“You don’t have to like all thirteen bands Azerrad chronicles to feel the desperate exhilaration of their speed-fueled van tours of seedy motels, hole-in-the-wall clubs, and the endless highway. Azerrad is a true believer and… exhibits infinite patience with his subjects’ road stories and struggles with the irresolvable dilemma of indie purity vs. mainstream success.”
—Anthony Decurtis, Rolling Stone
“A compelling book. Azerrad exhaustively chronicles thirteen legendary, wholly deserving bands.”
—Tim Kenneally, Spin
“Extensively researched…. Music-lore junkies will geek out over Azerrad’s enviable access to many of the period’s biggest names (from Mike Watt to Henry Rollins).”
—Brian M. Raftery, Entertainment Weekly
“Azerrad does a fine job of demonstrating how the post-punk prime movers of the eighties echoed the original rock-and-rollers of the fifties—springing from a complacent political climate to reject the sentimental excesses of the music that preceded them.”
—The New Yorker
“Anyone hoping to start a revolution would do well to spend time with this book.”
—Keith Phipps, The Onion
“This book is essential for anyone who feels personally insulted by the Grammys, MTV, Top 40 radio, etc., etc. I am sorry for anyone who never got the chance to discover indie rock, or, worse, chose to ignore it.”
—Janeane Garofalo
“Azerrad flawlessly captures the essence of alternative music while still avoiding the clichés of music journalism. And he does it without letting his clear admiration for many of those profiled lapse into hagiography.”
—Joe Beaulieu, National Review
“The annals of rock are famously filled with outsize characters and ultra-strange anecdotes, and this tirelessly researched book—a vivid chronicle of the under-investigated field of indie rock in the 1980s, from Black Flag and Mission of Burma to Sonic Youth, the Replacements, the great Hüsker Dü, the sort-of-scary Big Black, and the intransigently idealistic Fugazi—adds a whole bunch more to the canon. A must-read for anyone who thinks rock stopped signifying after 1977.”
—Kurt Loder, MTV
“Azerrad’s book is a portrait of the world before Nirvana, a vanished age when ‘indie’ referred to music, not film…. Azerrad details the physical violence and ideological controversies that swirled around hardcore bands.”
—Alexander Star, Nation
“Azerrad’s book stands as a reminder that music is indeed often worth fighting for, and that even the constraints of big corporations can’t always withstand the power of pure adulation and a strong support network.”
—Joshua Klein, In These Times
“More than just an invaluable source of knowledge of many of the greatest rock & roll bands of the past twenty years, Azerrad’s work offers a glimpse into the angry, spirited, us-against-the-world thump of the Minor Threats and Hüsker Düs of the land, lamenting that ‘the revolution had been largely successful, but… the struggle was much more fun than the victory.’ ”
—Michael Chamy, Austin Chronicle
“Fascinating…. An essential read for anyone intrigued by the motivations that drive earnest rock music.”
—Chuck Klosterman, Beacon Journal
“An exceptional look at some of the alt-rock nation’s pioneers…. An extremely entertaining tale of bands at odds with the mainstream, yet able to connect with the pockets of kids that related to them the way their older brothers and sisters related to the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Alice Cooper.”
—Mike Villano, Billboard Review
“Azerrad’s new book finally gives an entire generation of influential and fiercely independent bands their due…. Our Band Could Be Your Life effectively captures what is now commonly referred to as indie rock in all its intensely passionate, do-it-yourself glory.”
—Jason Gargano, Cincinnati City Beat
“One of ‘Our 25 Favorite Books of 2001.’ ”
—Village Voice
“A substantial, elegantly rendered assessment of the indie rock era…. 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.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“An important document…. Until now, no one has really told the story of how these bands got to these statesman-like positions. Azerrad does a fine job doing just that, detailing each band and its ensuing scene—not just the events and happenings, but the whole mindset that made them possible.”
—Joe S. Harrington, New York Press
“Azerrad’s focus on the bands’ collective sense of independence—their refusal to knuckle under to commercial considerations—is laserlike, and his descriptions of the music are occasionally sublime.”
—Book magazine
“Our Band Could Be Your Life is an exhaustive history by one of the indie scene’s most diligent documentarians…. An invaluable guide for younger fans who don’t know the history…. Azerrad’s book reverently and unobtrusively bears witness to the time before Riot Grrrl, before Nirvana went Platinum, before hardcore punk noise played in the background of Mountain Dew commercials, before the dream broke down and had to be repaired.”
—Emily White, Newsday
“Michael Azerrad is brilliant at uncovering the real stories of these artists, the unsung heroes of the alternative movement. It’s great stuff.”
—Matt Pinfield, host of Farmclub.com
“Our Band Could Be Your Life is not only an essential musical encyclopedia for anyone who claims to enjoy indie rock, but also a great starting point for anyone interested in discovering music made for music, not music made for money.”
—Jeremy Hedges, The Pitt News
“A solid historical compendium…. Our Band Could Be Your Life is a pointed requiem and testimonial to a movement that, like a good song, burns white-hot for only so long, and then dies.”
—Chris Lenz, Privy Magazine
“An astute insider’s account of the collective accomplishment of these various bands…. Azerrad captures the thrill of being young, antiestablishment, and impassioned—the inspiring ingredients of all these bands.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Azerrad’s chronicle is so engrossing…. Azerrad not only describes the world of ’80s underground rock but derives from it an argument, identifies a common thread linking hardcore visionaries Black Flag to pre-twee naïve-rockers Beat Happening.”
—Rene Spencer Saller, St. Louis Riverfront Times
“Funny… passionate, and difficult to put down. Like any music book worth the trees that died to provide the paper, it makes you want to hear the records in question—but this one will also compel you to buy them at an independently owned store.”
—Kurt B. Reighley, Seattle Weekly
“A galvanized heart-and-soul report on the last great American rock ethic whose vision became the spirit germ for anything worth listening to since.”
—Robert Pollard, Guided by Voices
“Thirteen of the bands that inadvertently blazed the trail for the mindless commodification of alternative rock are given an exceptionally thorough and altogether rockin’ belated encore in Our Band Could Be Your Life…. Azerrad’s coup here is in getting most of the major players to talk, and it’s a substantive piece of work as history, but it’s in analytic moods… where he really shines…. A wonderful document, a scrapbook from the last time music mattered.”
—Patrick Beach, Austin American Statesman
“Amazing rock & roll stories on par with anything the Rolling Stones or Black Sabbath could spin…. Throughout dozens of interviews, Azerrad uncovers the sore boils and scars that plagued and celebrated the first wave of D.I.Y. bands.”
—Eric Weddle, Bloomington Independent