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6th out of 149 books
—
31 voters
American Hardcore: A Tribal History
Hardcore punk was an underground tribal movement created with anger and passion but ultimately destroyed by infighting and dissonance. This oral history includes photographs, discographies, and a complete national perspective on the genre.
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
April 1st 2006
by Feral House
(first published November 9th 2001)
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Having gone the past ten years without reading this, I picked it up hoping for illuminating quotes/insights for an article I'm writing but Blush's editorializing and poor framing of the subject matter is pretty distracting. He has a pretty even hand in showing the idiocy and brilliance of each band/scene but there's a sloppiness to the writing/editing that is inexcusable regardless of how 'punk' that might be. Certainly better than the film but more of a slog to get through than an oral history...more
I experienced the Chicago Hardcore scene during the summer of '85. By that time Hardcore had become redundant with no new content to offer. Skinheads were taking over and there was all this macho posturing going on. It was no better than the high school cheerleader mentality that hardcore proclaimed it loathed.
At around that same time Penelope Spheeris' Decline of the Western Civilization was released (and has since come to be touted as the definitive documentary on the subject--eventhough that...more
At around that same time Penelope Spheeris' Decline of the Western Civilization was released (and has since come to be touted as the definitive documentary on the subject--eventhough that...more
An oral history/testimony-style text, this book is a collection of quotes from the alleged originators of hardcore -- people like Jello Biafra, Ian MacKaye, Henry Rollins, and many more -- and various scene participants who made art, wrote zines, and put out hardcore records. Sounds like a great document of early hardcore, right? Not so much. The author is only interested in documenting his version of what the early hardcore scene was, from his white, dudebro perspective. The text is divided int...more
I found this amongst my old shit at my dad's house recently and picked it up to look through it. Instantly remembering why initially I found this book where it belongs, in the fucking trash.
It's an oral history. Very common for punk history books after Please Kill me came out. Mr. Blush commonly uses quotes that are obviously out of context to support his rather bogus views on race/gender/sexuality in (and out i suspect) of America's early hardcore scene. He negates the role of women in the com...more
It's an oral history. Very common for punk history books after Please Kill me came out. Mr. Blush commonly uses quotes that are obviously out of context to support his rather bogus views on race/gender/sexuality in (and out i suspect) of America's early hardcore scene. He negates the role of women in the com...more
I've always hoped (and still do) that one day Blush will get someone to publish a huge tome made up of just the transcribed interviews for this book because I have a feeling they are actually really good. Compared to other oral histories (the genre du jour for punk history books) I can't think of anything notable about this.
I think that it speaks volumes when an author can take what was probably hundreds of hours worth of interviews with people who were often obnoxious and purposefully abrasive...more
I think that it speaks volumes when an author can take what was probably hundreds of hours worth of interviews with people who were often obnoxious and purposefully abrasive...more
Steven Blush was biased throughout the book. However, I can forgive this as most of the bands in the Hardcore Scene from what I gather were all about spitting their own biased agenda regardless. Seeing as he was a kid involved in the scene at the time, I believe it's fitting.
It took me a little while longer than normal to finish this book as I wanted to allow some of the information to set in each chapter and do some of my own research into the great/terrible bands presented within the book.
Grea...more
It took me a little while longer than normal to finish this book as I wanted to allow some of the information to set in each chapter and do some of my own research into the great/terrible bands presented within the book.
Grea...more
Essential reading for any fan of hardcore punk or for anyone who remembers that early 80s era and wondered what the hell was going on. The author was part of the scene and a show promoter, but most of the book is snippets of interviews with band members and others on the scenes of various cities across the country where hardcore punk popped up. Not a dreamy, nostalgia trip -- one chapter deals on how girls and women were pretty much marginalized by the whole male-dominated scene -- the book exam...more
This book should be a great resource full of information from the people in bands or that went to shows in the 80's. Instead, it all too often devolves into the author's personal attacks or biases. The tipping point is when he claims that hardcore (or you get the feeling punk music too) aren't relevant anymore, because the music and the people involved aren't lucky enough to live when he did. This is total nonsense. There is good information in this book, but the problems are glaring enough that...more
WM1: Ho letto questo libro l'estate scorsa, vacanza in Dalmazia, perplessa contemplazione della Croazia, paese in cui tornavo per la terza volta in pochi anni, un posto dove la rockstar più famosa (Marko Perkovic Thompson, metti da noi un Ligabue) va sul palco indossando simboli ustascia e saluta a braccio teso, nel tripudio di decine di migliaia di spettatori, che a loro volta hanno in testa la bustina nera degli ustascia e addosso spille e spillette con svastiche e slogan ultra-nazionalisti. S...more
This book seems to have struck up some controversy since it's release. Some complain that the content is edited to flesh out the authors ideas and theses. Some complain that this or that group doesn't get their due. Some say that Blush diminishes female's roles (and other minorities; gays, blacks) in The Scene. The noise surrounding the book echoes a lot like the music it chronicles. But I really enjoyed the book. I enjoyed it because it was the first I came across that actually tried to get thi...more
I can't remember where exactly I read this review (I want to say it was Felix Havoc writing for Heartattack?), but the reviewer nailed it on the head when he said something along the lines of: "it's like Steve Blush did years of patient & thorough research for his masters thesis & then waited until the night before it was due to type it all up". Couldn't of said it better myself. It's full of typos and (at times) inappropriate opinions and biases of the author, but luckily 80% of the boo...more
If you're at all interested in punk or hardcore music, read this book. It's a good history of the 80's hardcore scene that uses interviews with musicians and zine writers as a basis. This book strips the nostalgia and glory from the scene in favor of realism and accuracy. For the most part, I was engaged, but there's a chunk in the middle that just goes through small scenes that didn't have much impact. This part is boring, but probably because what actually happened is boring.
