Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit, and Sound


Brian Peterson - 2009
    Burning Fight draws upon the memories of more than 150 individuals, many who played influential roles in the nineties hardcore scene, to understand what made this era so unique in its ability to synthesize music, politics, social issues and spirituality into a powerful counter-cultural movement. Includes interviews with Los Crudos, Unbroken, Earth Crisis, Inside Out, Avail, Shelter, Texas Is The Reason, Mouthpiece, Trial, Swing Kids, Coalesce, Burn, & many more.

All Ages: Reflections on Straight Edge


Beth Lahickey - 1997
    The book includes 29 interviews with people involved in the straight edge scene, some of whom are now in prominent bands.

Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Rock 'n' Roll in America's Loudest City


Steve Miller - 2013
    This is the story, by the people who saw with their own eyes, made with their own hands, and heard with their own ears.

Punk USA: The Rise and Fall of Lookout! Records


Kevin Prested - 2014
    In 1987, Lawrence Livermore founded independent punk label Lookout Records to release records by his band The Lookouts. Forming a partnership with David Hayes, the label released some of the most influential recordings from California’s East Bay punk scene, including a then-teenaged Green Day. Originally operating out of a bedroom, Lookout created "The East Bay Punk sound,” with bands such as Crimpshrine, Operation Ivy, The Mr. T Experience, and many more. The label helped to pave the way for future punk upstarts and as Lookout grew, young punk entrepreneurs used the label as a blueprint to try their hand at record pressing. As punk broke nationally in the mid 90s the label went from indie outfit to having more money than it knew how to manage.

Radio Silence: A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music


Nathan Nedorostek - 2008
     Hardcore music emerged just after the first wave of punk rock in the late 1970s. American punk kids who loved the speed and attitude of punk took hold of its spirit, got rid of the “live fast, die young” mind-set and made a brilliant revision: hardcore. The dividing line between punk and hardcore music was in the delivery: less pretense, less melody, and more aggression. This urgency seeped its way from the music into the look of hardcore. There wasn’t time to mold your liberty spikes or shine your Docs, it was jeans and T-shirts, Chuck Taylors and Vans. The skull and safety-pin punk costume was replaced by hi-tops and hooded sweatshirts. Jamie Reid’s ransom note record cover aesthetic gave way to black-and-white photographs of packed shows accompanied by bold and simple typography declaring things like: "The Kids Will Have Their Say", and "You’re Only Young Once." Radio Silence documents the ignored space between the Ramones and Nirvana through the words and images of the pre-Internet era where this community built on do-it-yourself ethics thrived. Authors Nathan Nedorostek and Anthony Pappalardo have cataloged private collections of unseen images, personal letters, original artwork, and various ephemera from the hardcore scene circa 1978-1993. Unseen photos lay next to hand-made t-shirts and original artwork brought to life by the words of their creators and fans. Radio Silence includes over 500 images of unseen photographs, illustrations, rare records, t-shirts, and fanzines presented in a manner that abandons the aesthetic clichés normally employed to depict the genre and lets the subject matter speak for itself. Contributions by Jeff Nelson, Dave Smalley, Walter Schreifels, Cynthia Connolly, Pat Dubar, Gus Peña, Rusty Moore, and Gavin Ogelsby with an essay by Mark Owens.

Harley Flanagan: A Hardcore Life of My Own


Harley Flanagan - 2016
    He went on to start the notorious hardcore band Cro-Mags.From the memoir’s introduction by American Hardcore‘s Steven Blush: “Harley Flanagan is not like you or me. Most of us grew up in relative safety and security. Harley came up like a feral animal, fending for himself in the ’70s Lower East Side jungle of crime, drugs, abuse and poverty. By age 10 he was a downtown star at Max’s Kansas City and CBGB, drumming in his aunt’s punk band The Stimulators, and socializing with Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Cleveland’s Dead Boys. Everyone thought it was so cute, but it wasn’t.”Harley was never shy: making friends with important figures like Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, defending himself in street battles, and, most recently, finding media play and court battles after former band members betrayed their one-time friend and bandmate.“Harley Flanagan’s incredible story is not just the history of New York hardcore, of which he is a founding father, but a history of New York itself. It’s all here, an amazing series of unlikely coincidences, catastrophes, accomplishments and associations. Chances are if it happened in New York and it was important and interesting, Harley Flanagan was somewhere in the room. If you care anything about music history, punk rock, hardcore or just a ripping good story, this book is the punch in the face you want and need.” – Anthony Bourdain

Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83


Tesco Vee - 2010
    Major fanatics of the new punk happenings in the late ’70s, TV and DS set out to chronicle, lambaste, ridicule, and heap praise on all they arbitrarily loved or hated in the music communities in the US and abroad.In laughably minuscule press runs by today’s standards, T & G was made by guys within the Midwest scene strictly for the edification of scenesters and pals in other cities like DC, Philly, Boston, LA, SF, Chicago, et al. Inspired by magazines such as Slash and Search and Destroy and writers like Claude Bessy and Chris Desjardines, TV and DS pumped out seventeen naughty, irreverent issues together, and TV did another five solo.Magazines like Forced Exposure and Your Flesh, among others, soon fired up Xerox machines themselves, and the rest is history. So is the legendary independent record label launched from this zine, and so are the bands covered inside: Black Flag, Minor Threat, the Misfits, Negative Approach, the Fix, the Avengers, the Necros, Discharge, Iron Cross, Youth Brigade, Faith, Die Kreuzen, Crucifix, Poison Idea—and all the other punks worth their weight in glorious black and white.

