Meet Me in the Bathroom

Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011

By: Lizzy Goodman

Narrated by: Charlie Thurston, Nicol Zanzarella

Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR and GQ

Joining the ranks of the classics Please Kill Me, Our Band Could Be Your Life, and Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, an intriguing oral history of the post-9/11 decline of the old-guard music industry and rebirth of the New York rock scene, led by a group of iconoclastic rock bands.

In the second half of the twentieth-century New York was the source of new sounds, including the Greenwich Village folk scene, punk and new wave, and hip-hop. But as the end of the millennium neared, cutting-edge bands began emerging from Seattle, Austin, and London, pushing New York further from the epicenter. The behemoth music industry, too, found itself in free fall, under siege from technology. Then 9/11/2001 plunged the country into a state of uncertainty and war—and a dozen New York City bands that had been honing their sound and style in relative obscurity suddenly became symbols of glamour for a young, web-savvy, forward-looking generation in need of an anthem.

Meet Me in the Bathroom charts the transformation of the New York music scene in the first decade of the 2000s, the bands behind it—including The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, and Vampire Weekend—and the cultural forces that shaped it, from the Internet to a booming real estate market that forced artists out of the Lower East Side to Williamsburg. Drawing on 200 original interviews with James Murphy, Julian Casablancas, Karen O, Ezra Koenig, and many others musicians, artists, journalists, bloggers, photographers, managers, music executives, groupies, models, movie stars, and DJs who lived through this explosive time, journalist Lizzy Goodman offers a fascinating portrait of a time and a place that gave birth to a new era in modern rock-and-roll.

Must read for indie music fans

Great stories and perspectives from The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kings of Leon, The Killers during their heydey. Only thing that took some getting used to in the audiobook is the name being read before every quote. It’s also a lot of names to keep track of if you don’t know every artist/producer by name.

Worth It

First off, I love the stories of this era as a big fan of these bands since they were emerging when I was in high school. This is a tough audiobook to get in to the groove with though with regards to the performance. The interviewee's names are read before their statements which would sometimes be all of 3 words and that took a few chapters to get used to. I also found the reader of the female interviewees to sound like a school girl, so giddy and obviously smiling when the sentence didn't seem to call for it. After getting over those annoyances you get to listen to a great oral history of a fascinating time in music. I recommend it.

Great listen

Takes a bit to get used to the ping pong of quotes but once you do this is great

NYC might be dead but the stories arent

Great stories if you were into this era and music. loved the format of quote style story telling reminiscent of 'Please Kill Me'.

so much hot juicy gossip too...

Wasted narration

The narration/reading of this book is really awful and hearing that the book is going to be made into a docu series makes me nervous. Why bother having these two people read it aloud? They mispronounce names and use voices that make people seem unbearable. A real shame and I’d be embarrassed to be voiced by them.

Entertaining and insightful

Loved this book on the early 2000s NYC music scene. The rise of the Strokes, LCD , Yeah, Yeah. Yeahs are well documented

Great book, half the narration is great. But...

Love the storytelling and the structure of the chapters. Interesting read for any rock fans or NYC lovers.

One warning: the female narrator actress is awful. The interview subjects speaking about incredibly serious, thesis-level stuff relating to the story. But this woman narrator can’t help but giggle and over-act the written page.

Male narrator is great, affecting different voices for the various subjects with great success. Never hire this woman again, Audible.

All stories from the ppl that lived through it!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend the physical book. At first I didn't like the sound of the narrators. Is that what these ppl sounded like? like the inflections?...

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I wish the audio book had the images attached.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The whole story was great to imagine what NYC was like. So nostalgic.

Any additional comments?

Great book, thank you!

one of my favorite books about music

I've listened to this audiobook multiple times now. such a fascinating story written in a very enjoyable format. The format takes a little to get used to but once you do, it's a fun ride.

It’s an oral history and it’s great

Oral histories are fallible. This isn’t trying to provide “objective” history, it’s a bunch of people talking about their experiences. And each other. And it’s really cool.