bitch magnet: C or D

http://fastnbulbous.com/bitch-magnet-at-empty-bottle/

The Seattle and SF shows a week or so ago were amazing.

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Band-Sucks-Failed-Revolution/dp/067002659X/

Jon Fine keeps popping up in my social media streams today thanks to this -->

10 Bands You Weren’t Cool Enough to Like in the 80s and 90s
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/05/jon-fine-your-band-sucks-playlist

i liked 7 of those bands in the 80s and 90s btw if yr counting. never got round to hearing pitchblende, autoclave or breadwinner

"Walking About" is such a fucking awesome song

lol "tedious" Dischord

Has anyone started the book?

I've caught two excerpts online.

excerpt on Pfork piqued my curiosity, altho he seems kinda like a dick (full disclosure I never paid any attention to Bitch Magnet, primarily because of the godawful name)

i started and finished the book like 2 days later in spite of it committing two of my least favorite acts of writing about music
i have a lot of thoughts but mostly it confirmed my suspicions about that particular time of rock music.
i was not into bitch magnet at the time, but i definitely was around and his descriptions of the scene, however you wanna put it, were illuminating in a number of ways

he is definitely kind of whiny and dogmatic -- not sure if that = dick

not whiny -- petulant
but dedicated for sure

also there is a whole chapter about that last show mentioned upthread

LL,

Would you recommend the book? I was a fan of BM back in the day, but probably more of a fan of JF's bands post-BM.

ARB

ARB,
Yes, I would, esp if you already like this band/Jon Fine and his other bands. He goes into excruciating detail about the ebb/flow of the personal relationships and their relationship to the music/work of creating it. Also fun to see inside something I could only otherwise observe from the outside.
The way he was describing Coptic Light made it sound like something I'd be interested in. I might check them out now!
LL

Thanks, might pick up a copy tonight. Coptic Light was fantastic.

has anyone else read this book?

Yeah, I liked it OK. I was a pretty big BM fan and I like Coptic Light a whole lot, but I found the tone pretty off-putting. I also don't love the way he writes about women, but then again, dude was in a band called "Bitch Magnet."

For nerdy inside baseball stuff, it's probably worth a read.

Yeah that's about right. I strongly disliked the way he wrote about women -- reminded me of the olden times and confirmed my anecdotal experience.

sooyoung's not a dick though, right?

if he is, don't tell me

Would it be off base to suggest that the way this guy writes/tone is a bit Albini in Forced Exposure, except he's about 50 and it's a bit unbecoming?

he definitely has strongly held beliefs that he expresses without hesitation, and admits that the even more strongly dogmatic beliefs of his younger days were kinda ott

dunno if that's what you mean. doesn't matter how old he is but dude wouldn't stop talking about his hair (and eventual lack of it), that's for sure.

I thought the book was an interesting and entertaining read despite finding Fine not really remotely likable (to be fair I don't think Fine is pitching himself as likable either).

sooyoung's not a dick though, right?

Sooyoung was definitely pretty aloof, in my years-ago experience, but not a bad dude.

I liked the book, I felt it didn't come off nearly as misogynist as it comes off a half-dozen or so posts upthread, I feel like JF championed quite a few female/mixed-gender bands/artists. Well... unless maybe if you were a Simple Machines fan, that may have been pretty pointed.

What stuck with me was how low-/pre-tech life rather recently: payphones, cheap gas, no internet/email, etc. Looking back it seems incredulous anything got done but somehow it did.

JF definitely pulls no punches about himself and his flaws, and not in a cutesy self-depricating manner. Might be a metro NYC cultural thing tho, or possibly a cathartic therapeutical "let me get this off my chest" memoir.

Is he (or SYP) a dick? I think they're both nice guys, JF is still seems enthusiastic about music as ever whereas today SYP is more reclusive and/or purposefully obtuse*.

*Can't remember if it's mentioned in the end of the book but SYP & Orestes kind of anonymously/pseudonymously joined this band shortly after the BM reunions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7DCkI4iATY (SYP is off-camera stage right playing bass).

The hardcover of Fine's book is £3.69 on Amazon UK right now, which is weird considering the paperback is £12.

i must have missed this when it was posted but i saw it with this latest bump

I felt it didn't come off nearly as misogynist as it comes off a half-dozen or so posts upthread, I feel like JF championed quite a few female/mixed-gender bands/artists.

1) I didn't say he was a misogynist, I said I didn't like the way he wrote about women.

2) Championing bands with women in them is not some kind of misogyny-free pass