Recommended Reading: 'Meet Me in the Bathroom'

The greatest book about music and New York City is the classic Please Kill Me which is the oral history of the birth of punk in the 1970s. Last year, a spiritual sequel of sorts was released by author Lizzy Goodman who documented the New York City garage and indie scene of the turn of this century with the brilliant and instant classic Meet Me in the Bathroom. 

Meet Me in the Bathroom is the oral history of those who lived in New York pre and post-9/11 and how the city was shaped by the artistic boom coming from the Lower East Side and eventually spilled over to Brooklyn. With first person accounts from The Strokes, Ryan Adams, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, TV on the Radio, The National, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the artists discuss their origins and how things progressed for them to get to the status they are currently at. Goodman takes us on a tour of the city in the way she formulates the interviews to flow like a narrative and timeline of places and events which transpired over the years. Meet Me in the Bathroom is not just a love letter to New York City, it is a love letter to rock and roll and how in every generation the cycle will not destruct and for better or worse keeps pushing. This is for any music fan.

Recommended Reading: 'Born to Run'

Most autobiographies feel like a cradle to almost the grave stories of how certain people came to become who they are. Others are about a period in their lives. Then there are the rare ones like Keith Richards' Life, Johnny Cash's Cash, and Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, which all of them feel as if the author is sitting in your living room telling you their life story in such a way that you can't stop listening. Released in 2016, Born to Run instantly became a best seller and The Boss got candid about how he grew up, how formed the E-Street Band and kept their relationship going as long as they have, as well as his love life as well as the hopes and fears he still has at 68.

Springsteen, like the stories in his music, also chronicles the fine line of the American dream and the reality of America through his experience. Springsteen isn't just one of America's greatest voices, he remains one of our greatest storytellers and Born to Run is a testament to that. It is an enormous collection of stories, memories, and insight that by the end of it will leave you in tears thinking you and The Boss are close friends by the time you close the book.

Recommended Reading: 'Your Favorite Band is Killing Me'

Rivalries in any type of art date back to the age of Shakespeare but thanks to social media today and one author boils down our arguments over pop artists that date back to our parents fighting over who was better. From The Beatles vs. the Stones to Kanye West v. Taylor Swift, author Steve Hyden explains why the rivalries exist and what they say about us the listener and consumer in his 2016 book, Your Favorite Band is Killing Me. 

Hyden has a hilarious and clever take on the most famous rivalries of each generation like who was a better guitarist Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton? Who was a better rapper -- Biggie or Tupac? He dives deep to explain how the dividing lines were drawn and how someone can not be in the middle of it but needs to be a side. If you need a last minute Christmas gift for the music lover in your life, here is one to snag.

Recommended Reading: 'Under the Big Black Sun'

There would be no other authority to write the story of the history of L.A. punk better than John Doe of legendary band, X. Last year, Doe, along with Tom DeSavia linked up to write Under The Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk. 

Read Our 2012 Interview with X

The book, which has a forward from Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong discusses how the sound shaped the youth of the city between 1977 and 1982. Featuring commentary from Exene Cervenka (X), Henry Rollins (Black Flag), Mike Watt (The Minutemen), Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey (Go-Go's), Dave Alvin (The Blasters), Chris D. (The Flesh Eaters), Robert Lopez (The Zeros, El Vez), Jack Grisham (T.S.O.L.), Teresa Covarrubias (The Brat), and historians, Doe narrates how to the scene came about through his eyes.

Read Our 2009 Interview with Henry Rollins

Just as much about the music, the book is also about the friendships, bonds, love affairs, and cultural impact the music of Los Angeles had on the world by the people who created it. 

Recommended Reading: Moby 'Porcelin'

Moby has made interesting music his whole career but the story that led him to become the superstar DJ and producer we all know and some of us love is far different than one could imagine. In his 2016 autobiography, Porcelain, the musician discusses growing up in his middle class Connecticut home and falling in love with punk and hardcore music. Like Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim, he played in a punk band before anyone would ever hear him spin. What also sparks an interest to the reader is how immersive he got into the New York City club culture of the early 1990s at venues like Limelight, Palladium, Mars, and Twilo, where he would first cut his teeth as a DJ after being inspired by those who played the venues by being the outcast. He started the decade as the person who didn't fit into the crowds of those places as a Christian and non drug user in the drug-filled underworld of hedonistic New York nightlife. He ended the decade as one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to his record, Play.

