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Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana
Explores mainstream society's embrace of alternative rock, chronicles the postpunk years, and interviews such musicians as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, and Paul Westerberg of the Replacements
- GenresMusicNonfictionBiography
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 16, 2019
A visit to the world of pre-internet rock criticism, one that doesn't hold up too well after the passage of 26 years since I bought this book during my first week of college. That was August 93, the same month it came out, and even as a 17 year old freshman I caught a few factual errors in Arnold's breathless rush through the history of the American scene that had bridged the gap between the Ramones and Nirvana. This time around I caught quite a lot more, as well as cringing at a lot of unexamined assumptions that sometimes took the form of egregious blindness to privilege and other times took the form of arrogant cultural snobbery that is all but unforgivable in a post-poptimist world. All of that said, Arnold's enthusiasm has to earn her some credit, and the first-person accounts of an era that was irrevocably ended 9 months later with the suicide of Kurt Cobain add even more. It's a fun read when you aren't tripping over an egregious factual error (no, Ian MacKaye did not play guitar in Minor Threat) or a needle-scratch moment of cringeworthy cultural arrogance. So, about 2/3 of the time. But still, it made a good primer for a scene I was dying to delve further into, and its ability to offer that in a pre-internet world that didn't have any other options for such a thing leaves an eternal soft spot in my heart for it. That said, reading it again was not entirely advisable.
January 27, 2025
An odd one, but an effective staging of Nirvana’s chokehold on the music world. Like a “great value” version of the spectacular book Our Band Could Be Your Life, which I’ve also read. My college’s radio station gets a mention!
August 11, 2016
This take on Nirvana, although I'm not sure I agree with it completely, is truly creative. The death of the band makes space for the emergence of a new alternative culture, and the author interestingly symbolizes this culture in Fugazi and their commitment to constructive alt-rock. I happen to really love both bands, and I totally understand the author's stance as she compares the two. It seems that, if Arnold was making a prediction as to where indie rock culture was moving at the time, she was wrong overall. If she had been right, what a world of music would be available to us now! As it stands, Fugazi is still very much alone (at least to the average seeing eye) in its counter-cultural take on the world.
In the long run, I must say though, I guess I'd rather have Fugazi in the world if I had to choose between the two. I admit it. Kurt Cobain and his music remain unparalleled in their painful beauty, but Fugazi become more and more sophisticated and courageous in their music each time they release an album, and their message is so sorely needed in this world, in this country. The feeling these days is that they are no longer crying in the wilderness, even if very few people in our country have ever heard their name mentioned.
A thoughtful and artful book, and worth reading as indie-rock history and indie-rock vision.
In the long run, I must say though, I guess I'd rather have Fugazi in the world if I had to choose between the two. I admit it. Kurt Cobain and his music remain unparalleled in their painful beauty, but Fugazi become more and more sophisticated and courageous in their music each time they release an album, and their message is so sorely needed in this world, in this country. The feeling these days is that they are no longer crying in the wilderness, even if very few people in our country have ever heard their name mentioned.
A thoughtful and artful book, and worth reading as indie-rock history and indie-rock vision.
January 6, 2008
Christmas 1995 two of my older cousins got me books on Nirvana. I sort of rolled my eyes. One was a book explaining the lyrics to all of their songs which was totally lazy and just ripped quotes from interviews throughout the years to make their best guess at dissecting the songs. Then there was Route 666, which I had little expectation for, but totally shook me up. It's a firsthand account of 80s underground rock (indie, punk, postpunk, college, whatever you wanna call it)from a journalist who went to all the tiny shows and had bands sleeping on her floor. The front cover of my book had a list of about forty bands I discovered in this and wanted to check out, most notably inspiring my lifelong love of The Replacements. More than anything though, this book made me excited for what my twenties might be. I don't know if I've lived up to it, but it's been fun trying.
November 20, 2020
A nonfictional account of underground American music from the early 80s to the early 90s. Apart from being the best piece of rock journalism I've ever read, it also manages to weave a story together about our collective lives during this time period. I can think of so many people that I would like to loan this book to still, but by way of my brother, to our friend Steve, back to me, to my friend Dan, who handed it to Keith, I no longer own a copy...and yet its journey is totally fitting, and probably the point.
