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20th out of 411 books
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Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota
Empirically proving that -- no matter where you are -- kids wanna rock, this is Chuck Klosterman's hilrious memoir of growing up as a shameless metalhead in Wyndmere, North Dakotoa (population: 498). With a voice like Ace Frehley's guitar, Klosterman hacks his way through hair-band history, beginning with that fateful day in 1983 when his older brother brought home Mötley ...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
April 30th 2001
by Scribner
(first published April 28th 2001)
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I get the project, and I support the project. I was absolute4ly in love with Poison in fourth grade, and I still get super semi-ironically excited about a lot of the music he's writing about, in just the ways he describes. But Chuck, did you have to be such a douche?
The section on sexism in 80s glam rock is the most tautological, non-informative series of non-arguments I've ever read, which seems to culminate in the argument 'these bands were sexist, but in capitalism, who cares?' W...more
The section on sexism in 80s glam rock is the most tautological, non-informative series of non-arguments I've ever read, which seems to culminate in the argument 'these bands were sexist, but in capitalism, who cares?' W...more
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I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Chuck Klosterman. I’ve read all his books (I left this one till last, because it’s about heavy metal and that’s not a subject I’m desperately interested in) and I think he’s frequently incredibly funny and often very insightful. But man, does he piss me off sometimes. In Fargo Rock City, that occurred when he decided to share his views on female music fans. Apparently, male music fans are more loyal and less likely to get distracted by every shiny n...more
There's something about Chuck Klosterman's writing that I literally eat up. I blew through this book in two days, ignoring my job, TV, and my girlfriend in the process. It felt like a vacation from normal book reading because I wasn't studying some socially relevant topic I'd recently deemed important to know, I was reading critical analysis of popular music that I can't help but love and obsess over. CK is perfect for guys like me: the kind of guy that tells himself he's got to read 50 more pag...more
"Fargo Rock City" is Chuck Klosterman's first stab at writing more than an album review in SPIN or a story about Marilyn Manson in the Akron Beacon-Journal. And it shows.
The premise is ambitious, and therefore admirable: An entire book about heavy metal from 1980-1990. Essentially, the hair/glam scene that was taking place in Los Angeles and how it all shaped him as a youngster growing up in rural North Dakota.
It's about 100 pages too long and goes horribly as...more
The premise is ambitious, and therefore admirable: An entire book about heavy metal from 1980-1990. Essentially, the hair/glam scene that was taking place in Los Angeles and how it all shaped him as a youngster growing up in rural North Dakota.
It's about 100 pages too long and goes horribly as...more
I grew up in Chicago, another urban heavy metal bastion, so I can relate to Mr. Klosterman's love/embarassment/love relationship with Marshall stacks and singers who screech like castratos. Klosterman does a great job of describing how he first discovered metal, what drew him to the music, and why he likes what he likes. Also, he loves TALKING about music, and if you love music, you probably like talking about music almost as much as listening to music. Klosterman gets it. There's a great st...more
If you haven’t read Fargo Rock City by author and rock critic Chuck Klosterman you should go get a copy. It is an interesting tale of a metal head growing up in North Dakota in the 1980’s, a time when heavy metal ruled the world.
I think what made me like it more is that I can somewhat relate to him and what he is saying. He was born and raised in Wyndmere, North Dakota and listened to the radio station out of Fargo. He tackles many of the issues facing metal when it hit the mainstream su...more
I think what made me like it more is that I can somewhat relate to him and what he is saying. He was born and raised in Wyndmere, North Dakota and listened to the radio station out of Fargo. He tackles many of the issues facing metal when it hit the mainstream su...more
Chuck Klosterman is a giant dick. Seriously, if we could ask him right now if he's a huge wang, the answer would be yes. Knowing that going into reading this book made the book slightly more enjoyable. The biggest problems I had with it included: 1. I didn't know enough about the subject to keep all the bands distinguished in my head 2. Klosterman comes off as smarmily sexist in an almost-manufactured way and 3. it really had nothing to do with the title or subtitle. Number 3. he tries to an...more
Okay, a warning is in order. If you read this book, you may experience side effects such as a yearning to go to CD Warehoue and buy a Guns-n-Roses album or maybe the entire Ozzy solo discography. Or not. Either way, if you were exposed to rock radio in the 80's and early 90's (or just have watched multiple episodes of Behind the Music on VH1) then you will have many of the songs referenced in this excellent memoir stuck in your head for days, maybe weeks.
