| Given the egos of your typical rock star, it's no surprise that they think they can write books as well as songs. However, in the case of the following musicians, it happens to be the case. From The Rheostatics to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, from cat calls to kitty litter, these pop icons pick up a pen, bare their souls and tell a good story at the same time.
FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK: A ROAD MAP TO BEING IN A BAND
By Dave Bidini
Tundra Books, 138 pp.
Despite the fact that he may rub you the wrong way at the start with his hey-kids tone, Rheostatics guitarist Dave Bidini makes a great recovery during the rest of this book. Writing chapters about the mythology of making it (he watched his heroes The Cramps load their records into a taxi on a New York sidewalk, ignored by the record-company people who swirled all around them), getting along with your bandmates and choosing your band name, Bidini keeps the information light, relevant and humouros.
The book is a breeze to read as he juxtaposes real-life ’Statics tales with things he’s learned to do (and to avoid) along the way, all without sounding preachy. While the man holds an entire rock-trivia game in his head and drops in facts without sounding like a know-it-all, he can also switch gears and talk quite humanly about his regrets. A great read for anyone considering "making it" in music and maybe even a better read for anyone who has already discarded that idea.
SO WHAT! THE GOOD, THE MAD AND THE UGLY: THE OFFICIAL METALLICA ILLUSTRATED CHRONICLE
Edited by Steffan Chirazi
Broadway Books/Random House Canada, 276 pp.
Is it possible to get too much of a good thing? This year Metallica fans in Calgary got two sold-out concerts, a critically-acclaimed documentary on the band and, now, a 276-page coffee-table book.
Metallica? Coffee-table book? The ideas seem incompatible, but it’s true – the band that many consider to be the kings of the heavy-metal genre have released a book that looks nice on the furniture when the folks visit.
So What! The Good, The Mad and the Ugly is a compilation of articles from the band’s own fanzine of the same name and provides an interesting look into the band’s history, often in their own words. As with any coffee-table book, it’s filled with photographs – a pictorial retrospective of the band’s career from 1981 to the present collected from photo shoots, concerts, fans and family scrapbooks. What makes So What! intriguing is the articles that give insight into the working of the band, especially the round-table interviews done at various points in Metallica’s career. Editor Steffan Chirazi sits down with the group and examines where the members’ heads were at and the reader can instantly see the friction. The book goes deeper than the recent documentary ever could.
Other articles range from the humorous to the sublime – from "The Whiplash Segments" where band members answer serious and inane e-mail from their fans, to an almost stream-of-consciousness piece written by drummer Lars Ulrich’s father.
As was the case with the movie, fans of the band will probably get more from the book than someone who only knows them by name. But that someone will still get a peek into the dark shadows and humorous moments that come with fame – rock ’n’ roll or otherwise.
SCAR TISSUE
By Anthony Kiedis (with Larry Sloman)
Hyperion, 462 pp.
Although the stories about the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the motivations for their songs are great (especially for a fan), Scar Tissue is more than a book about the band. Rather, it is a brutally honest and very matter of fact story of the life of Anthony Kiedis, "scar tissue and all." From his youth in Michigan where he broke all the rules and started the trend of rebellion that continued throughout his life, to his relocation to L.A. at age 11 with his drug dealer father where he lived a precocious life immersed in drugs, sex and club culture, Kiedis shares some priceless moments (losing his virginity to his father’s girlfriend, getting life lessons from Sonny Bono at a ski hill and potentially even inventing the mullet.)
But, more than a chronology, Scar Tissue is about addictions. Powerful addictions. Drugsboozesexmagikwhatever, he chronicles addiction in all its gory detail (the book is most engaging when telling the wild and chaotic stories associated with drug abuse). Kiedis rocks out with the band high as the sun, shoots up under a moonlit bridge with Mexican gangsters and holes up in a dark and dirty hotel room for days at a time on a run of cocaine and heroin, because he had either just broken up with someone or had nothing better to do. Bouncing back and forth between healthy and active then emaciated and sickly, there is a conquest chronicle component to the book. Kiedis hooks up with an endless line of personality-disordered women, never finding a healthy relationship. His choice of partners is fitting given his own selfish, amoral and controlling character, which he makes no effort to hide here.
Scar Tissue is a brave book telling the story of someone who rose from injecting LSD dissolved in vodka, to someone who now injects ozone to prevent the relapse of Hepatitis C. He’s clean now and clearly an advocate of 12 steps, but one is left with the feeling that he could go off the rails at any moment. I guess that’s why roller coasters are appealing after all.
