PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Steven Hyden is the author of Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Billboard, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Grantland, The A.V. Club, Slate and Salon. He is currently the cultural critic at UPROXX, and the host of the Celebration Rock podcast. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and two children.
[An] engaging (even loving) deflation of boomer rock heroes and traditions. --Newsweek Simultaneously a love letter to a certain collection of artists and songs and a preemptive eulogy for the classic-rock genre, and perhaps for rock music itself. --National Review Part memoir, part criticism, and part pondering both funny and fraught, Hyden's insightful writing about the genre and its giants makes for compelling and freewheeling page-turning. --Houston Press Warm and witty scholarship...a fleet-footed quest to understand the fascination -- his and ours -- with the boomer heroes who still hold an outsized place in the culture even as they're once again dying like it's 1969. --Chris Klimek, The Washington Post If you love rock and roll, this book will offer delights and insights on every page; if you depend on rock and roll to make your living, this book will chill the soul beyond the bleakest works of King or Lovecraft. --Patrick Stickles, lead singer, frontman, and songwriter of Titus Andronicus One of my favorite rock critics. --Seth Meyers Hyden offers another perfectly pitched study of music culture in Twilight of the Gods. A delightful, often comic, ramble into the world of classic rock, and a thought-provoking study that shows how the genre's mythologies have shaped our collective consciousness. --Bob Mehr, author of Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements A wise meditation on why classic rock stars keep trucking, both on the road and in our dreams. Every page is an irresistible argument starter. --Rob Sheffield, author of Dreaming the Beatles and Love is a Mix Tape Overlaid with sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking personal moments that elevate the book beyond mere compendium, Hyden has the power to make you look at power ballads, Styx, and even R.E.O Speedwagon's 'Take It on the Run' in a new light. --Pitchfork If you're someone who loves debating whether AC/DC is still AC/DC when Axl Rose is singing, or whether Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen briefly switched places as the top dog of 'heartland rock' in the '90s, Twilight of the Gods will be a feast. --The Atlantic Hyden's critiques are consistently on target...he has created a hilariously opinionated personal history of classic rock that should resonate with his fellow genre enthusiasts. --Publishers Weekly With Twilight of the Gods, where he sets his laser beam focus onto the Stones, Springsteen, Black Sabbath and more, Steven Hyden is better than he's ever been. It's crisp, purposeful work, and I'm so very excited to steal all of his ideas and present them as my own. --Shea Serrano, author of Basketball (And Other Things) and The Rap Year Book In this poignant tribute to the experience of being rescued by rock and roll, Hyden manages to both celebrate and mourn the inherently ephemeral magic of his heroes: the original class of rock and roll stars. His impassioned but wry prose does his saviors justice. --Lizzy Goodman, author of Meet Me in the Bathroom