The surroundings around him helped craft the interesting and involved musician that is known today. From his outspoken political and vegan beliefs to becoming an entrepreneur. This book chronicles his rise, his passions, and story from his own perspective and ends with the belief that if you want something bad enough, go out and get it.

Recommended Reading: 'The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones'

Of all the books written on the Rolling Stones, none have looked at the band so introspectively than Rich Cohen's account of the band in their heyday from 1968 to 1972 in The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones. Cohen, who is a writer for Vanity Fair and co-creator of HBO's brilliant but cancelled Vinyl, went on the road with the band and into the recording studio as they recorded Beggars Banquet and Exile on Main Street. In his book, which arrived in paperback in May, Cohen accounts the highs, the lows, bitching, the fights, the excess, and of course the sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Read Our 2010 Interview with Former Stones Tour Manager Sam Cutler

The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones is such a definitive look at the era that shaped the band and the group that they would become. Packed with insights like how Mick Jagger dealt with fame and how the band responded to their growing acclaim as well as how they were masters of their craft. The book is one of a kind from a band whose reputation will never be seen again.

Recommended Reading: Johnny Marr 'Set The Boy Free'

Last fall, Johnny Marr finally told his story and released his long-awaited autobiography, Set The Boy Free. The autobiography chronicled the influential guitarists discovery of music and what it was like growing up in the harsh city of Manchester, England. Yet, the world around him along with his passion to be a rock star led him to meet Steven Patrick Morrissey and form The Smiths. Marr details a vivid account of how the band rose to stardom, became one of the most influential acts of all time and then eventually disbanded, leaving many people to bed for a reunion.

While the rise and fall of The Smiths is not only heavily documented before Marr gave a first person account, what is fascinating in Set the Boy Free is Marr's rediscovery of music and working with bands like The The, Modest Mouse, The Cribs, as well as finding his own voice as a solo artist. Marr, who along with Morrissey, became one of the best songwriting duos in the history of music, brings that same touch to how he pens his life.

Recommended Reading: 'My Ramones'

Last year, the first man to ever manage The Ramones, Danny Fields, published his memoir and collection of photographs during his tenure with the band. Fields, who is said to have helped discover the band and launch their career, released My Ramones, which was chock-full-of never-before-seen images from the iconic punk band's early years. Fields photographed them at work, on their first U.S. and European tours, at play, and them being themselves.

Listen to Our Essential Ramones Playlist on Spotify 

He also gives insight into what was happening behind the scenes with the band as they were first emerging from The Bowery of New York City and their hometown of Forrest Hills, Queens. The candid shots are a time capsule into life of a working group that, unbeknown to them, would change the course of music forever. My Ramones is a book for any fan of the infamous punks and one every music collector should have.

Recommended Reading: Frank Turner 'Road Beneath My Feet'

Frank Turner is constantly busy. The singer / songwriter always seems to be on the road and when he is not on touring, he is writing and recording music so he can go tour. Yet, in 2015, he managed to squeeze in a book about his life and career.

Read Our 2012 Interview with Frank Turner 

Turner, who used to front the hardcore band Million Dead, opens the book with the end of the British band and how he had to figure out what he was going to do when they wrapped up their 2005 tour. After getting home, he started making music on his own and would become more successful as a solo artist singing punk and folk tunes than he did screaming his face off in the hardcore band. The Road Beneath My Feet chronicles his life couch surfing to playing to no one at gigs to headlining some of England's biggest arenas and then the world's biggest stage when he performed as part of Danny Boyle's 2012 Olympic opening ceremony in London.

Listen to Our Essential Frank Turner Playlist on Spotify! 

Turner chronicles the drug fueled parties he attended to the shoulders he has rubbed against to sleeping on floors and trying to not get ripped off doing what he loves -- making music. If you are thinking about being in a band or want to go be a solo artist, this is the text book.

Recommended Reading: 'Salad Days'

Punk rock is a genre that has resonated with teenagers for decades and generations and the basics of what it stands for are pure and innocent and to try and do good by your fellow man, it sometimes finds itself corrupt. In 2000, new writer Charles Romalotti told the trials and tribulations of growing up punk and believing in what it stands for in his fictional book, Salad Days. 