Salad Days


Charles Romalotti - 2000
    Now in its fifth printing, this is a sma...see site for more info.

Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music


Mark Baumgarten - 2012
    In 1982, K Records released its first cassette and put its own spin on punk's defiant manifesto: You don't need anyone's permission to make music. Thirty years later, the label continues to operate in the underground while rightfully claiming a role as one of the most transformative engines of modern independent music. It has also galvanized the international pop underground, helped create the grunge scene that took over pop culture, and provided a launching pad for the riot grrrl movement that changed the role of women in music forever. Love Rock Revolution tells the story of how it all happened, recounting the early journeys of K Records founder Calvin Johnson from the punk mecca of London to the hardcore clubs of Washington, D.C., in the late-'70s, the creation of K Records in the '80s, the label's role in revolutionizing independent music in the '90s, and its struggle to survive that revolution with its integrity intact.

I, Shithead: A Life in Punk


Joe Keithley - 2004
    in 1978. Punk kings who spread counterculture around the world, they’ve been cited as influences by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Rancid and The Offspring; have toured with The Clash, The Ramones, The Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Nirvana, PiL, Minor Threat and others; and are the subject of two tribute albums. They are the band that introduced the term “hardcore” into punk lexicon and may have turned Nirvana’s lead singer Kurt Cobain onto a career in music.But punk is more than a style of music: it’s a political act, and D.O.A. have always had a social conscience, having performed in support of Greenpeace, women’s rape/crisis centres, prisoner’s rights, and antinuke and antiglobalization organizations. Twenty-five years later D.O.A. can claim sales of hundreds of thousands of copies of their 11 albums and tours in 30 different countries, and they are still going strong.I, Shithead is Joey’s personal, no-bullshit recollections of a life in punk, starting with the burgeoning punk movement and traversing a generation disillusioned with the status quo, who believed they could change the world: stories of riots, drinking, travelling, playing and conquering all manner of obstacles through sheer determination.Praise for D.O.A.:“They rock out. They blow the roof off. Some of the best shows I’ve seen in my life were D.O.A. gigs. I’ve never seen D.O.A. not be amazing.”—Henry Rollins (Black Flag, Rollins Band)“The proper medicine growing young minds needed.”—Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys)“Joey Shithead casts a long shadow.”—John Doe (X)“They’ve changed a lot of people’s lives.”—Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters)Joey “Shithead” Keithley has long been an activist, including as a candidate for the Green Party, and is the founder of Sudden Death Records (www.suddendeath.com). He lives in Vancouver with his wife and their three children.

Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital


Mark Andersen - 2001
    punk rock music scene that led to the rise of such bands as Positive Force, Riot Grrrl, Fugazi, and Bikini Kill.

Crate Digger: An Obsession with Punk Records


Bob Suren - 2015
    His new passion causes him to form a band, track down out-of-print records that he loves and begin to reissue them, open a record store, begin a record distribution operation as a public service, mentor a host of young musicians, and befriend all manner of punk luminaries along the way. Slowly, his life’s pursuit pushes him to the point of personal ruination and ultimately redemption.

Burning Britain: The History of UK Punk 1980-1984


Ian Glasper - 2004
    Covering the country region by region, Ian Glasper profiles not only big names like Vice Squad, Anti Pasti, and The Defects, but also the more obscure bands of the era such as Xtract, Skroteez, and Soldier Dolls.

American Hardcore: A Tribal History


Steven Blush - 2001
    This oral history includes photographs, discographies, and a complete national perspective on the genre.

We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001


Eric Davidson - 2010
    We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001 tracks the inspiration and beautiful destruction of this largely undocumented movement. What they took, they fought for, every night. They reveled in '50s rock 'n' roll and '60s garage rock while creating their own wave of gut-busting riffs and rhythm. The majority of bands that populate this book - the Dwarves, the Gories, the Supersuckers, the Mummies, Rocket from the Crypt, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Muffs, and the Donnas among them - gained little long-term reward from their nonstop touring and brain-slapping records. What they did have was free liquor, good drugs, guilt-free sex, and a crazy good time, all the while building a dedicated fan base that extends across America, Europe, and Japan. Truly, this is the last great wave of down-and-dirty rock 'n' roll.