The First Two Chapters of "Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records"

I can't recall the last time I enjoyed the first 50 pages of a book this much. Despite having little or no connection to what was going (aside from my old love for Pier Platters), I almost feel a part of this.

Some classic quotes:

"I suggested a Doug Sahm song or something for us to cover. And Mac said, 'I don't quite think that's the direction we're going with this, Laura. Here's our new song 'Smoking Hooch with the Flume Dude.'" (Laura Cantrell)

"We had a band called Dust Buster, in which the main instrument was a dust buster. It was, like, high concept." (Jim Wilbur)

"I met Mac one night at a party at my house, when he was literally rifling through my records. And I had this Buzzcocks record, this weird import, that he hadn't seen. That was our first conversation." (Glenn Boothe)

"Steve kept saying my leads were like the guy from REO Speedwagon, which was intended as an insult. But I secretly took a small amount of pride in that, because I was a big REO Speedwagon fan when I was twelve." (Mac McCaughan)

"When we got to Boston we were blown away that we got $300! Between 18 people! We were just cold-calling people saying, "You know, we've got a three-band bill. We have a 7-inch." (Jim Wilbur)

Full review upon completion.

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