I like Klosterman because...more
I like Klosterman because...more
As someone who grew up on 1980s hair metal, I can say this with utmost confidence: Fargo Rock City is the best book ever written on the subject.
This book is great to the degree that it is personal, artful and passionate about its subject, just as Elie Faure's treatment of the history of art was personal, artful, passionate, or as Spengler's study of western civilization -- a kind of writing that has long since fallen out of favor with the cultural/intellectual elite, for some odd re...more
This book is great to the degree that it is personal, artful and passionate about its subject, just as Elie Faure's treatment of the history of art was personal, artful, passionate, or as Spengler's study of western civilization -- a kind of writing that has long since fallen out of favor with the cultural/intellectual elite, for some odd re...more
Seriously loved this book. Chuck Klosterman is one of my favorite writers, and he spends the book discussing the heavy metal of the '80s, which I totally loved. This was my favorite quote from the book:
"Eddie (Van Halen) and Eric (Clapton) are certainly among the greatest rock guitarists who ever lived, but for totally different reasons. Listening to Clapton is like getting a sensual massage from a woman you've loved for the past ten years; listening to Van Halen is like having ...more
"Eddie (Van Halen) and Eric (Clapton) are certainly among the greatest rock guitarists who ever lived, but for totally different reasons. Listening to Clapton is like getting a sensual massage from a woman you've loved for the past ten years; listening to Van Halen is like having ...more
After reading and loving Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto, I decided to give the Klosterman canon a go until it wasn't worth it anymore. Fargo Rock City, my second Klosterman book (and his debut work) did not disappoint. Klosterman is a few years older than I am but we both claim the same musical generation: We were both old (or young) enough to be genuinely moved by Guns N Roses and Poison in the same way our parents must have been moved by The Beatles. And Klosterman makes...more
During unending hours in the back of a conversion van and brief respites on land in Canada I read Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City. This book was recommended to me by Nate Scheible during a discussion outside of Parish Hall while waiting for a noise show to start and over a few Commodore Perry IPAs. He found out that I was a metal fan of old and recommended that I read it.
The book’s essence is how glam-metal [bands like Mötley Crüe, Poison and Cinderella] gave Chuck an entrance int...more
The book’s essence is how glam-metal [bands like Mötley Crüe, Poison and Cinderella] gave Chuck an entrance int...more
Chuck Klosterman is an excellent writer and a very funny guy. I’ve been a fan of his column for Esquire and I’ve read his entertaining book of essays, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. And although I'm not a huge metal fan, but this is one of those books that is as much about the author as it is about the subject. Furthermore, anyone coming of age in the 80s will be familiar with most of the bands that Klosterman discusses in this book, which is a sort of homage to metal bands of his youth. I mean I ...more
Chuck Klosterman loves metal.
Metal has been his obsession since he was very young. He allowed heavy metal to shape his adolescence since he was around - for the lack of a better term - the boring state of North Dakota.
Rather than discussing stories about his youth - which he does very rarely, - Klosterman spends most of his time talking about how metal shaped his opinions on the world around him. It helped him determine the lifestyle that he wants to live and also define hi...more
Metal has been his obsession since he was very young. He allowed heavy metal to shape his adolescence since he was around - for the lack of a better term - the boring state of North Dakota.
