"Collects some of [ Punk Planet's] best interviews from the past half-decade . . . serves as a reminder that punk is not just music but a movement." —The A.V. ClubUpdated with six more interviews and a new introduction, the expanded edition of We Owe You Nothing is the definitive book of conversations with the underground's greatest minds from the pages of Punk Planet. New interviews include talks with bands like The Gossip and Maritime, ...

An electrifying updated edition of the bestselling memoir from the frontwoman of Divinyls and one of Australia's greatest rock singersBrave, funny, ferocious - there's never been anyone like Chrissy Amphlett. A true legend of Australian rock'n'roll, we are so lucky that she shared her raw, gripping and searingly honest story. In these pages, Chrissy spared no one - least of all herself. Taking us from her childhood, where it became apparent music w...

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 Am...

When Nirvana first exploded onto the music scene in 1991 with the anthemic 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', few people could've predicted their subsequent global impact. No one knew then that Nevermind would become one of the seminal albums of the decade, selling over 30 million copies worldwide and spearheading a whole new 'grunge' movement. In so doing, the band's lead singer Kurt Cobain was transformed into one of music's most enduring and iconic figures.As drummer for the British group Capta...

The legendary critic and author of Mystery Train "ingeniously retells the tale of rock and roll" ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).Unlike previous versions of rock 'n' roll history, this book omits almost every iconic performer and ignores the storied events and turning points everyone knows. Instead, in a daring stroke, Greil Marcus selects ten songs and dramatizes how each embodies rock 'n' roll as a thing in itself, in the story it tells, in...

If writing about music is like dancing about architecture, you'd do best to hone your chops and avoid clichés (like the one that begins this sentence) by learning from the prime movers. How to Write About Music offers a selection of the best writers on what is perhaps our most universally beloved art form. Selections from the critically-acclaimed 33 1/3 series appear alongside new interviews and insights from authors like Lester Bangs, Chuck Klosterman, Owen Pallet, Ann Powers and...

AC/DC have reigned over rock 'n' roll for almost four decades. Their signature power chord rock was the sonic standard bearer of the genre they pioneered, summarised in Rolling Stone's declaration that they 'are one of the top hard rock bands in history'. The group has transcended their Australian roots to become a global phenomenon. Their albums consistently go platinum and they have earned their reputation as one of the best bands on the planet.The band's live arsenal includes 'It's a Lo...

The First Time I Heard The Smiths is Part IV in an ongoing series where musicians and writers tell their stories of first hearing the music of an iconic artist or band. In this fourth volume (following the first three installments, which covered Joy Division/New Order, Cocteau Twins, and David Bowie), thirty-seven different musicians and writers remember their initial experiences with hearing the legendary Smiths, the influential 1980s alternative-rock band from Manchester, UK that featur...

It's October 1977, and the Rolling Stones are in a Paris recording studio. They're under siege. Keith Richards's legal troubles after his arrest for heroin possession threaten the band's future, and the broad consensus among rock aficionados is that the band will never again reach the heights of Exile on Main Street.But Mick Jagger is writing lyrics inspired by the year he has just spent in New York City, where he was hanging out with the punks at CBGB and with the glitterati at St...

The ultimate guide to one of the most revered periods and movements in American rock history.The 1980s are one of the most ridiculed and parodied epochs in popular music€ " what with all the skinny lapels, synthesizers, spandex, and Aqua Net. However, music fans in the know recognize that beneath the glossy veneer broiled a revolutionary movement of self-directed, anti-corporate, punk-influenced bands that created a nationwide network from the ground up, thanks to independently recorded re...

Ed Ward covers the first half of the history of rock & roll in this sweeping and definitive narrative—from the 1920s, when the music of rambling medicine shows mingled with the songs of vaudeville and minstrel acts to create the very early sounds of country and rhythm and blues, to the rise of the first independent record labels post-World War II, and concluding in December 1963, just as an immense change in the airwaves took hold and the Beatles prepared for their first American tour.

Finally, after all that waiting, The Future arrived in 1980. Ohio art-rockers Devo had plainly prepared with their 1979 second LP Duty Now for the Future, and now it was go time. Propelled by the new decade's high-tech, free-market, pre-AIDS promise, 1980's Freedom of Choice would rocket what Devo co-founder Gerald Casale calls his "alternate universe, hermetically sealed, alien band" both into the arms of the Earthlings and back to their home planet in one scenic trip.