I am currently the features editor at Input, a website about tech and culture. Earlier in my career, I worked at the now-defunct music magazine Blender, for which I wrote an oral history of Sub Pop, the Seattle label that put out early records by the likes of Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney. That article was the basis for Everybody Loves Our Town, published by Crown Archetype in September 2011. (The Three Rivers Press trade paperback edition came out in March 2012.) I’m also a widely published freelancer, with pieces in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Wired, WSJ. Magazine, Rolling Stone, and many other outlets.
I wrote...
Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge
By
Mark Yarm
What is my book about?
Everybody Loves Our Town tells the whole story of grunge music: from the founding of the Seattle scene’s seminal bands to the worldwide success of grunge’s big four (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains); from the rise of the cash-poor, hype-rich indie label Sub Pop to the major-label feeding frenzy that overtook the Pacific Northwest; from the simple joys of making noise at basement parties and tiny rock clubs to the tragic, lonely deaths of superstars Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley.
Drawn from more than 250 new interviews, Everybody Loves Our Town is at once a moving, funny, lurid, and hugely insightful portrait of an extraordinary musical era. Time magazine named it one of the best books of the year.
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The Books I Picked & Why
Edie: American Girl
By
Jean Stein
Why this book?
I read this biography of Edie Sedgwick, the late model, actress, and Warhol Superstar, when I was starting work on my own book and was just dazzled by how revealing and well-structured it is. Edie captures the ’60s It Girl’s life in stark detail — from her aristocratic but incredibly dysfunctional childhood all the way to her 1971 death, of a drug overdose, at the age of 28. It’s gripping, often sordid stuff, and the true masterpiece of the oral history form.
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Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
By
Legs McNeil,
Gillian McCain
Why this book?
Anyone who’s written an oral history about music, like I have, owes a great deal to McNeil and McCain’s all-time classic about the American punk rock scene (featuring the Velvet Underground, the New York Dolls, the Stooges, the MC5, Television, Blondie, the Ramones, and many more). If you’re looking for an analysis of the music itself, go elsewhere; if you want to read about Iggy Pop’s prodigious penis and where it’s been, do pick this up. Please Kill Me is salacious in the best possible way.
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Live from New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests
By
James Andrew Miller,
Tom Shales
Why this book?
This is the definitive look at an American comedy institution (yes, we know it kinda sucks now) and includes input from almost all the show’s biggest names. The book features the requisite amount of sex, drugs, and rock and roll — plus fisticuffs and lots and lots of backbiting — but it also has some surprisingly tender moments, like Bill Murray’s recollection of the last time he saw his castmate, Gilda Radner, before her death.
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Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do
By
Studs Terkel
Why this book?
You can’t talk about the art of oral history without paying tribute to Terkel, the late writer, historian, and broadcaster. He won a Pulitzer Prize for 1984’s "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II, but my pick is 1974’s Working, in which people from all walks of life — from a gravedigger to a prominent actor (Rip Torn) — share the details of how they make a living. It’s a wonderful time capsule of a book.
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Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused
By
Melissa Maerz
Why this book?
Dazed and Confused, Richard Linklater’s plot-light, pot-heavy 1993 film about Texas teens hanging out on the last day of school in 1976, is perhaps my favorite movie ever, so I was already inclined to love this oral history about the film’s creation and legacy. Maerz expertly weaves the voices of almost everyone involved in the project — from breakout star Matthew McConaughey to members of the crew — to create a highly entertaining, super-compelling look at a stoner cinema classic.
