Customer Reviews
Well written 
2008-02-29
This book is highly informative, and almost inspirational. Highly recommended for anyone who has ever used the phrase "F*ck You!"
Messy to the point of unreadable even with good intentions 
2007-11-21
Although I have never listened to hardcore, I wanted to read this book becaus eit was recommended by "janitor-x" and I was copying his writings for a half-nephew of mine. I respect "janitor-x"'s view that Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could be Your Life was much too "soft" in tone and focused too much on bands whose aim was not integrity but success on the college radio that emerged in an effort to counter the lack of competition a stiflingly restrictive commercial radio network had in late 1970s America.
The problem with "American Hardcore: A Tribal History" begines with its format, which consists of long series of dialogues involving the major players in the 1980s hardcore scene. There is so little structure or order to the book that a reader will feel he or she is jumping into something most people without knowledge of rock criticism are unlikely to comprehend. The actual writings, whilst they provide a very different and worthwhile perspective from Our Band Could be Your Life, are not the interviews that would provide - were the musicians willing to be at their most explicit about their experiences - very interesting stories for people who have never listened to hardcore. Rather, we have successions of speeches that appear not to be arranged with the slightest logic, with the result that the books does not convey a story as much as it does pieces of news from the time hardcore was popular.
There are also a number of problematic omissions, for instance it is never mentioned that the Dead Kennedys, whilst like all other hardcore artists never able to dent the Billboard Top 200, had a Top 40 single and album in Britain. "American Hardcore: A Tribal History" is written, likewise, in a manner that suggests the evolution of hardcore where it did is self-explanatory when, as I know very well from living in Australia, there are definite social conditions associated with its rise that any thorough book on the subject would at least mention if not explain with some decent sociology. One might be left wondering why some cities had large hardcore scenes and others did not, when there are undoubtedly definite social explanations that a music history student ought to be informed about.
The links of hardcore to other generes, such as rap and thrash metal, are in contrast useful but even they could be much more complete than they are. The actual origin and roots of hardcore, however, is not given any explanation - as I noted above and a problem shared with Our Band Could be Your Life.
On the whole, this is a tough book to read for anybody but the most devoted hardcore fan and even they might be put off by the constant promotional posters and graffiti amongst which the conversations that make up the actual text are scattered. For all my respect for "janitor-x", I really cannot recommend this book to any music listener. It would be better to read some serious journalism on rock, like by Joe S. Harrington, even if very little of it is about hardcore.
American Hardcore Is A Good Book 2007-05-15
American Hardcore chronicals and/or documents the history of the early 80's Hardcore(Punk)scene. Started by angry,fustrated,violent kids in the suburban seaside coastal middle class towns of Los Angeles, this movement spread from city to city and coast to coast. With each location holding thier own individuality, from L.A. to New York, to Chicago to San Francisco, to D.C. to Boston, Hardcore was more than music it was a social movement. Hardcore was a brand new fresh form of punk rock that was all it's own. While it branched off of the 70's Punk scene, it was it's own genre, who's participants constituted a tribe onto themselves. These kids were angry fustrated violent and fed up Regan-Era misfit kids. Becoming intertwined with Surfing and Skateboarding and becoming very close with it(As most of the bands were surfers and skateboarders), Hardcore redifined the status quoe of what was possibele when you did things your own way and you did it yourself(D.I.Y.). Hardcore's music was fast,with songs usually clocking in at around 2 minutes or less,energetic, and contained lyrics dealing with everything form political and social unjustice, to projecting anti-racist anti-war anti-conservative anti-reagan(Ronald Reagan) content and/or rants, with the lead singer usually screaming his or her head off in an angry manner that scared the crap off of (many) new wave fans,Hardcore was one of the most important musical movements in american history.While the mainstream refused then and refused now to give Hardcore the credit that it deserves(Although Hardcore was not looking at all for mainstream acceptance, in fact it was also a rebellion against the mainstream)Hardcore influenced countless things in the mainstream. From the pop-punk movement, to the crappy emo scene currently riding the charts rite now. Hardcore was a new form of radicalism,music,social outrage,political and socail commentary,and altogether one of the most important (musical)movements to ever take place in American History, and this book tells that story.
