Indie music: Saving lives one at a time
Author focuses on Guided by Voices, storing and organizing
By Andrew Rooney
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Perfect From Now On is, essentially, split into two main parts. The first part recounts Sellers musical evolution and how he got to be the indie geek that he is today. The second part of the book is more or less all about the band Guided by Voices, whom Sellers refers to as his favorite band.
I hate Bob Dylan.
If that is not an attention grabber, I do not know what is, and that is just how John Sellers is catching peoples attention with his new book, Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life.
Sellers goes on to say he does not hate Dylan the musician, he just hates how his father forced Dylan upon him as a young boy until Sellers couldnt take it anymore. Still, that first line really grabs you.
Aside from a simple memoir, Sellers is concerned with things that many obsessive music fans are concerned about. Sellers is worried that iTunes and iPods will make it impossible for people to listen to albums straight through.
Although Sellers does say, any self-respecting music fan in 2007 should own an iPod, or another portable digital music player, because these devices represent a cultural shift in the way we listen to music.
Sellers also believes that music is not all about the music as iPods and other digital players imply. Storing and organizing CDs is a major component of the music experience as is flipping through linear notes while listening to an album for the first time, to see among things, if the band can spell.
Perfect From Now On is, essentially, split into two main parts. The first part recounts Sellers musical evolution and how he got to be the indie geek that he is today.
The second part of the book is more or less all about the band Guided by Voices, whom Sellers refers to as his favorite band. Guided by Voices called it quits in 2004 and Sellers was able to hang out with the members and accompany them on tour; the book recounts some of those experiences.
While Guided by Voices may get more pages than any other band, the number of bands that are name-dropped throughout the book is staggering. Everyone from Dokken, Van Halen, The Smiths, U2 to Public Enemy is touched upon by Sellers.
Perfect From Now On would not have been published had it not have been for the success of Chuck Klostermans work, especially Klostermans own musical memoir, Fargo Rock City. One could almost argue that Perfect From Now On is essentially Fargo Rock City but with indie rock as opposed to hair metal, and while that person would not be too far off the mark, both books are so entertaining it really does not matter if Perfect From Now On is wholly original.
Sellers memoir, however, includes many things that Klostermans does not, most notably a slew of footnotes that would impress even David Foster Wallace and an appendix of lists which include verdicts on musicians and a formula for deciding whether or not a band is worth your time.
Everything is subjective of course, and many of Sellers musical beliefs do not register with the mainstream; however, it all makes for great discussion.
Perfect From Now On also benefits from Sellers writing and the fact that the book is only 215 pages long including the appendix. While the book never drags or gets boring, the shortness of it makes it readable in a matter of days.
Perfect From Now On is a great book for music geeks and non-music geeks alike, as there is so much touched upon in the book that no one who reads it will walk away without learning something.


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