Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011

by Lizzy Goodman

Everybody is living through their own golden age, but you only realize it afterward, so start living it now.

All of this stuff doesn’t happen by accident, it’s not a coincidence. It’s not a straight line either—you don’t go, “Oh, Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, Karen O.” It doesn’t go Velvet Underground, Strokes. It’s a long distance to travel from one to the other but there is a continuum, there is a vibe, there is a place where those bands have roots. It does matter, it matters to the sound.

It wasn’t like them versus the White Stripes. It was all of us versus Coldplay and Limp Bizkit . . . and George Bush and al-Qaeda, you know? It was the cool kids fighting back.