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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jen Trynin is on her way to a literary career a decade after her attempt at rock superstardom, March 25, 2006
Jen Trynin was an almost-made mid-1990's alternative rock superstar, and her memoir is billed as "what it's like to be catapulted to the edge of stardom, only to plummet back down to earth." As a music fan, I was obsessed with Trynin's contemporaries--Liz Phair, Hole, Nirvana, Aimee Mann, Better than Ezra, Alanis Morisette, the Goo Goo Dolls, and the like--but I don't remember Trynin's radio hit (which is, I suppose, what this book is all about).
Given the premise of a foiled attempt at rock superstardom, I read Trynin's narrative on the edge of my seat. Oh, is hiring this lawyer going to spell her demise? Hmm, is this unfounded loyalty to her backing band going to cause her downfall? Ah-ha--this choice of record label will be her death warrant! Did she not read her contract closely enough? Did she trust the wrong person? Is that rep a back-stabber? Did she screw up her indie cred and lose everything?
The reality behind Trynin's (lack of a) music career is much more subtle, less easy to pin-point, and well-narrated. This is a great story for any child of the 1990's, any musician, or any music fan. Trynin formed her own indie label when that meant having a direct fax line and spending hundreds of dollars on mailing list postage. It's a remarkable contrast to the wired podcast world a decade later, but the issues of dealing with a major label remain the same.
Jen is, above all, accessible. She's skinny in a heroin chic way, but she's terrified that people will discover that she doesn't even know whether heroin is something one snorts or injects. She doesn't know what her image is. She worries about being a "grown woman in a teenager's too tight corduroys." She's clueless about the music scene once she goes on tour, and thinks someone named Alice Morrison (Alanis Morisette) is the one everyone is watching on MTV.
Trynin hits at a lot of the pitfalls of the rock n' roll lifestyle without addressing them head-on. She goes days on nicotine and caffeine so that she can fit into her skin-tight pants, nevermind the foggy light-headedness. She knows that alcohol won't improve her performance, yet she downs it to calm her nerves, to escape, and suffers painful hangover-addled interviews on the days after her shows. She's in love with a long-term boyfriend, yet there are temptations on the road, and it is much cooler to have a free, easy-going image.
This terrific memoir is worth it alone for the time Trynin's music video appeared on Beavis and Butthead, for the backstory behind the Goo Goo Doll's smash hit "Name," and for the insider view on the (lack of a) process for creating music videos. It inspired me to buy Trynin's debut CD, Cockamamie, which is, unfortunately, out of print, but available on Amazon for less than a buck. That's a fitting end to this rock n' roll fairytale.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From a fan at the time who wondered what happened, January 21, 2006
Ok, not sure if I'm the first one to write a review who didn't actually know Jen Trynin - but was a fan at the time all this was going on. I'm from Boston and I'm a musician, and I was naturally curious about the rich music scene in that town and tried to keep somewhat on top of it while I was there, which included the entire 90's decade. I ran across Cockamamie (Jen's first CD) at the time of release, as it was getting a lot of buzz around town. I had even scored Jen's earlier eponymous release, which was a 12 song cassette. I still have it somewhere. I had gotten that from someone who shall remain nameless. who ran a studio in 1995. When I excitedly asked him about it, surprised, he said, "oh, that SUCKS. You can have it." Ended up being the last time I worked with that guy because I decided he didn't have ears I could trust.
Jen's music was exquisitely good, and you can currently get Cockamamie for a penny. First off, buy it. Then buy this book. This is one of the best rock memoirs I've ever read, only surpassed by Al Kooper's Backstabbing Bastards. Perhaps part of why I like it because I recognize a Boston rock chick's tone of voice in the narration. But that's a little unfair and pigeonhole-ish, because Jen's being herself, and she's telling a great story, riveting, and required reading for all aspiring pop stars. She's frank, engaging, vulnerable - no BS, and you can't help but root for her as the story unfolds.
I always wondered what happened after her major label release came out, then sank into oblivion. While it wasn't as strong as the first record (which itself could have been played to death on the radio) it had an obvious hit on it - "Getaway/February" should have gotten monster airplay - and it didn't add up that this was all we were going to get. I'm glad to be able to read about it now, in fact I regard it as something of a gift from left field, one of the rare times you actually get to find out why a favorite artist evaporated from the scene.
If you haven't heard of Jen, I don't know what to tell you, except like the rest of the world, you're missing out. Her website has a couple of downloadable tracks, so check there first. But I highly recommend this book and her two discs (but start with Cockamamie).
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Coulda Been a Contenda, July 27, 2006
Anyone who knows anything about independent music knows that it's tough on the musicians. I happen to be close friends with several serious hardworking independent musicians who are outstanding talents, and I wish they were all world famous, but we still gotta be realistic. Jen Trynin gives us a pretty enjoyable memoir here, but there's not really too much that's revelatory about it. In a world where there's 10,000 struggling bands for every one superstar, and where trendy untalented saps get rich while serious artists starve, we know that the biz is brutal and everybody gets ripped off by the power players. The biz is known for chewing up and spitting out up-and-comers in the rush for easy profits, and that's kinda like what happened to Jen Trynin, but not quite. The advance descriptions of this book may have you believe that she was badly ripped off, and you might expect an unforgiving report on the slimy underbelly of the music biz. But actually, Trynin was wined and dined by major labels, picked up a lot of hype, was treated reasonably well by the label she signed with, and released two real albums, but the company merely lost interest and dropped her when her career went from hot to cold.
So Trynin's story is less heartbreaking than it is depressingly predictable. It's all surely a good learning experience, and this memoir is usually quite enjoyable as Trynin describes her uphill ride to near-stardom. Her writing isn't too deep but it's frequently funny and sharp-witted. However, when things go downhill and Trynin's career sputters, so does this book. In her increasingly numerous passages about feeling lost and overwhelmed by the biz and its disappointments, Trynin is trying to come across as literary in a dark chick-lit sorta way. But she doesn't really have the writing ability to pull it off, and her attempts at self-examination and deeper insights into the biz just don't go anywhere useful. That goes for her coverage of her mixed-up love life too. This book is still a very fun read for those who love the do-it-yourself rock scene, but it doesn't quite reach as deeply as it thinks it does. [~doomsdayer520~]
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