Instant rock cred: I grew up in Seattle. Annihilation of cred: I left in the mid-1980s, at 20, to become a "poet" in San Francisco. (Embarrassing, right?) So Mark Yarm's account of how my hometown became the center of the last great hard rock movement is one I lived only a little bit. Still, I know the Pacific Northwest well enough to be mightily impressed with the truth Yarm uncovered. This exhaustive oral history features unknowns, cult figures, supporting players and stars; each gets the

—Ann Powers