Been meaning to write this up since I finished this about a month ago. "Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011"
Fun book. It was neat reading about how seedy New York was in the early 2000's. So different than it is today. If you enjoy that indie rock and roll 2000's music vibe, this is great.
It's pretty heavy on the Strokes, which is kind of annoying. They're treated as the saviors of music throughout the book, and that gets old fast.
Worth a few hours if you're interested in the scene or the time period.
Here's some choice quotes I pulled out from my read:
> GIDEON YAGO: Rock and roll was for people of a certain age.
> MARC SPITZ: Soundgarden had broken up. Oasis had not delivered on their potential. Blur werenβt even sounding Britpop anymore, they were sounding like Pavement. There was always going to be Dave Matthews Band. You canβt even criticize them, theyβre just there. Itβd be like criticizing pigeons. You canβt get rid of them
> JAMES HABACKER: We went from rock music, which was the greatest thing ever, to Lenny Kravitz
> JAMES MURPHY: Sometime during this time, we celebrated my thirtieth birthday. For a cake Tim brought me Roxy Musicβs Stranded LP with thirty lines of cocaine on it. This is the cocaine era of New York
> PAUL BANKS: Robert (Smith, of the cure) is a total dude. You see the photos and you think that guy might know how to write poetry, but in reality you hang out with him and you think, βI bet heβs really good at soccer".
> I donβt know, maybe somewhere, somehow, years from now Vampire Weekend will do some kind of a reunion show, but I canβt imagine young kids being there saying, βI love Vampire Weekend so much. Iβm so excited about them. Iβve been listening to them since elementary school.β And if they are, they should be punched in the face.
#books #bookstr
