Cometbus, perhaps the most famous zine of the underground punk world, has had over forty issues. Despite Everything: A Cometbus Omnibus is the first ever collection of the editor's best-of pages. Aaron used original materials from his twenty years of publishing to put together this anthology. All pages were shot from the original layout, keeping the punky DIY look and feel of the zine. From his trademark handwriting to punk comic strips, Despite Everything is a 608 page version of the zine, with something for everybody.
Angrier and less pretentious than the drug-addled punk and new wave music genres, hardcore was an underground tribal movement created with passion but ultimately destroyed by infighting and dissonance. Among the important figures who emerged from hardcore are Henry Rollins, Dave Grohl (of Nirvana and Foo Fighters), Ian MacKaye (of Fugazi), and the Beastie Boys. Hardcore's legacy, however, continues to influence the do-it-yourself anticommercial trend of independent record labels and touring networks. The author experienced hardcore firsthand as a promoter, record label owner, and radio DJ, and he intersperses the book's oral histories with his informed commentary. Also included are photographs, discographies, and a complete national perspective on the genre.
The authors present an eyewitness account of the punk scene in Washington, D.C. Illustrated with more than 100 photos, the book documents the rise of trailblazing artists from the 1980s and 1990s, while examining the roots of Dischord Records, Positive Force, and Riot Grrrl. Artists featured include Henry Rollins, Minor Threat, Fugazi, and Bikini Kill.
Though Britain's notorious Sex Pistols shoved punk rock into the face of mainstream America, the movement was already brewing in the U.S. in the 1960s with bands like the Velvet Underground and Iggy and the Stooges. Through hundreds of interviews with forgotten bands as well as the ones that made names for themselves--including Blondie and the Ramones--Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain chronicle punk rock history through the people who really lived it. Please Kill Me is a thrash down memory lane for those hip to punk's early years and an enlightening history lesson for youngsters interested in the origins of modern "alternative" music.
The first compilation of the riveting and provocative interviews of Punk Planet magazine, founded in 1994 and charging unbowed into the new millennium. Never lapsing into hapless nostalgia, these conversations with figures as diverse as Jello Biafra, Kathleen Hanna, Noam Chomsky, Henry Rollins, Sleater-Kinney, Ian MacKaye, and many more provide a unique perspective into American punk rock and all that it has inspired (and confounded). Not limited to conversations with musicians, the book includes vital interviews with political organizers, punk entrepreneurs, designers, film-makers, writers, illustrators, and artists of many different media. Punk Planet has consistently explored the crossover of punk with activism, and reflects the currents of the underground while simultaneously challenging the bleak centerism of today's popular American culture.
Raw, brazen and totally intense, Fucked Up + Photocopied is a collection of frenetic flyers produced for the American punk scene between 1977 and 1985. Many were created by the musicians themselves and demonstrate the emphasis within the punk scene on individuality and the manic urge of its members to create things new.
Images were compiled out of whatever material could be found, often photocopied and, still warm, stapled to the nearest telephone pole to warn the world about next week's gig. One glance and you can sense the fury of live performances by bands such as Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys and The Minutemen, and, through the subtext the reader is exposed to the psyche of a generation of musicians stripped bare: The Germs, J.F.A, NOFX, The Circle Jerks, X, Devo, The Cramps, The Exploited, Screamers, The Avengers, The Dils and more.
Punk--the thriving movement in the '70s that rebelled against boring, sterile culture--was captured by one revolutionary 'zine. This book examines the finest moments from the pages of "Punk". Photos & illustrations.
The true story of a young girl who joined the punk rock subculture of Los Angeles. In 1980 Amie met The Connected - a group of teenage punks who had banded together as a family - and with that her life took an amazing turn. From the notorious Baces Hall riot, to skateboarding with Tony "Mad Dog" Alva, to throwing a dinner party for the hardcore band Black Flag, the author writes of her experiences with a quirky humor, candidness, and affection... and provides a rare window into a unique period in music history.
Salad Days is a poignant memoir for anyone who ever believed in the power of music. Fictional tale that revoloves around an individual's plight for artistic integrity in the 1980s hardcore punk scene. It's a coming-of-age story of sorts.
Sarasota, Florida in 1982 is a dreary, seaside resort town from which the only escape seems to be accepting a corrupt existence. Buzz, a 17-year-old punk, can see no honest future ahead of him. "The anticipation of things is always better than what really happens," he notes. He and his sister Sissy, along with their two friends Albino and Dave, spend their evenings working minimum-wage jobs at a fastfood outlet. They suffer going to high school with junior fascists. They wear second-hand clothes. They live in a second-hand world.
Technically this is a novel. About a guy and his punk band. Who start out shitty, but persevere, and eventually become pretty popular. If I mentioned that Ben Foster is better known as Ben Weasel from Screeching Weasel, you'll get a much more nuanced idea about what this book is about, and certainly, what this novel MIGHT be based upon. Regardless, it's a great, rollicking read. Whether or not it's entirely true, or entirely false, anyone with any knowledge of 90s punk in America will recognise large chunks of this. And anyone with any interest in, appreciation of, or experience of being in a band, breaking up with a girl, or punk rock, will thoroughly enjoy. It's that good. Though why he had to kill off his guitarist and best friend at the end I'll leave to his shrink to fathom...
