5 comments about The Dresden Dolls Companion.

1. I love this book! It is amazing for any Dresden Doll fan that wants to play their music. Or if you can't play the piano, it's worth buying just as a collectable, there is SO much more to this book than just sheet music.



2. This book was really helpful when trying to play the songs i've heard for so long. It's actually very cool to see Amanda scribble out a lyric and write in one she prefers instead. Keep in mind though, that this book does come with a parental advisory sticker, but it's really nothing to be concerned about. If you're old enough to listen to their music, you're mature enough to hand the content inside.



3. As a fan of the music, as well as a musician, I find a great amount of appreciation for the Companion. It really is the only book of its kind, you aren't going to get a songbook with both the histories of the band, each individual song, and perfomance tips written in on the musical scores.
   
   If you're interested in playing songs by the Dresden Dolls, this will be an invaluable resource, but even if you just appreciate their music, this is a window into the heart and soul of an excellent band. The only problem I have is with the book itself, I wish it were capable of resting open on a music stand without closing or flopping over.



4. Guitar chords and full sheet music for every song (except 672) on the original debut album, plus a section with photos and information on the band. I'd recommend this even if you don't play piano or guitar.



5. This book is alright but I bought it thinking it was all of their songs and was disappointed to find out it's only early stuff. It makes a big deal about including photos, art, writing etc, but considering there are only 11 songs of sheet music, it would be a pretty thin book without all the other stuff. It's a great book, I am just more of a fan of Yes Virginia than the self titled, so now am searching again for sheet music for my favourite songs, Delilah, Mandy Goes to Med School, My Alcholic Friends etc, when I thought I had paid $45 (NZ) for them already. poos. PS If anyone knows where to get hold of Cat Power sheet music can you let me know? Thanks.

5 comments about Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984.

1. Reynold's book is a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable read- far more so than it ought to be, given its length (well, the UK version anyway, which runs to over 540 pages), and the fact that the book's momentum is carried forward more by the author's enthusiasm and writing ability than by any compelling thesis. Reynold's claim is that the late 70s/early 80s was a kind of golden era for music, a claim which hardly holds any water, because it boils down to his being a teenager during the period in question, hence viewing the whole shebang through rose-tinted spectacles. Its true that this period gave us Joy Division, Pere Ubu, Television and Talking Heads. But it also gave us a lot of crap too (Bow Wow Wow, ABC etc), as well as the massively over-rated PiL and the oh-so-pretentious Scritti Politti, both of whom Reynolds spends a lot of time on.
   
   I think the bottom line is that if you analyse any period with the kind of obsessive detail which Reynolds does here, you're bound to unearth a lot of interesting material. And Reynolds has certainly done that, due in no small part to his obsessive love for the period in question. And this ossession is what drives the book, making it such a great read. The prose brims with passion- particularly in his descriptions of the music itself, which are superb throughout. I particularly liked his description of the "flinty peal" of Will Sergeant's lead guitar on Echo & The Bunnymen's debut LP, and Peter Hook's compressed bass-line on She's Lost Control (described as like a "steel cable" running through the song.) He even manages to get excited about describing the sound of Trevor Horn's Fairlight sampler on Frankie Goes to Hollwood's "Relax." (Now that's what I call obsessive!) In addition to this musical nous, Reynolds also offers some enlightening intellectual and socio-historical context, albeit a rather summary overview.
   
   It seems from the other reviewers that the US version has been cut. I'm not terribly surprised by this, as there's some pretty disturbing stuff in here. The early 80s music scene (like any underground scene, I guess)had its fair share of psychos and misfits. Some of the "musicians" here were admirers of Charles Manson, The Moors Murderers, and Hitler. Somewhat less extreme (although no less distasteful) was Devo's support for hardcore pornography, proclaiming that it was the only means for the working-classes to get "real" sex (conveniently passing over the porn industry's constitutive exploitation and misogyny). Most shocking of all was Malcolm McLaren's (thwarted) attempt to set up what could only be described as a magazine for paedophiles in the early 80s. Reynolds avoids making too much of this, partly because to moralise would be rather un-rock'n'roll, but mainly because he entertains a rather naive idea of the avant-garde as a kind of playground for adults, where "anything goes." (This hand-me-down idea was particularly fruitful for the rock'n'roll lfestyle). Having said that, the way in which Reynolds combines the music with its unruly context is one of the books main strengths. Highly recommended.



2. Heard about this book in a review in Wire magazine, and my girlfriend kindly ordered the book from amazon.co.uk for me for Christmas. When the book came to the States it had lost about 200 pages and any sections on music that wasn't "as popular" on this side of the ocean. In the day of global information and the lowering of borders, this is just absurd. Buy the full book (a 5 star proposition), it's worth it.



