Saturday, July 4, 2015

New Novel Playlist

I just finished the first draft of my new novel! And as I usual do when working on a book, I listened to a lot of music while writing it. But this novel is a little different: Music is one of its central components.

More specifically, the book takes place in the punk scene in 1994, and each chapter is named after a punk/hardcore/post-hardcore/emo song that was released between '90 and '94 on an independent label (even if some of the bands later moved to a major--and even if some of these songs we were later rerecorded for those major-label debuts. Specifically, Green Day and Quicksand.)

The book is also an urban fantasy. You know, with magic and stuff.

Other than that, I'm not spilling any more details about the book as of yet. Not even the title! I don't want to jinx anything. But I will gladly share that list of songs/chapter titles, which can be found below. (FYI: The name of the book actually does appear somewhere on this list: either a song title, album title, or band name. But that's all I'm spilling right now.)

Not only is each chapter named after a song, each of those song titles has some integral connection to what happens in that chapter. Which means, given all the information in this blog post, you could conceivably piece together my entire novel. Or you could, you know, just listen to some great songs. And wait for the novel. Hopefully not too long, though. Fingers crossed.

Oh, and needless to say, this is a pretty accurate reflection of the music I was obsessing over circa 1994. This isn't everything I was listening to--I was just as much into The Kinks, Stereolab, and Ornette Coleman at the time--but it definitely sums up the scene I cut my teeth on. In a very direct way, this novel is an outgrowth of a huge, yearlong column about '90s punk/hardcore/post-hardcore/emo called Fear of a Punk Decade that I wrote for The A.V. Club.

P.S. In case you're wondering, I didn't make a Spotify playlist for these songs because Spotify didn't have all of these songs. Hopefully the YouTube embeds will suffice!


Chapter 1
“Welcome to Paradise”
-Green Day, Kerplunk (1992)



Chapter 2
“Pure Pain Sugar”
-Unwound, Fake Train (1993)


  
Chapter 3
“Unwritten Rules”
-Rancid, Rancid (1993)



Chapter 4
“In Circles”
-Sunny Day Real Estate, Diary (1994)



Chapter 5
“How We Connect”
-Dog Faced Hermans, Hum of Life (1993)



Chapter 6
“And I Live in a Town Where the Boys Amputate Their Hearts”
-Bratmobile, The Real Janelle (1994)

 


Chapter 7
“I Always Thought You Were an Asshole”
-Circus Lupus, Solid Brass (1993)



 Chapter 8
“Lightning Strikes Twice”
-Rorschach, Remain Sedate (1990)



Chapter 9
“A Chronology for Survival”
-Neurosis, Souls at Zero (1992)


  
Chapter 10
“Go Your Own Way”
-Seaweed, Go Your Own Way (1993)


  
Chapter 11
“The Science of Myth”
-Screeching Weasel, My Brain Hurts (1991)



Chapter 12
“Alien She”
-Bikini Kill, Pussy Whipped (1993)


  
Chapter 13
“Don’t Break Me”
-Samiam, Billy (1992)



Chapter 14
“A Comment on Ritual”
-The Nation of Ulysses, Plays Pretty for Baby (1992)



Chapter 15
“Omission”
-Quicksand, Quicksand (1990)

 


Chapter 16
“Mother Made Me”
–Lungfish, Rainbows from Atoms (1993)



Chapter 17
“Kiss the Bottle”
–Jawbreaker, 17 Reasons: The Mission District (1992)



Chapter 18
“Middle Finger Response”
-Propagandhi, How to Clean Everything (1993)



Chapter 19
“What Could I Have Done?”
-J Church, Quetzalcoatl (1993)



Chapter 20
“By the Throat”
-Born Against, Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children (1991)


  
Chapter 21
“End of a Lifetime”
-Unbroken, Life. Love. Regret. (1994)



Chapter 22
“Lies About the Sky”
-Shudder to Think, Funeral at the Movies (1991)


  
Chapter 23
“My Poor Friend Me”
-Bad Religion, Recipe for Hate (1993)


  
Chapter 24
“Through My Fingers”
-Pegboy, Three-Chord Monte (1990)


  
Chapter 25
“Shut the Door”
-Fugazi, Repeater (1990)