Razorcake Issue #19

Amped: Notes From a Go-Nowhere Punk Bandby Jon Resh, 160 pgs.The fact that most music-related “tell-all”books are so full of nauseating self-importancethat they’re hard to enjoy should probably becommon knowledge to anyone who has everread one. No matter how much of a historicalfootnote the band is (American Hardcore authorSteven Blush was in No Trend), you usually endup with page after page of “look how great andimportant we were.” I’ve read more than onebook claiming that the Doors were the godfathersof LA punk rock without explaining why,and it’s impossible to read anything about Xwithout the writer blowing his load proclaimingthe far and wide influence that band had overmusic without naming a single band that showssuch an influence. Having said that, it’s quite abreath of fresh air to read a book that starts offone chapter with, “The sound I make when‘singing’ could be mistaken for a lion pukinginto a megaphone.”Jon Resh has no delusions about the historicalimportance (or lack thereof) of his bandSpoke, a staple of the early ‘90s central Floridapunk scene and one of the first bands to bereleased by No Idea Records. If anything, hemay be a little too critical of himself and hisbandmates, but that’s neither here nor there.Despite having never heard a note of Spoke’smusic, I thought Amped was really entertainingand interesting, filled with a true passion forDIY punk rock that is often missing from punkrock memoirs. Whether he’s talking about a tourof Florida with Radon (oddly enough, one of myfavorite bands) or the tight-knit crowd at thenow-defunct Hardback Café in Gainesville, it’salways about the music and how the music madehim feel like he was a part of something. Insteadof saying, “One time we played a show withQuicksand. That’s how good we were,” heshares an anecdote about the show, how he andhis bandmates decided that it would be a goodidea to set up the drumset at the opposite end ofthe club. When that idea goes horribly wrong,they just kind of shrug and laugh it off.The book also shows the fine line betweenpunk bands that love the music and bands thatare trying to use punk as a jumping off point formainstream success. One of the best parts of thebook is when Spoke was booked to play a showwith Nuisance and Seven Year Bitch. He recallsthe promoter and the guys in Nuisance as beingnothing but cool, but that Seven Year Bitch“spoke to us with a vague condescension specificto ‘bands on the rise.’” Among otherthings, he goes on to say that their manager keptname-dropping people involved with all thosecrappy grunge bands from the early ‘90s. At theend of the show when it was time to pay thebands, Seven Year Bitch complained about howthe promoter ripping them off, despite the factthat it was a Wednesday night show and onlyabout two hundred people showed up. The promoterhad paid them all the door money andthen paid money out of his own pocket to meettheir guarantee. When they pressed him formore money, he threw his wallet at them andsaid, “Here. That’s all I have. Now go buy yourheroin.” It was a perfect example of wannaberock stars taking advantage of honest, hardworkingpeople in the punk scene.As far as aesthetics go, Jon Resh must besome kind of graphic genius. The cover looksawesome, the layout looks pretty nifty; basically,this book is a nice piece of eye candy. On topof this being a great book about a band that dideverything just for the hell of it, it’s dirt cheap,too, so I can’t think of a higher recommendation.–Josh ($4.50 from Viper Press, PO Box 3394,Chicago, IL 60690-3394)AntiSeen: Destructo MaximusCompiled and edited by Jeff Clayton, LeslieGoldman, and Larry Kay, 268 pgs.Good lord, this may be the highest qualitybook by and for a band I’ve ever laid eyes on.I’ll be honest. I’m not a huge fan AntiSeen’sentire catalog, but my hat’s off in total respectfor what they and Steel Cage have been able toput together. Actually, I found myself beingmore of an admirer the more I read about them.Being a publisher and an admirer of archivesmyself, it’s easy to marvel at not only the fauxleather,silver-embossed cover and the heavygloss paper, but the sheer volume of pictures andinformation that covers this band’s first twentyyears. The layout itself must have