Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana

Rating:
Summary: Work On That Reading Comprehension
Review: A certain verbose reader to the contrary, it is possible to be a male groupie. Millions exist worldwide. All you need is a toadying, self-serving bent and an overheated style. Groupies usually don't even think about seducing their idols; Danny Sugarman apparently never did. They are just thrilled by hanging around celebrities, name-dropping celebrities, having others associate them with celebrities, etc. Some of them, like Gina Arnold, happen to be gifted writers with a rare passion for music. The difference between a gifted, passionate groupie and a journalist is whether or not you have something to say. Not whether you woke up in Dave Groll's tour bus.

The trouble with Arnold's book is that her keenness for Punk is hard to share or to understand because she gives no coherent basis for it. Her account has no focus and no thesis. It contains the seeds of many brilliant debates - why is punk more valid than metal, what are the roots of sexism and ageism in punk, why is a Deadhead's worship of old music bad but a Punk's worship of old music good (??)- that are quickly discarded in the rush to the next faaabulous show. After 200 pages of this tantalizing hodgepodge, you stop ascribing it to some anarchic "punk rock" ethos and start suspecting laziness.

Often, Arnold's gusto drowns out the story she's trying to tell. She is more interested in describing how she felt about a particular show or band than what occurred or what the performers were like. Her voice is mostly self-reflexive, sort of a "look-what-a-fun-person-I-am" exhibitionism. Worse, her lapdog credulity allows her to be bamboozled by the Butthole Surfers in a mock-interview that a real journalist would've seen through in a second. Byron Coley she's not.

Despite these flaws, Arnold's understanding of Punk seems far superior to most of her male peers'. Her book's failings have nothing to do with gender and everything to do with bad reporting. Free Speech Advocates who smear other fans for expressing their opinions should find the maturity to stop projecting their sexism onto others.

P.S.-Love the scene where Arnold and friend, clad in business suits, strut through a posh parking garage setting off car alarms, then smugly ascribe their impunity to the security guards' "looking for Negroes to blame." Ooh, rebel city! So working-class people are de facto racist, Ms. Arnold? And, I wonder if the guards did find an African American scapegoat? Someone always suffers for this kind of declasse' suburban posing, and it is usually an underdog.

Rating:
Summary: not bad but not great
Review: if you read the other reviews of this book then you basically get the idea that this book is the road leading up to the band called nirvana. it is a one sided story seen thru gina arnold's eyes and does open up a wealth of info about a ton of bands that all deserve their day in the sun. my one problem is i found a number of discrepencies such as her naming chuck dukowski as the drummer of black flag? sorry sweetheart, he was the bass player.
all the incorrect info made me question the whole book and wonder what is true and what is false. she did stipulate that this book was about the "spirit" and not neccesarily about the bands individually but from my experience real fans know and cherish the music and the bands they adore. they know every detail. i dont doubt gina's love of the music but to me she appears as what i call a "scenester" someone who travels from one spot to another, from one scene to another because she thinks it makes her cool. she always seemed to be going off to another gig, never apart of a scene but in a state of constant motion, a state of constant flux. .
she does have the spirit of the music down pat and all in all the book is a good account of some great bands that all made it possible for the next wave to do their thing which all allowed nirvana to conquer the world as they did. i just wonder how accurate it all is.

Rating:
Summary: just another nirvana book
Review: Just another post punk book nothing special. If you buy it to read try to buy it used. Gives you the same ol same ol in every other nirvana book.

Rating:
Summary: Work On That Reading Comprehension
Review: Lest anyone take too much stock of some of these reviews, information should be given: Gina is not a groupie, there IS no scene described in the book, for example, such as "and then Kurt pulled the covers off me and Chris..." (not one). I suspect people who accuse this very articulate writer of same are hopeless ... misogynists who confuse ANY female writing about rock music with Pamela De Barnes...Similarly, Gina astutely lays down a background in the book about the diversification/incorporation of restrictive radio/music programming, post-fre-form 70's FM, and thus, how could she make any pretense (she doesn't) of being "all things to all people"? She is passionate about bands she likes or doesn't, not necessarily about bands YOU like or not. So what? She also warns you in advance, that her story is not one of scenes she wasn't privy to (such as Minnesota/such as reagae), again, so what? Like the Beach Boys and Tupac, though, by most any standards, she 'got around.'

But ironically, modern, possessive "punk" fans, bring such restrictive "rules" to their favorite genre, once ostensibly about breaking rules, I thought. Now they whine, 'This band is not underground, so they're "not punk," this band "sold out"... Why didn't Ms. Arnold write about "this band"? Well, I've read Ms. Arnold say herself, 'YOU write about it, that would be YOUR book.' The story, the theme if you will, remains the same.

What Ms. Arnold manages very eloquently in this book is to write passionately from her point of view, about what her favorite music has meant to her life, and ultimately, how her favorite music, only marginally popular in the U.S. in the beginning, was able to "break through" into American suburbia and perhaps even, began resonating sociological importance to a population phenomenally larger than from whence it came. Has punk changed in the interim? Yes. Was it co-opted by heavy metal along the way? It would appear so.

Maybe it's just in this age where no one under 40 reads anymore, no one knows that the best non-fiction books are never "all-things to all people," but quite specifically written from a perspective of what the writer passionately knows and cares about. So, surprise, it ISN'T just Ms. Arnold. Who reads books ONLY to be agreed with? Aren't we interested anymore of the points of view of others? Isn't THAT why we read?

Finally, I wish Ms. Arnold would follow the example of the first great punks and simply say to her detractors: 'I told my story the best I could from what I know and love. It is mostly, well researched. If I made a mistake about Ohio geography, didn't Steinbech place his "Grapes" dustbowl farmers in the wrong part of Oklahoma? (Salisaw is up in the forested Ozarks). If you don't like it, fine, I've got your money already, you can leave! Or better yet, how about buying my other one, too? Then you'll have even MORE to complain about!'

Now, THAT would be punk!

Rating:
Summary: greatest book ever
Review: this book introduced me, as a teenager, to a whole new world of music. i bought it because i thought it would be about nirvana. wrong. it is about everything leading up to nirvana in the punk/indie music world. gina arnold is lucky to have lived this life and we are lucky she decided to write about it so we can experience it too.

Rating:
Summary: greatest book ever
Review: this book introduced me, as a teenager, to a whole new world of music. i bought it because i thought it would be about nirvana. wrong. it is about everything leading up to nirvana in the punk/indie music world. gina arnold is lucky to have lived this life and we are lucky she decided to write about it so we can experience it too.

Rating:
Summary: Great Perspectives, But Groupie-ish
Review: This could have been a classic account of punk's "subversion" of mainstream culture. Ms. Arnold gives an exciting history of the punk roots of successful bands like Nirvana, the Replacements, Sonic Youth, etc., and punk's success at shaping fans' attitudes. She was a true insider of the American underground music scene, and provides hilarious anecdotes and insights into that culture. Simultaneously, she addresses issues usually ignored in the "alternative" scene, such as the complacent sexism and racism, and the punks' ambivalent views on influencing the mainstream.

But too often her epic comes off as a name-dropping boast. A lot of ink is wasted on events and experiences that are more self-agrandizing than illuminating. I'm glad you met Chris D. at a party, Ms. Arnold, but what did he say? What did you think? Some of her memories are gushy and insubstantial, like the ramblings of a groupie.

Finally we are happy for the author that she had such a great time and was privy to so much hipness, but we can't learn much from it. And that's a shame, because there are fantastic sections of this book that are devoid of narcissism or silly hyperbole. If these were published separately, I would give the re-issue five stars.