by Michael Azerrad ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 31, 2001
A well-done, thoroughly detailed look at the stories behind the music that captures both the heart and the eccentricity of...
A substantial, elegantly rendered assessment of the “indie rock” era, a modest and disheveled American musical underground that presaged its nemesis, the 1990s “alternative” explosion.
Music journalist Azerrad (Come as You Are, not reviewed, etc.) has an insider’s savvy in documenting this most insider-ish genre, 1980s-era indie: energetic, abrasive post-punk bands that barnstormed small US and European clubs, dependent on a low-budget network of labels and fanzines for survival. The author portrays a national movement composed of thriving regional scenes, with bands, small record shops, and college-radio programmers finding common ground outside the commercial realm. He focuses on the histories of 13 “emblematic bands of that incredible time” whose often hilarious stories indeed sum up the pre-alternative rock days of touring in vans and sleeping on floors. His accounts of the bands are ordered chronologically, providing a rough narrative of the rock underground’s collision with the mainstream. Early “hardcore” bands such as L.A.’s Black Flag treated the established order with contempt (resulting in their famed clashes with police), while out-there Texas rockers Butthole Surfers were embraced by punks for their compellingly weird, puerile antics. Significant bands like the Minutemen, Mission of Burma, and Big Black had their trajectories cut short, yet their innovations reverberated throughout the scene. Later in the ’80s, bands like Minneapolis power-pop trio Hüsker Dü and the perpetually intoxicated Replacements flirted with major labels and collegiate success, only to have their careers derailed by corporate meddling. Finally, the most survival-minded of the indie bands either approached the mainstream on their own terms (early Nirvana boosters Sonic Youth), or resolutely carved out their own uncompromised territory (Fugazi). Azerrad’s approach necessarily overlooks the countless little-known rock powerhouses that defined the movement’s grassroots, and he describes the indie labels’ and enthusiasts’ anti-corporate, self-sustaining ethos without really seeming to promote or approve of it.
A well-done, thoroughly detailed look at the stories behind the music that captures both the heart and the eccentricity of outsider rock’s golden age.Pub Date: July 31, 2001
ISBN: 0-316-06379-7
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2001
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis
by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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