All These Things That I've Done: My Insane, Improbable Rock Life

by Matt Pinfield, Mitchell Cohen

Overview

“The most trusted opinion in rock music” (Billy Corgan, The Smashing Pumpkins) Matt Pinfield offers the ultimate music fan’s memoir, an “entertaining and insightful” (Clive Davis) chronicle of the songs and artists that inspired his improbable career alongside some of the all-time greats, from The Beatles to KISS to U2 to The Killers.

Matt Pinfield “makes rock ‘n’ roll fandom sound like a lifelong heroic quest—which it is” (Rob Sheffield). He’s the guy who knows every song, artist, and musical riff ever recorded, down to the most obscure band’s B-side single on its vinyl-only import EP. As a child, Pinfield made sense of the world through music. Later, as a teenager, Pinfield would approach his music idols after concerts and explain why he loved their songs. As an adult, rock music inspired his career, fueled his relationships, and, at times, became a life raft.

In this “charming, rambling account of a life saved by rock ’n’ roll...Pinfield is a disarmingly likable guide” (Kirkus Reviews) through his lifelong music obsession—from the heavy metal that infused his teenage years, to his first encounters with legends like Lou Reed and the Ramones and how, through his MTV years, he played a major role in bringing nineties alt rock mainstream.

Over his long career Pinfield has interviewed everyone from Paul McCartney to Nirvana to Jay-Z, earning the trust and admiration of artists and fans alike. Now, for the first time, he shares his five decades of stories from the front lines of rock ‘n’ roll, exploring how, with nothing more than passion and moxy, he became a sought-after reporter, unlikely celebrity, and the last word in popular music.

Featuring a rousing collection of best-of lists, favorite tracks, and artist profiles, All These Things That I’ve Done “is an excellent read” (Publishers Weekly) about how a born outsider wound up in the inner circle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476793900
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	04/04/2020
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Matt Pinfield is a music personality, TV host, and video deejay on MTV and VH1. He lives in Harrison, New Jersey, and All These Things That I’ve Done is his first book.

Mitchell Cohen has written on music and film for such publications as Creem, Film Comment, Village Voice, Phonograph Record, Musician, and High Fidelity, and was a senior A&R executive at Arista, Columbia, and Verve Records. He has won a Clio Award, was nominated for a Grammy, and writes the culture blog Lost in a Fool’s Paradise.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Dropping the Needle: Side One, Track One 5

50 Essential Rock Albums: The '60s 21

Metal Gurus and Other Discoveries 25

Encounters: Lou Reed 37

… And Then My Brain Exploded 43

Encounters: The Ramones 55

The Joy of Access: Getting in the Door 61

Encounters: Billy Idol 71

50 Essential Rock Albums: The '70s 75

Music Appreciation 101: Majoring in Rock Studies 79

"Modern Rock on the Jersey Shore" 97

50 Essential Rock Albums: The '80s 113

The Great Northwest: How Nirvana Saved the World 117

Encounters: Oasis 131

M(att)TV 137

Buzz Clips and Twists of Fate 145

50 Essential Rock Albums: The '90s 159

Jimmy and Doug's Farm: LA and the Dawn of the Digital Age 163

Encounters: U2 183

Encounters: KISS 189

My Brilliant A&R Career (or: As the Industry Crumbles) 197

Encounters: Coheed and Cambria 211

Pursuing the Killers (and Other Adventures in A&R) 219

50 Essential Rock Albums: The 'oos 231

Encounters: Bowie 235

Coda: Is Rock Dead? 247

Acknowledgements 259

Editorial Reviews

An entertaining, insightful book on the hold that rock music has on its most passionate and devoted fans. Anyone who’s been seduced by the power of music will find something to relate to in it.”—Clive Davis

"As intensely as any musician or songwriter, Matt Pinfield has walked the walk of rock and roll for decades and in doing so has made and enhanced the careers of dozens of great artists. He also turns out to be a revelatory writer with an ability to express emotionally powerful detail about both his own journey and those of many rock and roll greats. All These Things That I've Done is one of the deepest and most entertaining books ever about rock culture."—Danny Goldberg, author Bumping Into Geniuses