Salad Days tells the story of a punk from Kansas named Frank Smith who fronts the band The Jerk Offs during the emerging hardcore scene of the 80s. As Smith and The Jerk Offs head out on tour, the protagonist learns about life, America, and coming of age in a place where you are pushing from the norm. The book, loosely based on some experiences Romalotti had as a teen, is earnest, honest and a must read.

Recommended Reading: 'NYHC'

Following the emergence of punk in the Big Apple in the mid-to-late 1970s, by the early 80s, a new form of the genre was taking shape and would become an imprint and fixture in New York City for generations -- hardcore. In 2014, Tony Rettman documented the first decade and rise of the scene in his book, NYHC. As the misfits from the Lower East Side of the city would play in clubs and bars in the area as well as Chinatown and the Limelight, NYHC became the blueprint of balls to the wall music and aggro. Bands like Agnostic Front, Sick of It Hall, Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law, all emerged from the scene as leaders and heroes. All the bands still play today.

NYHC is not just a document on the era but an account as to what happened and told by some of the people who lived it and continue to push for it. With over 100 interviews from members of Misfits, Kraut, Death Before Dishonor, Absolution, Adrenalin O.D., Agnostic Front, Antidote, Bad Brains, Bloodclot, Bold, Born Against, Breakdown, Cause for Alarm, Citizen Arrest, H20, and more, NYHC is the definitive account of what happened by who created it and watched.

Recommended Reading: 'How to Ru(i)n a Record Label'

Green Day, Rancid, Operation Ivy, Screeching Weasel, The Queers, The Mr. T Experience, the list goes on for all of the influential punk and DIY artists that Larry Livermore signed to his label, Lookout Records. The label was a breading ground for new and emerging talent in the late 80s and early 90s in the Bay Area of California. By the time of the Millennium, the label went belly up and it was nothing more than a memory to fans and those who they influenced along the way.

Last year, Livermore put his memoirs together and told the definitive story of Lookout with his book, How to Ru(i)n a Record Label. In a label that started out in a small house in Northern California turned into a multi-million dollar company before he walked away from it all. Livermore chronicles and details what happened and for the first time, a first hand account as to what led to the fall of the legendary label has been told.

Recommended Reading: 'Substance: Inside New Order'

Peter Hook's latest book, Substance: Inside New Order, is the ultimate biography of the band and it is told by the man who lived and saw it all. New Order formed shortly after Joy Division singer Ian Curtis took his own life. The surviving  members formed New Order and took the 1980s and beyond by storm. Hook, who was in the band until 2011, gives practically day-by-day account of what happened from making music, playing gigs, to the sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

"The writing process has become easier as it's my third book but as I think people can tell each book has taken a lot of time and they're quite in depth. The New Order book is some 800 pages long but it does deal with twenty six years of the band. As for rediscovering the past I find it sometimes weird, especially when you're concentrating gig by gig, session and trying to remember precisely the details but it can be interesting when a revelation appears. It can sometimes be a little unnerving but I have learnt to deal with it by now," he told Officially A Yuppie earlier this month. 

 

Read Our 2017 Interview with Peter Hook

While Substance is a lengthy read, the book is everything a fan would want to know. As he looks back on his life, Hook tells it from an honest point of view of how the highs were high and the lows were the worst one could imagine.  As the band continue on without him, Hook gives a candid account about his departure and his life today.

 

Recommended Reading: What Happened, Miss Simone?

Inspired by the acclaimed 2015 Netflix documentary of the same name, What Happened, Miss Simone? tells the in depth story to one of music's most prolific, confident, tormented voices -- Nina Simone. The book by music journalist Alan Light, released last year, gives the inside story of Simone's career, social justice cries, as well as going inside the mind of a tortured artist.

Light gets deep by going through a vast amount of raw footage interviews, personal accounts, and research to discuss her rise to stardom and self imposed exile to Africa and then later France. While the book may be a companion piece to the film, it showcases just how tragically beautiful the story of Nina Simone was in a whole new light.

