Duncan Bock, Editor: Spin Underground U.S.A.: The Best Of Rock Culture Coast To Coast

For this travel guide, Spin magazine has chosen 20 "hip" cities, from Boston to Seattle, and exposed their most interesting "underground" attractions without seeming to recognize the paradox inherent to such a project. Say you're visiting San Francisco, and you want to sample the local flavor and see what the area has to offer. Do you really want to be carrying around a 400-page book announcing your desire to see the underground? Would you rather find the interesting sights, shops and clubs for yourself, or arrive with some preconceived notion of where to go? Beyond these problems—and the fact that the book is likely to be obsolete approximately 10 minutes before it rolls off the presses—Spin Underground U.S.A. is not without its good points. The writing, modeled after the conversational style of the Let's Go series, is strong, and the writers, all natives, have obviously been chosen for their thorough knowledge of the cities. Ron House not only leads Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, one of Columbus' best-known bands, but also works in one of its most colorful record stores. Furthermore, the interesting-sounding Memphis Police Museum is not the sort of thing most people are likely to stumble across; the book could be improved by including more such attractions rather than inviting tourists to crash some beloved local coffee shop. For an introduction to the cities covered here—and there's always the chance that some particles of hipness may have seeped out of the 20 spots it covers—this isn't a bad guide. It's just a largely irrelevant one.