3. It's well-researched and well-written - that much we can all agree on - but I think the writing is a bit dry. This book has been sitting next to "Please Kill Me: the uncensored oral history of punk" on my bookshelf for nearly a year, and I can only read a chapter or two at a time. I've tried reading "Rip it Up" several times, but it lacks the energy and compulsive readability of its shelf-mate. I sorely want to read this book, but my mind starts wandering every time I start reading it...it feels kind of like homework. It just lacks the energy of the music it describes.



4. Don't make the mistake of buying the US version
   Get the whole story and buy the UK version. It contains chapters on US bands on the SST label, 2nd Gen. Industrial bands (Foetus, Test Dept.) a very important part of the post-punk aural landscape.
   
   Ironic (or maybe typical) that a book on the highly political post-punk era is as cut up and censored as the US edition is.
   
   from Simon Reynold's blog:
   
   
   DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE UK AND US EDITIONS
   
   * the chapter sequence is different from the UK version
   
   * three chapters are cut for reasons of space: the Devoto/Subway Sect chapter; the Conform to Deform Second Wave of Industrial chapter; and the SST/Blasting Concept chapter
   
   * two chapters compressed into one for reasons of space, the Goth chapter and the Glory Boys/Big Music chapter
   
   * Timeline is absent for reason of space
   
   * in the US edition, the Appendix on MTV and the Second British Invasion is folded into the chapter on New Pop's peak
   
   * no illustrations in the US edition
   
   * the Mutant Disco chapter is written up as proper historical prose in the US edition, as opposed to the oral history in the UK edition
   
   * no bibliography in the US edition
   
   
   I don't understand this "reason of space" explanation. Wonder if they cut out some words from the dictionary for "reason of space"?
   Approximately 200 pages missing from the US edition.
   
   Very Very Lame
   
   Don't waste your money. Get the UK edition and skrew the US publishers.



5. A great book. Makes you want to dust off those old vinyl records and rejoice again at those wonderful sounds.

5 comments about Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer.

1. 
   
   This book has depicted Anna Mackenzie, Joe's mother, as an alcoholic and a depressive. Those of us who knew her as a sister or an aunt want to challenge this portrayal. She was a quiet, dignified and private person who was also to us unfailingly warm, welcoming, kind and tolerant.
   
   She was the second child of nine, born on a croft and used to hard work from an early age. She became a nurse which in the 1930s was a job even more physically demanding than it is today. We are mystified by the references to her house as "shabby" and "run down". Neither she nor Joe's father Ron was interested in acquiring or flaunting household possessions. Nor did they sit about as if "they had been used to servants": Anna cooked and looked after the house while Ron was in charge of the garden and the DIY repairs and maintenance.
   
   When we visited her in Warlingham or when she was at home in Bonar Bridge, there was no sign of her drinking excessively. She was a social drinker who had one or two gins in an evening - a habit which she probably picked up in India. She recalled with astonishment and disapproval the large amounts of drinking by others that she had observed in the diplomatic communities. At home, she'd usually go to bed early, leaving her nephews and nieces talking with Ron. He wasn't an alcoholic either though he drank more than she did. Nobody in Anna's family that we've spoken to can understand why she's been portrayed in this way. There's no drinking culture among the Mackenzie women.
   
   Like most people, Anna had to cope with deaths in her family. Her older brother Donald died when she had just turned 17 and her older son David killed himself. She rarely referred to David and did not discuss how his death had affected her. That was not the Mackenzie way. She never struck us as depressed however; she was always reserved, content to lead a quiet life.
   
   She loved and supported Joe; she approved of his principles; she worried about him. She admired Gaby and adored her granddaughters. Joe inherited many of her good qualities.
   
   She was loved by us and greatly liked and respected by all those who really knew her. She deserves for all this to be known.
   
   On behalf of Jessie Mackinnon, Iain Gillies, Anna Gillies, Mairi Macleod, Jan Macleod, Rona McIntosh, Alasdair Gillies, George Macleod, Jane Mackinnon.



2. A very detailed and informative biography. It is successful in filling in Strummer's years when he was no longer on the world stage. Often, it is the subject himself that keeps you reading through some periods that don't quite grab the interest as the early years do. A good read on the formative years of Brit punk.
   I'm accustomed to being provided a discography when reading a biography on a recording artist and in this case a filmography as well. Surely this would have been an easy task.



3. I have just finished reading this book and it took around 4 nights and a weekend. It is around 650 pages, the same length as Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness but I don't know whether anything can be inferred from that. I cried some tears at the last page, being a huge Strumnmer and Clash fan. It was great that he reconciled with Mick Jones at the end and also with Gaby. Mick joined Joe on stage in November 2002 in a benefit concert for the striking workers of the fire brigade union.
   
   The book does a great job in filling us in on Strummer's "wilderness years" which lasted from around 1985 to 1998. Also it fills us in on much of his romantic escapdes and his battles with depression. I almost came away wishing that I had not known some of this. If Strummer was still alive, I doubt that the biography would have exposed him so fully. He really has nowhere left to hide after this book. Salewicz clearly is confused when he recounts Joe's romantic associations during the Gaby years. He is unsure whether to moralise against Joe or to brush it to one side as just a great man's excesses of love for humanity. Although Salewicz comes off as somewhat confused and a fence-sitter, he does a fair job in tackling some difficult issues connected with his subject.
   
