Name a band from the last 10 years that it would be genuinely interesting to read a book about in twenty or thirty years

I've read plenty of music books about artists from the 50s (Elvis, Johnny Cash), 60s (Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Doors), 70s (Led Zeppelin, Queen, Big Star), 80s (Replacements, Pogues, Husker Du), and 90s (Nirvana). I'm not sure why, but I just can't imagine an interesting book being written about any band that came out after 2000. I can't imagine the personal narratives of these bands being interesting enough, or the music being worthy enough of such a detailed dissection. Prove me wrong! What's a recent band you can imagine reading a full-length book about with interest 20-30 years from now?

how literally should we take the word "bands" (as opposed to recording artists that are not bands) here?

cool new bands

I'd read a future book about R. Kelly for sure (though I haven't read R. Kelly's book about R. Kelly yet). I'd maybe read a book about Animal Collective, but I'd also probably burn a book about Animal Collective.

how literally should we take the word "bands" (as opposed to recording artists that are not bands) here?

i was thinking of bands specifically, mainly because I'm pretty sure there will be a market for books about Lady Gaga, etc. But feel free to discuss artists as well

I'm beginning to think there are no bands at all who formed in the 00s who I like and would want to read about. The closest would be Sunn O))) who arguably make the cut as their first proper album was released in 2000 (although they actually formed in 1998)

limiting it to the last 10 years stacks the deck. it's hard to tell what the music of the moment might mean in the long run, and the lives involved are, for the most part, just beginning to unfold. therefore, it's hard to tell which careers might invite serious, book-length analysis. ten years from now, i might want to read a book about lady gaga, but it's hard to say. depends on what comes next. others: amy winehouse (special case), MIA, kanye, lil wayne, fall out boy, my chemical romance.

Animal Collective

Good choices! I'd definitely read books about MIA, Kanye and Lil Wayne.

The Coldplay exposé which reveals Chris Martin's torture at having to write all their songs on his own whilst his bandmaster get cocaine blown up their arses all summer in St Tropez might be worth a read.

I might read a graphic novel about Nyan Cat.

Bandmates, not bandmaster. Wtf is a bandmaster.

http://www.bandmaster.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/BMwallpaper-01.jpg

clap your hands say yeah. oh wait look there already is one.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41jHwifMkcL._SS500_.jpg

I'd like to read a book about her

xp

I'd read a book about Fonal Records, which admittedly did start in the '90s, but I didn't know any of the bands until past 2002, and the best stuff to come out of it has been since then.

^^^ good choice.

i'd read a book about the no neck blues band but i guess they're way more than 10 years old at this juncture in time.

a Wolf Eyes memoir would be a good time

I'd read an Andrew WK memoir for sure.... but I just realized that probably the Libertines and possibly the Strokes might be a good read.

The Adventures of Modest Mouse & Johnny Marr

(pvmic)

re: Fonal and NNCK, I'd love to read a "Our Band Could Be Your Life" survey of 90s freak/free/folk/noise underground. Tower Recordings, Harry Pussy, Cerebus Shoal, Charalamides, Six Organs etc etc. there's been enough time to wrap a history/narrative around it, seems overlooked yet has direct origin link to today's indie folkie sounds (AnCo to Lumineers)

a lot of artists that ran from the 90s through the 00s would probably make a good read: outkast and ICP, for instance

yeah, now that you mention it, I bet there are some groups that would make good "Our Band Could Be Your Life"-style longform articles. I really like that book, and almost every story in there, but I don't think an entire book on Dinosaur Jr could be that interesting even though the story about them in the book was riotous.

the White Stripes
Deerhoof
Broadcast

Konono no.1 maybe?
Circle

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All

I'd read an Andrew WK memoir for sure....

definitely, that Close Calls/Mother of Mankind double disc revealed an awful lot of strange things about this guy

No bands are really worth reading a book about anyway. Holy shit, the next night you stuck a DIFFERENT kind of fish up some OTHER girl's cooter? Awesome dude!

The Knife

Die Antwoord - surprised there's no comic book series yet, tbh

obv Arcade Fire, w/ Ned getting the first copy

Jusin Bieber. I have a feeling this saga is gonna go some crazy places.

otm

Definitely Die Antwoord. I absolutely agree, Stan. But saddo me would probably go for dEUS first. lol

Does Avenged Sevenfold have any stories on the caliber of "Pablo Escobar told the press we were his friends and he was supplying us with a bunch of cocaine"?

Thirding the request for Die Antwoord. The more I read about the scene down there (assuming that it isn't complete Watkins Tudor-Jones' misdirection) the more I want to know...

I was really hoping to have completely forgotten abt the existence of Die Antwoord in 20-30 years.

looking forward to a book re the whole scanda nu-balaeric movement and trying to tie up all the connections.

there's one chaotic pete frame family tree that needs to be sorted out ...

Lil Boosie

Okkervil River

Deerhunter
Gucci Mane

Pussy Riot, not i've ever heard any of their music.

Dizzee Rascal.

Maybe acts from the 90s who got lost in meme chasing like Flaming Lips, Weezer & Liz Phair during the past 10 years.

New answers? Let's say 2003 is the cutoff for their debut.

The Books debut was in 2002 so they just miss that cutoff but I think they'd be very interesting to read about. Though on the other hand they've done blogs with 1000+ words on every single song so I guess it's all out there if you want to read about it. Maybe LCD Soundsystem are also in that same boat, they're definitely fascinating on some level but there is no shortage of information on the life of James Murphy.

Andrew WK on the other hand... (at least if it pulls the curtain back!)

Also it would probably be really fun to read the memoirs of PSY fifteen years down the road

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats

I'm really interested in a post-Stripes Jack White bio for some unknown reason. Like, how he runs Third Man Records, his business/production methods, his solo/side projects, restraining order etc.

