When I was at the bookstore, I opened Perfect From Now On and read the first line. “I hate Bob Dylan.” Even so, I still bought the book. Dylan was the reason I started playing music. When I was in high school, I heard my first Dylan recordings – really listening to them – and was transformed. When Sellers explains his explanation for hating Dylan, it became understandable. His dad forced Dylan on him. I can relate. My parents did something similar, but not as conscious. They played nothing but Neil Diamond for the first five years of my life (to the best of my knowledge). For these precious developmental stages of my life I thought “music” meant “Neil Diamond.”
This is the story of how John Sellers went from listening to Journey and Queen as a child to obsessively dedicating his ears to indie rock, most notable Guided By Voices (read about the first GBV show I ever saw). He grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where “you weren’t conditioned to seek out anything.” Luckily early 80’s MTV gave Sellers a glimpse of what else was out there. There was Duran Duran (Again, I can relate. The first tape I ever bought was Arena. It’s true.) and U2. (I still have the cassettes of Boy and War that I stole from my sister.)
He then began to listen to music to which friends and crushes introduced him. He got away from more mainstream music. The Cult, New Order, Joy Division, The Smiths, and Morrissey. He then found Pavement. “You read a lot about love at first sight. Not so much about love at first listen. And yet it exists.” That became his favorite band for a while.
The last 5 chapters of this book are about his passion for Guided By Voices. This is what the book was really building to. This is a reflective story of his devotion for an indie rock band and how he became a fan of said band. He takes a pilgrimage to Dayton, Ohio, and ends up hanging out with GBV lead singer Bob Pollard and the rest of the band. He went to a number of shows on the band’s final tour and even got to drunkenly sing with Pollard on stage in my backyard at The Southgate House.
The subtitle to this book is “How Indie Rock Saved My Life.” That seems a little stretch of a subtitle. First off, Sellers life didn’t seem to be on some bad track or need any saving. Second, he doesn’t explain any way in which he has changed. At the end of the book, he tries to explain how he may not love new bands the way he has devoted himself to the indie rock of yesteryore. With the 178 footnotes (including one that is 10 pages long) and 3 appendixes, he presents a witty and entertaining account of how indie rock has been an influence in his life. It is an entertaining read of an individual chronicle of personal listening tastes.
www.johnsellers.net
www.myspace.com/sellersjohn
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