3 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

not bad but not great
if you read the other reviews of this book then you basically get the idea that this book is the road leading up to the band called nirvana. it is a one sided story seen thru gina arnold's eyes and does open up a wealth of info about a ton of bands that all deserve their day in the sun. my one problem is i found a number of discrepencies such as her naming chuck dukowski as the drummer of black flag? sorry sweetheart, he was the bass player.
all the incorrect info made me question the whole book and wonder what is true and what is false. she did stipulate that this book was about the "spirit" and not neccesarily about the bands individually but from my experience real fans know and cherish the music and the bands they adore. they know every detail. i dont doubt gina's love of the music but to me she appears as what i call a "scenester" someone who travels from one spot to another, from one scene to another because she thinks it makes her cool. she always seemed to be going off to another gig, never apart of a scene but in a state of constant motion, a state of constant flux. .
she does have the spirit of the music down pat and all in all the book is a good account of some great bands that all made it possible for the next wave to do their thing which all allowed nirvana to conquer the world as they did. i just wonder how accurate it all is.

2 December 2007 at 08:17  

 Anonymous said...

Work On That Reading Comprehension
A certain verbose reader to the contrary, it is possible to be a male groupie. Millions exist worldwide. All you need is a toadying, self-serving bent and an overheated style. Groupies usually don't even think about seducing their idols; Danny Sugarman apparently never did. They are just thrilled by hanging around celebrities, name-dropping celebrities, having others associate them with celebrities, etc. Some of them, like Gina Arnold, happen to be gifted writers with a rare passion for music. The difference between a gifted, passionate groupie and a journalist is whether or not you have something to say. Not whether you woke up in Dave Groll's tour bus.

The trouble with Arnold's book is that her keenness for Punk is hard to share or to understand because she gives no coherent basis for it. Her account has no focus and no thesis. It contains the seeds of many brilliant debates - why is punk more valid than metal, what are the roots of sexism and ageism in punk, why is a Deadhead's worship of old music bad but a Punk's worship of old music good (??)- that are quickly discarded in the rush to the next faaabulous show. After 200 pages of this tantalizing hodgepodge, you stop ascribing it to some anarchic "punk rock" ethos and start suspecting laziness.

Often, Arnold's gusto drowns out the story she's trying to tell. She is more interested in describing how she felt about a particular show or band than what occurred or what the performers were like. Her voice is mostly self-reflexive, sort of a "look-what-a-fun-person-I-am" exhibitionism. Worse, her lapdog credulity allows her to be bamboozled by the Butthole Surfers in a mock-interview that a real journalist would've seen through in a second. Byron Coley she's not.

Despite these flaws, Arnold's understanding of Punk seems far superior to most of her male peers'. Her book's failings have nothing to do with gender and everything to do with bad reporting. Free Speech Advocates who smear other fans for expressing their opinions should find the maturity to stop projecting their sexism onto others.

P.S.-Love the scene where Arnold and friend, clad in business suits, strut through a posh parking garage setting off car alarms, then smugly ascribe their impunity to the security guards' "looking for Negroes to blame." Ooh, rebel city! So working-class people are de facto racist, Ms. Arnold? And, I wonder if the guards did find an African American scapegoat? Someone always suffers for this kind of declasse' suburban posing, and it is usually an underdog.

2 December 2007 at 08:18  

 Anonymous said...

A great introduction to a lot of "lost" bands...
ON THE ROAD TO NIRVANA is a great book for anyone who wants more than a textbook history of "post-punk" music. You'll learn about a lot of bands that went unsung while people like Michael Jackson and Guns n Roses had their day in the sun. I've personally bought maybe half of the CDs I own based on Arnold's reccomendations. The down side to this is that these reccomendatiosn come from her experience, and her experiences lead to non-stop name dropping, and annoying phrases like "We'd worked so hard for this..." as if Arnold had toured with Minor Threat or something.

Still, for a funny and personal look at some great bands, pick up this book.

2 December 2007 at 08:19  

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