THE ‘CORE CURRICULUM 2024: Six Essential Hardcore Punk Histories Book Set

Twenty lbs. of hardcore history ships today—via UPS in the U.S.

Our core of highly energized and exhaustive books detailing the origins of hardcore punk in America and the UK are united to clobber shipping costs and help kick-start your scene. Between the six invaluable tomes, over 1,560 pages (20 lbs./8 kg) of inflammatory, wild-eyed rebellion from the dawn of DIY deliverance in Los Angeles, Detroit, Texas, Lodi NJ, Boston, D.C., and Birmingham, England.

Substitutions welcome for other books of equal or lesser value, just get in touch or leave a note with your order…

1. TOUCH AND GO: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79–’83, by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson, Edited by Steve Miller
• 576 stiff full-sized pages.
• Introductory essays by Tesco Vee, Dave Stimson, Steve Miller, Henry Rollins, Keith Morris, Peter Davis, Henry Owings, Byron Coley, Corey Rusk, John Brannon, and Ian MacKaye
• Dimensions: 8.5″ x 11.5″ (220mm x 280mm); 3.5 lbs. (1.6 kg); retail $39.95

“As a hardcore punk primer you couldn’t do better.”—Time Out Chicago

“I was inspired by how fearless and together Touch and Go were. They were really wild and extremely funny.”—Henry Rollins

The complete series 1979–1983. Twenty-two issues in one loud, fast volume. Touch and Go fanzine was the brainchild of Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson and was launched in Lansing, Michigan, in 1979. 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. 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.

2. I’M NOT HOLDING YOUR COAT: My Bruises-and-All Memoir of Punk Rock Rebellion, by Nancy Barile
• 192 heavily illustrated pages.
• Introductory conversation w/ Ian MacKaye
• Dimensions: 8.5″ x 11.5″ (220mm x 280mm); 3.5 lbs. (1.6 kg); retail $14.95

“Thank God we had girls like Nancy back then to keep things in order—who had level heads, and who could lead. These girls had balls.” —Vinnie Stigma, Agnostic Front

“A wild ride recounted in vivid and lively detail. Barile has a clear, approachable voice that she uses to tell myriad great stories…a must-read for music history buffs, punk fans, and educators.”—Kirkus Reviews

From disenchanted Catholic schoolgirl and glam maniac to instigator on the 1980s hardcore punk scene, Nancy Barile discovered freedom at a time when punk music was new and dangerous. She made her place behind the boards and right in the front row as insurgents such as SSD, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys and Black Flag wrote new rules and made history. She survived punk riots and urban decay, ran the streets with outcasts, and ultimately found true love as she fought for fairness and found her purpose.

3. WE GOT POWER!: Hardcore Punk Scenes From 1980s Southern California, by David Markey and Jordan Schwartz
• Deluxe 304pp large-format landscape hardcover
• Dimensions: 12″ x 9″ (305mm x 230mm); 4 lbs. (2.5 kg); retail $39.95

“Vital to understanding the birth of American punk rock…an essential addition to the history of a movement”—Los Angeles Times

“Essential reading…the funniest of the local mags”—Matt Groening

“The book is a wonderful document of something that has continuity and lasts, the stuff that matters. It’s the finding of a voice of a generation.”—Chuck Dukowski

Featuring essays by David Markey, Jordan Schwartz, Jennifer Schwartz, Henry Rollins, Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Dez Cadena, Louiche Mayorga, Cameron Jamie, Pat Fear, Steve Humann, Tony Adolescent, Jack Brewer, Jula Bell, Mike Watt, Sean Wheeler, Joe Carducci, Daniel “Shredder” Weizmann, and Janet Housden. Presenting nearly 400 first-generation L.A. hardcore punk photographs. Including complete color reprints of We Got Power fanzine 1981–1983 and beyond.

4. CITY BABY: Surviving in Leather, Bristles, Studs, Punk Rock, and G.B.H., by Ross Lomas
• ISBN 978-1-935950-15-8
• High-quality trade paperback
• 304 heavily-illustrated and ridiculously entertaining pages
• Dimensions: 6″ x 9″ (230mm x 345mm); 2 lb. (.75 kg); retail $14.95

“Always doing what they felt like and having a laugh…absolutely captivating.”—Vive le Rock

“The full, warts and all story of the band, a gripping read. Full of crazy punk rock antics from around the world…raw and honest”—Sidewalk

“To Ross’ credit, he drills uncomfortably deep into the darkest corners of his psyche. An uneasy but always compelling read.”—Record Collector

UK Teenage punk rock milkman Ross Lomas strapped on a bass and joined G.B.H onstage in 1981. Leading the charge of U.K. hardcore punk, G.B.H lit up British pubs, European squats, and American highways with a wall of sound and mile-high spikes. Living by his own rules, for better or for worse, Ross Lomas riots with violent skinheads, metal hippies, rip-off managers, Neil Sedaka, and the Argentine cavalry, and tries to make sense of adulthood. Ross and his G.B.H family don’t escape unscathed, but they never surrender.

5. MISERY OBSCURA: The Photography of Eerie Von (1981–2009), by Eerie Von
• Forewords by Mike D’Antonio & Lyle Preslar
• ISBN 978-1-935950-19-6
• Hardcover; 160 beautiful full-color pages featuring hundreds of photos
• Dimensions: 8.75″ x 11.25″ (220mm x 285mm); 3 lb. (1.2 kg); retail $34.95

Animated by Eerie’s enduring insight into how the Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig pulled off the impossible, his first volume includes never-before seen photos of Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein, Jerry Only, Misfits drummer Googy, Glenn Danzig, Rosemary’s Babies, Samhain, Chuck Biscuits, John Christ, Rick Rubin, Metallica, White Zombie, Soundgarden, Tony Iommi, HR Giger, Marilyn Manson, Tom Araya, and many others.

6. TEXAS IS THE REASON: The Mavericks of Lone Star Punk, by Pat Blashill
• Essays by Richard Linklater, David Yow, Teresa Taylor, Donna Rich, Ash Shown
• ISBN 978-1-935950-17-2
• Deluxe hardcover; 240 pages of early 1980s Texas photos of the Big Boys, the Dicks, Butthole Surfers, Daniel Johnston, Hickoids, Scratch Acid, Glass Eye, Doctor’s Mob, the Offenders, and many more. A rare archive of untouched Austin—and proof that punks had front porches
• Dimensions: 8.75″ x 10.75″ x .95″ (220mm x 270mm x 24mm); 3.5 lbs. (1.5 kg); retail $34.95