Quite the best book on heavy metal ever to come out of Fargo, North Dakota, FARGO ROCK CITY, Chuck Klostermann's extended meditation on growing up in that rock-forsaken town and finding his salvation through his brother's (admittedly awesome) Motley Crue tape of SHOUT AT THE DEVIL is a funny, acute, and sometimes almost touching voyage of discovery of one of hipster rock's most despised genres. From his unearthing of the aforementioned album that soon becomes his yardstick for all things rock, to his deepening involvement in the music with the addition of works by bands like Guns N' Roses, Klostermann tells his rock & roll adolescence like it is--an existence devoid of surprises (because to a teenager everything has always been the way it is now), and totally devoted to music, which is, after all, the only means available to measure exactly how much things suck. Of course, there are lists: from the best metal albums of all time, and why they matter, to the best metal albums to make out to (hint: think power ballads), and, hilariously, the kinds of girls metal bands seem to prefer, according to their lyrics--"W.A.S.P.: Magician's assistants; women with rape fantasies; lower primates."

A comic memoir of growing up as a heavy metal junkie in rural North Dakota in the 1980s retraces the author's coming of age to the soundtrack of Motley Crue, Ratt, Poison, Krokus, and other hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners rock bands.

A comic memoir of growing up as a heavy metal junkie in rural North Dakota in the 1980s retraces the author's coming of age to the soundtrack of Motley Crue, Ratt, Poison, Krokus, and other hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners rock bands.