Well, its official! GRUNGE is finally released. What a relief. It feels nice to have the book in my hands, the smooth hard cover, the smell of the ink, the images so beautifully printed, the years of work wrapped up in such a nice little package. As a photographer, putting out a book is the highest honor and the ultimate goal. I did a book ten years ago and this one fells so much better. Hopefully I wont have to wait another 10 years for the next one!
Ive been doing lots of interviews describing the meaning of grunge and talking about how the indie music scene influenced and was influenced by the street culture. People are actually asking me my opinion. I did an interview with Thurston for Soundcheck-WNYC which you can listen to
Abrams made a cute little YouTube montage for us.
And here is a nice little plug from the absolutely essential Pitchfork
Thurston did an interesting interview for Interview Magazine regarding the book which you can see here. The interviewer Alex Sherman was giving Thurston a hard time about the use of the word Grunge for the title. I think T did a amazing job!
Mojo, the coolest magazine in the world, did this feature!
Hi Michael,
Congratulations on the book. It looks amazing. In fact I now know what I absolutely must get my daughter for Christmas. She’s 14 and swears she was born in the wrong generation – she has this inexplicable passion for the Seattle music scene of the 90′s. (I’d call it “grunge” but she has explained to me that the title does not really fit the music). It’s inexplicable because I was a pure pop girl myself yet somehow my daughter discovered this music and has such a deep love for the music, the scene, the musicians – I can’t even explain it. Unfortunately for her, we moved away from Seattle (to Virginia) just as she was discovering the music, a year and half ago. If she knew that Mudhoney was hosting your release party this Friday and she’s missing it? OY. You have NO idea how much I wish I could buy her a plane ticket and fly her out there for it.
I have a question for you… is there any way imaginable that I could get your book autographed by you and by Mudhoney? This is my mission now, because I know it would make her incredibly happy and make up to her just a tiny bit for moving her away from Seattle. Anyway, I thought I’d start with you hoping perhaps you’d have an idea…
Thanks, and thanks for making this book.
I have not bought the book yet, but notice right off the bat my old friend, Marina, on the front page of yr blog! I know there’s scores of my palz in there, as I wass a ‘Scenester’ from The Bird days thru when The Central died. I can’t wait to scrounge up the moolah to get it!
Michael,
Cool book! Cool website! Cool life, built on solid work and an amazing cultural antenna over decades.
Great to have this document of that livin’ dream we crossed through in the early 80′s. Big hat tip to you and Thurston.
rj
Picking up this book this week. Your photos were often a signifier for whether or not I’d check a group out back in the day, mostly the New York stuff. Man, everybody’s panties get so tight about the term “Grunge”! Maybe you should have called it “Pigfucker”? Ohhhhh I kill me!