A fun trip even if you don't know all the players/bands. It's structured as an oral history with an extensive list of people interviewed; it works well but there were points where I was too lazy to flip back to the cast list to understand who the person 'speaking' was and other points where I wish I had known the setting of their discussion. There's a lot to unpack and Goodman does a good job of getting many perspectives on New York during that time. I was especially excited to read it since I moved to New York in 2006 and some friends were included. It was nice to remember New York when it felt like that; at the same time, it also served to remind that a photo of me was once featured on Gawker's Blue States Lose. I may have audibly groaned when I got to that part.

Bonus: really easy to make a playlist while reading, and I listened to a bunch of old Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Stripes, etc. in the last few weeks that took me back. (Real talk: I never got LCD Soundsystem, still don't, and this book does not paint a pretty portrait of James Murphy... I was most bored by his history as the book moved through the years.)