Spent the past couple of weeks diving into a book by Eric Grubbs, titled POST (A Look at the Influence of Post Hardcore 1985-2007)… A book that for better or worse chronicles a sweet spot of “emo” music I happened to experience first hand while attending college @ U of D. If you’ve read or happen to be a fan of Michael Azerrad’s “Our Band Could Be Your Life”, you’ll be happy to hear that its put together in a similar fashion.
The collection of artists featured within POST are threaded together rather cleverly… if you happen to be familiar with these musical artists you’ll know that they overlap rather strangely. You will also wonder why a band like Jawbreaker is featured but Jets to Brazil maybe isn’t… It all kinda makes sense as you get into the book.
The biggest take away from the book is that music captures a period in time where the line between musical artist and audience was blurred. This pretty much capsulated the reason why I loved this period of life/music so much in my early 20’s. That and in my head and heart, I have always looked back at these artists as being successful on all fronts. I was a little saddened to hear about how hard it was for the to live and operate during their time together.
I kinda wondered why Phil Ek/Modest Mouse/Built to Spill were kinda out of this loop when I heard about the book, but then saw what Eric did with J. Robbins and how it all ties in nicely together.
Last but not least, I really loved digging out a number of albums I hadn't heard during my reading. I've put together a small playlist featuring favorite songs from artists on the cover of the book.