You wait for one seminal female indie star memoir to come along, and then . . . well, you know what happens next. 2015 is turning into a brilliant year for excellent rock memoirs, many of which happen to be by icons of female coolness. The year kicked off with Kim Gordon’s excellent Girl In A Band memoir, a calmly written yet evocative and understated jaunt through life with Sonic Youth and the subsequent breakdown of her relationship with Thurston Moore. Gordon’s pal Chloe Sevigny also published a self-titled chronicle of her personal style this year.
The music journalist Jessica Hopper (you can read her PopLives Q&A over on the PopLife blog) was in town for Hard Working Class Heroes recently, and her collection of essays The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic came out before the summer.
One of the most anticipated memoirs is from the enigma wrapped in the icon that is Grace Jones, whose I'll Never Write My Memoirs is out now. If the drip-feeding of extracts is anything to go by it's definitely a page-turner. Patti Smith follows up the beautiful Just Kids with M Train this week, revealing more about the coffee-obsessed artist, writer, musician and photographer. And later this month, Carrie Brownstein's Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl will document her journey as a music pioneer with Sleater-Kinney. We're going to need bigger Christmas stockings this year.