"Pinfield deftly narrates his musical life, offering a fascinating history of rock music told from his passionate perspective...His encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary sounds makes the memoir as informative as it is personal. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in rock’s history.”—Publishers Weekly

“Matt was the Man for those of us who beheld his rock wisdom on MTV. This is his life as a raconteur, a bon vivant, but most of all a fan who never lost his raw passion and burning heart and gargantuan music appetite. He makes rock & roll fandom sound like a lifelong heroic quest—which it is.”—Rob Sheffield, author of Love is a Mixtape

"A charming, rambling account of a life saved by rock 'n' roll...Pinfield is a disarmingly likable guide through rock 'n' roll's twilight."—Kirkus Reviews

"[Pinfield's] obvious joy for getting to work with the very people who have inspired him since his early days in New Jersey, as a boy listening to records at his parents' home, fills each page with warm humor and insider's knowledge of the rock-and-roll business, from the 1980s through the present."—Shelf Awareness

"Beautifully crafted....Whether its encounters with The Ramones and Lou Reed or interviewing Paul McCartney, Nirvana and Jay Z, Pinfield tells each story with wit, candor and above all a love and an appreciation for the music."—The Interrobang

"A true story of a boy’s love of music that turned into a career and gave him access to all of his heroes."—Billboard

From the Publisher

06/13/2016
With Cohen, video deejay Pinfield deftly narrates his musical life, offering a fascinating history of rock music told from his passionate perspective. The British Invasion was the sound track of his childhood, initiating a lifelong love of music. Pinfield became a college radio deejay, eventually working at MTV as host of the alternative rock institution 120 Minutes. As the story moves from one decade to the next, Pinfield follows each chapter with a best-of list detailing significant recordings from that part of his life. Throughout, Pinfield meanders between memories, mentioning the records that struck him, and jumps ahead to his professional life, where he encountered the artists who created his favorite music. Pinfield’s intimate relationships with rock stars such as Joey Ramone and Killers lead singer Brandon Flowers contextualize his fondness for their music. His own recurring struggles with addiction flesh out the narrative, grounding his enthusiasm for music in an awareness of the somber side of the rock lifestyle. His encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary sounds makes the memoir as informative as it is personal. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in rock’s history. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2016-07-04
A charming, rambling account of a life saved by rock ’n’ roll—and devoted to the music industry.Pinfield, the host of MTV’s “alternative” show 120 Minutes, does plenty of decadent tale-telling and name-dropping while presenting himself as a lucky rock nerd who fell into his fantasy life. Obsessed with music from infancy, he claims, “the dream of access, of proximity, began when I was a kid sitting in front of my record player.” He compellingly portrays his late-1960s childhood as an era of ubiquitous, exuberant music beneath the surface strife. He began attending concerts obsessively as a teenager, while barely surviving a brain aneurysm solidified his connection to rock’s raunchy nonconformity: “As always, records got me through.” He began DJ-ing for the Rutgers University radio station and at New Jersey clubs just as punk and new wave were surging regionally. “It was a perfect time to be on college radio,” he writes. Pinfield shrewdly built his reputation, befriending bands as a thoughtful interviewer and developing a following on a small commercial station: “For years,” he writes, “well into the ’90s, we were the one stop every alternative act had to make.” This led to his jump to MTV, despite being “this bald barrel of a person with a voice like granite, spouting arcane rock trivia.” Similarly, this insider’s perspective took him to Columbia Records, where he signed hard-rock bands, looking for post-grunge hits, until the industry’s financial strife led to mass layoffs. Pinfield’s enthusiasm endured, and he ably discusses the cultural value of rock and the quirky, high-risk mechanisms of the industry. He breaks up the narrative with best-of lists and vignettes of encounters with big bands (KISS, U2, etc.), which can seem superfluous, and he’s frank about the dark side of rock culture, noting his own trips to rehab and some lapses into sleazy behavior. Pinfield is a disarmingly likable guide through rock ’n’ roll’s twilight, though he occasionally epitomizes a music industry hustler.

Kirkus Reviews