"Because it combines permissiveness (say whatever you like) and brevity (far shorter than most music books), the format lets writers undertake research—conducting interviews, unfolding historical contexts—without requiring them to detail entire careers. Instead, they can paint quick portraits, or puncture myths. Nick Attfield's pretty good book about Dinosaur Jr. and Amanda Petrusich's great one on Nick Drake dispel similar calumnies about their heroes: The famously sheepish and mumble-prone J. Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.) and the famously shy, sad Drake weren't just avoiding the public, or toking up (though they were doing that, too)—they hid from the world so that they could practice guitar."
In Slate, Stephen Burt reads all of Bloomsbury's 33⅓ series.
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