The Official SELLOUT Playlist: 20 Years of Punk in 9 Hours
Here's a 180-song playlist from the book!
Hello!
I was interviewed by NPR this week for the second time (extremely famous). This time was for the NPR Music newsletter. (Uhh someone else has a newsletter about music?! How dare they!) I was asked if I was listening to the music I was writing about while putting SELLOUT together. They truly underestimated what a compulsive little freak I am. Not only had I been listening, I made a 180-song playlist of all the songs in the book and meticulously arranged them in chronological order so I could relive 20 years of punk in real time.
Every chapter made us want to revisit the record in question (or, in some cases, something else from the band’s catalog) in light of what we learned. For these Q&As, we always have to ask: Did you have a particular soundtrack while researching and writing?
I definitely have a hard time writing with music playing in the background. But I'd listen to the music every minute that I wasn't writing. I even made a nine-hour playlist of all the songs mentioned in the book and meticulously put them in chronological order of release, so that I could relive 20 years of this music in real time. That may seem over the top, but it actually gets worse: I also read that Jawbreaker's Blake Schwarzenbach said somewhere that he used to make coffee in the morning while listening to Jack Kerouac read beat poetry over Steve Allen's piano playing. So guess what I listened to while making my coffee in the morning. Just in an attempt to get in his headspace or something. You might think that's a little insane, and you'd be right.
Would you also like to hear this nine-hour playlist? Well here it is! I guess I can’t tell you what to do, but I’d advise listening in order. I spent a lot of time putting the songs in order of release. Well, approximate order. Some of those early indie records are a bit tough to track down precise release dates for.
Alright, enjoy. I’m off to Vitus for my first book event. Starts at 2pm. See you there?
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