Headphones On

"Now there are a few ways you can give in to musical obsession. You can give in suddenly and briefly – such as when, over a course of a few weeks or months, you find yourself hooked on a particular album (especially a debut album or a breakout album) and start talking up the artist to everyone you know; but then, after seeing a boring live performance or hearing someone you don't respect gush about the music, you just as suddenly denounce the artist as being annoying or unoriginal¹⁰.
Or you can give in sporadically. This might happen if you are dealing unfamiliar real-world concerns, such as a new job or mouth to feed, when you have neither the time nor the energy to satisfy the rigors of a full-blown obsession;¹¹ it might also be that your passion peaked years ago and is only at the edges of your synapses now. But the mania is merely in remission, it is still there, waiting to flare up: a release of a new bootleg, an anniversary of a hero's death, a reunion tour, a simpatico comment by a bartender; a delivery of killer weed."

¹⁰ There is always a whiff of embarrassment in this kind of obsession. It might be better to pretend that it never happened.
¹¹ In other words, you have become totally lame.

The above is just one juicy nugget from John Seller's just released book "Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life". Normally, I don't do book reports but then again normally I don't read books about indie rock obsession. In fact I tend to shy away from all the juicy tell-alls and last gasp efforts to sum up a music scene in 400 pages or less. Something about this book appealed to me, enough to convince me to buy it in hardcover¹.

I don't know John Sellers, and that's probably a good thing. If I did know him, I think he'd hate me for one very simple reason... I do not care for Guided by Voices. In fact, while being a self-professed indierock snob I don't care for GBV (or it's million offshoots) so much that I had no idea "Perfect From Now On" was a nod to the Akron Dayton, Ohio legends⁴. Oops. I perhaps might not have bought the book had I known.

But, if I had assumed the whole book was GBV blabbering and not purchased it, I would have been missing out. Although the last half of the book is chock full of Guided By Voices ridiculousness, the rest of the book is pretty funny². The stories of his Manchester/New Order/Joy Division days are something that every one I know could probably relate to. The lists, appendices and footnotes alone are worth buying this book for...

"But just before leaving for college, I was again left to fend for myself. I made the young man's mistake of revealing my feelings, late one night at a party while drunk on vodka and orange Fanta. When I came to, that first month at college, I realized that Sarah had given me a musical STD – an interest in something regrettable. While I will always be thankful that Sarah introduced me to New Order, which in turn led me to discover songs that indeed saved my life, she also left me with a mean case of Erasure. It turns out that their is a cure for "Oh L'amour." But as I can tell you from gross, painful experience – namely watching Andy Bell flit around a Detroit stage in gold lamé hot pants on a night when I could have seen Ministry instead – it leaves lifelong scars."

¹ Yet another thing I do not do that I apparently do now is buy hardcover books.
² I should preface this by saying it's funny if you a) ever lived in or near Grand Rapids, MI³ or b) ever fancied yourself a music journalist or c) are quite commonly assumed to be a bit obsessive about music.
³ It hadn't occurred to me before reading this that GR actually had suburbs but I suppose Wyoming, Kentwood, etc aren't neighborhoods but separate city entities. Strange, the whole place is so small I have no idea why it has suburbs really?
⁴ I am actually wrong. It's a Built to Spill reference but uh... yet another band I am not so keen on. Oops.

Buy some: The Radio Dept., Art Brut, Ben Folds, John Sellers