Why am I passionate about this?

Where Are Your Boys is the book I always wanted to write. Watching emo bands like My Chemical Romance and Paramore soar from suburbs to stardom during my high school years inspired me to take writing seriously, that a kid like me growing up in New Jersey with few connections to the media industry could find a backdoor in, because those bands did, too. With its dense population, adjacency to New York City, and a multitude of record stores and all-ages shows, New Jersey was the setting for much of emo's 2000s boom and the home of My Chemical Romance and many other important bands. 


I wrote

Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008

By Chris Payne,

Book cover of Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008

What is my book about?

My book is the story of rock's most pivotal 21st-century movement, as told by the band members, journalists, record execs,…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011

Chris Payne Why did I love this book?

This book gave me a drive. Goodman’s account of the Strokes’ debaucherous rise in 9/11-era New York City ignited my passion for oral history and to tell the story of the music that made me. Downtown cool kid garage rock shaped popular culture immensely, but so did My Chemical Romance and their cohort (even more so, I’d argue). Up to this point (MMITB was published in 2017), 2000s emo was frequently misconstrued by those too old to have understood its impact or left out of the conversation entirely.

As I conducted interviews for my book, I challenged my own hypotheses (and personal biases) about these two scenes. I learned they intermingled more than I thought. I talked to Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz about DJing the ultra-hip downtown party Misshapes and My Chemical Romance’s Mikey Way about trying to catch a glimpse of Madonna at the same place.

By Lizzy Goodman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Meet Me in the Bathroom as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A SUNDAY TIMES, ROUGH TRADE, ROLLING STONE, MOJO AND UNCUT BOOK OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE

New York, 2001. 9/11 plunges the US into a state of war and political volatility-and heralds the rebirth of the city's rock scene. As the old-guard music industry crumbles, a group of iconoclastic bands suddenly become the voice of a generation desperately in need of an anthem.

In this fascinating and vibrant oral history, acclaimed journalist Lizzy Goodman charts New York's explosive musical transformation in the early 2000s. Drawing on over 200 original interviews, Goodman follows the meteoric rise…


Book cover of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk

Chris Payne Why did I love this book?

The gold standard of rock and roll oral histories. Two authors, years and years in the making, chronicling one of music's most incendiary eras. "Will you die for the music?" Lou Reed asks in the early pages. In other words, how many knife fights, sleepless nights, and dead friends would it take to stop you from chasing artistic salvation?

Reading this book while I wrote my own made me realize just how sterilized my scene (like much of America) had gotten by the turn of the millennium. Third-wave emo wasn't famously dangerous or gritty, but many of its icons grappled with life-threatening addiction and mental health issues (even more than I expected going in). Yet, thankfully, almost all of those band members are still with us. Please Kill Me illuminated this. It's no accident the final word in my book is "survive."

By Legs McNeil, Gillian McCain,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Please Kill Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the true story of a misunderstood culture phenomenon, one embracing Andy Warhol, Jim Morrison, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Patti Smith, The Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, The New York Dolls, The Clash and The Damned. It is a story of sex, drugs and rock and roll, documenting a time of glorious self-destruction and perverse innocence - punk was possibly the last time so many people will have had so much fun killing themselves. Legs McNeil, founder of "Punk" magazine has interviewed those who were members of the punk scene, from the brightest stars to the most observant groupies.


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Book cover of Locked In Locked Out: Surviving a Brainstem Stroke

Locked In Locked Out By Shawn Jennings,

Can there be life after a brainstem stroke?

After Dr. Shawn Jennings, a busy family physician, suffered a brainstem stroke on May 13, 1999, he woke from a coma locked inside his body, aware and alert but unable to communicate or move. Once he regained limited movement in his left…

Book cover of Someone Who Isn’t Me

Chris Payne Why did I love this book?

Like nothing I'd ever read before. An incredible fusing of the familiar and the fantastic. Much of it takes place in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, during the 2010s, on the same subways and sidewalks I frequented. I interviewed author Geoff Rickly extensively for my book, as his band Thursday is central to its plot. I thought I knew Geoff's story pretty well. Turns out, I had no idea.

