We Never Learn: the Gunk Punk Undergut 1988-2001

We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001 By Eric Davidson www.backbeatbooks.com I love the New Bomb Turks. They are icons of 90's punk, and one of the great rocknroll bands of all time. And, although this book is authored by their incredibly charismatic singer, Eric Davidson, this is not a book about them. This is, however, a book about the Dwarves, the Cramps, Cheater Slicks, Devil Dogs, Estrus Records, Crypt Records, The Gories, the Mummies, The Stooges, Teengenerate, Pagans, Motards, Subpop, Ramones, and a ton of other bands, record labels, and artists that were tearing it up in small clubs across the globe throughout the 1990's. Bands that fall under the author’s personal label of “Gunk Punk”. This is an excellent collection of interviews and anecdotes from the people who were involved in a musical phenomenon that was often overshadowed by the very tall shadow of grunge, and unfortunately, the very VERY embarrassingly bad stench that was nu-metal (umlauts purposely left off, out of respect for the umlaut). I loved every second of this book. 90’s punk is my second favorite era of rocknroll. It's an era that I was immersed within, and Mr. Davidson captures its chaotic beauty in a painstakingly thorough and very entertaining way. The idea of Letting the people who were there tell their stories, with just a smattering of personal recollection and interjection, is brilliantly simple and makes for a compelling read. My only complaint about this book is that the Fireballs of Freedom, a band so good live that they should have been added to the list of deadly sins, are only mentioned once, and in passing. A small oversight for such a worthy read.

totw 6-24-11

This mixed tape was made for me by a Missoula friend that went to Lansing Michigan for a week. I'm not sure what year, but I'm thinking it was sometime around 95-96. At the time mixed tapes were one of the only ways to hear new punk and indi music for someone living in a relatively rural state like Montana. Missoula's college radio station KBGA 89.9 was just getting started, and the people at Rockin' Rudy's could only stomach so much of dudes like me standing at their listening stations asking the people behind the counter to grab records of bands that we had recently read about in Flipside and MRR. The tape is 90 minutes of Michigan State University Radio, Impact 89 fm's punk show. All punk, and all bands that I was pretty unaware of at the time, The Bassholes, Sinister Six, Hyperdrive Kittens, M80's, Percolators, Fur, the Muffs, Devil Dogs, Low-Downs, Beavers, the Phantoms. This tape is still great, and for me it's more than just a happy relic from a time gone by, this tape is much more significant in that it was also the first time that I heard Teengenerate, who subsequently became one of my favorite bands of all time. It also has a great in-studio performance/interview with local hardcore band The Actionaries. I love this tape.

There should be an archive collection for old mixed tapes at the smithsonian.


So friggin' good...