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The Rough Guide to Nirvana

Gillian G. Gaar


(Rough Guides)

 

www.roughguides.com

 

BY A.D. AMOROSI

 

Good on you, Rough Guides, for being there. I still use your World Music book as reference and have ripped into your Travel Guides when needed. Then there's Gillian G. Gaar. Fans of the Blurt contributor know her from books on girl squawkers (She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll) and whiny women (Green Day). But the Seattle author has long made her homeboys a cottage industry, penning the liner notes to Geffen's With the Lights Out box and her potent take on my favorite Nirvana album, In Utero, for the Continuum 33 and a 1/3 series.

 

That she's turned every nook and cranny in the Nirvana tale into text-book worthy prose is chilling in a few ways; in terms of a writer's pliability and accommodation (talking to any textbook author and you'll find that skill more difficult and specialized than any obituarian's). Where historians are concerned, Gaar makes the proper twists in their sobriety so to seek out and uncover Cobain minutia (Fecal Matter tapes recorded at Aunt Mari's house), early on gigs (a party in Raymond, just miles from Aberdeen), shortest-lived drummers (that'd be Dan Peters of Mudhoney for $400, Alex) and short chapters on everything from first favorite tunes to influences like The Melvins and solo projects from Grohl's Foos to whatever it is Novoselic does when he does so. If you love and breathe Nirvana you probably know this stuff and Gaar's guide is a grand encapsulation. If you don't know - act like you do, but keep this book handy.

 


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Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever by Will Hermes
01/20/2012
Dec 11
Paul Brannigan by This is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl
12/28/2011
Rock And Roll Always Forgets by Chuck Eddy
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Occupants by Henry Rollins
12/07/2011
Nov 11
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11/10/2011
Sep 11
Have Not Been the Same: The Canrock Renaissance 1985-1995 by Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack, and Jason Schneider
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Aug 11
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08/24/2011
Preachin’ The Blues: The Life & Times of Son House by Daniel Beaumont
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Along the Cherry Lane by Milton Okun (as told to Richard Sparks)
08/04/2011
Jul 11
Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music by Rob Young
07/26/2011
See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody by Bob Mould (with Michael Azerrad)
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Jun 11
Rock & Roll...And the Beat Goes On by "Cousin Brucie" Morrow with Rich Maloof
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Fire And Rain: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor CSNY and the lost story of 1970 by David Browne
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Guitar Player Presents Guitar Heroes of the '70s by Michael Molenda, editor
06/13/2011
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The Last Bandit: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Life by Nikki Sudden
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Keyboard Presents Synth Gods by Ernie Rideout, editor
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Apr 11
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Won’t Get Fooled Again: The Who From Lifehouse to Quadrophenia by Richie Unterberger
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Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal by Jeff Wagner
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Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk by Jeanette Leech
03/21/2011
Larry Marion, ed. by The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive, 1964-1966
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Jan 11
Trademark Of Quality by Rev. Keith A. Gordon
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Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy by Ken Sharp
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Dec 10
Coltrane On Coltrane: The John Coltrane Interviews by Edited by Chris DeVito
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Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock by Andrew Earles
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Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock by Will Romano
12/14/2010
Soul Mining: A Musical Life by Daniel Lanois
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Head Hunters: The Making of Jazz’s First Platinum Album by Steven F. Pond
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A Wizard, A True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio by Paul Myers
11/26/2010
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Lightnin’ Hopkins: His Life and Blues by Alan Govenar
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Jazz Matters: Sound, Place, and Time Since Bebop by David Ake
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A Dead Boy’s Tale: From the Front Lines of Punk Rock by Cheetah Chrome
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Just Kids by Patti Smith
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Innerviews: Music Without Borders by Anil Prasad
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The England's Dreaming Tapes by Jon Savage
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Touch And Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79-’83 by Tesco Vee & Dave Stimson
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Public Enemy: It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back by Christopher R. Weingarten
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Aug 10
Shelter From the Storm: Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Years + Still On the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1974-2006 by Sid Griffin + Clinton Heylin
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Bob Marley: The Untold Story by Chris Salewicz
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Phish: The Biography by Parke Puterbaugh
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Jul 10
The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinners Semester at America’s Holiest University by Kevin Roose
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Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter by Randy L. Schmidt
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Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book Of Love by John Einarson
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Every Rose Has Its Thorn: The Rock 'n' Roll Field Guide to Guys by Erin Bradley (Author) and Heather Bradley (Illustrator)
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Neil Young: Long May You Run – The Illustrated History by Daniel Durchholz and Gary Graff
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Return of the King: Elvis Presley’s Great Comeback by Gillian G. Gaar
06/23/2010
Five Hundred 45s: A Graphic History of the Seven-Inch Record by Spencer Drate & Judith Slavetz, eds.
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The Baseball Codes by Jason Turbow with Michael Duca
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Apr 10
The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: the 11½ Anniversary Edition by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins
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Me, The Mob, and The Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells by Tommy James with Martin Fitzpatrick
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And Party Every Day – The Inside Story of Casablanca Records by Larry Harris
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Jack Bruce: Composing Himself by Harry Shapiro
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Sinner Takes All: A Memoir of Love and Porn by Tera Patrick and Carrie Borzillo
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Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation’s Capital by Mark Anderson and Mark Jenkins
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Feb 10
Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music by Marisa Meltzer
02/25/2010
Black Music by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka)
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Jan 10
Bomp! 2 – Born In The Garage by Suzy Shaw & Mike Stax, eds.
01/26/2010
Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found by Joe Bonomo
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The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side by Jim DeRogatis
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Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls by Charles R. Cross
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Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne
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Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records by John Cook with Mac McCaughan & Laura Ballance
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Bowie: A Biography by Marc Spitz
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Sep 09
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The Rough Guide to Nirvana by Gillian G. Gaar
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The Road to Woodstock + Woodstock Revisited by Michael Lang w/Holly George-Warren + Susan Reynolds (ed.)
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The England's Dreaming Tapes by Jon Savage
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No Certainty Attached: Steve Kilbey and The Church by Robert Dean Lurie
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Growing Up Dead: The Hallucinated Confessions of a Teenage Deadhead by Peter Conners
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Waiting For The Sun by Barney Hoskyns
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The Song Is You by Arthur Phillips
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Apr 09
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Infinity Blues by Ryan Adams
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The Hip Hop Wars by Tricia Rose
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Bumping Into Geniuses: My Life Inside The Rock And Roll Business by Danny Goldberg
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Sep 08
It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music by Amanda Petrusich
09/30/2008
1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die by Tom Moon
09/16/2008
Goodbye 20th Century + Psychic Confusion by David Browne + Stevie Chick
09/12/2008
I Have Fun Everywhere I Go by Mike Edison
09/03/2008
Aug 08
No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980. by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley
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The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats by Grandmaster Flash and David Ritz
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Making Notes by Ann Wicker (ed.)
08/20/2008
Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats by Drew Daniel
08/13/2008
No Wave + New York Noise by Marc Masters + Stuart Baker/Paula Court
08/01/2008
Jul 08
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07/23/2008
Horses by Philip Shaw
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Jun 08
Riot Grrrl: Revolution Girl Style Now! by Nadine Monem (ed.)
06/23/2008
The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard by Peter Benjaminson
06/20/2008
Pretty Vacant: A History of UK Punk by Phil Strongman
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Bowie In Berlin by Thomas Jerome Seabrook
06/10/2008
Northline by Willy Vlautin
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The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Yahowa 13 and the Source Family by Isis Aquarian with Electricity Aquarian
06/09/2008
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06/09/2008
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06/09/2008
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06/06/2008
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06/06/2008