EVERYBODY LOVES OUR TOWN

One last reminder: I’ll be talking grunge and such with Hole cofounder Eric Erlandson, author of the brand-new Letters to Kurt, at BookCourt in Brooklyn (163 Court St.) tonight, April 6, at 7 p.m. It’s free!

We’ll be signing copies of our respective books. Would love to see you there. Check out the Facebook event page for more information.

Attention, New Yorkers! I’m excited to announce this event:

Hole cofounder Eric Erlandson, author of the new book Letters to Kurt, in conversation with Mark Yarm, author of Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge.

At BookCourt in Brooklyn this Friday, April 6, at 7 p.m. BookCourt is located in Cobble Hill, at 163 Court St. (get directions). We will be signing copies of our respective books. Hope you can make it!

(Erlandson photo by Planet Swan)

NPR’s music critic and correspondent Ann Powers writes: “…I know the Pacific Northwest well enough to be mightily impressed with the truth Yarm uncovered. This exhaustive oral history features unknowns, cult figures, supporting players and stars; each gets the time he or she deserves as Yarm pieces together the arc of a scene that built itself from scratch, blossomed beyond most people’s dreams, and then crashed. Yes, there are plenty of Kurt Cobain stories. But there’s much more, too—indelible characters, weird scenes, creative chaos, laughs and tragedy and lots of cheap beer.” [Full list here]

There’s certainly no shortage of entertainingly thorough books documenting the early ’90s alt-rock boom and What Kurt Hath Wrought. But for exhaustive detail about Seattle’s unlikely, meteoric stint as the center of the universe — from Cat Butt to Candlebox and all points in between — this is hard to beat. As Yarm himself testifies, “It’s got it all: tragedy, comedy, corporate greed, media insanity, Courtney Love, and dudes who wore long johns under their shorts.” [Read the rest here.]

And there’s still time to get it as a holiday gift! North Americans, order ELOT at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Indiebound. U.K. residents, buy it at Amazon.co.uk or Waterstones.com.

The U.K.’s Guardian names Everybody Loves Our Town one of its top music books of 2011. Stateside, ELOT is No. 4 on Vulture’s holiday gift guide.

Fuck yeah, weird-looking Frank Gehry buildings! At last, I’m doing a book event in Seattle:

WHEN: Tuesday, November 15, 2011; 7 to 10 p.m.

WHERE: Experience Music Project Museum, Seattle

WHAT: EMP Senior Curator Jacob McMurray will lead a Q&A with me about all things grunge. Afterward, I’ll be signing copies of my book, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge, which will be available for sale at the museum.

GET TICKETS: Via Brown Paper Tickets