You Don't Know Me but You Don't Like Me Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and My Misadventures with Two of Music's Most Maligned Tribes

Filled with veteran pop culture writer Nathan Rabin's "trademark humor, quirkiness, and self-deprecation" ( USA TODAY) comes a gonzo exploration of two of music's most obsessed fanbases: Phish's neo-hippie following and hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse's "Juggalos." When memoirist and head writer for The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin first set out to write about obsessed music fans, he had no idea the journey would take him to the deepest recesses of both the pop culture universe and his own mind. For two very curious years, Rabin, who Mindy Kaling called "smart and funny" in The New Yorker, hit the road with two of music's most well-established fanbases: Phish's hippie fans and Insane Clown Posse's notorious "Juggalos." Musically or style-wise, these two groups could not be more different from each other, and Rabin, admittedly, was a cynic about both bands. But once he gets deep below the surface, past the caricatures and into the essence of their collective cultures, he discovers that both groups have tapped into the human need for community. While studying these two maligned musical groups, Rabin grapples with his own mental well-beinghe discovers that he is bipolarand his journey is both a prism for cultural analysis and a deeply personal exploration. With equal parts humor and heart, You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Meoffers a smart, exhilarating look at Rabin's experience with two critically neglected touchstones of American popular music.

Nathan Rabin is a staff writer for The Dissolve, a new film website from the popular music website Pitchfork. Previously, he was the head writer for The A.V. Club, the entertainment guide of The Onion, a position he held until recently since he was a college student at University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1997. Rabin is also the author of a memoir, The Big Rewind, and an essay collection based on one of his columns, My Year of Flops. He most recently collaborated with pop parodist "weird Al" Yankovic on a coffee table book titled Weird Al: The Book. Rabin’s writing has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Spin, The Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, Nerve, and Modern Humorist. He lives in Chicago with his wife.