Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79-’83 – Book Review

Let’s just start this book review off by saying “WHOLEY SHIT!” We get lots of stuff in the mail to review here everyday, the usual CDs, vinyl records and DVDs. Then there was the monster 4 pound package that left our mail guy asking if someone sent us a gold brick or something. As the box was opened we soon discovered that it was not a gold brick, but gold none the less, it was the book that we caught wind of months back and it was here in front of us for the staff to pick apart.

Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83 upon first inspection of just thumbing through it you realize that this is not just another book about the Punk scene of the early 80’s. Unlike a lot of books that seem to litter the landscape these days that are about the early days of the Punk scene that are written from a prospective of look at me and how bitchen I used to be, this book contains none of that bullshit. There was no reason with this book to write it in a self-aggrandizing way because this book is a meaty 576 pages of all 22 issues of iconic Punk zine of the day, Touch and Go -all packaged in a bound book. The magazine was started back in 1979 in of all unlikely places, Lansing Michigan by two guys Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson however in spite of their location, still had their finger on the pulse of the emerging revolution in music. For those vet Punks out there that remember somehow getting a copy of this fanzine filtered back to your part of the world back in the early days, you will fully enjoy having your own copy of all the issues (in book form) of this fanzine that you do not have to pass on to a friend as soon as you were done reading it as you did with the original back then. For the torch bearers of the current generation of Punks, this is a book that you will consider as one of your text books on the street level history of the Punk scene. Within the pages of this book you will find the unaltered historical look into the Punk scene as it was written and seen by a group of people that just wanted to make a difference by documenting the scene in their area.

So many areas of this book will turn you on and one for example is the record reviews. The reviews of the records that came out back then were especially entertaining to read. Records and 45’s (kids if you don’t know what a 45 is, go look it up) such as Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Sham 69, Joy Division, Bad Brains, The Misfits, DOA to The Adolescents and more. One of the reviews was on a Discharge record “Fight Back” is where they are reluctantly compared in manic intensity to Middle Class –talk about an unexpected comparison, but that is the charm of Touch and Go that you will find in the reviews. When you get this book check out page 218 where a record review for Black Flag’s “Jealous Again” is opposite of a review of The Stray Cats. Then look at the bottom of the page and see how Darby Crash’s real last name was spelled, which is interesting because every once in a while you hear his last name pronounced like that. Many of the records that they review are revered as MUST have’s for most Punks these days and it is pure gold to read how they were reviewed back then -see if you would agree with what they said about them back when they were just released.

There just are not too many of these kinds of books that get put out these days that truly get us excited, however Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83 made our pants bulge. We are sure that as soon as you get this book, you will not put it down until you have went through all 576 pages –consider yourself fore warned just incase this book consumes your entire day.

Here is a source for the book:
Click HERE and buy a copy of: Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83  NOW

 
-Big Wheel Magazine-

 

Listen here as the creators of this EXCELLENT book talk about the contents of the book as well as the times in which the fanzine Touch and Go was produced