Aside from the obvious (that the author obviously had extreme bias and a definite sway, which does influence who and what gets covered prolifically). I just watched the DVD companion to this book. Both top-notch. Its a real and comprehensive, no-holds-barred compendium into the blitzkrieg of the burgeoning hardcore punk scene circa 1980-1986. This book is brazen, outright, and perhaps completist to a fault. Well worth the read for any true fan of punk rock then and/or now.
Excellent. I completely fell in love this book. Really interesting and shares a good amount of information that will certainly keep you engaged and reading until the end. It's an in depth reality about how it all started, and the bands that kept hardcore alive and dead. My favorite, so far. If you're interested in this kind of music, you'll love it. If you don't have a clue about what this music is and represents, then you're better off not touching it. Grreeeaatttt!
While filled with a ton of anecdotal history, it was nearly impossible to finish this book...it just ended up feeling like a bi-coastal circlejerk about who played with whom, who fought whom, and how it all got fucked up. if you dig old-school hardcore, it is worth reading the chapters about bands you care about, though.
I grew up on the tail end of this movement in 1980s America. I hung around a few times with members of one of the bands mentioned in the book. This book gives excellent perspective to a splintered musical genre that developed in the 80s, and provided me with background on how it developed and spread across the USA.
Dec 28, 2007
Mike
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people who like their musical memoirs with as little nostalgia as possible
Though it covers some of the same turf as Our Band Could Be Your Life, American Hardcore is by no means a repeat. The raw energy of the original scene comes through in the writing--complete with typos, mistakes, etc. Think of it as a very well-constructed 'zine. Most of the big names are well-represented. If you want Ian Mackaye or Henry Rollins stories, you'll get your money's worth. But it's the vivid descriptions of the far out hardcore scenes in Reno or Vancouver that remind you that just li...more
Before punk became "safe" and before the Misfits skull was plastered on everything, this genre had a REAL edge. This book chronicles the birth (and deaths) of American Punk in its earliest and purest form. There are good pictures to accompany good anecdote as well. I recommend to any fan of music.
A good compliment to "Our Band Could Be Your Life", Blush documents the hardcore side of the 80's underground. I don't know if this will convey what the big deal was to anyone who wasn't around at the time, but it meant a lot to me and is an excellent document of a mostly forgotten era.
Not bad, it gives you a deep insight on the scene at that time, sometimes maybe even too deep mentioning maybe every single band of the time but without much criticism...definitely worth reading for everyone whose heart has beaten with Minor threat, gorilla biscuits and dead kennedys...
not the best book about hardcore out there, mostly because the author's shitty attitude kind of gets in the way of my enjoyment of the content he's providing. and speaking of that content, there are a shit ton of factual errors in this, especially in the section about western mass.
The georgraphic organization rather than temporal takes some getting used to, but works for the idea of hardcore as a tribal culture. Also, makes clear the division between "punk" favored by the Brits and American artists and the hardcore championed by DIY middle class kids.
The most bias,un-educated, women hating, peice of crap... I know the hardcore scene tended to exclude women, but I'm sure that all hardcore kids in that scene actually hated women as much as the author seems to. It was hard to read this... the author was just such a prick...
Whoops-- hiding on my shelf in plain view.
good compendium of band names, and some quality quotes. But the author's voice is mostly aggravating. A fair amount of misinformation and plain old typos/errors. It's a good piece of the puzzle, tho.
Read Get In The Van, Our Band Could Be Your Life (gentrification of hardcore!), watch We Jam Econo-- also good resources. Azerrad's inclusion of some bands to the exclusion of others is utterly ridiculous, no matter how arbitrary your account for "taste".
Whe...more
good compendium of band names, and some quality quotes. But the author's voice is mostly aggravating. A fair amount of misinformation and plain old typos/errors. It's a good piece of the puzzle, tho.
Read Get In The Van, Our Band Could Be Your Life (gentrification of hardcore!), watch We Jam Econo-- also good resources. Azerrad's inclusion of some bands to the exclusion of others is utterly ridiculous, no matter how arbitrary your account for "taste".
Whe...more
This book is worth reading for sure. I read it a long time ago, but some of the stories and histories still stand out to me. There are some great photos as well. However, the author's bias, attitude, and slight tendency to repeat himself get annoying.
Being a music fan I love books about the history and evolution of music. I do have a tendency to get bored with them. I found this book to be very interesting and well written. A great look into the American Hardcore Punk scene in the late 70's and 80's
A must read for anyone even remotely interested in the hardcore, punk rock or even metal scene. It provides first hand accounts from well known musicians like Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins to lesser known acts like Gang Green, Void and more.
A good history of the origins and demise of the 80s Hardcore Punk scene, covers topics such as the beginnings, the zines, homophobia, racism, politics, cops, the crossover scene and the states/regional scenes.
re-read this book many a time.
re-read this book many a time.
A great book about the history of the first generation of Hardcore Punk. Too Mr. Blush asks for information/contributions of the history to include in future editions and then ignores people that try and accommodate his request.
I liked this book for what it covered, but hate it for what it didn't cover. There was hardcore after nineteen eighty-whatever. Also, it needed a lot more Descendents....but I could say that about any book.
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