taken the betterpart of half a year. What’s further amazing isthe packrat diversity of what’s inside. Not onlyare there literally hundreds of pictures of theband, from every lineup (I bet most people don’trealize that AntiSeen had a black bassist for aspell), there are an almost uncountable numberof reviews, interviews (many complete reprints),and newspaper clippings. (Like a scan of thecertificate that they won the 1988 CreativeLoafing “Best Stage Presence/ Appearance,”1994’s certificate for their lead singer, JeffClayton, “Best Person to be Mascot for thePanthers,” and an article on Jeff’s close and lovingrelationship with his mom.) Wrapping it alltogether are complete lyrics to all the songs theyever wrote, a complete discography, and a longlist of bands that have covered them. Awesome,in the original sense of the word. A very high barfor other bands to aspire to if they’re ever thinkingabout releasing a retrospective of their lives.–Todd ($25, Steel Cage Books, PO Box 29247,Philadelphia, PA 19125;)The Enemy’s Withinby Jimmy Reject, 120 pagesThere are all kinds of punks. Crusty punks,pop punks, straight edge punks, political punks,drunk punks, silly punks, nazi punks, skinheadpunks, metal punks and more! This is a bookabout one kind of punk—the “fuck-the-worldlet’s-get-drunk-and-talk-about-killing-everyone”punk!Jimmy Reject, ex-member of the amazingDimestore Haloes, has collected a number of hiswritings, including an autobiography of sorts(previously published as the zine Down inFlames), and put them together in book form.This book looks back on his “fuck-the-worldlet’s-get-drunk-and-talk-about-killing-everyone”years!In the “Down in Flames” section, Jimmytells crazy stories – about peeing on Donny thePunk, having a threesome with a guy and a girl,doing a lot of drugs, meeting Mykel Board, andmore. But these are not your average fucked-upon-drugsstories. As the author’s bio reveals,Jimmy was diagnosed with paranoid schizophreniaabout eight years ago. Most of these storiescenter on delusions, hallucinations and fantasies– written in a style that’s sometimes overthe-top,but more often just plain easy to read.And, unlike so many books that look back on theauthor’s mental illness, this one does not attemptto be reflective. It just tells it like it was, in firstperson, as it unfolded. This is the kind of bookyou can’t put down, regardless, because the storiesare just so odd.For example, there’s the delusional fantasies(“I was convinced that I was Satan, that darkadversary crevice that lurked beneath the benevolentlight that shone on all God’s creatures; thespiritual antithesis of everything. And I hadalready sent a disciple roaring into the flames ofHell.”); there’s the overflowing anger (“I wantedto punch him in the face until his noseexploded in raw, red blood. I wanted to kick himin the nads until they turned blue. But most of allI wanted to hack him with an axe until hisintestines were exposed then smother his bodyin road salt.”); there’s the frequent G.G. Allinreferences (“I suffered an innate rage expressedonly by the likes of G.G. Allin.”); there’s the flirtationwith anything as long as it pisses peopleoff (“[The record] was searing, grinding, dissonantnoise, marked by lyrics about a kid whostabbed himself in the stomach, a gang of nunrapists and aliens with swastika tattoos comingto earth looking for Jesus Christ. My kind ofshit.”); and then there’s the emotional connectionwith rejection (“Greetings we are the peopleyou never talked to in high school and we’vebeen waiting for you.”).Yes, this is one creepy book. But, eventhough I couldn’t relate to almost anythingJimmy writes about (my delusions mostly concernSour Patch Kids and Lucky Charms), I readit all in one sitting. And although one of the stories,“Sequin Blue,” isn’t that great (it’s basicallyJimmy’s autobiography twisted around with a50-year-old teacher as the main character), I’mgoing to be handing this around to friends forquite some time.After all, how often does a book come alongwith the sentence “Then I knew that in fact allsongs were written about me, all in celebrationof how I’d ascend to rid the world of Christ’scongealing influence”? –Maddy (Jimmy Rejectc/o Blueboy Productions, PO Box 710041,Quincy, MA 02171)