The Ledge #82: Author Caryn Rose

One of rock 'n' roll's biggest misconceptions is that only males can be "true" music fans. Generally, the portrayal of women in books, movies, and even song lyrics showcase them as nothing more than "band aids" whose only reason for existence is to cater to musicians or their music-obsessed boyfriends.
This couldn't be further from the truth. The majority of my music confidantes have always been females, and I have never seen a gap in knowledge and passion. Most of my concert road trips have been in the company of women, and not in the romantic sense. They are on the trip because they're as excited to see the act as myself.
Writer/photographer Caryn Rose shares this frustration, and when she met author Nick Hornby "I took a deep breath and blurted out that my goal was to write the women's version of High Fidelity". One month ago, she did just that with the publication of the most excellent B-Sides and Broken Hearts, which Rose says on the book's website is "for you if you...

* ever made a cassette with the same song for the entire side
* waited in line to buy a record the minute it came out
* got asked "so are you a groupie?" when you explained this was the third (eighth, tenth, twentieth) show you've seen on this tour
* spent  your lunch money on music or concert tickets
* been told you "sure know a lot about music for a girl"
* bought multiple copies of a record because you wore it out
* bought multiple copies of a cd so you could have one for the work, one for the car, and one for home
* check someone's last.fm feed before accepting a date with him
* would pull out white light, white heat at someone's house to see if it had ever been played (thank you, Lester)
* can quote stage patter, interview quotes, or random lines in album reviews
* refer to band members by their first names of often your friends would start to raise their eyebrows
* (insert your own obsessive trait here)

Rose knocks it out of the park with this story of Lisa Simon, who responds to the news of Joey Ramone's death in 2001 by splitting up with her Dave Matthews-loving boyfriend and heads to Los Angeles to sort out her life with her buddies in the fictional band Blue Electric. On that drive from Seattle, she reminisces on her life as a music fan, from her first concert (The Who at Madison Square Garden in 1979) to her obsessions with the Ramones, Replacements, Stones, and the early 90's Seattle scene that spawned Blue Electric.
It was only natural that Rose would appear on The Ledge, and the tracks she selected is sort of the soundtrack to the book. Besides chatting about her novel, we also talked about her love of the 'mats, her appearance in Color Me Obsessed, Bruce Springsteen (she writes for Backstreets Magazine), the Mets and so much more! It is the longest episode yet of The Ledge, and could have continued for hours longer.
For more information on Caryn, check out her blog, and do me a favor and purchase her fantastic novel. To listen to her Ledge appearance, download it via iTunes, stream it via Stitcher, or nab a direct download here!
Here's the playlist:

1. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue - Ramones
2. No Action - Elvis Costello
3. Emotional Rescue - Rolling Stones
4. Heartbreaker -  Rolling Stones
5. Breath - Pearl Jam
6. Have You Seen your Mother Baby - Rolling Stones
7. Sound and Vision - David Bowie
8. Unsatisfied - Replacements
9. Outshined - Soundgarden
10. Country Feedback - R.E.M.
11. Badlands - Bruce Springsteen
12. A Song For You - Whiskeytown
13. Stray Cat Blues (SG version) - Soundgarden
14. Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World - Ramones