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Going Underground: American Punk, 1979 - 1992
Going Underground: American Punk, 1979-1992 (Paperback)
by George Hurchalla (Author)

Product Details

  • Paperback: 300 pages
  • Publisher: Zuo Press (February 15, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0974733512
  • ISBN-13: 978-0974733517
  • Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 1 inches
  • Average Customer Review: 5 Stars

Editorial Reviews

From 'a reader':
Music is inextricably linked with autobiography. There are albums you love, not for the songs per se, but for the fact that the minute that first note hits the speaker, you're for a moment 16 again.

In "Going Underground", Hurchalla doesn't shy away from placing his own life front and center. The book isn't a band history, ala "Our Band Could Be Your Life", though it's full of fantastic quotes, stories and interviews from dozens of incredibly bands. The Big Boys, Naked Raygun, Articles of Faith, the Dead Milkmen, Scrawl, Minus Man, and hundreds of others fill every page.
It's not a taste of the indie gossip-mill, ala "Hardcore: a Tribal History", either. In total, it's a history of scenes, often focusing on those scenes you never heard of, like Lawrence, Kansas or Des Moins, Iowa. It's a history of punk and hardcore based on the people who made these scenes possible: fans, zine writers, musicians, club owners.

Above all, though, it's about Hurchalla himself. His journey through the hardcore scene is so full of awe and wonder and joy that the whole book comes alive in his stories. He jumps from reportage and interviews to short personal stories, nervy and quick like a Wire tune, that never fail to electrify.

In the end, like Azzerand's book, "Going Underground" reveals that this scene which, from the outside often seemed just angry and violent, was built on and held together by the love that these people had.

Plus, there's no way to have a bad book with the Randy Biscuits on the cover.

From "a reader":
One of the more notable things about this book, that I don't think many people realize, is that it is a 100% DIY product. I got to know the author, George Hurchalla a little bit after he contacted me, wanting to use some of my photos in the book. George spent six years of his life researching, interviewing, writing, re-writing, editing and designing this book. Then he put up his own money to have it published. He doesn't just talk the talk... He walks the walk.

George felt that too much history was being repeated by the same few "usual suspects." He felt that lesser known participants should have their say. He wanted to introduce his readers to the smaller, lessor known scenes of the U.S.. It didn't all happen in just L.A., N.Y., D.C. and Boston, ya know. As George says, "Since punk rock was meant to be an anti-hero movement, it's a tragedy to let the winners write the history of it, and to make counter-culture heroes of people who were never meant to be anything more than inspirational peers."

This book is an exhaustive history of the punk/hardcore scene from the period of 1979 - 1992. George chose the time-frame arbitrarily. He felt that there was already a tremendous amount of history recorded about the first wave of punk from 1976 - 1980 and his ending at 1992 marks when he dropped out of the scene. "Going Underground" chronicles the rise of the punk/hardcore movement from the perspective of George's discovery of the music via his older, college-aged, brother. George was in high school when his brother brought home a Sex Pistols record. Bored with the standard, classic rock fare that was common in 1980, this music lit a fire in him. There's a great quote by Karen Allman of the Tucson band, Conflict, regarding her own intro to the Pistols that kinda says it all, "That's horrible! Play it again!"

George's personal narrative, combined with quoted stories from band members and scenesters weaves a fascinating account of the era. There is a tremendous amount of detail dedicated to the accounts from lessor known areas, such as my own mid-western area. I finally feel like my own hometown scene in Chicago has been more accurately represented, exposing us as a city with much more going on than merely the infamous Effigies/AoF feud. As the book states, many of us locals felt that the "personality conflict" between the two bands got too much attention at the expense of everything else that went on in our scene. Finally, finally, the stories of the lessor known bands are told. Finally, the voices of the average participants are heard.

Especially poignant was an account by Austin photographer, Geoff Cordner, regarding the misfit status of which most of us felt we belonged to:

"We were gathered out back in the alley after some kind of punk/new wave performance art thing - this was back before anyone made a distinction between punk and new wave. Everyone was drinking beer and nobody was saying very much because we were all a profoundly uncomfortable bunch - that was our common ground, it seemed - punk as a gathering of angry losers and rejects who, without sufficient beer in our systems, remained too uncomfortable with ourselves to really be comfortable with each other. It was a powerful thing just knowing there were others as f*ck*d up as you."

We came together and built our fledgling punk scenes for many differing reasons, but the one thing we all had in common was our dissatisfaction with the status quo. If the mainstream society wouldn't accept us, no problem, we created our own underground society. We wanted to break away from the old tried and true norms of just about everything we encountered. Our motivation was powerful, as George says, "Knowing that no one would ever put out our records for us, no managers would set up tours for us, no clubs would open their doors to us, no radio stations would play our music, and that situation would only get worse, a generation of punks took the steps necessary to have our voices heard the best we could."

I highly recommend this book, it's truly a great read. If you were a punk back then-- every page turn will bring you back into some memory. If you are a current punk- this is an accurate account of the times, a highly informative piece on the genre. It's a chronicle of punk history written FOR THE PUNKS, BY A PUNK. A true DIY project, so be sure to support the effort and buy this wonderful book!

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