Just in time for the heavy metal Christmas shopping season, European author Alexandros Anesiadis delivers his latest — a thorough and riveting encyclopedia-type account of the hard-working DIY American bands that created an important underground music scene that’s well worth remembering.

With a razor-sharp memory and conversational writing style, L.A. punk pioneer Alice Bag recounts her musical obsession.

P-Orridge’s writing stands on its own.

The net result of plowing through a weighty tome like this is a sense of awe at how a bunch of kids created their own culture whole cloth, like the music industry on a Utopian, communal, microcosmic level.

…but James Mann offers a review of two books on the subject that should be: Steven Blush’s American Hardcore: A Tribal History and Mark Spitz and Brendan Mullen’s We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk.

Exploring “the outer limits of human belief” makes for perfect bathroom reading in the form of Donna Kossy’s Kooks. Ian Koss is your restroom attendant.

Print Review by Jason Plender

Print Review by Anton Warner

Print Review by James MacLaren

Print Review by James MacLaren

Print Review by Charles D.J. Deppner