Book Alert
Empire of Dirt: The Aesthetics and Rituals of British Indie MusicBy Wendy Fonarow (Wesleyan, $24.95)
"What's best about Empire of Dirt is that Fonarow's equally a thinker's thinker and a fan's fan. That's true even during an opening chapter ("What Is 'Indie'?") that mercilessly exposes some of the more questionable aspects of indie fans -— their tendency to presume their centrality in relation to other kinds of music fans, for example. (You will seldom read more blinkered music criticism than that of indie rockers who just, like,
do not understand why or how anyone else could possibly not care one iota about their marginal bands of choice.)"