The definitive chronicle of underground music in the 1980s tells the stories of Black Flag, Sonic Youth, The Replacements, and other seminal bands whose DIY revolution changed American music forever.
Our Band Could Be Your Life is the never-before-told story of the musical revolution that happened right under the nose of the Reagan Eighties -- when a small but sprawling network of bands, labels, fanzines, radio stations, and other subversives re-energized American rock with punk's do-it-yourself credo and created music that was deeply personal, often brilliant, always challenging, and immensely influential. This sweeping chronicle of music, politics, drugs, fear, loathing, and faith is an indie rock classic in its own right.
The bands profiled include:

• Sonic Youth
• Black Flag
• The Replacements
• Minutemen
• Husker Du
• Minor Threat
• Mission of Burma
• Butthole Surfers
• Big Black
• Fugazi
• Mudhoney
• Beat Happening
• Dinosaur Jr.

A downright revolutionary 30th-anniversary deluxe edition of the iconic bestselling biography of Nirvana, updated with exclusive new content exploring the personal and cultural forces that inspired the music, the author's friendship with Kurt Cobain and why multiple generations remain fascinated by the 1990s.

Just tell the truth. That'll be better than anything else that's been written about me.--Kurt Cobain to author Michael Azerrad

It has been three decades since Nirvana upended the pop cultural landscape with Nevermind, the landmark album that became the soundtrack of Generation X, capturing its confusion, frustration, and passion. In 1993, Michael Azerrad published what stands as the definitive biography of this revolutionary band and its star-crossed leader Kurt Cobain. Written with the band's complete cooperation, Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana became a massive bestseller and was, in the words of Cobain, the best rock book I've ever read.

Seven months after the book's original publication, Cobain was dead by suicide, making Come as You Are the only book about Nirvana that features original interviews with Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl.

Now, Azerrad has revisited and reconsidered his original text. The result is this amplified version--a truly unique book-within-a-book featuring hundreds of extensive new essay-like annotations that deepen our understanding of this legendary band and the time in which it existed. Azerrad reconsiders the key players and their cultural context; ruminates on topics such as punk rock, selling out, and Generation X; and offers insights into the inner life and creative mind of one of the most significant songwriters and musicians in rock history--a haunting and haunted artist whose influence continues powerfully to the present day.

It all comes down to a search for the answer to the question: Why was this music so extraordinarily powerful?

Vivid, evocative, and thought-provoking, this gorgeous hardcover book--featuring 100 photos and ephemera--is an essential document not just for Nirvana fans but for anyone interested in the cultural legacy of the 1990s.

The definitive biography of the revolutionary band Nirvana and its star-crossed frontman Kurt Cobain, hailed by Rolling Stone as the first [book] to comprehensively tell the band's tale from Aberdeen, Wash., to world domination

Amazingly raw and candid . . . an unsparing and extremely honest depiction of the group's highly tumultuous history . . . Come As You Are is as good as rock bios get.--Billboard

Just tell the truth. That'll be better than anything else that's been written about me.--Kurt Cobain

Nirvana came out of nowhere in 1991 to sell nearly five million copies of their landmark album Nevermind, whose thunderous sound and indelible melodies embodied all the confusion, frustration, and passion of the emerging Generation X.

Come As You Are is the close-up, intimate story of Nirvana--the only book with exclusive in-depth interviews with bandmembers Kurt Cobain, Krist Noveselic, and Dave Grohl, as well as friends, relatives, former bandmembers, and associates--now updated to include a final chapter detailing the last year of Kurt Cobain's life, before his tragic suicide in April 1994.

Vivid, evocative, and thought-provoking, Come As You Are is an essential document not just for Nirvana fans but for anyone interested in the cultural legacy of the 1990s.

Straight out of his beloved Twitter feed @RockCriticLaw, acclaimed rock journalist and author of the classic books Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana and Our Band Could Be Your Life, Michael Azerrad turns his trenchant eye to the art of rock writing itself, hilariously skewering 101 of the genre's seemingly endless litany of hackneyed phrases and tropes.

One of the finest music writers today, Michael Azerrad has catalogued the shortcuts, lazy metaphors and uninspired prose that so many of his beloved colleagues all too regularly rely on to fill column inches. In 2014, he began his wickedly droll Twitter feed @RockCriticLaw to expose and make fun of this word-hash. Now, he consolidates these Laws into one witty, comprehensive and fully illustrated volume.

Rock Critic Law includes timeless gems such as:

• If a band pioneered something, you must say they are seminal. That is the Seminal Law of Rock Criticism.
• If a recording features densely layered guitars, then you MUST use the phrase sonic cathedrals.
• Even when it's easy to find out with research, by all means ask a band how they got their name.
• Please feel free to deny an artist's individuality and say they are the new [x].
• If two guitars play a melodic line in harmony, you MUST say they are twin lead guitars.

All 101 Rock Critic Laws are accompanied by original illustrations from Ed Fotheringham, beloved Seattle scenester and highly regarded artist who has created album covers for everyone from, well, seminal grunge band Mudhoney to iconic jazz label Verve Records, as well as illustrations for The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and more, making this book a must-have for music lovers everywhere. A unique appreciation of music writing from one of its own, Rock Critic Law irreverently captures all the passion and furor of fandom.