A Really Strange and Wonderful Time

No Depression, “Best Music Books of 2024 So Far”
“Excellent… it’s truly one of the best books on the culture and business of music I’ve ever read. Don’t think about it - BUY IT!”–John Strohm, Reading for Nothing (SubStack)
“A vibrant portrait [and] a spirited rendering of a brief but shining moment in indie music history.”–Publishers Weekly
“A beautifully written tribute, documentation and exploration of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro, NC (and environs) indie music scene in the decade leading up to Y2K. The scope of what Maxwell covers is impressive: musical personalities–musicians and bands, yes but also the producers, promotors, WXYC DJs and station managers, the labels big and small–Merge, Mammoth, and others… An eloquent honoring of a place and time where indie rock was paramount and the community was passionate for it.”–Flyleaf
“A fun treat for fans of 1990s indie rock.”–Kirkus
“Here is a vibrant tribute to the kind of offbeat scene that made this era’s music so vital. Tom Maxwell brings readers into the Cat’s Cradle, into living room band practices, and into the local kitchens that employed so many young and excitable creative minds. A Really Strange and Wonderful Time is a snapshot of utopia, populated with can-do artists who, as one participant says, ‘are willing to toil in relative obscurity with the simple goal of producing something cool.’ We’re lucky Tom Maxwell was one of them.”–John Lingan, author of A Song for Everyone: The Story of Creedence Clearwater Revival
“In prose that is erudite, moving, and at times both hilarious and heart-breaking, Tom Maxwell has written the definitive history of the Chapel Hill music scene. Arduously researched and built around extensive interviews with almost all the major figures of the time, Maxwell reveals in granular detail how one small group of people in a tiny southern town could come together to create a community of artistic exploration that, for a while at least, made a whole bunch of noise that inspired the world. It was a time of magic, and these pages are filled with it.”–Nic Brown, author of Bang Bang Crash

Tom Maxwell is a writer and musician. A product of the fertile Chapel Hill music scene, he was a member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers between 1994 and 1999. Tom’s song “Hell” peaked at Number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, propelling the band to multi-platinum status. His songs have appeared in dozens of movies and television shows, a Super Bowl commercial, an Academy Award-nominated documentary and the Tony Award-winning soundtrack. He has also scored for movies, television and commercials. Maxwell’s writing has appeared in Slate, Salon, Longreads, The Bitter Southerner, Our State Magazine, College Music Journal, Southern Cultures, The Oxford American, and The Library of Congress, among other places. He is a member of the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.

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