Steven Hyden is no stranger to followers of Milwaukee music—or to followers of this podcast, for that matter. Hyden is the former city editor for A.V. Club Milwaukee, the former music editor for the national A.V. Club, and a former staff writer for the gone-but-not-forgotten Grantland. These days he’s living in Minneapolis and hosting an excellent music podcast called Celebration Rock, and preparing for a new writing and editing gig with Uproxx. Oh, and he just released his first book, Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me, which uses famous pop music rivalries to explore bigger themes of identity, growing up, growing old, and Axl Rose threatening to kick Kurt Cobain’s ass.
Host Matt Wild sat down with Hyden last week in front of a live audience at Cactus Club for Milwaukee Record‘s inaugural Book Club. They talked about Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me—which includes chapters on everything from Blur vs. Oasis and Prince vs. Michael Jackson to Taylor Swift vs. Kanye West and Roger Waters vs. everyone else in Pink Floyd—pop music in general, Hyden’s time in Milwaukee, and a whole lot more. Big thanks to Steve, of course, for making the trip back to Milwaukee for the show; big thanks to the Cactus Club for hosting the event; big thanks to Boswell Book Company for sponsoring it; and a huge thanks to everyone who showed up and made it a success.
This episode is brought to you by our friends at Vander Mill, a Michigan-based cider company that recently hit Wisconsin soil. Music in this episode comes courtesy of Piles (“Blue Glue”) and Rx Drugs (“Mountain Of Dreams”). Subscribe to On The Record via iTunes or Stitcher (for free!).