An American Demon, a memoir by Jack Grisham

There are plenty of books on the market written by rock stars who’s tales of excess, rise and fall and return to sobriety often reflect that of a made for television behind the music episode. Generally if you’ve read one of them you’ve read em all due to the all to similar destructive vices involving alcohol, strippers, cocaine and many times heroin.

An American Demon differs from such books as it is a whole other monster in itself detailing the unusual upbringing and many near death experiences of T.S.O.L.’s front man Jack Grisham. Jack’s role on this planet is not that of a millionaire rock star, but that of a demon in a humans body who is hell bent on torturing loved ones, Read more

Metallica: Club Dayz 1982-1984 by Bill Hale

Longtime rock concert photographer Bill Hale’s collection of sought after Metallica photos have finally seen the light of day in his new book; Metallica: Club Dayz 1982-1984. Bill’s involvement with the band stems back to their earliest incarnation, a time when the boys of Metallica were hardly old enough to buy beer, though would still proudly earn the nickname “AlcoholicA“. This rare and very intimate look into the world of Metallica captures the 4 horsemen live Read more

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. Read more

Spray Paint the Walls – The Story Of Black Flag

Once while in high school I was discussing the legacy and mysterious aura of Black Flag with a couple of friends and I paused to say "Dude, there’s only so much that we know about Black Flag." At the time this statement was fairly accurate. Henry Rollins had published his tour diaries from when he was in the band in Get In The Van but otherwise there was seemingly no information available about Black Flag that was readily available. Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski were out of the limelight Read more

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

A lot of people involved in hardcore were pretty relieved to see the 1990′s coming to its end. The Dark Years of hardcore were something that could be buried and forgotten. As a kid who got involved in the hardcore scene in the mid 1990′s when I was in my early teenage years, I considered myself lucky to come in as a lot of bands were forming (Ten Yard Fight, Floorpunch, Fastbreak) who were interested in getting back to the musical roots of hardcore. To me the more that something was influenced by metal or noise the more that Read more

Banned For Life by D.R. Haney – book review

Banned For Life is an autobiographical novel (a.k.a. a thinly disguised memoir where the names are changed) which tells the story of a Punk rocker who eventually turns to film making after years of failed attempts at starting a successful band. Taking place in North Carolina, New York City, and Los Angeles, this book is in a way an attempted reconciliation of how the 1980′s became the 1990′s. The core of this novel is centered around a generation that was expected to self destruct from its own nihilism and how they tried to figure out Read more

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