Cool Town

I thought this would be a book about the B-52's, R.E.M. and other bands that came out of Athens GA. Sadly, it only devoted a small number of pages to those luminaries; the bulk of the book described in great detail the art/music “scene” in Athens. The author seemed to include the name of seemingly every person living there in the 1980s who played in a band, opened a coffee shop, or created an art installation. I skimmed most of it, focusing on the few chapters that actually covered bands that people outside of Athens would know. There are a few interesting ideas about the difficulties of being a hip, liberal college town in the middle of the Bible Belt, and the general lack of racial integration in the culture, but you have to slog through a lot of random names to get there. Can't recommend except to die-hard Athens scenesters who want to relive the town's glory days.