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- Volume 9, Issue 2, 2020
Punk & Post-Punk - Volume 9, Issue 2, 2020
Volume 9, Issue 2, 2020
- Editorial
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- Articles
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I want something new: Limp Records and the birth of DC punk, 1976–80
More LessRecountings of the Washington, DC punk rock scene’s history often start with the founding of Dischord Records in 1980 and focus on the subsequent ascent of Dischord co-owner Ian MacKaye’s bands like Minor Threat and Fugazi. As seminal as Dischord remains in the narrative of DC punk – a community still thriving today – the years just prior to the label’s founding generated the scene’s true incunabula. Beginning with the self-released debut EP from the Slickee Boys in 1976, this first wave of DC bands – also including Razz, Nurses, White Boy and others – combined elements of art rock, surf, proto-punk, pub rock and power pop together to craft a protean version of punk that embraced eccentricity and humour, serving as the city’s own defiant rebuke of the staid state of 1970s rock music. No record label was more central to the nascent punk scene in DC than Limp Records. Operated by Skip Groff, Limp provided the punk community with its first proper record label. Rather than a label that centred around the efforts of a single band – as most other new DC punk labels did – Limp issued singles for several groups, collaborating with the fledgling Dacoit and O’Rourke labels to co-release defining singles for the Slickee Boys and Razz. DC punk would not have taken shape the way it did without Groff’s efforts, particularly considering his connections with bands like Bad Brains and the Slickee Boys and his musical and entrepreneurial influence on local teenage punks like MacKaye, Jeff Nelson and Henry Rollins. This article is a history of DC punk record labels from 1976 to 1980 and seeks to establish this overshadowed era of the scene as one of the most critical in the community’s 43-year existence. Considering the outsize influence the DC scene ultimately had on punk culture – whether through the eponymous clean living philosophy inspired by the Minor Threat song ‘Straight Edge’, the unwaveringly independent business model of Dischord or the pacesetting music reliably turned out each decade by participants in the scene – the impact of Groff and his first wave DC punk peers must be acknowledged.
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Booking your own life: The development of a DIY touring network in the United States
More LessThe do-it-yourself (DIY) touring circuit changed dramatically in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s when more punk bands that had local reputations began to tour beyond their regional bases. This article analyses some important reasons why touring routes expanded, correcting some misconceptions about the types of bands that were touring nationally. I pay special attention to the work of Kamala Lyn Parks, an early booker, and the creation of the Book Your Own Fuckin’ Life (BYOFL) fanzine; a crucial resource for punks to share information about DIY shows in their scenes. Throughout the article, I foreground the importance punks placed on enacting social networks of trust in this newly developed national touring circuit.
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‘If I had more time it could be better, but the new wave’s about spontaneity, right?’: Finding meaning in Britain’s early punk fanzines (1976–77)
More LessThis article uses fanzines produced within the United Kingdom in 1976–77 to explore how punk’s politics, production and cultural impact were understood by those first enticed by the new wave. It is divided into three principal sections, the first offering some context: a rough survey of who made fanzines and how. The second explores definitions of punk’s new wave, looking at how emergent cultures were understood and the rationale applied to any point or purpose. Third, the inherent tensions of punk’s cultural formation are teased from fanzine editorials and articles seeking to maintain the momentum of 1976–77 and protect against perceived infiltration or dilution. In each case, choice examples are given and the article is not meant to suggest any definitive reading. Rather, the objective is to test, challenge and confirm recurring punk myths and give voice to those who were there without enabling any conceited subjectivity to transform into universalism.
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Grey matter/literature/area: Bucketfull of Brains, fanzine form and cultural formation
More LessHaving ceased publication in 2015, Bucketfull of Brains (aka BoB), founded in 1979 by Nigel Cross, is prime candidate for the United Kingdom’s longest-running music fanzine. When Cross relinquished control of the zine in 1985 its identity changed, but it retained the ‘voice’ of a zine despite increasingly assuming the ‘look’ of a magazine. This liminal identity also extended to its transatlantic focus and its straddling of punk and psychedelic music scenes. This article demonstrates how BoB also ‘bridged the gap’, especially in terms of taste communities, between the countercultural/underground publications of the 1970s and the punk and post-punk fanzines which came later. In doing so BoB was ideally situated to document the long-running garage rock revival of the 1980s and indeed was regarded as ‘the Bible’ of this scene by its readers. Drawing on interviews with BoB editors Nigel Cross and Jon Storey, the article is primarily concerned with the motivations and work of fanzine editors/writers in documenting the histories and development of interlinked popular musical sub-genres and micro-genres. In providing various layers of context to elucidate the place of both BoB and the publications that had a significant influence upon it (e.g. ZigZag) in the history of rock fanzine scholarship and the reasons for the persistent neglect of such scholarship, the article is also influenced by concepts of literary form and genre.
