A Really Strange and Wonderful Time
The Chapel Hill Music Scene: 1989-1999
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
***A FINALIST FOR THE 2025 SOUTHERN BOOK PRIZE***
THE FIRST BIOGRAPHY OF THE THRIVING AND INFLUENTIAL ROCK SCENE IN CHAPEL HILL, WHICH GAVE THE WORLD ARTISTS LIKE BEN FOLDS FIVE, SUPERCHUNK, AND SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS
North Carolina has always produced extraordinary music of every description. But the indie rock boom of the late 1980s and early ’90s brought the state most fully into the public consciousness, while the subsequent post-grunge free-for-all bestowed its greatest commercial successes. In addition to the creation of legacy label Merge Records and a slate of excellent indie bands like Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, and Polvo, this was the decade when other North Carolina artists broke Billboard ’s Top 200 and sold millions of records—several million of which were issued by another indie label based in Carrboro, Chapel Hill’s smaller next-door neighbor. It’s time to take a closer look at exactly what happened.
A Really Strange and Wonderful Time features a representative cross section of what was being created in and around Chapel Hill between 1989 and 1999. In addition to the aforementioned indie bands, it documents—through firsthand accounts—other local notables like Ben Folds Five, Dillon Fence, Flat Duo Jets, Small, Southern Culture on the Skids, The Veldt, and Whiskeytown. At the same time, it describes the nurturing infrastructure which engendered and encouraged this marvelous diversity. In essence, A Really Strange and Wonderful Time is proof of the genius of community.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Maxwell (Hell), a former member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, paints a vibrant portrait of Chapel Hill, N.C.'s flourishing indie rock community in the 1990s. Drawing on interviews with record label personnel and musicians, he sketches a scene anchored by the Cat's Cradle, a small music venue where bands often premiered and which pulled into its orbit groups including Superchunk, Ben Folds Five, the Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Flat Duo Jets. Most garnered followings by getting their songs played on college radio in the 1980s and were picked up by local labels who helped to expand their regional reputations. Though the 1996 deregulation of radio markets—and subsequent homogenization of many station playlists—threw a wrench in the works, such bands as Superchunk and Ben Folds Five went on to develop national followings. While Maxwell's rigidly chronological accounting sometimes makes for tough sledding—each chapter covers a single year, methodically hashing out 12 months' worth of band tours and album releases—he vividly captures the heady spirit of a community sustained by "mutual support, affordability, collective identity, permeable social boundaries, and friendly competition." In the process, Maxwell offers measured hope that the values of "community, regionalism, and valuing artistic expression over profit" might "recombine and engender another artistic hothouse." The result is a spirited rendering of a brief but shining moment in indie music history.