Rather than discussing stories about his youth - which he does very rarely, - Klosterman spends most of his time talking about how metal shaped his opinions on the world around him. It helped him determine the lifestyle that he wants to live and also define hi...more
You know how you're in a bar and some studious-looking kid two stools down, hoping to catch the attention and impress a table full of impressionable but unimpressed girls will pipe up about rock music or pop culture with this know-it-all fan's passion, hoping to impress these girls of the very fact of his existence, and if he can sling opinions with sufficient humor and zest and conviction, you might buy him a Budweiser to keep his spew going, even though he's totally ignorant of the New York Do...more
It may be sacrilege to some, and even laughable to others, but Chuck Klosterman may just filling in the gap in my medulla oblongata left by the death of Lester Bangs. "Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey In Rural North Dakota" is a fascinating, insightful recounting of Klosterman's heavy metal obsession dating back to his days as a teenager in North Dakota. His unabashed love for not just metal, but rock and roll, shines through on every page, and his often hilarious stories of an a...more
I lived this. Chuck Klosterman and I could be soul mates. I slept under a pentacle. I felt pain when Van Halen broke up.I saw Metallic 7 times until they started wearing pointy, shiny shoes. One of the guys from Poison threw a guitar pick to me and I was going to cherish it forever (or the next 6 months, I can'tfind it anymore). I had my dad listening to Battery and Master of puppets on the way to church. I saw Axl Rose rip off Steven Tyler's moves and a Guns and Roses/Aerosmith concert. Who is ...more
As much as I love me some music, there's a big gaping hole where heavy metal is concerned. And God help Chuck Klosterman should he ever come to DC on a book tour.
Exhibit 1:
It's also fun to get drunk and cry during "Open Arms," and maybe even call your ex-girlfriend and apologize for things that actually happened in an altogether different relationship with an altogether different person. Just trust me on this one. Steve Perry is a fucking genius.
E...more
Exhibit 1:
It's also fun to get drunk and cry during "Open Arms," and maybe even call your ex-girlfriend and apologize for things that actually happened in an altogether different relationship with an altogether different person. Just trust me on this one. Steve Perry is a fucking genius.
E...more
Fargo Rock City is alternately hilarious, rambling, sexist, reductive, and brilliant. Anybody who agrees with everything Chuck Klosterman writes in this book is either far too impressionable or named Chuck Klosterman. But the man's faults and contradictions are exactly what make him the perfect guide through the imperfect world of heavy metal. And his lack of respect for anything sacred is a refreshing twist on rock journalism, a craft which usually elevates (or disparages) its subjects in outsi...more
When I picked this book up for $1 at a local thrift shop a few weeks back, I figured that since "Fargo Rock City" author Chuck Klosterman and I grew up a mere 239 miles from each other (Klosterman grew up in Wyndemere, ND and I grew up just a few hours away in Aitkin & Grand Rapids, MN) during the height of the 1980's hard rock/heavy metal explosion, we'd have a bit in common and I'd REALLY enjoy this book. I was wrong. I was only mildly amused and more than somewhat agitated by it.
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Much of this book is entertaining -- Klosterman writes about heavy metal with a lot of wit and insight that's fun to read...especially because I'm not a metal fan. If I felt strongly about any of these bands, all his potificating probably would have gotten kind of annoying. Also, he can be hilarious, but can, on the same page, be overly detailed and completely lose the thread.
One of his points is how the metal audience is integral to the experience and frankly, I think he still iden...more
One of his points is how the metal audience is integral to the experience and frankly, I think he still iden...more
Chuck Klosterman wraps a treatise on the cultural merits of heavy metal in a quasi-autobiographical story about coming of age during the 1980s and early 1990s. Klosterman laments that hard rock is underserved when it comes to critical reflection, and suggests that the bands he grew up listening to: Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Quiet Riot, Van Halen, Def Leppard and Ratt, just to name a few, were as significant to him and his contemporaries as the Beatles and Stones were to children of ...more
As this blog has (d)evolved, it has become more and more about my own fandom. There are a few opinions espoused here that are not related to media or sports, but those are becoming fewer and farther between. Generally, dropping by this site is simply checking out my opinions on these relatively unimportant matters--and certainly in the instance of this post it is not always in the realm of what some might consider timely.
