Not Given Lightly: The Chris Knox Story

Author Craig Robertson
Rights Available World excl. NZ

In the mid-1990s, the Village Voice described Chis Knox as ‘indie rock’s premier oddball singer songwriter’ and, when Knox suffered a stroke a decade later, Yo La Tengo, Bill Callahan, the Mountain Goats and Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel all piled in to a tribute album and concert.

Who was this epileptic, opinionated, heckling, shorts-and-flip flops-wearing, endlessly creative musician from New Zealand? How did his music with the Tall Dwarfs and as a solo artist, as well as his key role recording everyone from the Chills to the Clean and instigating the Flying Nun record label, reshape lo-fi, do-it-yourself, post punk musical culture? Not Given Lightly tells the story of Chris Knox and the reshaping of post-punk music for the first time.

About the Author
Craig Robertson grew up in Dunedin, New Zealand, where as a student he wrote a thesis on the Flying Nun bands. He is now Professor of Media Studies at Northeastern University and author The Passport in America: The History of a Document (‘provocative’ – NY Times) and The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information (‘captivating’ The Atlantic). This is a labour of love by an enthusiast with a deep understanding of the man, the music, the scene, and the larger world of cultural history. Knox himself blessed the project before his stroke.