This book is surrealist, and it's autofiction. I could tell you how great it is by stressing you don't need to know anything about Geoff or his band to be spellbound by it. But I think the best praise I could give is how it made me consider all the extraordinary things that are happening around me all the time

By Geoff Rickly,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Someone Who Isn’t Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Geoff Rickly’s debut novel Someone Who Isn’t Me is a feverish journey through the psyche of someone who no longer recognizes himself. When Geoff hears that a drug called ibogaine might be able to save him from his heroin addiction, he goes to a clinic in Mexico to confront the darkest and most destructive versions of himself. In this modern reimagining of the Divine Comedy, survival lurks in the darkest corners of Geoff’s brain, asking, will he make it? Can anyone?


Book cover of The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed

Chris Payne Why did I love this book?

Reading Shea Serrano is like kicking back with an old friend... who can expertly trace rap's evolution from the Bronx and "Rapper's Delight" to the LA vs. NY rivalries, to the rise of the South, the bling era, the blog era, and up to the present (or at least 2014, when this book was published).

Equal parts conversational and cunning, this book is a master class in voice from which I still pull inspiration. Whenever I'm thinking, "How could this thing I'm writing sound less like an online encyclopedia article but still harness all these arcane details I want to squeeze in?" I think of this book, which is often.

By Shea Serrano, Arturo Torres (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Rap Year Book as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Rap Year Book takes readers on a journey that begins in 1979, widely regarded as the moment rap as a genre became recognised as part of music's landscape and comes right up to the present. Shea Serrano deftly pays homage to the most important song of each year. Serrano also examines the most important moments that surround the history and culture of rap music-from artists' backgrounds, to issues of race and safety, to the rise of hip-hop and the struggles among its major players-both personal and professional. Covering East Coast and West Coast, famous rapper feuds, chart toppers and…


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Book cover of A Last Survivor of the Orphan Trains: A Memoir

A Last Survivor of the Orphan Trains By Victoria Golden, William Walters,

Four years old and homeless, William Walters boarded one of the last American Orphan Trains in 1930 and embarked on an astonishing quest through nine decades of U.S. and world history.

For 75 years, the Orphan Trains had transported 250,000 children from the streets and orphanages of the East Coast…

Book cover of The History of Bones

Chris Payne Why did I love this book?

John Lurie makes me think of what it means to be an artist. It’s funny, though, because after watching three seasons of his TV show, I still wasn’t entirely sure who John Lurie was or why he had an HBO series.

Painting With John is hosted by a 60-something Lurie living in the Caribbean, slowed by chronic illness, musing on past misadventures with New York City icons like Basquiat and Bourdain while getting lost in his dreamlike paintings. Lurie's 2021 memoir fleshes out his story just enough: jazz saxophonist turned reluctant art house film star who side-stepped significant fame and money by unfortunate events and steadfastly chose creativity over compromise.

On the page, Lurie’s telling of these events is mystifying. I’m looking forward to a life of creativity with his voice in my head.

By John Lurie,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The History of Bones as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The quintessential depiction of 1980s New York and the downtown scene from the artist, actor, musician, and composer John Lurie

“A picaresque roller coaster of a story, with staggering amounts of sex and drugs and the perpetual quest to retain some kind of artistic integrity.”—The New York Times

In the tornado that was downtown New York in the 1980s, John Lurie stood at the vortex. After founding the band The Lounge Lizards with his brother, Evan, in 1979, Lurie quickly became a centrifugal figure in the world of outsider artists, cutting-edge filmmakers, and cultural rebels. Now Lurie vibrantly brings to…


Explore my book 😀

Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008

By Chris Payne,

Book cover of Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008

What is my book about?

My book is the story of rock's most pivotal 21st-century movement, as told by the band members, journalists, record execs, and other scenesters who lived it. It's the inside story of bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Paramore, as well as the lineage of modern social media and influencer culture, all the way back to MySpace and the era-defining trends that spread across its pixelated pages.

It's a big, cinematic story laced with cultural criticism and hidden Easter eggs for the emo obsessives if you know where to look.

Book cover of Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011
Book cover of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Book cover of Someone Who Isn’t Me

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