   The book presents many examples and stories of Strummer's genuine kindness and fraternal ethics. Many of the stories are new. I like the story of Joe buying Simonon an extra pair of sunglasses when both were broke in 1976 and of how he later paid 30,000 pounds to one of Topper's drug dealers to save Topper's legs. Overall, I feel the perspective we gain of Strummer in the book is probably a fair and balanced one although it leaves him hopelessly exposed and more vulnerable in death than he was even in life.
   
   The discussions of the boarding school years and Strummer's pre-Clash adulthood covers much ground already covered in Pat Gilbert's excellent Passion is a Fashion (see my review for that book on this site) and Savage's England's Dreaming. Salewicz adds little here. What is new is some revealing interview responses from two of Joe's multi-cultural rock chicks, Jeanette Lee and Paloma. Also new is some insight and information about John Mellor and the Croydon home. Don Letts plays a less significant role in the book than I feel he did in real life. The Sex Pistols too are largely ignored by Salewicz suggesting that he has not placed the Clash within their true historical context. John Lydon shared many views with Strummer and should have featured more prominently in the book. Was he even interviewed?
   
   I preferred Gilbert's book over this one because the Clash was a cohesive whole and focussing on one member in particular takes away some of this. I feel that we gain a better picture of the unique association between the Clash's members and their favourite Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove haunts from Gilbert's book (which oddly is not mentioned at all although Gilbert's name appears in the lengthy Acknowledgements at the back of the book). Probably no other band in history except for perhaps the Jamaican reggae artists have been so tied to a time and place as the Clash (although much of their message remains timeless).
   
   I feel that this book presents Mick Jones in a somewhat more favourable light than Gilbert's book. Somewhat oddly we gain a deeper knowledge of Jones (but not of Simonon, Headon, Chimes or the three Mark II guys)from Salewicz's book than from Gilbert's which is supposedly only a Strummer biography. Gilbert does a far better job than Salewicz regarding the Clash Mark II. The Mark II years are not covered well by Salewicz. Possibly he felt he did not need to re-invent the wheel here given Gilbert's brilliant look into this era.
   
   The book tends to be overly detailed and I don't rate it as a five-star book. Nonetheless, it is very good. Strummer should be remembered as one of the most important social commentators of the twentieth century.
   
   See also my soon to be published paper:
   James, K. (forthcoming). "'This is England': Punk Rock's Realist/ Idealist Dialectic and its Implication for Critical Accounting Education", Accounting Forum, doi:10.1016/j.accfor.2008.01.002 (available at www.sciencedirect.com or by contacting me at kieran_james@yahoo.com (Kieran James)).



4. I didn't know much about the Clash or Joe Strummer before I picked up this book. So for me, this book was like taking a grad school course where I'd taken none of the prerequisites.
   
   The author makes assumptions that the reader already knows what happened (e.g. different band lineups), and he's just filling in the details. Several captions don't identify the bandmembers in the photographs. (I was more than a third of the way through the book before I could confidently identify who was who.) Making things worse, the author has a habit of abruptly switching from one person's account to another, with liberal use of pronouns "I" and "he," making it difficult to follow who is saying what. The problem is compounded when the author randomly inserts his own first person accounts.
   
   Much like being unprepared for a grad school course, this book was much more work (and much less fun) than I expected. I'd recommend you have a good background on the material before you take this one on.



5. Sometimes a title says it all. Joe Strummer lived a life of the highest highs and lowest lows and at the end ended up somewhere in the middle. A thoroughly researched book with a sometimes over-bearing personal touch from the authors many years of friendship with the subject.
   
   A large tome that explores the ins and outs of his time in front of and not in the lime-light show he was a complicated man. Despite rock star status, he succumbed and battled the same humanity that afflicts us all on a daily basis.
   
   A hefty read with not too much to add that already hasn't been said. It is always a hard balance to strike when it comes to writing about someone you knew intimately, and for a decent chunk of it Chris Salewicz does so well. As mentioned in a previous review about Mr. Salewicz tendency to sometimes read into everything as some great philosophical contribution to the Joe Strummer legacy is a bit of revisionist history I'm sure, but does not distract to much from the main point of this book.

5 comments about Born to Rock.

1. This book made me laugh; it was great! Poor Leo's confusion, denial, and acceptance over his parentage was well-written and believable. The real eye-opener is when Leo "finds out" who his dad is. The poor boy is in shock.
   
   Read the book to find out the rest.
   
   I'd give this book 9 and 1/2 stars and would recommend this book to anyone.



2. This is the kind of book that I'd like to do with my class. Funny...and about things that interest teens. It hooked me on page 1. When is the movie coming out?



