I Found My Friends

A cool book with first-person accounts of people who met with and played with Nirvana, including my old band.

Nick Soulsby has had an excellent, opinionated Nirvana blog for several years now. (Nirvana Legacy.) Typically exceedingly verbose, Soulsby's own words take a backseat here and instead he has compiled a huge trove of tales from musicians and friends of the band, in oral history format. My main gripe is that this book is more of a "what it was like to be in an underground band in the 1980s" rather than offering much insight into Nirvana or Cobain, but there's quite a few anecdotes from people who have never gone on record before recounting fun little stories that really show what a normal bunch of guys the Nirvana gents were. Obviously a lot of the story has been lost to memory over the decades, as many of this book's subjects readily admit. Still, Nick has done an exceptional job of tracking all of these people down and culling their stories into a cohesive narrative. This book is a companion of sorts to the recent "No Seattle" compilation released by Soul Jazz Records, curated by Soulsby. Check that out as well. While I would have loved a bit more "dirt" in this book, the fact that it gets so many people who were "there" on the record with what they recall is quite a monumental achievement. Accordingly, this book becomes one of the most original books on the subject of Nirvana to be released in quite some time. It doesn't strike as a cheap cash-in like so many others do. It was written by a true fan of the band who wanted to present something cohesive and new to fellow fans, and does so with great success. Check out the author's Legacy blog for some heavy-handed armchair analysis and some interesting statistical analysis as well of all sorts of weird Nirvana data. Also check out his Incesticide book if you can track down a physical copy: it contains some original info as well as a bunch of editorializing that, while surely debatable, is a pleasure to know exists since it clearly came from a passionate fan.

Secondo volume della trilogia del valente Nick Soulsby avviata con "Dark Silvers" nel 2012 . Questo successivo volume ha il pregio di raccontare la storia dei Nirvana attraverso i vividi ricordi di centinaia di musicisti che ebbero modo di condividere il palco con la band di Seattle ,dagli esordi nei bar alla fama raggiunta e consolidata nei palazzetti e arene di tutto il mondo . Dozzine e dozzine di interessanti aneddoti di prima mano contribuiscono a riscrivere la storia dal punto di vista del musicista,nel bene e nel male. Amici,conoscenti,semplici gruppi spalla da una volta e via.Interessanti anche gli interventi del regista Kevin Kerslake (autore di diversi videoclip nonché dell'incompiuto progetto Live!Tonight!Sold Out!! ) e del produttore Adam Kasper (ultima session in studio). Consigliatissimo ai fan. Purtroppo non è mai stato pubblicato in Italia ma mi sento di consigliarlo ugualmente: l'inglese è semplice e scorrevole anche per chi non lo mastica benissimo.

I loved this book - read it in two sittings. I got such an insight into who Nirvana really were and there was space for me to engage with so many tangents around other artists and bands. I discovered so many interesting things about Kurt and music - I had no idea that he supported women's rights so passionately.The book is subtly crafted so you end up familiar with Kurt, almost like you know him. Nick did an awesome job.

i'm a big nirvana fan. i was excited to get this book because i love reading oral histories & i thought it was gonna provide some worthy insight. this book is about 320 pages & probably only about 50 pages of it was really about nirvana. it interviews dozens of musicians from various bands who performed with nirvana. most of the ppl reheated basically the same anecdote/nirvana experience (something along the lines of "we played with nirvana. krist & dave were very cool to us, but we didn't see or meet kurt becasue he was aloof"). when they weren't describing captain obvious details such as "kurt was moody & sad" most of the musicians had a lot of uncle rico (see "napoleon dynamite") rants about things they would've done differently if they could do it all over again. some of the musicians were clearly bitter about how their careers turned out & i didn't really care to read about it.