The greatest book about music and New York City is the classic Please Kill Me which is the oral history of the birth of punk in the 1970s. Last year, a spiritual sequel of sorts was released by author Lizzy Goodman who documented the New York City garage and indie scene of the turn of this century with the brilliant and instant classic Meet Me in the Bathroom.
Meet Me in the Bathroom is the oral history of those who lived in New York pre and post-9/11 and how the city was shaped by the artistic boom coming from the Lower East Side and eventually spilled over to Brooklyn. With first person accounts from The Strokes, Ryan Adams, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, TV on the Radio, The National, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the artists discuss their origins and how things progressed for them to get to the status they are currently at. Goodman takes us on a tour of the city in the way she formulates the interviews to flow like a narrative and timeline of places and events which transpired over the years. Meet Me in the Bathroom is not just a love letter to New York City, it is a love letter to rock and roll and how in every generation the cycle will not destruct and for better or worse keeps pushing. This is for any music fan.