January 14, 2018
I can remember back in 1993 when this book was published, and I was a fan of the Seattle sound and looked forward to reading it. I was not aware at that time of the "pre-history" of grunge from punk, hardcore, and college radio/indie rock during the 1980s, so the Seattle bands - Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden,, et al - seemed fresh and new to ears raised on country, 80s Top 40, and what would become known as classic rock.
The book slipped through my hands at the time, but I ran across it again at a used book store a few months ago. While I expected a nostalgia trip, what I got during my first reading is a slice of frozen history of a movement and genre of music that has all but disappeared.
Gina Arnold has written other books on punk and alternative music and is now a professor. Her personal history is tied closely with the rise of punk rock and the 80s alternative scene, and in her position as a rock critic during that time, she had her hand on the pulse of an era.
I guess what I found most interesting in this narrative history is how insular and closed off punk rock really is and how, in time, that ethos would suffocate alternative music on many different levels. Arnold's own attitude and taste echoes that sentiment and flows throughout the book.
Another facet that makes the book fascinating today is how the Seattle scene imploded after Arnold's book was published. Nirvana's swan song MTV Unplugged performance took place in November 1993, and by April 1994, Kurt Cobain was dead. Pearl Jam cancelled their summer 1994 tour due to their opposition to Ticketmaster, and Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were broken up by 1996.
At the end of Route 666 Arnold had some sense that things were changing, when she notes toward the end that Lollapalooza brought the underground punk scene into the mainstream. She also remarked on her own change of attitude when she took in a Fugazi concert in Germany while Nirvana was at their height and didn't feel the same excitement.
We all have to grow up sometime.
The book slipped through my hands at the time, but I ran across it again at a used book store a few months ago. While I expected a nostalgia trip, what I got during my first reading is a slice of frozen history of a movement and genre of music that has all but disappeared.
Gina Arnold has written other books on punk and alternative music and is now a professor. Her personal history is tied closely with the rise of punk rock and the 80s alternative scene, and in her position as a rock critic during that time, she had her hand on the pulse of an era.
I guess what I found most interesting in this narrative history is how insular and closed off punk rock really is and how, in time, that ethos would suffocate alternative music on many different levels. Arnold's own attitude and taste echoes that sentiment and flows throughout the book.
Another facet that makes the book fascinating today is how the Seattle scene imploded after Arnold's book was published. Nirvana's swan song MTV Unplugged performance took place in November 1993, and by April 1994, Kurt Cobain was dead. Pearl Jam cancelled their summer 1994 tour due to their opposition to Ticketmaster, and Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were broken up by 1996.
At the end of Route 666 Arnold had some sense that things were changing, when she notes toward the end that Lollapalooza brought the underground punk scene into the mainstream. She also remarked on her own change of attitude when she took in a Fugazi concert in Germany while Nirvana was at their height and didn't feel the same excitement.
We all have to grow up sometime.
April 8, 2020
So picture me in about 1994. An angsty young teenager living in a shithole country town in Western Australia, being raised by fundamentalist Christian nutjob parents, desperate to escape.
What music was I into? Do you even have to ask? Nirvana and the other alternative rock bands were my everything at the time. They spoke to teenage me in a way nothing else ever did. My parents hated them of course but that just made them even cooler.
So I came across this book in the public library in our little town and I read it at least a dozen times over the next six months.
It opened up a world of music to me. In our shitty little town the punk underground of the 80's just hadn't penetrated. The local radio stations played baby boomer classics and country music.
The best thing reading this book did for me was it gave me the idea that somewhere else, in the city, away from our shitty town, there were "scenes" and in these "scenes" there were cool people making cool music and doing all sorts of cool stuff. I spent the rest of my teenage years dreaming of joining theses "scenes" and planning my escape from my parents and our town.
Alas, when I did escape things didn't exactly work out like I planned but such I life.
As other reviewers have noted this book is very dated but that is it's charm. It is a time capsule in a sense, recording a moment in musical and cultural history.
Also the author is a bit of a fangirl but to me that's endearing, she's passionate about her music and her underground scene, is that really so bad?
If you want to know about alternative music in the 80's and 90's this is a great place to start. If you're my age and want to walk down memory lane this is also a great place to start.