Very enjoyable book 
2007-02-14
For someone as young as me, who wasn't alive during the hardcore scene, this book comes in handy with good information. Steven Blush and others explain the hardcore scene in their own perspective. The entire book is made of interviews from people that were participants in the hardcore scene in the 80's. It includes people like Henry Rollins, Ian Mackaye, Jello Biafra, etc. In the beginning of the book the author and others sum up the roots of hardcore. Later on when they get started on HC (hardcore) they talk about things like straight-edge, Washington D.C., and others, where it gets really interesting to read. You don't have to know anything about HC to read this either.
You can tell Steven Blush didn't want to be biased about the subjects so he tries to put everybody's opinion about everything which basically evens it out by being factual rather than biased. The many pictures including the cover I think are very necessary for the book and display the proper attitude and energy of the HC scene. This book was very easy to understand and even fun to read. I do not recommend this book for very young readers; there are images that can be inappropriate for some. For other mature readers I definitely recommend this book to you, and please...don't judge this book by its bloody cover, it's a great book.
A vivid peek back into the scene 2007-01-11
As one who was there in the L.A. scene, this was a fun, insightful look back in time. It was also interesting to hear points of view from many of the key people. As it has been a while, it helped solidify the memories and the evolution of how the scene came and went. I loved it. I enjoyed the photos, but would have loved to see more. It's like looking at an old yearbook or family album of sorts.
a pretty good source of information 
2006-08-06
Hardcore punk was an underground tribal movement created with anger and passion but ultimately destroyed by infighting and dissonance. This oral history includes photographs, discographies, and a complete national perspective on the genre.
Coffee table piece... 2006-07-16
I read this book from an "alternative" library here in town and I eventually bought it for myself.
I'm not going to bash the book because it doesn't mention "every band" or even many of the bands that I actually liked. It's written by one person... so it's obviously going to reflect the experiences and opinions of that one person. It's not meant to be an encylopedia as far as I know... and in the back of the book he even admits to having ignored any and all information about the things he's talking about that he could have found on the internet. It's his book............. whatever. haha
I think the film will be a lot better than the book because of the interviews with people, hearing things in their own voice but it's not a bad book at all.
It's def. one of those books that you have around and can look through from time to time because of the TONS of pictures and things of that nature. A great book for the coffee table, or bathroom... but no knock against the book.
I enjoyed this book but you have to understand, it's not a set of encylopedias, so don't feel dissed that your city isn't mentioned or your favorites bands aren't mentioned. Some people tend to hate on "American Hardcore" because they feel the author left a lot out.
Were you there....? 2005-12-13
This is gonna be sweet and short..probably...My first hardcore show was Government Issue in 1985..Miami Beach Cameo(slameo)Theater....Ive seen some great shows..Like the "scene" this book has its flaws but it comes from the experience of the person writing it as are the interviews....And should be treated as such..Anyone with a younger cousin or son should use this book as a point in the right direction lest one leaves it up to MTV And Hot Topic to guide their musical interests...This book reminded me about how much I love this music...It reminded me of great times with great friends...REAL FRIENDS...some that still exist to this day, just based on a band we happened to both like when we were kids...This book reminded me why I got involved in politics and the world around me...Why I chose not to eat meat...why I chose to see people for their intelligence and character instead of thier money or position...Why this music kept me out of jail...kept me alive.... Save your critiques for the snobby MMR columns.....PS Check out the "PHLOSOPHY OF PUNK" on AK press..it was really just a student paper that got published...anyway...DONT like the Book....Book Your own life...Write your own book.....
Nostalgic, but uneven. 2005-11-23
Steven Blush, American Hardcore: A Tribal History (Feral House, 2001)
First off, in answer to some of the reviewers who were more general in their comments about the quality of the book (and, specifically, Blush's writing): this is, pure and simple, a nostalgia trip. With the exception of a few specific incidents, where the objective air comes from Blush reporting conflicting viewpoints on certain events, this book seems to have no pretence whatsoever to objectivity. Of course it's inflammatory and opinionated. So was hardcore.
