[Arthur Doyle]

Apart from Girl in a band?

[stu666]

Sensational Fix

[halgreen]

goodbye 20th century is great. guido chisea's book is good too and is comprised of a lengthy interview with the band.

i have confusion is next but never finished it. theres another one called psychic confusion by stevie chick.

theres also lee's jrnls80 and the online diaries lollapalooza book.

and maybe one day we'll get the byron coley Sonic Youth biography of our dreams. i met coley's son at a show a few weeks ago in new orleans but was scared to ask him about it.

[noisereductions]

I've read every SY related book I could find. Most of them more than once. Goodbye 20th Century is def my favorite.

[sonicyouth]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

I've read every SY related book I could find. Most of them more than once. Goodbye 20th Century is def my favorite.

A very good tho hard to find one is Ignacio Julia's oversize oral history from the early 90s, I Dreamed Of Noise. Comes w CD of unreleased music. Published in Spain.

[noisereductions]

Originally Posted by sonicyouth

A very good tho hard to find one is Ignacio Julia's oversize oral history from the early 90s, I Dreamed Of Noise. Comes w CD of unreleased music. Published in Spain.

it is nice!

Also it is oversized. Haha.

I like the CD a lot - Turn It Up!

[Toilet & Bowels]

I Dreamed of Noise, JRNLs 80s and No Setlist are best. Goodbye 20th C has a lot of info but is loaded with pretty tedious writerly flourishes, e.g. the chapter where Steve comes to NYC to join the band and instead of using his name the writer keeps referring to Steve and The Kid.

The Kid was new to the big city, he'd heard things about it's mean streets. The kid had heard about those streets were filled with danger. The kid was just a good kid from blabla etc.

The other problem with Gb20thC is that SY's story is not massively interesting after they sign to Geffen, and from this point on the book becomes mostly about contract negotiations and business strategy. And that is for about 200 pages.

[noisereductions]

eh, I think I enjoyed GB2C so much because I had read Confusion at least 5 times prior so it felt like "ok, cool, now there's MORE of the story." I don't know, I felt like there was lots of little things in there that I 'learned' about that I never read elsewhere.

That said, I did like Psychic Confusion quite a bit as well.

[_slavo_]

I liked Confusion is Next and Sensational Fix.
I didn't like Psychic Confusion (lame).

[tw2113]

I purchased a copy of Goodbye 20th Century earlier so i'm a bit pumped

[Samdav09]

Goodbye 20th Century !

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by barryallen1337

I also recommend Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad

ESSENTIAL. It's to the independent U.S. '80s what Clinton Heylin's From The Velvets To The Voidoids is to U.S. proto-punk and punk, and what Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up And Start Again is to post-punk.

Read 'em all, if you haven't, or die. Die!