3. "I'd always blamed my McMurphy DNA for every weird urge and character flaw, but that was just neurotic. Never did I seriously believe that I'd turn out to be so spectacularly right! I mean, a dad in the entertainment industry would have been kind of cool, but this was more like terrorism than show business. The blood of a notorious lowlife flowed through my veins. I was Prince Maggot." Leo Caraway makes this statement in the book Born to Rock by Gordan Korman when he realizes that his true biological father is not who he thought he was. As he finds out it is really front-man of the famous punk-rock band Purge, Marion X. McMurphy. A.K.A. King Maggot.
   
   Leo Caraway is a bright, 18 year-old, and president of the Young Republicans. Leo's life is going great for him. He is about to graduate high school and has a scholarship to Harvard. However, while taking a test he is accused of cheating and has his scholarship taken away. His family can't afford tuition and Leo can only think of one person to turn to. King Maggot. The only problem is, King doesn't know who Leo is.
   
   Born to Rock is an excellent story of a young boy trying to connect with his true father and makes you wonder, "what will happen next?" This book is way too exciting to put down. I loved reading about Leo's many adventures and problems while touring with the band Purge and discovering the true identity behind King Maggot and the rest of Purge.



4. "I'd always blamed my McMurphy DNA for every weird urge and character flaw, but that was just neurotic. Never did I seriously believe that I'd turn out to be so spectacularly right! I mean, a dad in the entertainment industry would have been kind of cool, but this was more like terrorism than show business. The blood of a notorious lowlife flowed through my veins. I was Prince Maggot." Leo Caraway makes this statement in the book Born to Rock by Gordan Korman when he realizes that his true biological father is not who he thought he was. As he finds out it is really front-man of the famous punk-rock band Purge, Marion X. McMurphy. A.K.A. King Maggot.
   
   Leo Caraway is a bright, 18 year-old, and president of the Young Republicans. Leo's life is going great for him. He is about to graduate high school and has a scholarship to Harvard. However, while taking a test he is accused of cheating and has his scholarship taken away. His family can't afford tuition and Leo can only think of one person to turn to. King Maggot. The only problem is, King doesn't know who Leo is. Leo is troubled when he is trying to figure out how he will come in contact with King Maggot so he throws a note to him during a press conference. But doesn't know if he will respond.
   
   Born to Rock is an excellent story of a young boy trying to connect with his true father and makes you wonder, "what will happen next?" This book is way too exciting to put down. I loved reading about Leo's many adventures and problems while touring with the band Purge like losing a poodle in a nightclub and dealing with his grumpy roommate, Cam, all while discovering the true identity behind King Maggot and waiting for the DNA tests results to come back.



5. I listened to this as part of a book club, knowing that I wouldn't really care to read it as it's not my favorite genre. Still, even though I don't care much for young adult lit., it made me smile and it livened up my workouts as well. It struck me as a bit low-budget, esp. when the musical breaks came in, but it was worth a listen.

4 comments about Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible and Fried: My Life As A Revolting Cock.

1. Chris Connelly (ex-Fini Tribe, Revolting Cocks, Ministry, Pigface, Murder Inc., The Damage Manual) gives a vivid, fascinating behind-the-scenes account of his experiences in the Chicago industrial music scene between the years 1987 - 1995, and his roller coaster relationship with Ministry's Al Jourgensen. For fans of the above-listed bands and anything released on Wax Trax! Records in the late 80's, there is an invaluable amount of information detailing the creation of several songs from The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, Beers Steers & Queers, Linger Ficken' Good, and more. Chris recounts his relationships on and off the road with a who's who of industrial/alternative musicians, from such bands as Skinny Puppy, Killing Joke, and Cabaret Voltaire.
   
   The book details rampant drug/alcohol abuse on tours and in the studio, wild post-concert parties, damaged relationships, personal tragedies, musical highlights and lowlights, written to make the reader feel like he/she was re-living the whole experience with him. Chris paints a very fair, but disturbing picture of a drug-addicted, out-of-control tyrant in Al Jourgensen, whose unpredictable personality makes for unlimited tension many times throughout the book. The book is not all 'doom and gloom', however, and boasts several funny stories that at times will have you laughing. Chris gives detailed tour journals for Ministry's Mind tour in 89-90 and Psalm 69 tour in '92, the Pigface tours for Gub and Fook in '91/'92, and RevCo's Beers Steers & Queers Tour in 90-91. There are also details from band rehearsals and 'one-off' shows that were performed. Popular Chicago clubs Medusa, Exit, and The Metro/Smart Bar (among others) get plenty of mention.
   
   At 223 pages, it's a fairly quick read. I spent a weekend enjoying this book, and found myself captivated by the seemingly non-stop wild stories, and rewarded with a goldmine of information on Ministry, RevCo, and real life in the Wax Trax circle of musicians. The price listed is a bargain for this book, and I can only hope that other musicians from this circle, such as Paul Barker and Bill Rieflin, someday decide to share their memoirs as well. Highly recommended.



