KIDS ON COFFEE, OR PUNK ROCK COFFEE TABLE BOOKS

No matter how extreme, authentic, or threatening your youth subculture of choice is, it will eventually get turned into a coffee table book. Whether this is nostalgia, capitalism, or some intrinsic need to classify, it all ends up with a lavishly illustrated, tastefully designed book to be displayed on your coffee table for guests to understand your tastes and level of class – a signifier a bit more expensive and better designed than a homemade band T-shirt was in the ‘80s.

Use the phrase 'coffee table' more than three times and it starts to sound weird.

And I’m a sucker for them – I have two shelves that are actually buckling under the weight of these glossy oversized tomes. I may read music bios like a kid eating Cheetos, but I will return to these books like a …well, like me returning to the bag of Cheetos that I hid from the kids. Speaking of hiding, one of the best part of these books is having so many you forget about them until a move/reorganization/home remodeling project and then discovering them again – Wow, a big book of Blaxploitation movie posters or Japanese monster toys or punk 7”s from the ‘90s? Holy crap, I’m so glad I never decluttered!

With the Corona virus keeping me at home, I finally have time to dive through my latest acquisitions, sort of like Scrooge McDuck swimming through his money bins with more paper cuts and less chance of drowning in money. In fact, it’s the exact opposite! 

First up is “XXX Fanzine: Hardcore and Punk in the Eighties,” a collection of Mike Gitter’s long running Boston-based  ‘zine (like dog years, each year a ‘zine was successfully published equals about five years for a regular publication).

This thing is massive – over 200 pages of the original typewritten zine are reproduced, and they’re a great snapshot of the time – not only does each issue feature two or three longish band interviews with just about every big-name punk/metal/crossover band of the era, but they also include all the things you had to include in a ‘zine at the time (record and show reviews, scene reports/gossip).

The best part of the book is that interview subjects get follow-up interviews all these decades later. While there are no big revelations, and the original interviews are just standard Q and A format, Gitter had a knack for getting subjects to open up, a talent he probably utilized  in the ‘90s when he was the A&R guy responsible for getting bands like Jawbox and Bad Religion to sign with the majors.
Buy, Borrow from the Library, or Pass

A good borrow if your library is cool enough to stock it, although there’s a “had to be there” quality to the book. If you aren’t a fan of the bands, or didn’t grow up during the time period, I don’t think you’d get too much out of it. For me, the late ‘80s interviews where band after band said things like, “We never considered ourselves a punk band, we’ve always been a hard, aggressive rock band” totally triggered the pain, disillusionment, and betrayal that only a fully invested youth subculture member can feel when their heroes denounce their allegiance and are about to release a crappy album .

“Scream With Me:The Enduring Legacy of the Misfits” Not only did the Misfits write catchy songs littered with references to B-movie horror films, they were expert at cultivating a mystique and image. In those pre-internet days, all sorts of rumors were traded – they recorded in a haunted house, they only performed on Halloween at midnight, that sort of thing - and a lot of these rumors were stoked by the band.

Understanding the value of marketing, image, and showmanship in a scene in which these qualities were officially looked down on, the band cribbed visuals from EC Comics, Creature Feature horror shows, and “Famous Monsters of Fimland” magazine to create the total package.

Which is why it makes total sense for Abrams to release a book showcasing artifacts from the band’s career from the mid ‘70s to the release of the coffin-shaped box set. Everything you’d ever want to see is included – homemade shirts, record store stand-up displays, test pressings, rarely seen photos, even the original stamps and silk screens the band used to create their Fiend Club mailers.

Naturally, this is geared mainly to fans of the band, but if you like spooky Halloween imagery you’ll get a kick out if it, especially when you consider that these were basically kids churning this stuff out in their bedrooms and parents’ garages.

Buy, Borrow from the Library, or Pass

I borrowed this electronically and I nearly went blind trying to read it, even with the zoom function. If you’re into the Misfits, you’re gonna want to buy the book, even if it looks like the spine cuts through some of the photos. I also vaguely remember reading that a band member talked about suing Abrams, so you should probably go out and buy a couple in case it becomes a collectors item. Don’t you wish you had the foresight to do that with the Halloween 7”?

“Stay Fanatic: Hectic Expectorations for the Music Obsessive, Vol. 1” I bought this sight unseen after viewing a video of Henry Rollins gleefully unpacking this new book while showing off some of his rare records. I had an idea that it was going to be an oversized full color peek into Rollins’ collection, but instead “Stay Fanatic” is an 8 ½ by 11 softcover consisting of notes from the radio show Rollins hosted from 2013-2015.

Rollins is an admittedly obsessive collector – the kind of collector obsessed with obtaining pressings of his favorite releases from different countries even though he realizes it doesn’t affect the music at all. His obsession can be infectious – anyone with even a bit of collector in their genes will identify with the need to track down everything possible about their favorite sounds.

He’s also great at tying different records to different memories in his life, even if he’s completely wrong about the correct weather to enjoy those first Wire albums in. “Pink Flag” is obviously a summer record, “154” and “Chairs Missing” are cooler weather albums. I mean, duh.

I would have loved to see some full color reproductions of his records, and his “I don’t need people, I only need music” shtick gets repetitive, but overall it’s reminiscent of spending an afternoon with a fanatic record collector as they pull out record after record, telling you the band’s history and their stories behind the acquisition, even though your record collector friends never scored the original painting from the Ruts album.

Buy, Borrow from the Library, or Pass

If you’re an obsessive record collector, you’re gonna want to buy this. Rollins’ enthusiasm made me check out some stuff I had previously ignored or hadn’t heard of, the best possible result of hanging with obsessive collectors. If you’re in collector recovery, it can serve as a warning to step away from your obsession for a while and actually interact with some people. As a bonus,  you might get a signed copy which might be useful for trade in the coming plague years.