Punk & Post-Punk - Volume 11, Issue 3, 2022

Eskorbuto was one of the most important Spanish-speaking punk bands and the most extreme among those belonging to the ‘Basque Radical Rock’ movement in the 1980s. This article aims to analyse the ideological components of Eskorbuto’s discourse in relation to the political philosophy of anarchism. More specifically, the objective is to ascertain whether Eskorbuto’s music represents key anarchist values, and whether their discourse may be characterized as anarcho-punk. The study focuses on a context-sensitive discourse analysis of Eskorbuto’s lyrics. Results indicate that, through punk music, Eskorbuto’s discourse was linked to anarchism, to the extent that the Basque band was energized by punk’s anti-establishment attitude. However, results also reveal that the socially constructive values of anarchism – such as the belief in a natural order, or the vision of a self-managed collectivist economy – were not clearly conveyed in the band’s nihilistic lyrics. The scope and limits of Eskorbuto’s anarcho-punk characteristics are considered, before discussing the relationship of the band’s raw and confrontational message with the concept of punk-anarchism.

Social Distortion’s 1996 album White Light, White Heat, White Trash is a concept album reflecting the recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) of lead singer and songwriter Mike Ness: twelve songs, with each of the songs describing Ness’s experience of the corresponding step in AA’s twelve-step programme. The rhetoric of recovery in the song lyrics has an intertextual relationship to Alcoholics Anonymous (the ‘Big Book’), with Ness’s lyrics quoting directly from the programme of recovery outlined in the basic text of AA. Though the rhetoric of recovery in the album reflects Ness’s own experience, it also demonstrates how individual authentic experience is constructed interdiscursively through broader cultural trends, both within the Lou Reed-inflected rockist history of guitars, drugs and confessional authenticity and, more broadly, how the rhetoric of recovery has permeated other genres of American popular music and culture.

It has been claimed that craft beer and punk are bedfellows. There are large numbers of Millennials among drinkers of craft beer and fans of punk, and each can play a significant role in drinkers’ and fans’ identities. Communities are built around the appreciation of each, and precision is important. Subtle distinctions between different craft beers are magnified to craft beer drinkers; subtle differences in sound between different punk bands are magnified to committed punk fans. Obscure craft beers manufactured in low numbers reflect the limited run of 100 units of an album pressed on vinyl by an obscure punk band. These similarities have not gone unnoticed by craft breweries or punk bands. Scottish brewery BrewDog uses the word ‘punk’ in its products and literature; US brewery Stone Brewing partnered with US punk band NOFX to produce a NOFX-branded craft beer. However, both breweries have suffered as a consequence. This article reflects on both breweries’ appropriation of punk and considers factors that contributed to problems that they subsequently encountered. In both cases, though in different ways, conceptions of punk that are lazy, platitudinous or both have contributed towards the issues suffered.

Review of: No Machos or Pop Stars: When the Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk, Gavin Butt (2022)

Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 282 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-47801-863-6, p/bk, £20.99

Review of: From Arthaus to Bauhaus, 1972–1979, Andrew J. Brooksbank (2021)

Stratford-upon-Avon: Tome & Metre, 284 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-83801-161-1, p/bk, £15.00

Review of: Why Patti Smith Matters, Caryn Rose (2022)

London: Faber & Faber, 248 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-47732-011-2, p/bk, £9.99

Review of: Themes for Great Cities: A New History of Simple Minds, Graeme Thomson (2022)

London: Constable, 360 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-47213-400-4, h/bk, £20.00

Review of: The Light Pours Out of Me: The Authorised Biography of John McGeoch, Rory Sullivan-Burke (2022)

London: Omnibus Press, 259 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-91317-266-4, h/bk, £20.00

Review of: Mark Hollis: A Perfect Silence, Ben Wardle (2022)

London: Rocket 88, 368 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-91097-885-6, h/bk, £35.00

Review of: Exit Stage Left: The Curious Afterlife of Pop Stars, Nick Duerden (2022)

London: Headline, 384 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-47227-777-0, h/bk, £20.00