2. 
   I always felt Chris Connelly was one of the more articulate, interesting, and diversified members of the cyber-biker 'industrial rock' circus swirling around Ministry's Al Jourgensen, and so I'm excited that he was able to get a book-length bio of that band's most interesting years into print before Jourgensen did. When THAT happens, this will surely provide a valuable alternate history to the inevitable grand-standing and historical revisionism coming from Ministry's overlord of aggro (and hair extensions, which Connelly describes in a hilarious manner that I won't give away).
   
   I have a very tangential but still kind of intimate connection to this scene, so the nostalgic effect I get from reading a litany of hallowed Chicago nightlife institutions like Smart Bar, ChicagoTrax, Cabaret Metro etc. will not be replicated in every reader. Closeness to this culture has increased the "page-turner" quality of this book for me, but only by a little- it's still an eminently great read in a literary world swamped with boring paint-by-numbers rock confessionals written by, say, someone who was Bowie's keyboard tech for 3 shows in 1981. There's often nothing more tedious than listening to someone else's 'drug' stories, or even someone else's detailed descriptions of their soundchecks and daily road routines, but Connelly re-animates this age-old format with wit, conviction, and even healthy doses of humility. Some of the pharmaceutical hijinks are actually laugh-out-loud funny, and there's an exhausting scorecard of such described: even one experience outlined in this book would be a life-defining event that you warn your grandchildren about, for the Revolting Cocks it's just what happened to them on that particular, er, Wednesday evening.
   
   
   Connelly also never lets us forget just how varied the individual personalities were that made up Revolting Cocks and Ministry in their heyday: there's the cool and professional Bill Rieflin and Paul Barker, the belligerent Martin Atkins, the dark and elusive Ogre, and of course the endlessly yelling and exaggerating man-child Jourgensen. Any one of these characters (besides dozens more profiled in this book) could have their own tragicomic book or documentary film, and it's a testament to Connelly's discipline that he doesn't linger on any one person for too long...of course that is my primary complaint about this book, too, that it's just TOO SHORT to perfectly illustrate the epic-scale psychosis and trouble that the RevCo/Ministry axis seems to welcome with open arms. I would welcome at least 50 more pages; while the 'tour' sections are fleshed out admirably enough there seems to be less attention paid to Connelly's actual creative process while writing and recording music. I think he is selling himself short in this regard- the man is an incredible lyricist, and I also would have welcomed some reproduced lyrics from the records in question (although there might be legal hurdles to clear in order to do this).
   
   The Ministry machine was never quite as intriguing without Connelly; perhaps one reason why 'Uncle Al' is hanging up his Stetson hat after one final tour and one last middling album of industrial metal. Do yourself a favor- pass on the ticket for the next Ministry show and buy this instead, it's cheaper AND more inspiring.



3. Having been a big fan of the industrial screaming of Chris Connelly in the late eighties when I saw this book for sale I had to give it a read. Some of the stories are familiar, having been touched upon in various interviews etc...but Chris gives them a first hand perspective and writes in a conversational manner that keeps it entertaining page to page. His honest and often hilarious look at the industrial machine that was Al Jourgenson and the Wax Trax circus makes this book a must for anyone who thought Ministry, The Revolting Cocks, etc...were the thinking man's keyboard and drum machine driven answer to metal only to discover in the 90's that Jourgenson had burned up all his talent with his addictions and became just another metal band. Fascinating and funny, a must for all industrial music fans...I haven't stopped listening to the Damage Manual since I finished this book.



4. Connelly is articulate, surprisingly humble and filled with anecdotes. From that standpoint, it's an excellent book for anyone who wanted to know what was really going on in the WaxTrax scene of the late 80's and early 90's. He pulls no punches, nobody is painted as perfect, there's little hero worship, and yet all the major players are humanized to a degree that, despite many flaws, they still seem sympathetic. Al Jourgainsen particularly - he gets ridiculed for his affectations and self-involvement, lambasted for his spiralling drug problems and fondness for sycophants, and yet it still seems that Connelly regards him with a bit of genuine affection (even if they haven't spoken for years).
   
   What's particualrly refreshing is his candor about his own problems and career trajectory. It could've easily slumped into a sex/drugs/rocknroll hardcore aggrandizement, or a paen to now-clean living, but it manages to avoid either boasting or becoming maudlin, no easy feat. Connelly tells it like it was - chasing the highs, chasing the booze, chasing the girls while fully realizing the ridiculousness of the situations, and he doesn't preach about how he's cleaned up his life.
   
   His writing style, though could've used an editor. It reads more like a blog, complete with bursts of all-caps, the occasional dangling sentence fragment, and the sort of onomotopoeia one doesn't usually find in a memoir. Not that this is bad, mind you, but it can be a little distracting to be reading a detailed narrative of a Pigface show and have to stop and go back to parse out a sentence that didn't seem to make sense.
   
