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Michael Azerrad Quotes

For Nirvana, putting out their first major-label record was like getting into a new car. But the runaway success was like suddenly discovering that the car was a Ferrari and the accelerator pedal was...

Michael Azerrad

For Nirvana, putting out their first major-label record was like getting into a new car. But the runaway success was like suddenly discovering that the car was a Ferrari and the accelerator pedal was...

Tags: success, new car, new

Pavitt’s goal was to build a national network of like-minded people to fend off what he called the corporate manipulation of our culture by the media centers of New York and Los Angeles.

Michael Azerrad

Pavitt’s goal was to build a national network of like-minded people to fend off what he called the corporate manipulation of our culture by the media centers of New York and Los Angeles.

About Author
Michael Azerrad is an American author, music journalist, editor, and musician. A graduate of Columbia University, he has written for publications such as Spin, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. Azerrad's 1993 biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana was named by Q as one of the 50 greatest rock books ever written. His 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life, a collection of profiles on prominent indie rock bands, received similar critical acclaim.

Says Ginn. I never considered it rough. I considered it not having money, but I always think, if you’re asleep on a floor, how can you tell the difference anyway—you’re asleep.

Michael Azerrad

Says Ginn. I never considered it rough. I considered it not having money, but I always think, if you’re asleep on a floor, how can you tell the difference anyway—you’re asleep.

Still, the gross-out footage is what really embodied the band’s aesthetic. Listen, man, one has no choice but to laugh in the face of terror, Haynes explained. I think probably most airline pilots, wh...

Michael Azerrad

Still, the gross-out footage is what really embodied the band’s aesthetic. Listen, man, one has no choice but to laugh in the face of terror, Haynes explained. I think probably most airline pilots, wh...

MacKaye never told anyone to get off the stage. Sometimes this encouraged a rapid and irreversible descent into chaos, but usually it just meant a steady stream of stage divers and kids who just wante...

Michael Azerrad

MacKaye never told anyone to get off the stage. Sometimes this encouraged a rapid and irreversible descent into chaos, but usually it just meant a steady stream of stage divers and kids who just wante...

Los Angeles wasn’t a sun-splashed utopia anymore—it was an alienated, smog-choked sprawl rife with racial and class tensions, recession, and stifling boredom.

Michael Azerrad

Los Angeles wasn’t a sun-splashed utopia anymore—it was an alienated, smog-choked sprawl rife with racial and class tensions, recession, and stifling boredom.

Leary and Haynes published a fanzine called Strange V.D., which featured the most horrendous medical photographs they could find accompained by captions describing fictitious diseases like taco leg an...

Michael Azerrad

Leary and Haynes published a fanzine called Strange V.D., which featured the most horrendous medical photographs they could find accompained by captions describing fictitious diseases like taco leg an...

We never had a manager. We never had a booking agent. We never had a lawyer. We booked our own tours, paid our own bills, made our own mistakes and never had anybody shield us from either the truth or...

Michael Azerrad

We never had a manager. We never had a booking agent. We never had a lawyer. We booked our own tours, paid our own bills, made our own mistakes and never had anybody shield us from either the truth or...

They developed this influence and this clout and they shared it. It’s a very inclusive movement.

Michael Azerrad

They developed this influence and this clout and they shared it. It’s a very inclusive movement.

To me, it was just a matter of, if you want to do something, the only thing that’s going to keep you from doing it is giving up, Leary says. Because we were proof of that. If you just don’t quit, you...

Michael Azerrad

To me, it was just a matter of, if you want to do something, the only thing that’s going to keep you from doing it is giving up, Leary says. Because we were proof of that. If you just don’t quit, you...

The cover of Land Speed Record is a photo of the coffins of the first eight soldiers killed in Vietnam; like many punks, the members of Hüsker Dü actually agreed with Sixties counterculture values but...

Michael Azerrad

The cover of Land Speed Record is a photo of the coffins of the first eight soldiers killed in Vietnam; like many punks, the members of Hüsker Dü actually agreed with Sixties counterculture values but...

In retrospect, Hart believes that taking on so many responsibilities may have hurt the band in the long run. The DIY thing, I don’t know, it’s like we handicapped ourselves in a lot of situations to m...

Michael Azerrad

In retrospect, Hart believes that taking on so many responsibilities may have hurt the band in the long run. The DIY thing, I don’t know, it’s like we handicapped ourselves in a lot of situations to m...

I remember watching these kids getting up in the morning on my dorm floor, putting on a suit and tie and a briefcase, talking about this guy from California named Ronald Reagan and how he was going to...

Michael Azerrad

I remember watching these kids getting up in the morning on my dorm floor, putting on a suit and tie and a briefcase, talking about this guy from California named Ronald Reagan and how he was going to...

When I peeked out the window into the yard, there was Kurt with some kind of contraption on his head that resembled a tin-foil hat, sneaking around the yard followed by a half a dozen laughing toddler...

Michael Azerrad

When I peeked out the window into the yard, there was Kurt with some kind of contraption on his head that resembled a tin-foil hat, sneaking around the yard followed by a half a dozen laughing toddler...

They had the certain knowledge that they were the first American generation to have little hope of doing better than their parents, the generation that would suffer for the fiscal excesses of the Reag...

Michael Azerrad

They had the certain knowledge that they were the first American generation to have little hope of doing better than their parents, the generation that would suffer for the fiscal excesses of the Reag...

You’re advertising the fact that there’s a community here—it’s not just this industry that’s manufacturing bands, it’s a happening scene where people are feeding off each other.

Michael Azerrad

You’re advertising the fact that there’s a community here—it’s not just this industry that’s manufacturing bands, it’s a happening scene where people are feeding off each other.

People have misconstrued the pessimism and anger in our songs, Mould protested. We’re really the opposite of all that; we’re not callous, insensitive people. But we’re frustrated by the fact that most...

Michael Azerrad

People have misconstrued the pessimism and anger in our songs, Mould protested. We’re really the opposite of all that; we’re not callous, insensitive people. But we’re frustrated by the fact that most...

Says Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. People got this idea that ultimately what mattered was the quality of what you were doing and how much importance you gave to it, regardless of how widespread it became...

Michael Azerrad

Says Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. People got this idea that ultimately what mattered was the quality of what you were doing and how much importance you gave to it, regardless of how widespread it became...

We don’t have to convince the world that we’re suffering to convince them that we’re artists, Hart said, jabbing at Black Flag’s angst-ridden style. There are those that choose to take that course. Th...

Michael Azerrad

We don’t have to convince the world that we’re suffering to convince them that we’re artists, Hart said, jabbing at Black Flag’s angst-ridden style. There are those that choose to take that course. Th...

Artistically (and in many other ways), the band was liberated by the fact that they’d never sign to a major label. In a way, we were cheating because we didn’t have that light at the end of the tunnel...

Michael Azerrad

Artistically (and in many other ways), the band was liberated by the fact that they’d never sign to a major label. In a way, we were cheating because we didn’t have that light at the end of the tunnel...