A review by erinbro1
Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011, by Lizzy Goodman
5.0
I bought this on a bit of a whim as a fun souvenir from Rough Trade in Manhattan. I somehow missed the boat on this book being released when it first came out. Had I any idea an oral history of the NYC rock scene featuring interviews with the Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem and more of my favorites from this era existed, I would have picked it up ages ago.
I wasn't expecting too much from the book beyond gossip and fun stories. And this book is absolutely crammed full of gossip and fun stories, but also lots of thought provoking discussions about the way NYC and the music industry itself has evolved and how so much tumultuous change happened between 2001 and 2011. That it happened to coincide with what many were touting as a "rock n roll revival" just made the whole thing more ironic. I vividly remember buying a copy of Is This It and then White Blood Cells shortly after and thinking I finally had some decent rock bands to call my own. Reliving this time was a fun nostalgia trip, but it was also mildly depressing because, while music is certainly much more democratic and easy to discover now with the internet, it is probably true that nothing like that little explosion of new bands will ever happen again because the current conditions don't allow for it.
Beyond that, this book was just a complete joy to read. It's about 600 pages and I read it in bursts over a period of 2 months just to stretch it out. The cast of characters interviewed - especially those from some of the more obscure bands who came before the Strokes - are so memorable. Their stories of living basically in squalor in NYC but having the time of their lives with their friends making music just made me smile and laugh out loud as I was reading them. I really got the sense that, for most of these musicians, this is the only way of life they're meant for. Like, working in an office is just not something they are capable of doing and I love that for them.
I couldn't recommend this book highly enough to anyone who was into even some of these bands. This was one of the most entertaining music/pop culture books I've ever read.
I wasn't expecting too much from the book beyond gossip and fun stories. And this book is absolutely crammed full of gossip and fun stories, but also lots of thought provoking discussions about the way NYC and the music industry itself has evolved and how so much tumultuous change happened between 2001 and 2011. That it happened to coincide with what many were touting as a "rock n roll revival" just made the whole thing more ironic. I vividly remember buying a copy of Is This It and then White Blood Cells shortly after and thinking I finally had some decent rock bands to call my own. Reliving this time was a fun nostalgia trip, but it was also mildly depressing because, while music is certainly much more democratic and easy to discover now with the internet, it is probably true that nothing like that little explosion of new bands will ever happen again because the current conditions don't allow for it.
Beyond that, this book was just a complete joy to read. It's about 600 pages and I read it in bursts over a period of 2 months just to stretch it out. The cast of characters interviewed - especially those from some of the more obscure bands who came before the Strokes - are so memorable. Their stories of living basically in squalor in NYC but having the time of their lives with their friends making music just made me smile and laugh out loud as I was reading them. I really got the sense that, for most of these musicians, this is the only way of life they're meant for. Like, working in an office is just not something they are capable of doing and I love that for them.
I couldn't recommend this book highly enough to anyone who was into even some of these bands. This was one of the most entertaining music/pop culture books I've ever read.