Do you like books? Do you like music? Do you like books about music? Then you’re in luck, because we’ve partnered with beloved Bay View bookstore Lion’s Tooth (2421 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.) for the Lion’s Tooth + Milwaukee Record Music Book Club!
How does it work? Just stop by Lion’s Tooth on the third Thursday of the month, from 6-8 p.m., and discuss a new music-related book. That’s it! The Club has been going strong for nearly a year; here are the next four installments:
Thursday, April 16
Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
“It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night.
“Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice?
“Moving from Brooklyn bars to San Francisco dance floors, Deep Cuts examines the nature of talent, obsession, belonging, and above all, our need to be heard.”
Thursday, May 21
Trouble Boys: The True Story Of The Replacements by Bob Mehr
“Based on a decade of research and reporting—as well as access to the Replacements’ key principals, Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson—author Bob Mehr has fashioned something far more compelling than a conventional band bio. Trouble Boys is a deeply intimate portrait, revealing the primal factors and forces that shaped one of the most brilliant and notoriously self-destructive rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time.
“Beginning with riveting revelations about the Replacements’ troubled early years, Trouble Boys follows the group as they rise within the early ’80s American underground. It uncovers the darker truths behind the band’s legendary drinking, showing how their addictions first came to define them, and then nearly destroyed them.
“A roaring road adventure, a heartrending family drama, and a cautionary showbiz tale, Trouble Boys has deservedly been hailed as an instant classic of rock lit.”
Thursday, June 18
Girl In A Band: A Memoir by Kim Gordon
“For many, Kim Gordon is the epitome of cool: vocalist, bassist/guitarist and founding member of Sonic Youth—one of the most successful bands to emerge from the post-punk New York scene–despite being famously reserved.
“Ten years ago, Gordon distilled that coolness into her groundbreaking memoir, Girl in a Band, speaking openly about her life. From her childhood in the sunbaked suburbs of Southern California, growing up with a schizophrenic sibling, to New York’s downtown art and music scene in the halcyon days of the 80s and 90s and creating Sonic Youth—a band that would go on to pave the way for acts like Nirvana and inspire the Riot Grrrl generation. Girl in a Band is an edgy and evocative portrait of a life in art.
“A decade on, Gordon’s exploration of the artists, musicians, and writers who influenced her, and of the relationship that defined her life for so long, remains a deeply intimate self-portrait of a woman who became an icon, and whose stature continues to evolve in and grow. With a new foreword by Rachel Kushner and new chapter from Kim herself ruminating on her career as a solo artist and her two 2025 Grammy nominations, her connection to touring after nearly forty years, and the death of her brother Keller.”
Thursday, July 16
Alternative For The Masses: The ‘90s Alt-Rock Revolution – An Oral History by Greg Prato
“Get the definitive story of the ’90s alt-rock movement straight from the musicians and figures who lived it.
“No period in the history of rock music offered such an abrupt shift in prevailing tastes as the 1990s. While just a short while before, radio and MTV were clamoring for hair metal bands, suddenly alt-rockers such as Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, Primus, Smashing Pumpkins, and of course, Nirvana, brought a sea change not just in what the most popular bands sounded like, but also in fashion, politics, and seemingly all aspects of pop culture.”
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