Subtitled ‘Movements In The US Indie Music Underground’ Late Century Dream takes an authoritative snapshot of six relevant US enclaves and talks with those that developed them about the emerging underground musical scenes over the 80’s and 90’s. Although this was a slight sidestep for me from what I usually listen to and write about I was certainly drawn to the book when offered it as the stories of the emerging sub-cultures was very relevant to many of the bands that I do like and the stories of how things developed are naturally similar. Also there are many acts that crossed over and came about alongside the US metal, hardcore and very definitely punk scenes that we do cover too. Besides this, being a musical geek I am very happy to read about any intelligent musical cross-pollination and there are many bands featured here who I had heard of and wanted to know more about.
The places featured by a variety of writers (and not all of them as you may suspect American) are Seattle Washington, Phoenix Arizona, Austin and Houston Texas, Chicago Illinois, Chapel Hill N Carolina and Athens Georgia. Some of those places should as they did me set alarm bells straight off, after all everyone should know that Seattle is responsible for Grunge and to many that death of punk and metal in the process and Athens Georgia should have names like The B52s and REM on the tips of your tongues too. These are subjects that are certainly intertwined within the pages of the book but it digs a lot deeper than this and goes in search of the real underbelly and bands, labels, venues and events that are probably only remembered by the few that lived through them and in this respect it is a really interesting read.
One thing that is constant is the sense that most of these scenes, movements, call them what you will were set up by those that really did not fit in, the freaks, the weirdo’s, the dreamers and those that tried to set up something that was of interest to them as much as anyone else. The fact that a scene built up is even an anathema to many involved as who at the end of the day even likes the word and identifies with it in places where everyone is trying to do something different? So naturally the book draws in some of the strangest ideas and bands that emerged during the time from the more well known to the obscure like Splatter punks The Accused to gonzoid psyche alt rockers The Butthole Surfers. We delve into riotous shows harking back to the Decline Of The Western Civilisation with TSOL and The Vandals and squatted death houses full of junkie artists and wannabe musicians. The most unknown part of the book to me was no doubt Chapel Hill which was a real university town and saw bands such as Dillon Fence, Polvo, Zen Frisbee, Squirrel Nut Zippers and The Archers Of Loaf doing their thing around college jocks and the whole university town set-up and culture. It was probably the more intriguing as it was the place I could least imagine myself being in and identifying with. That’s not to say that it did not endear me to hear more and check out some of the bands.
The opposite side of the tracks was the fascinating and unfortunately at times tragic tales that came out of Seattle such as the murder of singer Mia Zapata of The Gits and the shockwaves this sent out through all those who watched and played with the band. The authors have different styles to their essays and some are written in a flowing style taking everything into the text and keeping it informative as it develops, with some more in depth interviews at the end. Others dissect it by band, centering on each one individually and I found both styles worked well for me. One chapter I did not gel with however was Chicago Illinois which took the form of a series of album reviews more than anything and although they were in depth they did not really tell me much about the stories of the bands and what led up to the recordings themselves. Great if you have the discs I guess but otherwise a bit too on the geeky side. Freakiest of all the places seems to be the arid sweltering Phoenix Arizona and it certainly is the place I would most like to step back in a time machine and visit and watch bands like Killer Pussy, Sun City Girls and Mighty Sphincter who look like a complete bunch of loons kick it up live.
At just under 200 pages this is a good and easily dissected read and one that is well illustrated with black and white pictures throughout. The live photos are real snapshots of a time gone by and are especially illuminating even if some of them are artfully blurry. I came away from reading this having felt like I had almost visited these places in some sense and it does a great job of encapsulating a time and place. It also naturally left me wanting to hear more of some of the bands, something I admit I have not had time to do yet but am sure will have a happy hunting session on the Internet at some point soon, in fact Superchunk’s Late Century Dream’s is playing right now!
Pete Woods
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