Recommended Reading: 'Small Town Talk'

When people think of Woodstock, they immediately think of the 1969 music festival and the summer of yesteryear where artists gathered together for three days of peace, love and music. However, the Woodstock festival didn't take place in the town. Instead, it took place 60 miles away in Bethel Woods, New York. However, life inside Woodstock during the 60s and 70s was filled with music anyway and Barney Hoskyns 2016 book, Small Town Talk captured that.

From Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, these were the people who frequented the tiny city in the Catskills. Hoskyns gets first hand interviews and accounts from the locals, band members and day trippers who would live within a few square miles of rock royalty. For anyone who lived that era or anyone who loves these artists, this book is a must. 

Recommended Reading: 'Fab'

He was known as the cute one in the Fab Four, he was part of the greatest songwriting duo in history and he still continues to tour and make music when he could just kick his feet up. Paul McCartney has always pushed boundaries and his life was on display since he was a teenager. In 2010, author Howard Sounes took a deep, intimate look at the life of the Beatle you thought you knew with Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney.

The book starts in working class Liverpool and brings the reader to present day. It discusses Macca's childhood and how he met John Lennon and what their relationship was like. From forming The Beatles to then going solo and losing the love of his life, Linda, Fab is everything you ever needed to know about the icon.

Recommended Reading: 'Bowie'

As the world will hear the final recordings from David Bowie on the Lazarus soundtrack, we look into a book that dives deep into his tabloid making, androgynous sex life. Released as a paperback in the weeks after his death earlier this year, author Wendy Leigh explores the side of Bowie that was not heard in song but only in imagination. She takes a close look as to how the man named David Robert Jones became David Bowie and the people that inspired him along the way. She also explores the sexual conquests of the singer that had followed him for years prior to his marriage to Iman.

Bowie, the biography, is a book unlike any other about the star. After combing through archival interviews and conducting her own for the book, fans read about a Bowie they never knew. They read about the man who was a father of 2 but also worked around the clock making his art. It is one of the far more interesting and insightful looks about The Thin White Duke. 

Recommended Reading: 'Dark Days'

In 2012, following a concert in Prague, Randy Blythe was arrested after a performance from his band Lamb of God. He was charged with manslaughter and spent years in a Czech prison for what authorities say he pushed a fan off the stage 2 years earlier at a concert in the city, which eventually led to the 19-year-old's passing. Blythe maintained that he had no recollection of the event but took his sentencing and went to prison.

In 2013, he was finally acquitted and in 2015, he released his story from behind the prison walls called Dark Days. The prison, which was a former Nazi concentration camp, discusses the challenges he faced behind bars. He had been clean and sober for 2 years and finally got a hold of his life until prison threw him a curveball. The man could have left broken and discouraged but instead walked out stronger and tougher than when he went in.

This book is not just the autobiography of the dark period of a musician and man, it is the story of the strength of endurance and the human spirit.

Recommended Reading: 'Trouble Boys: The Story of The Replacements'

When indie rock icons The Replacements reunited in 2012, in a spell that lasted only 3 years, fans from all over did not think the reunion would happen. The ride of Minnesota's best band was rough, bumpy and frustrating. The Replacements went on in infamy as their music became the soundtrack to mislead youth. In 2015, writer Bob Mehr crafted the definitive biography on the band which was sanctioned by the group called Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements.

The massive book became a hit with fans and dove deep into the history of the group, stories on the road and the young lives together. Not only is this a must read for any fan of the rockers, this is also a book for someone who is wanting to start a band as a lesson in what not to do. Trouble Boys is not only a riveting read, it is a compelling story of a band that could have had it all.

Recomended Reading: Bob Dylan 'Tarantula'

It should never come as a surprise that music's greatest lyricist is also a phenomenal poet. Between 1965 and 1966, Bob Dylan dropped his guitar and began writing for the sake of writing. He crafted poems that would never be turned into songs but something to flex another creative muscle. In 1971, those poems would be released in a compilation book called Tarantula.

The book, which was originally scheduled to be released in 1966 was halted following his infamous motorcycle accident that left him sidelined. Many copies of the book floated around in the underground as well as bootleg paperback versions that fans passed around. Dylan never intended to publish the book at all, but after years of fans calling to read it, it was released. It still to this day, remains some of his finest and sharpest words. His experimental poetry and verses are still dissected today as they were then.