Weird Era
How Pitchfork Changed Music Forever: A Memoir

Quotes

"Pitchfork really did change music forever, which makes Ryan Schreiber one of the major innovators of this era. It became the central voice in how we perceive new music. I remember making record-buying to-do lists based on Pitchfork’s annual top 50 albums. Portlandia even did a sketch where we acknowledge the significance of their very existence. This book is a fascinating exploration into Pitchfork, and as a tribute, I put it at number one in my list of top books of the year." —Fred Armisen

“Schreiber’s contributions to popular culture are undeniable, and Weird Era is an important piece of media history . . . A vital account of an era-defining site and of one tastemaker’s search for a place to belong.” —Booklist (starred review)

“[Schreiber writes] with humor and grace . . . Schreiber started Pitchfork with little writing experience, but, 30 years later, he has gained an incisive reviewing style that he aptly turns on his own life . . . This memoir delivers as an ode to the early internet and a love letter to criticism. A must for 21st-century music snobs.” —Kirkus (starred review)

"Schreiber’s propulsive debut memoir takes readers on a roller-coaster ride through the alt-rock scene of the 1990s and aughts . . . Schreiber is refreshingly clear-eyed about the site’s missteps . . . [and] throughout, his passion for the era’s music is genuine and energizing. Readers who are nostalgic for the golden age of indie rock will be enthralled." —Publishers Weekly

"From a teenager’s bedroom to a floor in the World Trade Center, the journey of Pitchfork is one of the great magazine publishing adventures of our time. Ryan Schreiber tells his story with candor, a self-critical eye, and a born journalist’s feel for the telling detail. But more than a gripping memoir, Weird Era doubles as a history of indie rock in the 21st Century and its equally unlikely journey from snarky outsider to Zeitgeist sound." —Simon Reynolds, author of Still In A Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984-94

"Eloquent, candid and keenly evocative, Weird Era is a compelling coming-of-age story — not just of a person, but of a business, a musical community, and maybe even a generation." —Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life and Come as You Are

"As a journalist, I loved the inside-baseball of this seismic analog-to-digital media memoir. But its heart is a sweet, unsparing coming-of-age tale about self-actualization via a deep love of music. It'll hit home for many—it sure did for me." —Will Hermes, author of Love Goes To Buildings On Fire and Lou Reed: King of New York

"Weird Era isn't merely a riveting backstage tour documentary illuminating the creation of the 21st century's most important music publication, it's a poignant search for identity through sound and a brilliant first-hand chronicle of indie's sub-cultural ascent and eventual submersion into the mainstream. But most crucially, it's a tenderly reflective, wryly self-aware, and beautifully written memoir from Ryan Schreiber, who glimpsed the future first, for the benefit of an entire generation." —Jeff Weiss, author of Waiting for Britney Spears

"Weird Era is both a page-turning memoir on the nascent years of internet media, and an invaluable case study of how passionate criticism shapes the cultural ecosystem and defines the zeitgeist." —W. David Marx, author of Blank Space: A Cultural History of the 21st Century