   All told, though, it's a fun, quick read. Dodgy stylistic choices aside, it is a fascinating no-holds-barred look into a side of alternative music that most only have a passing familiarity with. If you grew up in the suburbs, you at least knew of Ministry, and probably had at least one black-clad friend who owned all their albums. Ministry, RevCo, Pigface, etc though, were enough on the fringes that they never generated the kind of press mythology that many of their alterna-rock contemporaries did, so this is a look into a story that has largely remained untold until now.

5 comments about American Hardcore: A Tribal History.

1. As one who was there in the L.A. scene, this was a fun, insightful look back in time. It was also interesting to hear points of view from many of the key people. As it has been a while, it helped solidify the memories and the evolution of how the scene came and went. I loved it. I enjoyed the photos, but would have loved to see more. It's like looking at an old yearbook or family album of sorts.



2. 
   For someone as young as me, who wasn't alive during the hardcore scene, this book comes in handy with good information. Steven Blush and others explain the hardcore scene in their own perspective. The entire book is made of interviews from people that were participants in the hardcore scene in the 80's. It includes people like Henry Rollins, Ian Mackaye, Jello Biafra, etc. In the beginning of the book the author and others sum up the roots of hardcore. Later on when they get started on HC (hardcore) they talk about things like straight-edge, Washington D.C., and others, where it gets really interesting to read. You don't have to know anything about HC to read this either.
   You can tell Steven Blush didn't want to be biased about the subjects so he tries to put everybody's opinion about everything which basically evens it out by being factual rather than biased. The many pictures including the cover I think are very necessary for the book and display the proper attitude and energy of the HC scene. This book was very easy to understand and even fun to read. I do not recommend this book for very young readers; there are images that can be inappropriate for some. For other mature readers I definitely recommend this book to you, and please...don't judge this book by its bloody cover, it's a great book.



3. American Hardcore chronicals and/or documents the history of the early 80's Hardcore(Punk)scene. Started by angry,fustrated,violent kids in the suburban seaside coastal middle class towns of Los Angeles, this movement spread from city to city and coast to coast. With each location holding thier own individuality, from L.A. to New York, to Chicago to San Francisco, to D.C. to Boston, Hardcore was more than music it was a social movement. Hardcore was a brand new fresh form of punk rock that was all it's own. While it branched off of the 70's Punk scene, it was it's own genre, who's participants constituted a tribe onto themselves. These kids were angry fustrated violent and fed up Regan-Era misfit kids. Becoming intertwined with Surfing and Skateboarding and becoming very close with it(As most of the bands were surfers and skateboarders), Hardcore redifined the status quoe of what was possibele when you did things your own way and you did it yourself(D.I.Y.). Hardcore's music was fast,with songs usually clocking in at around 2 minutes or less,energetic, and contained lyrics dealing with everything form political and social unjustice, to projecting anti-racist anti-war anti-conservative anti-reagan(Ronald Reagan) content and/or rants, with the lead singer usually screaming his or her head off in an angry manner that scared the crap off of (many) new wave fans,Hardcore was one of the most important musical movements in american history.While the mainstream refused then and refused now to give Hardcore the credit that it deserves(Although Hardcore was not looking at all for mainstream acceptance, in fact it was also a rebellion against the mainstream)Hardcore influenced countless things in the mainstream. From the pop-punk movement, to the crappy emo scene currently riding the charts rite now. Hardcore was a new form of radicalism,music,social outrage,political and socail commentary,and altogether one of the most important (musical)movements to ever take place in American History, and this book tells that story.



4. Although I have never listened to hardcore, I wanted to read this book becaus eit was recommended by "janitor-x" and I was copying his writings for a half-nephew of mine. I respect "janitor-x"'s view that Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could be Your Life was much too "soft" in tone and focused too much on bands whose aim was not integrity but success on the college radio that emerged in an effort to counter the lack of competition a stiflingly restrictive commercial radio network had in late 1970s America.
   
   The problem with "American Hardcore: A Tribal History" begines with its format, which consists of long series of dialogues involving the major players in the 1980s hardcore scene. There is so little structure or order to the book that a reader will feel he or she is jumping into something most people without knowledge of rock criticism are unlikely to comprehend. The actual writings, whilst they provide a very different and worthwhile perspective from Our Band Could be Your Life, are not the interviews that would provide - were the musicians willing to be at their most explicit about their experiences - very interesting stories for people who have never listened to hardcore. Rather, we have successions of speeches that appear not to be arranged with the slightest logic, with the result that the books does not convey a story as much as it does pieces of news from the time hardcore was popular.
   
   There are also a number of problematic omissions, for instance it is never mentioned that the Dead Kennedys, whilst like all other hardcore artists never able to dent the Billboard Top 200, had a Top 40 single and album in Britain. "American Hardcore: A Tribal History" is written, likewise, in a manner that suggests the evolution of hardcore where it did is self-explanatory when, as I know very well from living in Australia, there are definite social conditions associated with its rise that any thorough book on the subject would at least mention if not explain with some decent sociology. One might be left wondering why some cities had large hardcore scenes and others did not, when there are undoubtedly definite social explanations that a music history student ought to be informed about.
   