I hate to fall into the trap of "if you weren't there, you wouldn't understand," but I have to. (Actually, I took half a star off my review because that sort of thing bugs me.) It seems ot me that this book's target audience is those who were actually part of the scene (even those of us on the fringes, in towns where there were maybe twenty of us listening to a couple of local bands and the odd Black Flag album that happened to surface-- come to think of it, maybe we're especially the target audience) and want to relive those days. It never struck me, while reading, as the kind of book I could give to someone not alive during that time with the statement "if you want to understand my teenage years, read this." That's the book's major flaw, of course; somewhere along the line, someone will write an objective history of hardcore. This book is not it.
For the most part, Blush gets out of the way and simply reports snippets of interviews he conducted with hundreds of people, mostly those who were in bands, writing zines, producing records. This tendency of Blush's to try and be unobtrusive does go they way of the great auk about two-thirds of the way through the book, when Blush starts talking about smaller town scenes and relating his personal experiences in those towns; this can be justified by the fact that there simply wasn't much in those scenes to talk about otherwise. (The town where I first discovered hardcore, in fact, isn't even mentioned. Not surprising, as I never actually saw a hardcore show until I moved to Pittsburgh; my memories of the town gibe quite well with Blush's reporting, though he does neglect to mention Pgh's best hardcore band, Battered Citizens.) Because of the book's interview-centric format, things tend to be a little more disjointed than one might expect. Again, however, "disjointed" is probably the best way to approach any sort of history of hardcore; as Blush rightly states, the idea of a "unified scene" was pretty much a joke in most places.
This is a fun book. It's a minor book, but it's fun. Don't approach it as being in any way definitive, and you're likely to get a whole lot more out of it. ***
Finally, A Good History of Hardcore 2005-10-02
This book is a wonderful bunch of quotes, stories and recollections. I spent most of high school listening to and going to see these bands "back in the day." I think it does a real good job of putting it all into perspective. Other reviewers point out that this book doesn't focus enough on the positive aspects of hardcore. Like what? Hardcore was largely about anger and...well, I can't say "disillusionment" as most listeners had prescious few illusions. They were clued into exactly what pissed them off and hardcore is probably representative of protest music in that respect. While there are notable exceptions, I think that saying hardcore had "positive" aspects is like saying Reagan did a lot for airline safety (he fired all the air-controllers for those of you who don't know...ALL of them in a union, anyway).
When I was a kid I was all about hardcore and punk and the scene and have many fond memories of it. For all it's lipservice about individuality and non-conformity, hardcore could be very male-oriented, dogmatic and uniform. Still, hardcore was one of the few subgenres that easily and often mocked itself. If you were in the scene it could be damned funny. I was disappointed that it pretty much disappeared and that younger generations didn't really continue the "I don't care if I can't sing or play well I'm gonna make loud rock and roll" idea. The few sonic elements of hardcore that are still out there have pretty much lost a lot of the humor and/or are mostly about posturing.
Please note that bands like Green Day, Sum-41, Good Charlette et al are NOT at all representative of what your average hardcore band sounded like. Those guys wouldn't ever be on the bill.
While Henry Rollins has written extensively and vividly of his days in Black Flag, it is still just his point of view of being in a hardcore band. This book is more rounded out with details of the hundreds of OTHER hardcore bands that were out there on the road and playing for $50 a show if they were lucky. I was in one of those bands and it was a gas. Sometimes I run into guys (they're always guys)that saw us or went to shows I went to. Many haven't changed a bit what with the shaved head and leather jacket with the hardcore logo and band T-shirt. Only now they're about 40 years old, dumpy, still jaded, drink to much, and single.
I especially like the fact that much of this book is organized by geographical locations. I think that any book claiming to explore the history of rock and roll ought to be organized this way, it's not just for the Blues. NOT organizing a history of music book by locale, or "scene", leads to notions and assumptions by either the reader or the writer that are just plain wrong. Geographic musical history is closer to the truth and traces the influence that various bands had on each other.
The indexes at the back of the book, as incomplete as the impossiblity of them being complete, are much appreciated.
The only thing that would top this book would be a complete collection of Flipside Magazine and Maximum Rock and Roll from 1981 to 1987....fortunately, I still have most of them.
On a side note, I cannot believe that some people still care about the so-called feud between Maximum Rock N Roll and Flipside magazines. Real or not, does it (did it) even matter? Grow up! Move on with your life or become a joke. You know, there ARE more important things to be pissed off about!
