Petal Pusher

Anyone checked out the book PETAL PUSHER by former Zuzu's Petal (and current Mrs. Westerberg) Laurie Lindeen yet? Sounds like it could be a good read. I always wanted to like Zuzu's Petals, but they never really seemed to find a way to set themselves apart from the billion other early 90s alternative bands that sounded exactly like they did.

[www.trouserpress.com]

Jen Trynin's new(ish) memoir is also supposed to be pretty aces.

If anyone has read either of those books yet, please weigh in with an insight or three.

I also started on Clinton Heylin's BABYLON'S BURNING, but set it aside after the first chapter or so because he seemed to be plunging pretty deeply into NYC and Cleveland punk at the outset, and he'd covered that ground pretty thoroughly in FROM THE VELVETS TO THE VOIDOIDS, so I was a bit irritated to be reading what seemed to me to be a book he'd already written and I'd already read.

So now I'm just reading Harry Potter.

Jen Trynin's book is really good - an insightful look at how you can get swept into success and how the music business eats its young.

"Petal Pusher" is more of like a beach read. It's breezy, nothing that penetrating in her insights but Lindeen has a likeable slant on things and and I enjoyed it.

You don't learn much about Westerberg from this book but a couple examples of his maverick mind-set do crop up in her stories. Worth reading overall I'd say - for what it is.

I was going to pick up Robert Greenfield's "Exile on Main Street" book called "A Season in Hell" but I've heard bad things - so I dunno, do I read a book that I might hate about an album I love.........



Post Edited (06-18-07 22:08)

Speaking of Westerberg, I was strolling through the local upscale boutique known as Wal-Mart the other day and I saw that they were peddling the "Paul Westerberg Signature Guitar." And I had to wonder - would a person buying a guitar from Wal-Mart be a person who gives a damn about Paul Westerberg?

righto. throw in a couple a boxes of ammo for the faithful.