Now, by happenstance, I had been told by a friend (J-Bone) that ...more
Now, by happenstance, I had been told by a friend (J-Bone) that ...more
While reading "Fargo Rock City" I kept thinking how the planets aligned correctly in order for me even to come in contact with this book. If I was introduced to it 8 years ago I don't know if I would openly admit that I read it. I am a recovering hair metal fan. I tried to run away from my past but it was so hard to do with this book. It made me admit I had a problem but it also made me admit that I am OK with that.
It absolutely amazes how much I have in common with w...more
It absolutely amazes how much I have in common with w...more
This book was far better than I expected it to be. Despite the fact that Nikki Six was the first sexual icon I was introduced to (via my much older and much hair sprayed sister)and despite the fact that I have always adored KISS and appreciated Van Halen, my husband had to bribe me with duck hunting to get me to read this book. He actually threatened to withdraw all hunting and fishing invitations. I thought this might be serious. I should read this book. I whined my way through the first 2...more
I think the whole book can be distilled into four words. Pop Music is fun. that's the gist of it. He likes poppy heavy metal from the 80's and thinks everything else is shit. Okay. I really liked Killing Yourself to Live, but this had me scratching my head more often than really digging it. I grew up around the same time he did, in a smallish town and dug heavy metal, but, inevitably, I grew out of it. I still love Back in Black and Welcome to the Jungle, but I think I knew Motley Crue wer...more
*I should preface this review by saying that I can neither confirm nor deny rumors that I may have, at one time, sported a mullet.
Revisiting my misguided youth of rawkin' out to Motley Crue and Judas Priest at backwoods keggers is not something I like to do too often (it stirs up too many memories of atomic wedgies and power swirlies, thanks), but there was too much in Fargo Rock City to NOT be transported back to my high school years. I enjoyed reading Klosterman's no-frills style ...more
Revisiting my misguided youth of rawkin' out to Motley Crue and Judas Priest at backwoods keggers is not something I like to do too often (it stirs up too many memories of atomic wedgies and power swirlies, thanks), but there was too much in Fargo Rock City to NOT be transported back to my high school years. I enjoyed reading Klosterman's no-frills style ...more
This was a great book to simply hang out with - I didn't expect to learn much from it or have any transcendent experiences while reading it, I just wanted to wallow in nostalgia for most of the music I used to listen to in middle school and high school. Klosterman takes heavy metal seriously but not too seriously. He alternates between examining what bands like Ratt and Motley Crue meant to him when he was 12, what they mean to him now, and what they meant/mean to the music industry and societ...more
I thought this book was hillarious. It was my first book I have read by Chuck Klosterman, and although I don't have the same love for bands like Poison and Ratt, I do remember the days before grunge hit and how I would tape songs by Motley Crue, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi off the radio onto a cassette. I thought Klosterman had a lot of interesting points and I can't wait to read another one of his books. I highly recommend this book to my brother, Matt. I think this book is right up his alley and ...more
Whereas Klosterman comes off as a masturbatory intellect obsessed with the minutiae of heavy metal in which no one else really cares about, this book is a redemption for Klosterman. If you've ever heard and felt music speak to your soul, and believe that music is an integral part of your identity, then music's biggest pointdexter is a kindred spirit. Even if you hate all the bands Klosterman writes on, be it Kiss, Motley Crue et al, his passion and dedication to his groupz is like a Staph outbre...more
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Charles John "Chuck" Klosterman is an American pop-culture journalist, critic, humorist, and essayist. He was raised on a farm near Wyndmere, North Dakota and graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1994. After college he was a journalist in Fargo, North Dakota and later an arts critic for the Akron Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, before moving to New York City in 2002.
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“It might sound chauvinistic, but there is a sad reality in rock music: Bands who depend on support from females inevitably crash and burn.”
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9 people liked it
“What my mom failed to understand was that I didn't even want long hair -- I needed long hair. And my desire for protracted, flowing locks had virtually nothing to do with fashion, nor was it a form of protest against the constructions of mainstream society. My motivation was far more philosophical. I wanted to rock. ”
—
7 people liked it
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