SO YOU WANNA BE A ROCK & ROLL STAR
by Jacob Slichter
Broadway, 286 pp.
So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star is the hardbound proof that the story of the band Semisonic is way more interesting than the band ever was. Drummer Jacob Slichter takes the humdrum tale of a one-hit wonder band and fills it with all the make-or-break drama you'd expect from a hard-hitting after-school special about the perils of rock stardom. While this may sound lightweight and pretentious, it is exactly what a behind-the-scenes look at the music industry needs. Touching briefly on his high-school days as the white drummer of an all-black funk band, Slichter then chronicles the three-album rise and fall of Semisonic. From Semisonic’s obscure beginnings as a near-unclassifiable Minneapolis rock band to the lofty heights of their hit single "Closing Time," Slichter offers an insider’s look at the perilous world of the music business and how he and his bandmates nearly got eaten alive. Subtitled How I Gunned Down a Roomful of Record Executives and Other True Tales From a Drummer's Life, the book goes into great detail about the concept of album advances, recoupable debt and what a gold record actually means. From Letterman to Leno, from London to Japan, Slichter tells it all with a self-effacing tone that cleverly turns his mock-rock-star ego into a fantastic running gag. Not since Woody Allen has someone obsessed over minutiae so much. How does Slichter's hair look in the photos, what will he say on Howard Stern, why aren't they selling more records in Sweden and, most importantly, why doesn't anyone want his autograph – what should be the most tedious list of insecurities becomes a wickedly funny tale. For anyone in a band who has ever dreamed of superstardom, this is a must-read. For everybody else, it is a sharp and insightful behind-the-scenes look at a business that many people admire, but that few actually know about.
I’LL TELL YOU ONE DAMN THING AND THAT’S ALL I KNOW
By Jann Arden
Insomniac Press, 198 pp.
The idea of reading someone else’s journal fills one with a gourmet blend of revulsion and schadenfreude. Little notebooks adorn drugstore aisles, sporting elfin lock ’n’ key sets, reminders that everyone has something to hide, or at least wishes they do. Worse is the idea of reading a celebrity journal. With millionaire shoplifters, Hollywood rehab dolls, breast augmentations and infidelities all streaming off glossy covers, ringing in your groceries feels as perilous as hunting for them once did.
That’s why Jann Arden’s second book is such a perky surprise. The entries cover the period from May 2002 to February 2004, and if you think you’re in for a round of celebrity-o-rama, think again. Her journal has the stream-of-consciousness quality that so many of them do, but thankfully it’s an intelligent, unpolluted stream. And like all good streams, it’s earthy. Who among us hasn’t run out of toilet paper and pondered using the roll? Who among us hasn’t caught air in their throat over a parent’s illness or wished that love had turned out differently? Who among us hasn’t counted their blessings?
While Arden records details of concerts, recording and road trips, she’s more likely to talk about stepping in a "present" her cats left on the rug or going to Costco or Winners. What rescues the journal from being mundane is not her celebrity, but her brutal candour and her gift for travelling along gorgeous phrases to surprising conclusions.
THE COMPLETE IDIOTS GUIDE TO STARTING A BAND
by Mark Bliesener and Steve Knopper
Alpha, 323 pp.
Athough I don't usually go in for an idiot’s guide to anything, the prospect of having someone use this format to tackle something as creative and interpersonally ambitious as starting a band piqued my curiosity. How could one book be a catch-all tome for anyone who wants to make music? Easy, cover it all. Short of telling you how to string a guitar, this book has a thorough chapter-by-chapter approach to guiding aspiring musicians on their way. And it doesn't shy away from the dirty work. Knowing how to get a gig is important, but as anyone in a band will tell you, it's probably more important that you know how to gracefully kick a band member out without destroying a relationship. This book gives you all this and more. With everything from a comprehensive glossary of terms and lists of covers you should know if you want to play a wedding to handy tips on how to avoid STDs from skanky groupies, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting a Band crams as much information as it can within its pages and still manages to keep a sense of humour about itself. Acknowledging the fact that most musicians are lazy, the book offers great chapter summaries for future rock stars who are curious, but don't have the time to actually read the whole book. Featuring an introduction from Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, the book lives up to its title and will more than likely have something that any armchair rock star can use.
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