A Book Talk at The Hound With Angela Jaeger

Come meet the author of I Feel Famous: Punk Diaries 1977-1981 Angela Jaeger.

I Feel Famous: Punk Diaries 1977-1981 is a girl’s coming of age story set to the pulse of punk rock. The book tracks 17-year-old Angela Jaeger’s exciting discovery of punk music and its accompanying lifestyle in 1977. A music enthusiast living in New York’s East Village, Angela’s story unfolds chronologically, charting her late adolescence in tandem with her transition from observer to participant. Gradually becoming a nightly fixture of her neighborhood’s vibrant underground rock milieu at CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, by 1978 she had continued to fulfill her punk fantasy abroad. She followed the Clash on a tour across England, finally returning home in 1979 to start her own band. Angela encountered an impressive cast of characters on her adventures, including Lydia Lunch, Joe Strummer, Billy Idol, Klaus Nomi, and Sid Vicious.

Laced with humor and wide-eyed curiosity, Angela’s daily first-hand accounts take the reader on a personal journey not found in other punk histories. The text is illustrated with the visual expressions of Angela’s enthusiasm—her drawings of punk personalities and fans, previously unseen photos and ephemera culled from her personal archive—affording a unique insight into the relationship between the music, the media, and the audience.

Published by the Hat & Beard Press, the diaries touch on a variety of themes including identity politics, downtown NY, Anglophilia, fandom, fame, and fashion. Contrasting the stark black and white of 1970s New York with the exuberant beat-up color of a decaying London and its disenchanted youth, a lost era is brought back to life through a dedicated fan’s own reportage. Creative, funny and endlessly cool, the result is an unprecedented perspective into an ever-popular moment in contemporary cultural history.

“A beautifully clear and funny account of the times that you can trust . Not only was Angela Jaeger in the middle of it all, but she wrote everything down while it was happening. Thanks Angela, for a great read, for filling in my blanks, and for reminding me of all the people, the bands, and the kissing!”

VIV ALBERTINE, author of Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys

“Finally, Angela Jaeger’s mythic diaries of being a teenage punk rocker on the streets of the Lower East Side of NYC have arrived! More than a diary, this is genuine scene-of-the-crime stuff—from frugging with Iggy Pop to troublemaking with Lydia Lunch to witnessing the ground zero brilliance of Talking Heads and X-Ray Spex, all the while keeping an eye out for the Son of Sam killer! Look out! An alive-and-kicking time machine into a momentous era of radical rock ’n’ roll revolution—sweet and smart, wistful and hormonal, honest and fun—and totally, delightfully, on the loose.”

THURSTON MOORE, author of Sonic Life: A Memoir

“I deeply envy Angela Jaeger’s life. I saw much of that stuff, too, but I was older and already corrupt. She, on the other hand, was a teenager, capable of full immersion and unbridled enthusiasm, all of which she conveys in her sweet, fresh, honest, unguarded diaries of the time. You may want to borrow her memories for yourself—I certainly will.”

LUCY SANTE, author of I Heard Her Call My Name and Low Life

“Angela Jaeger was there at the birth of punk—she saw bands at CBGB, sold hair dye at Manic Panic, read NME at Gem Spa—and lucky for us, she kept fascinating notes on it all. I Feel Famous is an essential entry into the early history of punk—and like Jaeger herself, it’s a hell of a lot of fun, too.”

ADA CALHOUN, author of St. Mark’s is Dead

Angela Jaeger is a singer, writer, and teacher who founded the late 70's No Wave band the Stare Kits and has recorded with Pigbag, Bush Tetras, Trevor Horn, David Cunningham, and The Monochrome Set, amongst others. A born and bred New Yorker who has lived in Barcelona and London, she currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

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