Drugs Are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir is the memoir of punk musician and performance artist Lisa Crystal Carver, published by Soft Skull Press in the US in 2005 and by Snowbooks in the UK in 2006.

The book covers her life from ages 18 to 32.[1] It relates her childhood growing up with her volatile ex-convict father, and her running away at 19 to enter into a troubled marriage to French performance artist Costes. The book also details her relationships with Smog's Bill Callahan and with industrial-music provocateur Boyd Rice, with whom she had her son Wolfgang.

Background

Drugs are Nice is adapted in part from Carver's diaries. She workshopped the book at a critique group she called the "Meat and Books Club" (named for the Atkins diet two of its writers were on).[2] The chapters about her relationship with Rice, where Carver writes that Rice insisted she get an abortion to end her second pregnancy and was violent toward her,[3] were difficult for her to write. She told the Boston Phoenix that she "had to get drunk every day" to write them. In lieu of a traditional book tour, Carver re-enacted a few anecdotes from the book live, including a suicide attempt with a potato peeler and a quick "make-out session" with GG Allin.[4]

The book was released alongside an hour-long DVD, Drugs Are Nice: A Suckumentary 1988-2005. It contained film shorts, footage of her band Suckdog, and avant-garde operas that she and Costes had put on.[1]

Critical reception

The Village Voice, reviewing the memoir, called it "an amazing elegy for the lost underground of the ’80s."[5] It was also praised by Billboard, Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly.[6][7][8]

References

  1. 1 2 Tomlinson, Sarah (31 October 2005). "Disturbing behavior: With a tell-all memoir and a shocking DVD retrospective, Lisa Carver goes out on a limb". Boston Globe. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  2. ↑ Marks, Rachael (August 2015). "Interview: A Conversation with Lisa Carver, author of 25 Lives". Hippocampus Magazine. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  3. ↑ Lucas, John (2 February 2006). "Drugs Are Nice / By Lisa Crystal Carver". Straight.com. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  4. ↑ Dodero, Camille (1 December 2005). "A scum-shock queen grows up". Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  5. ↑ Press, Joy (3 January 2006). "Forced Exposure: Suckdog Ringleader's Amazing Lost-'80s Memoir". The Village Voice. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  6. ↑ "DRUGS ARE NICE: A Post-Punk Memoir". Billboard. 27 January 2006. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  7. ↑ "Drugs Are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  8. ↑ "Drugs Are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 13 April 2023.


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