Trashy rock ’n’ roll fun—a Thunderbird alternative to typical rock-memoir Chardonnay.
A brash, attitude-heavy history of the all-female 1990s pop-punk act.
Formed in New York City in the late 1980s, the Lunachicks were never a critical darling or commercial success. But they earned an adoring cult following thanks to a unique jokey persona steeped in John Waters–style trash culture and a determination to succeed at a time when women artists were marginalized. They recall (the memoir is written collectively) having pint glasses flung at them onstage and having their gigs canceled because another all-woman act had recently played a venue. That stoked a defiantly rude attitude—sample chapters: “Close Encounters of the Turd Kind,” “We Left Our Farts in San Francisco,” “Binge and Purgatory,” “Cumming Into Our Own”—that for better and for worse made them an island unto themselves. “We were horror movie creatures and we were cartoons and we were political and we were feminists and we were a punk band,” they write. “No box existed for us.” Readers will root for them, partly because they endured so much: perverted fans, drug addiction, sleazy male musicians, and manipulative producers. Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon took the band under their wing early but seemed determined to force them into a “foxcore” pigeonhole. Readers will also appreciate the candid storytelling: Drummer Becky Wreck describes her regular stint on the Howard Stern Show; bassist Squid goes scarifyingly deep on her heroin and cocaine addictions; and everybody has a story about a trashed hotel room or hairbreadth escape from some alcohol-soaked drama. Their fixation on burps and farts didn’t endear them to Riot grrrl intellectuals, but they were feminists all the same: “Those totally normal actions that happen to every single species on the planet are deemed foul and improper for women? Fuck you, we’re gonna weaponize them and come after you.”
Trashy rock ’n’ roll fun—a Thunderbird alternative to typical rock-memoir Chardonnay.Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-306-87448-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Hachette
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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