We Made a Book! updated
Our Noise : The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small is the name of the book, written by John Cook, Laura Ballance and myself and published by Algonquin from right here in NC...an oral history with lots of sides to lots of stories, lots of photos, it's like an indie rock Rashomon! ok not really but it's in stores next Tuesday and so are we, talking about it and playing a couple songs as well... here's details of our upcoming activities:
Tuesday, September 15---DURHAM, NC---The Regulator Bookshop, 7:00 pm
Thursday, September 17---CHAPEL HILL, NC---Bull’s Head Bookshop, 3:30 pm
Thursday, September 17---RALEIGH, NC---Quail Ridge, 7:30 pm
Friday, October 2---ASHEVILLE, NC---Malaprop’s, 7:00 pm
and there's this cool site for the book as well...Our Noise The Book
listening:
The Reigning Sound - Love and Curses amazing, as you'd expect at this point!
Paul Burch - Still Your Man saw an amazing solo show last night at Local 506, go see Paul on tour!
Beatles reissues!
UPDATE -- tomorrow we'll be having a chat about the book on Gawker at 1 pm, come chime in if you feel like it...
posted by Mac at 11:47 AM
2 Comments:
Fantastic! Can't wait to read it.
It's been oddly available at Amazon for a few weeks now, so I've read it, and I must say it's a "must-read". Taken from my review on the Amazon site:
An absolutely fascinating account of the life of independent label Merge Records and the band (Superchunk) that gave it life, over the past 20 years. What was started by Mac and Laura of Superchunk fame to put out 7" records of their bands and their friends' bands in Chapel Hill, NC, in the late '80s has become one of the most influential and successful independent labels in the music business.
The book consists largely of interviews with those involved over the last 20 years (the bands, the Superchunk members, friends, family, roadies, etc.), told in an impressive narrative form that reads as a fascinating story of a group of music outsiders who learned how to make the music they loved outside the corporate system, and make enough money to survive for 20 years and counting. The history of Superchunk is intertwined with the history of Merge (it's about a 50/50 split in the book), so for any even casual fan of this classic band, this is a must-read. But the story of Merge is equally fascinating, as are the in-depth chapter-long discussions of several Merge artists, including The Arcade Fire, Spoon, The Magnetic Fields, Matt Suggs, Lambchop, and Neutral Milk Hotel. I can't recommend this enough.
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