What music was I into? Do you even have to ask? Nirvana and the other alternative rock bands were my everything at the time. They spoke to teenage me in a way nothing else ever did. My parents hated them of course but that just made them even cooler.
So I came across this book in the public library in our little town and I read it at least a dozen times over the next six months.
It opened up a world of music to me. In our shitty little town the punk underground of the 80's just hadn't penetrated. The local radio stations played baby boomer classics and country music.
The best thing reading this book did for me was it gave me the idea that somewhere else, in the city, away from our shitty town, there were "scenes" and in these "scenes" there were cool people making cool music and doing all sorts of cool stuff. I spent the rest of my teenage years dreaming of joining theses "scenes" and planning my escape from my parents and our town.
Alas, when I did escape things didn't exactly work out like I planned but such I life.
As other reviewers have noted this book is very dated but that is it's charm. It is a time capsule in a sense, recording a moment in musical and cultural history.
Also the author is a bit of a fangirl but to me that's endearing, she's passionate about her music and her underground scene, is that really so bad?
If you want to know about alternative music in the 80's and 90's this is a great place to start. If you're my age and want to walk down memory lane this is also a great place to start.
August 22, 2021
Honestly, not great.
January 26, 2008
I bought this with a gift certificate at Barnes and Noble when I was a junior in high school, thinking it was about Nirvana. At first, I was disappointed to see that it was actually about the bands that led UP to Nirvana, but quickly realized it was just as good. Starting with Sex Pistols/Ramones up through "Nevermind" and the ensuing brief cultural shift, it details this period as a history through one fan's eyes. With chapters on the Replacements and Fugazi, Gina Arnold pushed me to buy the albums "Let it Be," and "Steady Diet of Nothing," respectively, which remain in my top 10 all-time to this day. With the first listen of the first songs on those albums--from the 12-string guitar on "I Will Dare" to the fucked-up bassline on "Exit Only,"--I could hear my life changing.
"This is three-minute access.."
"This is three-minute access.."
August 28, 2013
I had the privilege of seeing Nirvana in concert, roughly 3 months before Kurt took his life. It was magical. It was something that resonated within me on a deep level. I was a HUGE fan of Nirvana.
Going through my Goodreads account I realized that I forgot to review this book. I was able to read it back when there actually WAS a Nirvana. I loved the history of the post-punk movement, the random stories of bands like Pearl Jam, and how all of what happened led to Nirvana as they were. Well researched and documented this is a must-read for any fan of the grunge genre.
Going through my Goodreads account I realized that I forgot to review this book. I was able to read it back when there actually WAS a Nirvana. I loved the history of the post-punk movement, the random stories of bands like Pearl Jam, and how all of what happened led to Nirvana as they were. Well researched and documented this is a must-read for any fan of the grunge genre.
October 3, 2012
Really a terriffic book, I was surprised I'd overlooked it on my shelves thus far. I read it so long ago, when grunge meant much more to me than it does now.
Arnold takes a Lester Bangs-ish stance as a critic and a kind of memoirist and I guess it workeed since I'm remembering this book at least a dozen years after I read it. Not a bad accomplishment at all, wouldn't you say?
July 11, 2008
This book is pretty controversial - some readers may cringe; others have criticized the reportage - but it is a passionate, literate examination of the history of what came to be marketed as "alternative" rock. And the chapter on Boston-area college radio is excellence unparalleled.
May 6, 2012
one of the best books about rock and roll i have ever read. it does not matter a whit if you like Nirvana or 90's grunge, this book is eminently relateable for anyone who is passionate about music and needs music to live and breathe
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September 17, 2020Good info about bands preceding Nirvana's explosion on the scene.
April 15, 2008
unassuming and fantastic, super-sincere exploration of the 80s underground punk-ish music scene and the roots of grunge.
October 22, 2009
GREAT BOOK LOVE IT
March 22, 2011
Great book, more a personal memoir than a history, great, she talks about things so well, great rock history reference.
October 3, 2012
Unfathomably innocent, in retrospect.
May 13, 2008
This book is credited for making me aware of the awesomeness that is Paul Westerberg.
November 14, 2008
Post-punk rock movement literature for the slacker in all of us.
August 19, 2012
Its a good book!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews