Obviously inspired by the now revered oral history of the original NYC punk scene Please Kill Me, Detroit Rock City is a fun, breezy read that does a solid job of recounting the musical history of 'America's Loudest City', as the cover proudly crows.
Beginning at the dawn of the rock era in the mid '60s and ending in recent years, all of Dee-troit's great unwashed are present and accounted for, from the Stooges, MC5 and Bob Seger through to Jack White, Mick Collins and (blech) Insane Clown Posse.
Most revealing is the section about the first wave of punk and the subsequnt hardcore era (that spawned Negative Approach and Laughing Hyenas), a time when Detroit bands couldn't get arrested outside the city limits. While Detroit's first wave punks dosn't come across as particularly inspired, those of us who grew up during that time in cities other than NYC, London or LA can recognise aspects of our own satellite punk scenes and comparable local characters.
This one will sit nicely nestled between your music books section and your books about America's most fascinatingly down at heel city (well, I have both of these sections at any rate), which seem to be coming out at the rate of about one a month.
