Reader’s Notebook, 3/5/26

Such Great Heights – Chris DeVille
My second book about modern rock of the year. This one, by one of Stereogum’s best writers, covers the indie rock of the past 25 years. From its rise out of the ashes of ’90s alternative rock to its embrace of hip hop, R&B, and traditional pop music in more recent years. And all the many stages in between.

It is not just an accounting of the bands that were important to each stage of this process. DeVille connects the changes in music tastes to broader changes in culture and technology. He gives the big bands you expect to get attention – Arcade Fire, Death Cab For Cutie, The National, etc – plenty of love while also dialing down to much less well known groups who also had an impact on how music changed over this century. Odds are if a band had any significant moment over that span, DeVille at least brushed across their existence.

Very well researched and written, and extremely thoughtful. One of the better music books I’ve read recently.

Dead Eye – Mark Greaney
The third entry in Greaney’s The Gray Man series. Once again his “assassin with morals” finds himself in a pickle, this time trapped by another assassin using The Gray Man as cover for his own plot to kill the Israeli prime minister. With the help of a Mossad agent who understands him to be innocent, the Gray Man lives to fight another day. Not without a lot of dead bodies along the way.