American Hardcore: A Tribal History, By Steven Blush

By Danny R. Phillips

Over the five plus decades that rock & roll has been a force in American youth culture, many books have been written, most with futility, in an attempt to explain its history, its debauchery, its value, and the ebb & flow of the trends sprouting in all directions from its fruitful loins.

Steven Blush’s American Hardcore: A Tribal History not only explains a big part of the punk rock subculture but comes out swinging like a bloody knuckled little brother with something to prove.

Unlike many books on the subject of punk such as Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s exceptional Please Kill Me and Michael Azerrad’s underground breakdown Our Band Could Be Your Life, both of which come off too polished at times, Hardcore has nothing polished about it. It is as real and gritty as the scene that spawned it. Packed with interviews with “the who’s who” of hardcore: Glenn Danzig (The Misfits), Grant Hart (Husker Du), King Koffee (Butthole Surfers), and Milo Aukerman (The Descendents)—to name just a few—Hardcore looks and reads like a oral history version of maximumrocknroll or Touch & Go. And that my friends is a big, big plus.

With chapter titles like “How Could Hell Be Any Worse?,” Thirsty and Miserable,” “Kids of the Black Hole,” and “Hits From Hell,” the book breaks down the aggressive, nihilist attitude which dominated the “glory years” of hardcore from 1980-1986. No stone is left unturned in this book. Not only are individual bands discussed (The Misfits, Husker Du, Black Flag, The Descendents, and Bad Brains all understandably get their own chapters), but lesser known scenes and acts (The Stimulators, Roach Motel, Urban Waste) get their due as well.

While hardcore had a strong presence in New York and Washington D.C., there were also scenes in the Midwest, Southwest, and on the West Coast. These all receive well-deserved examination given the fact that they birthed some of the biggest names in hardcore: Husker Du, The Replacements, Butthole Surfers, The Germs, Black Flag, DOA, The Descendents, The Circle Jerks, Zero Boys and many others. Scenes are even broken down by individual city: Madison, WI; Indianapolis, IN; Lawrence, KS; Austin and Houston, TX; and Los Angeles, CA.

It is amazing and perhaps excessive how meticulous Blush can be in his discussion. American Hardcore as a whole is less a joyful examination of the scene he grew up in and more a 403-page research paper, including a thesis on the rise and fall of a once great movement. The most valuable parts of the book are the litany of reprinted flyers from long-ago-forgotten shows and the complete hardcore discography, a gem for those of us who are absolute record geeks.

Be warned: this book is not for the casual reader that believes all that exists or has ever existed in the punk world is spiky hair and Green Day. That could not be further from the truth. Punk and hardcore were and are, in some respects, still a major driving force in youth society and Blush’s book shows that as it once was, it can be again. As the author wrote in the forward, “I’m documenting the American hardcore punk scene because it’s being forgotten.” Well Mr. Blush, thanks to your book a whole new generation will be educated in the ways of hardcore and the rate of societal amnesia should be slowed to a crawl.

American Hardcore: A Tribal History was released in October 2001. Author Steven Blush will be hosting several upcoming roundtable discussions on the book along with special guests.

For all upcoming events and to find out more on the book, please visit the American Hardcore website.