Actually not music, but a book recommendation. This was recommended to me and i am LOVING the book, How Soon Is Never. Not even halfway through, but i can highly recommend it.
The author, MARC SPITZ is a senior writer at Spin magazine. His work has also appeared in Maxim, Nylon, the Washington Post, and the New York Post, as well as on MTV, M2, and VH-1. Spitz is the co-author (with Brendan Mullen) of WE GOT THE NEUTRON BOMB: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk (Three Rivers Press, 2001, which if you haven't read, you really should.) Seven of his plays, including "Shyness is Nice," "Worry Baby," and "Gravity Always Wins," have been produced in theaters of varying size and cleanliness levels.
There is a light and it never goes out . . . or is there?
Welcome to the big Reagan ‘80s, where ketchup is a vegetable and the Cold War looms large and chilly. If like Joe Green you were coming of age during this boom era, your main concerns include one or more of the following: a rainbow assortment of Polo shirts worn with the collar flipped up, K-Swiss tennis shoes, a new cable channel called MTV, and top 40 radio . . . that is, until your parents get divorced, you decide to stop talking to the kids in the popular crowd because you hate them more than you hate yourself, and you start spending the summers at your hard-living dad’s house. Stuck in the suburban haze of Long Island, New York, Joe Green knows there has got to be more to life, as he stares down the barrel of adolescence on the edge of a full-blown identity crisis.
However, salvation is on the way, in the form of a quiffed-up quartet from Manchester, England, who take over the airways of local radio station WLIR. Hearing the Smiths for the first time jerks Joe awake and changes him forever. Morrissey’s wry and witty lyrics speak to him. Johnny Marr’s driven guitar chords get under his skin. No longer is Joe a lost boy. He destroys his Phil Collins cassettes, pomades his hair into New Wave submission, studies up on his Oscar Wilde, and falls in love. He even shows up for dinner on time. That is, until his favorite band breaks up and then breaks his heart.
Fast-forward fifteen years. Joe Green is making a living as a rock journalist, discerning “cool” for kids born after he graduated from high school, still recovering from a wicked post-college smack addiction, and slumming with youngsters who ironically “appreciate” the seminal ‘80s music that once gave his life meaning. It’s too late to go home, or is it?
What if Joe Green can get the Smiths back together? What if reuniting the long-broken-up band can reverse the passage of time and bring back the magic of youth? What if it helps him win the heart of the woman he loves?
How Soon Is Never? is an acerbic, ingenious look at the trauma of Reagan-era adolescence, the power of hearing a record that changes your life, and the dangers of nostalgia. After reading this wildly imaginative novel, you may just be inspired to dust off your yearbook, see if your old Cure T-shirts still fit, and deconstruct your videocassette of The Breakfast Club.
Only $ 9.75 on Amazon!
How Soon Is Never