Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge

Everybody Loves Our Town is an oral history of the rise of Seattle as a musical hot spot. The book is loaded with snippets of interviews from anyone who was anyone from the early 80’s to the mid 90’s. Not all interviewees will be recognized, as some were struggling artist who never made it and others merely friends of those who took to the stage. The snippets are pieced together in a manageable fashion which give the book a smooth flow, well as smooth as it can get from compiling such a task. I found the book to be a great reference source, as I could easily research the names of those I was unfamiliar with to get a better look behind the scenes. All of the big names are found in these pages, along with bands you never knew existed. This book manages to show how interconnected these bands actually were. Most of these bands knew one another and were supportive of each other. The book is an interesting read for those who enjoyed the music or those wanting a closer look at was going on in Seattle during the big music boom.

Loved it. LOVED it. If I could give more than 5 stars I would. This book just blew me away. Easily the best book on music I've ever read, and probably the best book I've read on anything in several years. Having grown up in Seattle, I've been a fan of the Seattle bands since the early 90s. Up until very recently I actually segregated my "Seattle" bands from all the others in my CD collection. I found out just how little I actually knew about them all by reading this book. First off, the drugs, wow. I knew there were a lot of drugs being used, but holy cow I didn't have any clue as to how bad it was. It's front and center here because it took such a horrific toll on the musicians and those around them, from Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley to Stephanie Sargent and Mike Starr. But the one that really seemed to kick the entire community in the gut was Andrew Wood. To hear about what these people meant to the people who knew them, in their own words, it just takes you way beyond the music, which is often secondary in this history. Grunge seemed to have exploded onto the airwaves when Nirvana released Nevermind, but in the long arc of its rise and fall that was actually nearer the end than the beginning. Yarm tracked down virtually anyone and everyone who planted the seeds with the punk bands from throughout western Washington, like the U-Men and Melvins. While the book has plenty of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains, there is no shortage of other bands, including the Screaming Trees, Candlebox, the Gits, 7 Year Bitch, Mudhoney, and Green River. And don't forget Cat Butt. (How could anyone, with a name like that?) He also gives a lot of space to the guys at Sub Pop records, who were instrumental in helping a lot of these bands find an audience. The book is entirely told by the people who were there when it all happened, at least a couple hundred in all. Fortunately, Yarm included a handy alphabetical reference list in the back, which I was constantly flipping to to remember just who someone was and what their role in the music community was. It's alternately sad (lots of death), funny, and gossipy, almost to the point of catty, particularly whenever Courtney Love is involved. She really came across to me as an utterly psychotic bitch. So much so that I feel bad for liking her music. There weren't many others who had much nice to say about her. No surprise there. What did surprise me was how much everyone else hated Candlebox, a band I've always liked. I never realized what outcasts they were on the local music scene. I bought this book as a Christmas gift for my niece a couple years ago. At the time I thought, "I should read this before I send it to her." I didn't, but I finally got my own copy and am glad I did. Fantastic.

I was in my mid teens/early twenties during this era of music, and I loved it. To me it was great time to be into rock and roll. So many different bands both Pop and Independent to be into. I've seen a lot bands and consider myself to be fairly knowledgable about music in general. So needless to say I was excited to hear of this book. The opening of this book chronicles a classic U-Men show from the mid 80's. Fantastic story and reads great. This period holds a lot of crucial information to the birth of this particular scene. It goes into good detail of how a lot of important people met and created the monster to be. After a while though I felt the subject matter kind of turned to issues that you would see on a VH1 or MTV style documentary....blah! I found myself reading about stuff that I already knew. Yes, Courtney Love is crazy and Layne Staley was on heroin...We know. But I kept on reading and was glad I did because it dove much deeper than I expected. A lot unexpected people turned up quoting on the issues too. VERY INFORMATIVE INDEED. I love the oral history style of this book. It reminded me a lot of Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain (great book about the birth of the New York Punk scene 60's-80's). Yes, this book is about a Rock Scene. Rock Scenes are the same in a way that they all have the tragedies, successes, blunders, unspoken heros, drugs, rehabs, and burnouts. But for some unknown reason you are still dying to know about it. Just read it already! It's a cool book about a great time in Rock and Roll History! Also remember that "Grunge" became popular for a reason other than the fashion and monster sides of it; and that is it simply Kicked Butt!