   The links of hardcore to other generes, such as rap and thrash metal, are in contrast useful but even they could be much more complete than they are. The actual origin and roots of hardcore, however, is not given any explanation - as I noted above and a problem shared with Our Band Could be Your Life.
   
   On the whole, this is a tough book to read for anybody but the most devoted hardcore fan and even they might be put off by the constant promotional posters and graffiti amongst which the conversations that make up the actual text are scattered. For all my respect for "janitor-x", I really cannot recommend this book to any music listener. It would be better to read some serious journalism on rock, like by Joe S. Harrington, even if very little of it is about hardcore.



5. This book is highly informative, and almost inspirational. Highly recommended for anyone who has ever used the phrase "F*ck You!"

5 comments about Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs.

1. Punk Royalty King John Lydon/Johnny Rotten's no bollocks account of the fast and furious rise and fall of THE 70's punk group The Sex Pistols. From their beginnings at Malcolm MacLaren's leather shop on King's Road in London to their final concert in San Francisco ... John Lydon/Johnny Rotten ... says it like it is ... and you don't get the feeling you have been cheated.



2. The book is so good, that i' couldn't belive it. It's really enjoyable to read it, so go for it. Buy the f**king thing.



3. There is only one John Lydon. This is a great read. Gives the story behind the media interpretation of the story. This is a great read.



4. I must say that I thought it was just a biography of the Sex Pistols, when it actually is an autobiography of Johnny Rotten, but it's great anyway. It's not only John's point of view about the band and all the controversies involved, but also the point of view of other people close to the band. It's quite easy to read, as John makes an amazing use of the words -everything he tells seems to be amusing!
   
   It isn't wll-written, in the sense that John has written everything that would come to his mind, but I find it more real like that. I guess you'll agree.
   
   To sum up, highly recommended ;)



5. 
   I think one reason I liked it was that Johnny Did Not Glamorize or Glorify anything. He writes about himself in a natural, almost maybe "humble" way, which anyone can appreciate in a writer's story.
   
   
   His childhood is revealed and detailed wonderfully, and what an Interesting Childhood he had ! His "rat catching" stories,childhood thoughts, preoccupations and feelings are refreshing to read and learn about.
   
   The photos are intriguing and very "for real". Don't expect professional, glossy ,Glam photos. He's displayed the "REAL"
   
   
   Great book for people looking beyond The Sex Pistols, behind the stage persona and interested in john Lydon for himself.
   
   I love this book and writing style because it captures him authentically and genuinely.
   
   You needn't be a "Sex Pistols" fan to enjoy this unexpected biography.
   
   Highly recommended for any readers !

5 comments about Get in the Van: On the Road With Black Flag (2nd Edition).

1. This book sucks - Rollins seems like an ok guy at the beginning but you get so tired of his constant loner meets crybaby attitude. Everything seems like a struggle to him. This book is comprised of pictures and journal entries, I love Black Flag but this book is boring. Rollins is self centered and boring constantly seeking the spotlight and then acting as if it is not what he wants, listen to him talk on his cd's or read any of his books, it seems as though his attitude towards others is poor - almost like ---I Just want to be left alone - - if that is the case then why is he performing on saturday night live - acting in movies- going on MTV????? lets not forget the Gap ads.. I used to really like Rolins and I still listen to his music but sometimes I just don't get it. if you do buy this be sure to buy the second edition as it has way more pics and pettibone art.



2. In my opinion Henry Rollins isn't terribly bright, wasn't the best Black Flag singer, the Rollins band sucked and his other books are unreadable. But this book is great. The cover is great, the content is great, the photos are great. He's totally egocentric although he often feigns modesty. He's still interesting and this book is a nice doument of Black Flag.



3. Black Flag lead singer Henry Rollins kept a journal while touring and the result is a fascinating look not only at life in a touring rock band but also at Rollins' own psyche as he reveals his self-doubts, fears and other neuroses. anyone interested in music in general and punk bands in particular will enjoy this



4. Very cool to know more about Rollins and Black Flag on the road, the audiences, the clubs and places, all the bad and good times they had... strong message in it..
   Very recommended for all hardcore and punk rock fans and anybody else...



5. Henry Rollins book is the best rockdocument i have ever read. If you are interested in Black Flag, Henry Rollins or punk / hardcore scene in the 80`s buy this book! That was real harcore touring what they did with a Black Flag.

5 comments about Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (An Evergreen book).

1. I first got this book because a good friend and fellow music afficianado was AGHAST that I'd never read it. Or even heard of it. So, happily she supplied me with a copy for my birthday a few years ago.
   
