Michael Azerrad

New York

Author of _The Amplified Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana_ and _Our Band Could Be Your Life_. Bylines: @NewYorker, @YaleReview and @NYTimes.

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Articles

A Looney Tune Shines from a Dirty Projector

2 weeks ago | substack.com | Michael Azerrad

Recently, I watched a livestreamed conversation between Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth and Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum* on the occasion of the exquisite new Dirty Projectors album Song of the Earth. At one point, Phil asked Dave whether Song of the Earth's "Our Green Garden" features a little melodic allusion to Stephen Foster’s 1851 song "Old Folks at Home," better known as "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" — and I'm glad he asked, because I'd been wondering the same thing.
Tim Hecker Brings the Noise to Norberg

3 weeks ago | substack.com | Michael Azerrad

There's an almighty thrum, somewhere in the space between a hiss and a roar, throughout Tim Hecker's 2007 abstract electronic 20-minute mini-epic "Norberg." (It's not ambient music! You can and should actively listen to it!) That noise is awfully familiar — it's there in the ever-present urban whoosh of cars and planes and trains, and in the general electric hum that pervades our world.
Nirvana, Dave Grohl and the Terminator

1 month ago | substack.com | Michael Azerrad

Here's an outtake from The Amplified Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana (purchase link here), my newly annotated version of my 1993 Nirvana biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Here, the band is getting ready to record Nevermind at Sound City studios in May 1991. Original text in bold, annotation in roman. Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Next, they went to a drum rental place and selected a brass snare for Dave.
Creedence Wrote a Song for Everyone

1 month ago | substack.com | Michael Azerrad

Populism is a dirty word these days, corrupted into a synonym for bigotry and demagoguery. But populism is actually just solidarity with working people.
Michael Azerrad Bookshop

Dec 10, 2024 | bookshop.org | Michael Azerrad

I'm the author of Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991, The Amplified Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana and Rock Critic Law.
The Amplified Come as You Are by Michael Azerrad

Jan 17, 2024 | waterstones.com | Michael Azerrad

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The Waltham Murders: One Woman’s Pursuit to Expose the Truth Behind a Murder and a National Tragedy

Jan 10, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Michael Azerrad |Judith Butler |Adam Moss |Yanis Varoufakis

Susan Clare Zalkind. Little A, $28.99 (326p) ISBN 978-1-503903-71-5Journalist Zalkind debuts with a gripping investigation into an unsolved 2011 triple murder in which one of her friends was a victim. On Sept. 11, 2011, someone slit the throats of Brendan Mess, Raphael Teken, and Erik Weissman, whom Zalkind had known for five years, in Mess’s Waltham, Mass., apartment.
On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America

Jan 9, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Abrahm Lustgarten |Michael Azerrad |Judith Butler |Adam Moss

On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of AmericaProPublica environmental reporter Lustgarten (Run to Failure) delivers an urgent examination of how the U.S. will be affected by migrations driven by global warming. As the “best living conditions on the North American continent...
Book Review | Nirvana: The Amplifications by Michael Azerrad

Dec 21, 2023 | tinnitist.com | Michael Azerrad

When I’m not listening, watching or posting about music, I’m probably reading about it in a memoir or biography. Like this one:Everybody wants a do-over. It’s true in life. It’s true in rock. And it’s the driving force behind Nirvana: The Amplifications, veteran music scribe Michael Azerrad’s absorbing, admirable and deeply personal sequel to his acclaimed 1993 bio Come As You Are: The Story Of Nirvana.
Nirvana 'In Utero' Special with Michael Azerrad on Apple Podcasts

Dec 10, 2023 | podcasts.apple.com | Jim Hanke |Michael Azerrad

"If Nevermind was a peek into Kurt (Cobain)'s psychological/emotional world, then In Utero was a wide-open window.” This comes from today’s episode with author Michael Azerrad (Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991), who definitively knew better than most.