Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991

Summary

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, read by Merrill Garbus (Tune-Yards)
• Black Flag, read by David Longstreth (Dirty Projectors)
• The Replacements, read by Jon Wurster (Superchunk, Mountain Goats)
• Minutemen, read by Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)
• Husker Du, read by Colin Meloy (the Decemberists)
• Minor Threat, read by Laura Jane Grace (Against Me)
• Mission of Burma, read by Jonathan Franzen (award-winning New York Times bestselling author)
• Butthole Surfers, read by Fred Armisen (comedian/actor)
• Big Black, read by Corey Taylor (Slipknot)
• Fugazi, read by Michael Azerrad (author)
• Mudhoney, read by Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie)
• Beat Happening, read by Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields)
• Dinosaur Jr., read by Sharon Van Etten (singer/songwriter)