Rock On: How I Tried to Stop Caring about Music and Learn to Love Corporate Rock

Published by Harvill Secker, 2008, softcover, 224 pages, condition; as new.

How do you land a sweet six-figure marketing gig at the hallowed record label known for having signed everyone from Led Zeppelin to Stone Temple Pilots? You start with a resume like Dan Kennedy's:

· Dressed up as a member of Kiss every Halloween
· Memorized Led Zeppelin IV at age ten
· Fronted a lip-sync band in junior high
· Worked as a college DJ while he was a college drop-out

In his outrageous memoir, McSweeney's contributor Kennedy chronicles his misadventures at a major record label. Whether he's directing a gangsta rapper's commercial or battling his punk roots to create an ad campaign celebrating the love songs of Phil Collins, Kennedy's in way over his head. And from the looks of those sitting around the boardroom, he's not alone.

Egomaniacs, wackos, incompetents, and executive assistants who know more than their seven-figure bosses round out this power-ballad to office life and rock and roll.