Book Review Number 6: Perfect From Now On

“Perfect From Now On”
John Sellers
Simon & Schuster224 Pages



Perfact From Now On (How Indie Rock Saved My Life) seemed like the ideal book for me. A self absorbed music lover discussing the impact of indie rock on his adolescent, college and (perhaps he at 36 has almost reached) post-adolescence. Unfortunately John Sellers cannot quite deliver the goods.

He does deliver some serious passion though and quite a bit of self revelation...some of it humiliating. He entails his fascination with bad pop music when he was finding hi mself. He confessed to prosituting his own musical tastes in favor of the hot girlfriend. these are all quality revelations that humanize him but unfortunatley for this Diner Reviewer undermine his credentials and his passion.

The books title grabbed me more then anything. “Perfect from Now On” is one of the VERY sweet albums by Built To Spill and they...with their jangly guitars and early Neil Young posings and musings made me fall in love with music all over again for about the hundredth time so...I love them and I figured he did too. I was right on one level. he does claim love of the band but only refers to them in passing with an apology that he did not wax poetic about them for 20 or so pages as he does for his other faves.

And therin lies the problem. The book lacks any kind of meaningful focus or pattern. it does not draw me in...it does not change my life. He spends way too long whining about his favorite bands from manchester england to which he makes a pilgrimage but even that is untlimately unsatisfying. He is not a bad writer however and he does say some interesting things such as "I required complex, pretty, inscrutable songs turned up very loud to help me avoid thinking that I didn't like myself very much." I like that.

But alas...it is not enough. When he starts to go on and on and on about rock drivelers...posers and mopey eyed sad boys like “Guided By Voices” and “My Bloody Valentine” it is VERY hard for daddy to keep paying attention. frankly I couldn’t and it made me angy he was wasting so many pages...so many words on these bands while ignoring bands like Built To Spill and any Alt-Country (my personal fascination), Nirvana, Black Flag, Sonic Youth,Husker Du; The Replacements and never discussing the homage owed to god... I mean Neil Young. I mean...the Cure is not a seminal band. they are intruiging but, they are not for example The Pixies. His fascination with Robert (Bob) Pollard is unhealthy and frankly boring.
He attempts to salvage the book and it’s alleged value with an appendix full of adolescent and pathetic lists and this...of course in my favorite part of the book and almost....almost make it worth buying. But not quite. Some examples... He lists 173 bands he neglected to mention but listed in the appendix to avoid angry letters. I like his top Nine Indie Labels:
1. Matador
2. SST
3. Creation Records
4. Merge
5. 4AD
6. Drag City
7. Sub Pop
8. Touch and Go
9. Homestead

The only reason Creation is in there is because of My Bloody Valentine. I would replace them with either Bloodshot (the best Alt-Country label) or Jagjaguwar (home of Okkervil River). he gives about 20 0ther lists here including Top 10 Indie Guitarists, Three Coolest Alt-Rock Drummers, Top 5 Most Disappointing albums...etc...etc.. All of these lists are great conversation starters for your standard indie rock snob but....well...there are only about 68 of us in the entire country so how interesting can that be for anyone else?

Great book premise. VERY average book. Only a msut read for an indie rock snob completest. non-essential at it’s core. 6 Slingers on a ten scale.