Carrie Brownstein "Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl" Book (2015)
Details: Carrie Brownstein's (Excuse 17, Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag, Portlandia) hardcover rock n' roll memoir has teeth (comedic, personal). Great read!
Short Description: "From the guitarist of the pioneering band Sleater-Kinney, the book Kim Gordon says "everyone has been waiting for" and a New York Times Notable Book of 2015-- a candid, funny, and deeply personal look at making a life--and finding yourself--in music."
Grade: NM
Full Description: "From the guitarist of the pioneering band Sleater-Kinney, the book Kim Gordon says "everyone has been waiting for" and a New York Times Notable Book of 2015-- a candid, funny, and deeply personal look at making a life--and finding yourself--in music.
Before Carrie Brownstein became a music icon, she was a young girl growing up in the Pacific Northwest just as it was becoming the setting for one of the most important movements in rock history. Seeking a sense of home and identity, she would discover both while moving from spectator to creator in experiencing the power and mystery of a live performance. With Sleater-Kinney, Brownstein and her bandmates rose to prominence in the burgeoning underground feminist punk-rock movement that would define music and pop culture in the 1990s. They would be cited as “America’s best rock band” by legendary music critic Greil Marcus for their defiant, exuberant brand of punk that resisted labels and limitations, and redefined notions of gender in rock.
HUNGER MAKES ME A MODERN GIRL is an intimate and revealing narrative of her escape from turbulent family life into a world where music was the means toward self-invention, community, and rescue. Along the way, Brownstein chronicles the excitement and contradictions within the era’s flourishing and fiercely independent music subculture, including experiences that sowed the seeds for the observational satire of the popular television series Portlandia years later.
With deft, lucid prose Brownstein proves herself as formidable on the page as on the stage. Accessibly raw, honest, and heartfelt, this book captures the experience of being a young woman, a born performer, and an outsider, and ultimately finding one’s true calling through hard work, courage, and the intoxicating power of rock and roll."
Author: Carrie Rachel Brownstein (born September 27, 1974) is an American musician, actress, writer, director, and comedian. She first came to prominence as a member of the band Excuse 17 before forming the rock trio Sleater-Kinney. During a long hiatus from Sleater-Kinney, she formed the group Wild Flag. During this period, Brownstein wrote and appeared in a series of comedy sketches alongside Fred Armisen which were developed into the satirical comedy TV series Portlandia. The series went on to win Emmy and Peabody Awards. Sleater-Kinney eventually reunited; as of 2015, Brownstein was touring with the band as well as in support of her new memoir.
Quotes:
“In the vast library of recent rock memoirs… Ms. Brownstein’s may be the one that most nakedly exposes its author’s personality.”—The New York Times
“Carrie Brownstein writes the way she plays guitar, with raw honesty, passion, and great humor in Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl.”—Vanity Fair
“A memoir that’s both candid and brave, and a powerful tribute to the power of music to heal, to connect, to break you down and then make you whole again……Brownstein’s music has always helped people feel like they really do belong somewhere, and her wonderful memoir does the same thing.” – NPR
“Meet your fierce and funny new comrade-in-arms. [Brownstein] takes us on a backstage tour of her life, from quirky kid-dom to angsty teen-dom to the feminist subculture of the riot grrl scene to not quite superstardom… Chronicling Sleater-Kinney’s tumultuous history and her own volatility – the tours that electrified fans, one brutal, ballsy concert at a time; the anxiety that often plagued her—Brownstein illuminates the euphoric highs and crushing lows of a life spent both on the fringes and in the spotlight.”—O, The Oprah Magazine
“[Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl] is earnest, endearing, at times angry, critical, confessional, raw… [it’s] the compelling chronicle of a born performer, from fandom to stardom… The richness of the writing ensures that Hunger will satisfy die-hard Sleater-Kinney fans as well as those who’ve never heard a note.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Brownstein is as nimble, articulate, and honest a writer of literary nonfiction as she is a musician, actress, and cultural critic.”—Vogue.com
“A sharp, emotionally intimate new memoir.”—People
“[Brownstein’s] honesty is disarming and buoyed by the same dry wit that makes her scenester-lacerating IFC series Portlandia so good. That’s how she artfully manages to transcend the backstage tropes of the rock-bio genre, and why Hunger should become the new handbook for every modern girl (and yes, boys, too) looking for the courage to pursue a life less ordinary.” –Entertainment Weekly
“A standout memoir… A journey to self-possession and a portrait of an era.” –Vogue
“She can play, but man, can Carrie Brownstein write…Her blazing memoir is lit by the same flair for adventure, fearless inquiry, and honesty that mark her gritty licks and trenchant vocals.”—ELLE
“Hunger doesn’t try to enumerate every hat she’s ever worn, only what emboldened her to keep experimenting.”—TIME Magazine
“Solid musings from the Portlandia star/feminist punk hero.” —Cosmopolitan
“Brownstein in an American indy culture avatar — funny, smart and always on point.” —Los Angeles Times
“Brownstein’s writing is strongest when she describes the passion and sheer joy she experiences connecting with music.” —BUST Magazine