Coil, Chris & Cosey and Gen. Into the reunions, splits and deaths. I'd love to know more about that.

The forthcoming reissue of England's Hidden Reverse is supposedly updated so will probably contain some stuff about the deaths.

xp those aren't from the past 10 years

Andrew WK on the other hand... (at least if it pulls the curtain back!)

I haven't read it, but 33 1/3 just released an "I Get Wet" book.

that would be a pretty good read (though "Close Calls" is the one I'm really interested about). lately I've come up with the theory that most sections on IGW are actually two seperate recordings of the same song mashed together. the "live" tracks seem to be produced in the same way.

I think Andrew WK is probably the best answer to this question for me. He's been continuously interesting and unpredictable over the past 10 years, yet little seems to be known about his off-stage life.

lately I've come up with the theory that most sections on IGW are actually two seperate recordings of the same song mashed together. the "live" tracks seem to be produced in the same way.

he's pretty much said that there are hundreds of layers of tracks, and that they spent a shit-ton of time making it sound like they were all one-takes.

yeah there's something very unique in the sound there. I can see it being hundreds of layers (almost similar to the Mike Oldfield trick on Hergest Ridge!) but it also feels like two seperate but very similar completed recordings overlaid on top of each other.

xp those aren't from the past 10 years

They all made music in the last 10 or so years and this is the period I'm saying I'm interested in. I understand my post might not be in the spirit of the thread though

ariel pink, animal collective, dan deacon, black dice, interpol

Janelle Monae all day

not not fun / hipster noise etc

Pink

oh wait Pink put her first records out like15 years ago

two seperate but very similar completed recordings overlaid on top of each other.

there's an early version of "It's Time to Party" out there that seem to have the same backing tracks but less fleshed out, and the vocals are very, very different-- higher in pitch and far less gruff. I'll see if I can find it.

you can hear it in this weird Steev Mike commercial from, I guess, before IGW came out

http://grooveshark.com/#!/search/song?q=Andrew+W.K.+Steev+Mike+Radio+Commercial

Surely the obvious answer here is "lit-pop" titans The Decemberists

St Vincent teaching soccer tricks would be good read
http://vimeo.com/85067428

Re: awk there's a series of videos where awk personally teaches you to play awk songs

I'm not sure why, but I just can't imagine an interesting book being written about any band that came out after 2000. I can't imagine the personal narratives of these bands being interesting enough, or the music being worthy enough of such a detailed dissection.

Isn't this because music acts close to us in time either have lives that resemble our own, or have lives that we know a lot about?

My money would be on Girls Aloud and other acts that came together through TV talent competitions in the 2000s being of most interest in the future – even the current biography ('Our Story') is fascinating.

New answers? I arbitrarily said upthread that 2003 might be a good cutoff, but as I think about it, I think the real cutoff might be when we lost our musical monoculture. Is it the lack of a monoculture that makes most bands seem less interesting these days? Does the general availability of information about them make them less mysterious? Or are they genuinely less interesting nowadays? Or am I just old?

animal collective
dan deacon
ariel pink
grouper
xiu xiu

I'd read a Miley Cyrus autobio.

Queens Of the Stone Age (didn't precisely come out after 2000, but that was their decade of relevance)

wayne rooney

Who's smoking crack these days? Just follow the freebase and there's your book.

even the mysterious ones are probably not that interesting, aside from making great music (e.g. Burial). maybe it's just that few musicians make enough money to really fuck their life up in an interesting way?

With very few exceptions the first ten years in any musicians bio are the only interesting ones. Just throwing that out there.

I'd read a book about Sturgill

I would be interested in a book about the inner workings and roles of the New Pornographers, but not because they're particularly interesting people. Nor would I expect anyone else would want to read that.

Outkast + reunion?

Andre seems much more boring than he thinks he is

Queens Of the Stone Age (didn't precisely come out after 2000, but that was their decade of relevance)

Not a book, but Josh Homme's interview on WTF seems to fill this.

the WK book was good

kanye west!

kanye west
rae sremmurd
adele
amy winehouse
charli xcx
nicki minaj
lil b

lots of people! lol xpost

even the mysterious ones are probably not that interesting, aside from making great music (e.g. Burial). maybe it's just that few musicians make enough money to really fuck their life up in an interesting way?

weirdly, i think you might be onto something here

imo the definitive Interpol biography would consist of this one sentence "Four boring douchebags had a band" but then I must admit I'd have said the same thing about, say, the JAMC were I 20 years older and it was 20 years ago.

I'd read and even watch a biopic of the following bands from the 00s (not bands or artists I necessarily love but would be interesting to see):

Broadcast
Ariel Pink
Antony and the Johnsons
YYYs
Godspeed you black emperor
The books
Destroyer
Joanna newsom
Animal collective
The Knife
Avalanches
Broken Social Scene
Liars
Paavoharju
Fennesz
Four tet
Burial
Devendra banhart
Fiery furnaces
Sebastien tellier

Specially interested in a Paavoharju and Tellier documentary.

Also could make interesting biopics in lesser degree:

M.i.a. (and Diplo)
Flying Lotus
vampire weekend
Chromatics
William basinski
Janelle Monae
Tame impala
Sufjan stevens
Bon iver
Lcd soundsystem
Madvillain
Bonnie Prince Billy
The strokes
dizzee rascal
Matmos
Tv on the radio

And

Sunn o))
Gorillaz
Boris

And

Pussy Riot

Too many to be honest pick what you like.

i'd read a fucked up bio. would probably be more interesting than their music.

Definitely the Libertines.

Tanya Tagaq.