliner awards, and his writing for Food & Wine won a James Beard award for his wine writing. Find him on Twitter @jonfine.
