Mar 09, 2023
By Frank Valish
In Play Like a Man, Poster Children bassist Rose
Marshack details her life in the late ’80s, ’90s, and beyond in the band in which she made her name. Poster Children came out of Champaign-Urbana, IL in the late ’80s and subsequently rode the wave of “alternative rock” to modest success, a stint at a major label, and tours in support of bands like Sponge, Better than Ezra, and Fugazi (though glommed in with the former two in terms of tour support, the band’s aesthetic always resonated more closely with the
latter). Marshack structures this memoir to surround tour diary blog entries, which she began in the ’90s and continued through the band’s more recent resurgence. In doing so, Play Like a Man details Marshack’s tour exploits, but the book as a whole paints a broader picture of life in a band suffering through the ins and outs of trying to make a name for itself within the structures of both independent and major labels. What it does most successfully, however, is shine a light on who Marshack is as a person, an avowed computer enthusiast and programmer who parlayed her academic studies into revolutionizing how technology is used within the context of band life and CD technology, finally settling back into academia as a university professor once the halcyon band days dwindled, and ultimately finding a way to carve out a living doing both of the things she enjoys.
Author rating: 7.5/10
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