Going Underground -American Punk 1979 – 1992 – George Hurchalla

Zuo Press, 5775 SE Nassau Ter, Stuart, FL 34997, Usa www.zuopress.com

The book is out since 2005, but it took some while until the meanwhile second edition found it’s way in our Po Box. Anyway, I’m very glad it did, since it is a great book! At least for me it was fun and interesting to read. Sometimes I thought you need to be a real „expert“ in US-Punk/Hardcore in order to understand sometimes what George Hurchalla writes, since his writing is so detailed when it comes to names and bands and scenes and stuff. But I might be wrong there – find out, it was no problem for me. It is roughly A4 sized, paperback and has 300 pages, tons of great photos and flyers for illustration. It contains ca. 30 Chapters that deal with either different scenes in diffrent parts of the country and move along from 79 – 92.

It would be too much to list it here, but George has a good way of combining his own writing based on his own knowlege or research and quoting people, use oral history or using clippings from original interviews. Because of that you get the story presented as just that – a story in the right order with lots of information and anekdotes. Unlike in other books the author does not concentrate on the already well documented scenes / bands / persons, but barely touches them and concentrates on all the other great stuff that was going on in punk rock america back then. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, DC, Austin – you name it, it is all there.

And this book is not only concentrating on bands and the music, but also on all the political/DIY content the scene had back then, which is great, it shows that punk/hardcore was so much more than it appears to be today. Interesting also that alot of bands from the eastcoast that seem to be big in Europe have had not very much impact in the usa…. in other words, Hurchalla concentrates on the more interesting people/scenes.

Which does not mean you will not read certain names in the book. I really do like the balance and the way it came out. I could rave on how great the book is and what other stories are beeing told so well, but that would mean that this review is a couple of pages long. So, you better go out there and get this, it will give you some quality reading pleasure and on top a good lesson in US Punk/Hardcore history! Thumbs up! (dolf)

24,95 $

Isbn 0-974-7335-1-2

[Trust # 122 Februar 2007]