Being from Seattle, as a musician who knew many people interviewed in this book, I had no idea of some of the crazy-assed shit going on around me. For me, that period is a drug-fueled, alcohol drenched orgy of creativity in the prime of my life. It's nice to have had someone document it, because honestly, I don't remember shit. My last lucid memories were working at Tower Records in the U-District in '86-'88. The next 15 years were one long night out at the bars playing and partying like it was 1999, which it was at one point. I lost many good friends along the way, a couple mentioned in the book, but many more who weren't. It was a small scene in the beginning, and unusually supportive rather than competitive. Proud to have been there and survived it, crawling out battered, but alive on the other side. Good read, all in all.

I was too young to fully appreciate how much music changed with the grunge/punk/alternative scene in Seattle. It was fascinating reading about it. It was also very cool reading about lots of bands I'd only heard of, that really pioneered that sound. Very cool read.

This is the definitive story of 'Grunge', so if that's your thing then this comes highly recommended. It is told purely through interviews with the people who counted at that time, members of Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam etc. and a whole host of others, producers, critics, managers etc. This could so easily been a mess of snippets of interviews crammed together but Mark Yarm has pieced them together expertly and it flows easily into one flowing story of all that went on during that time. It's a harrowing read at times for obvious reasons, and kind of bittersweet as it was written in 2011 so some of the interviewees have passed since, but there's also a great wit to it also that often takes the edge off. It's in depth, informative, amusing, sad, interesting all in equal measures. It'll probably make you appreciate even more the music and the people who were part of it, the main players, the smaller players, the almost-weres and everyone in between. Nothing is missed here and it's great from start to finish. This could so easily have been a mess but it couldn't be more the opposite. If you're a fan then you need to read this, it's your duty!

Per chi come me ha vissuto in pieno quegli anni, e per chi sente di appartenere in qualche modo a quell'epoca, questo è un libro straordinario. Come già detto da altri, il libro è una narrazione corale, dove ognuno racconta la sua parte, e contribuisce in maniera unica a costruire una vera visione d'insieme di un mondo perduto. Assolutamente lodevole la scelta di Mark Yarm di includere tutte le band, i produttori, i musicisti e i protagonisti della scena di Seattle, anche perchè molte delle band in questione non sono diventate ultra famose come i Nirvana o i Soundgarden ma hanno contribuito in ugual misura, se non addirittura in misura maggiore, alla nascita del Grunge, o Seattle sound come preferisco chiamarlo. Oggi è facile riempirsi la bocca della parola rock, ma leggere questo libro è una conferma di quanto è vuota oggi questa parola. Ho potuto rivivere, almeno con la fantasia, quel modo di sentirsi realmente liberi e uniti. Gli strani, i diversi, potevano sentire di appartenere a qualcosa di più grande e riconoscersi a vicenda come i bimbi sperduti di Peter Pan. Si ride e si piange leggendo questo libro e ci si sente inevitabilmente attratti da quel vortice di innocenza, di euforia, creatività, di rabbia, ma anche di dannazione e di tristezza, di alienazione e di depressione. ​Insomma, il rock non è una moda, non è un modo di vestirsi. Non è solo la musica che si ascolta. E' un modo di essere, di sentirsi e di vivere.

O autor faz um um excelente trabalho costurando as conversas cronologicamente. Parece que os entrevistados estão todos juntos, conversando, confirmando ou confrontando fatos de uma maneira muito natural e fazendo uma leitura muito fluída.

Mark Yarm reune a todas esas personas que vivieron en sus propias carnes todo el nacimiento y desarrollo de la escena grunge de Seattle. A través de un repaso por los testimonios y entrevistas de estas personalidades se hace una revisión sobre un movimiento que influyó en la historia de la música más allá del género grunge. Un libro muy interesante y completo a un precio que no tiene nada que envidiar o otros tantos del mismo estilo.

Thrilling read. There's some pretty wild stories in here, and you get a lot of insight into the early beginnings, mass marketing stage, and eventual implosion of a major music movement. Also, sometimes the interviewers contradict each others' stories, which keeps things interesting. Highly recommend this read.