Rock On (26 page)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

eISBN-13: 9781565126497

Praise for ROCK ON

“Imagine a love child born of
The Office
and
High Fidelity
. With
Knocked Up
as the slacker godfather. . . . [An] amazingly funny yet perceptive look at rock music and big corporations in crisis.”

—
USA Today

“Fast-moving and darkly funny,
Rock On
should be a chart-topper.”

—
People
, four stars

“A succession of gently mordant vignettes, with hilariously spot-on asides about media image-making, music-biz hierarchies and sensitive singer-songwriters. . . . Like Walter Mitty in reverse, Kennedy constantly retreats from an absurd corporate environment—equal parts tyranny, vanity and fecklessness—into neurotic internal-reality checks even funnier than the folly all around him. . . . Neither Kennedy nor the music business will ever be the same.”

—
The New York Times Book Review

“Scathingly funny.”

—
The Onion
A.V. Club

“Pitch-perfect. . . . A brilliant, hysterical and insightful look at what happens when truly creative people try to blend into a Banana Republicized mediocracy. . . . The author makes it clear, in laugh-out-loud fashion, that the lid was shut on the coffin of music business dreams some time ago, we've just delayed the burial.”

—
New York Post

“Very funny.”

—
GQ

“His story is a crash course, a cautionary tale, and a hilarious riff on what happens when you come face to face with your fantasies—and it turns out they blow. Kennedy, ever the optimist, finds humor in awkward exchanges and uptight boardrooms and sentiment in an increasingly sterilized industry. It's the book one dreams of writing.”

—
Daily Candy

“The decline of the major labels has inspired plenty of rancor, but Kennedy uses it as the basis for a hilarious—and damning—insider's memoir about how the suits managed to scuttle the ship
and
pad their expense accounts.”

—
Wired

“Kennedy's got the guts to reveal our collective internal monologue. . . . If he weren't so self-deprecating, Kennedy might come off as a jerk. But he's just as hard on himself and, besides, he's funny. Super funny.”

—
Los Angeles Times

“Effing hilarious. The book is not just laugh-out-loud funny; its snort-audibly-on-the-subway funny.”

—
Time Out New York

“Dan Kennedy chronicles how his fantasy is fulfilled, albeit cruelly, as an office drone at a record label. His workplace boasts all the dysfunction of
The Office
, except it's the real deal. Sycophantic underlings jockey for position, psychotic bigwigs condescend, Kennedy's soul slowly withers—and we laugh, as he describes it all with satirical playfulness.”

—
Fast Company

“Dan Kennedy tells all in his keenly observed, laugh-out-loud funny, insider's view of the music biz.”

—
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“A hugely enjoyable read.”

—
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“You'll laugh, you'll rock, you'll turn up the volume on your iPod. You'll remember your first job. You'll wonder if you ever grew up. And you'll be glad Dan Kennedy is out there somewhere, rocking on, living the dream.”

—
New Orleans Times-Picayune

“Riotously funny. . . . Kennedy's running commentary is hysterical, and his thoughtful inner monologue makes this a page-turner, more than a few times inducing laugh-out-loud moments followed by a whisper of ‘That's sooo my office.'. . . A hilarious and enjoyable read that belongs on the bookshelf of every fan of the self-deprecating hipster memoir.”

—
Denver Rocky Mountain News

“Kennedy tars and feathers these yes-men (and women) with his sharp reportage. But there's still a degree of respect, a benefit of the doubt, for the creatively dead bottom-liners. . . .
Rock On
is less of a gripefest and more of a tragicomedy. . . . It turns out that Kennedy can't save rock 'n' roll after all, but he'll make you laugh pretty hard.”

—
The Oregonian

“His feverish interior monologue smacks you over the head, shoving you forward, often latching onto something so alarmingly funny you must suddenly brake to appreciate the author's skill.”

—
SF Weekly