Lee quite audibly says 'brancafest'. The guy who wrote the book is a hack.

Ugh... couldn't you people have started this thread 2 weeks ago!?

I've ordered it sometime ago and it will probably come through my mailbox soon. Too bad it's apparently such a piece of crap... maybe I can still cancel my order. :rolleyes:

The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique 33 1/3 book is excellent. I'd already read just about everything about that band, and there was tons of new information in it, a lot of interviews.......which is why I got the Daydream Nation book, which was completely horrid. I wanted *information* not his stupid arty pretentious drivel. He clearly did next to no research, and made the book all about him. Complete waste of money.

wow, this thing sounds amazing. i haven't seen it around here yet -- i know the author had asked me if he could quote some of my site almost verbatim, but i think that was just re: the drifter -- is that in there?

i will concede that the 'achoo...brancafest' may not actually be 'confirmed' (though the rest of the song certainly is...lee's lyrics from this record were published in JRNLS80s long before SY.com posted them, and more from this album were featured in that 'sonic life' book). i think i read the quote as 'brancafest' online 10+ years ago and just stuck with it.

the thing is, when the guy was writing the book, the lyrics were up on sonicyouth.com (their own section, in addition to mine -- provided by the band themselves), and he still didn't even..just..look? i know the band commented on this publically after it came out.

god that charlie brown pic/caption is hilarious!

They range widely in quality. They're all written by different authors, whose writing styles and expertise are all over the map. I have several, and I'm sorry to say, Loveless is a huge disappointment. Again, sad to see a great album get such shoddy treatment. In this case, the author talks a great deal about himself, and the rest of the time, mostly quotes other books or articles, whole pages, in fact, of nothing but text pulled from other sources.

On the other hand, I think Exile on Main St. is excellent (the guy from Buffalo Tom wrote that one, interestingly enough), as is Trout Mask Replica. I also have Highway 61 Revisited, which, while a bit dry and too scholarly, is nonetheless pretty fascinating for its thoroughness.

I have Paul's Boutique, which I haven't gotten into yet, but it looks pretty good from just a quick skim through it.

who was recalling the Providence story on that chapter? did i miss something?

the providence part in the 33 1/3 book is fantastic, but the book in all is very uneven. get the trout mask replica book, that one is perfect. very good insightfull analysis about why it's such a turning point in Van Vliet's career. His complex relationship with Zappa is also very well explained (without bashing on him or Van Vliet, which is usually the case with books on Zappa or Van Vliet). I also read the Double Nickles book, but that's an okay track-by-track review, not much more.

I have the book and its good and bad. Good because it talks about the whole problems the band had making the record. Like how the drummer was homeless and got sick and only plays on "only shallow". You learn more about kevin and debs personal lives, what they were going thru. Apparently they broke up during the album. My only bad comment about it is they dont talk much about how the songs were created/inspiration behind them.

It's a shame because there are plenty of good writers that I'm sure would be happy to get some cash for doing one of these.

Jon Savage
Mark Sinker
Bryan Coley

to name but three.

It's a shame that such a great idea has been ruined by bad writers.

One of the things that I can't understand is why both Sonic Youth and The Velvet Undergound have so few decent books written about them. I was going to get this one, but it seems like a waste of time after reading this thread. It's beyond me why such a great band that desrves an intelligent and insightful primer, inspires such second rate writing. Just one GOOD book would do them infinite justice. Fingers crossed.

There has been some good writing about the band:

I actually like Alec Foege's book, but it obviously needs updating.

I also liked the section on SY in Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could be Your Life, if only because it wasn't written from a fan's perspective, and I sort of enjoyed its overtly hostile tone.

What about the alternatives though? Of those that might be feasible:

I'd say Simon Reynolds might've done a good job a few years ago, but now he seems so against everything SY might represent that it'd just turn into some anti-rock manifesto.

Greil Marcus would surely say something interesting, but it would read more as a 'my thoughts on...' kind of thing.

Everett True's book would have been ok, but he's got major self-promotion issues so it would've probably ended up more like an autobiography.

Bryan Coley: too rockist, maybe.

Thinking about it, perhaps there simply isn't a writer CAPABLE of telling the band's entire story. A single album maybe, but not the whole saga.

So would anyone, if all they ever wrote about was themselves.

More seriously though, I agree. He's good.

He's very good at dealing with personalities within bands, and interrelationships between bands. He's not so good when it comes to 'bigger picture' stuff, which is more Greil Marcus or Jon Savage territory.

Thinking about it, I'd love to read Greil Marcus on SY.

I should read his Ramones book (and the Nirvana one that comes out this month). I've only ever read articles by him.

...

Don't mention Everett True when sonicl's around:( .

Me too, defo didnt sound like brancafest to me anyway, but my ears could be failing me due to years of listening to loud music :)

I ordered the book about a year ago & the store had it on back order for months I finally gave up on them & moved. Thanks for the reviews.

there is no better word to describe the man. HACK.
in short, the book is terrible and in my expert opinion we should all just let the album speak for itself. the exile on main st. 33 1/3 is awful too. but i do want to read the loveless one just out of curiosity.

I have to disagree. While I think it's possible he says that, I'm pretty sure it's "I hate the past" too. If not, I'm still hearing four syllables, not three.