   It's one of those books that alternately horrifies you and makes you laugh out loud in surprising bursts that scare away pets. The stories are told by those who were there, and are so blunt it's almost shocking. It's all about the music, the drugs, the art, the friendships..and it's absolutely a book you have to set aside enough time to read in one sitting.
   
   I've read this book so many times, and now I've turned into my friend: "you've read Please Kill Me, right? NO?! Aggghhh!" Then I rush out and buy it for the poor soul who's unaware of the greatness. Cheers to Legs McNeil for gathering up all this information from all these different personailites and having the sense to write it all down!



2. Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (Grove, 1997)
   
   Let's get this out of the way first: the title is misleading, unless "Punk" is referring to the New York-based magazine of the same name, for this book centers on a couple of blocks in New York City (specifically, those containing GBGB's and Max's Kansas City), along with tales from other places lived by bands who ended up making those bars their second homes-- the Dead Boys, the Sex Pistols, etc. If it happened outside New York, or didn't get to New York until after the death of Sid Vicious, you won't find it here. I mean, come on, the book is four hundred fifty pages long, and less than a tenth of that is devoted to the period between 1980 and 1992 (when, coincidentally, the last great three-chords-and-a-snotty-attitude punk album, Jesus Lizard's Liar, was released). Not a single mention of the LA scene that centered around SST records. Nothing midwest except the Dead Boys after the breakups of the MC5 and the Stooges. And just forget Texas. Two hundred pages about No Wave and New Wave, but Black Flag doesn't even get a mention? Come on, now. One interviewee explicitly states it: punk died with Sid Vicious. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. (And you'd think these people would know that, given that it seems many of these interviews were conducted in the early nineties.)
   
   As a history of the influences and rise of the punk movement, I grant you, I have yet to find a better retelling. All the dark, nasty side of the Dolls, the MC5, the Stooges, the Ramones, the Pistols, it's all here, often told by the surviving members of the bands. Iggy's legendary drug binges. Conspiracy theories about Nancy Spungen. The final word about the breakup of the New York Dolls. If this kind of stuff makes you salivate, by all means pick this up, but be warned that you'll have to continue the story in Steven Blush's American Hardcore. Even then, you're going to be left out in the cold; no one's yet written the book on Touch and Go, for example. **



3. Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain *****
   
   
   Written and compialed mainly by 'Punk' magazines resident punk Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me is an oral account of the rise and fall of punk. Mind you that this is mainly a focus on New York punk as this is where Legs hails from.
   
   Starting in Detriot in the 1960's with The MC5 and The Stooges and in New York with The Velvet Underground we see the rising of punk before it was even such a thing. A few years go by and all of those bands go by and then all the sudden the New York Dolls hit the scene and Iggy leaves the Stooges and goes solo. All of the sudden bands like The Dictators, The Ramones, Television, and The Dead Boys start to appear in New York brining punk to it's climax in clubs like Max's Kansas City and the legendary CBGB's. At about the same time in England they are doing same thing but with more of a political aggenda. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, Stiff Little Fingers all start to appear, and this is the beggining of the end. The Pistols cross the water into America and break up at the end of the tour and then starts the violence and all the bad junk that is for some reason thought of any time the word punk is spoken. So punk officialy dies with an explosion creating many, many, many musical genres like New Wave, Hardcore, and Grunge to name a few. This is all told through the eyes of those who were their in bands like The Ramones and The Sex Pistols. Also by those who dated people in those bands like Bebe Buell and Nancy Spungen.
   
   Please Kill Me is a great book for an introduction into what was punk culture in the late 1970's. That is all it should be used for is an introduction. It would be impossible to cover each and every band that emerged at the time because there was simply so many. But as a nice over view this hits the nail on the head perfectly when capturing the rise and fall of original punk rock.



4. First things first: this is a great read. Take this book to the beach and you'd better lather on the sunblock because you'll loose all track of time. Gossipy, witchy (with a capital b), funny and even profound, you'll be amazed that people on so many mood altering substances could remember so much.
   
   Now for the downside. As others have noted, this is the history of punk rock in New York City, full stop. The rest of the country, let alone world, doesn't get much air time unless someone from NYC went there and reported back. The lead singer of The Clash gets less space in this book than a drug-addicted hooker who is especially resourceful in her groupie activities. So the title is bombast, isn't that all too punk? The book begins before punk by tracing the roots of the genre back to the Velvet Underground, then takes detours to glam rock, glitter rock, poetry readings, before the main course. The last quarter of the book sort of dribbles away, like it's had too many drinks itself, and doesn't bother to trace where punk is today.
   
   The New York Dolls, the Ramones, Television, and other seminal NY bands get there due and for me that was worth the price of admission. The definitive global history of punk has yet to be written, but this book is a fun ride that tells one part of the story.



5. Pretty good book, but unfortunately not really the complete history of punk rock. It concentrates almost entirely on New York City in the early-to-mid 70s. I suppose the authors included what they know and like, but I wish there was more coverage of English punk rock.

No comments about No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York 1976-1980.