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Vox magazine: Dublin street fashion and photography in an early 1980s magazine
More LessThis article explores the editorial and photographic content of Vox, a Dublin magazine that covered the musical, artistic and sartorial tastes adopted by various subcultures on the streets of the Irish capital. Edited and published by Dave Clifford between 1980 and 1983, the magazine featured local and international post-punk bands, performance artists, writers and those on the scene. Particular reference is paid to the role of markets, such as the Gaiety Green, the Ivy and the Dandelion, as sites for the exchange of both ideas and goods. The creativity and self-expression embodied within these photographic spreads is analysed. The article draws upon scholarship on fanzines, subcultures and fashion and also augments the author’s research into the subject with additional oral histories and interviews conducted with market traders. National and international networks are traced and tracked with especial reference to London and Berlin as sites of culture and experimentation. It concludes with a look at the street as the locus for creative expression through music and clothes.
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‘Who is really gonna benefit?’: The punk habitus in the downtown Edmonton field
By Rylan KafaraThe new home of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Edmonton Oilers opened in 2016. This publicly financed, CAD 613.7 million arena was built in downtown Edmonton, Alberta. The arena and its broader entertainment district were designed to ‘revitalize’ Edmonton’s inner city that was already home to the majority of the city’s homeless population. The spatial transformation of Edmonton’s inner city was an example of what geographer Neil Smith referred to as ‘The New Urban Frontier’. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, this article explores how the local music community reacted to downtown gentrification through songs by punk bands Latcho Drom, Rebuild/Repair and Audio/Rocketry, along with rapper Cadence Weapon. This article assesses a series of reactions ranging from supportive and promotional to critical and resistive. By showing how musicians engaged in the debate over development, this article creates a template for assessing processes of gentrification, through the relationship between professional sport, media and music. It analyses the role of cultural production in the continued process of gentrification, future developments in cities and who belongs in the new urban landscape. In doing so, this article suggests the embodiment of a punk habitus by agents negotiating various fields in Edmonton and beyond.
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Activate, collaborate, participate: The network revolutions of riot grrrl-affiliated music worlds
By Susan O’SheaSocial networks act as a metaphor for discussion about many historical and contemporary music worlds. Much of the literature on feminist music movements like riot grrrl, ladyfest and Girls Rock camps conceptualize collective action and participation in network terms. However, in doing so, the approach is almost exclusively qualitative. Individuals tie movements, collectives and organizations together and help their cultural spread across cities and countries. Yet individuals can also cause ruptures in networks that may lead to their collapse or fracturing. This article uses mixed-methods social network analysis (SNA) to unpack the structure, development and impact of a riot grrrl-associated music network across geographical space and time. By investigating the strong ties of shared band membership and playing together, the centrality of key bands and musicians across overlapping music movements associated with riot grrrl are explored at micro, meso and macro levels of network interaction. The ability to visualize music collaboration networks allows us to see patterns and connections that may not have been previously apparent. Whilst there is a small but growing body of work on punk using SNA methods, these have overwhelmingly been male dominated. This is the first formal network application on punk-inspired feminist music worlds that redresses the gender imbalance.
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- Interview
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- Obituaries
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- Book Reviews
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Contemporary Punk Rock Communities: Scenes of Inclusion and Dedication, Ellen M. Bernhard (2019)
By Laura WayReview of: Contemporary Punk Rock Communities: Scenes of Inclusion and Dedication, Ellen M. Bernhard (2019)
Lanham, MA: The Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 190 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-49859-967-2, h/bk, £60.00
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The 33⅓ B-Sides, Will Stockton and D. Gilson (eds) (2019)
By Russ BestleyReview of: The 33⅓ B-Sides, Will Stockton and D. Gilson (eds) (2019)
London: Bloomsbury, 250 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-50134-294-3, h/bk, £15.99
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Christian Punk: Identity and Performance, Ibrahim Abraham (ed.) (2020)
By Mike DinesReview of: Christian Punk: Identity and Performance, Ibrahim Abraham (ed.) (2020)
London: Bloomsbury, 227 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-35009-479-6, h/bk, £60
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Psychobilly: Subcultural Survival, Kimberley Kattari (2020)
By Jake HawkesReview of: Psychobilly: Subcultural Survival, Kimberley Kattari (2020)
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 262 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-43991-860-9, h/bk, $32.95
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Sex Pistols: The End is Near, 25.12.77, Kevin Cummins (2020)
By Paul HollinsReview of: Sex Pistols: The End is Near 25.12.77, Kevin Cummins (2020)
New York: ACC Art Books, 176 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-78884-061-3, h/bk, £30
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- Album Review
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Dreams to Fill the Vacuum: The Sound of Sheffield 1978–1988, 4CD Box Set, Various Artists
By Russ BestleyReview of: Dreams to Fill the Vacuum: The Sound of Sheffield 1978–1988, 4CD Box Set, Various Artists
London: Cherry Red, £24.99
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- Conference Review
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