About me:

..

Okay, I know this is old news and I'm moving at a snail's pace on it because of pressing economic concerns, but I'm working on a new book, maybe two books, about thirty years of punk rock women. Right now it looks like 1976-90 and then 90-onward, and I'm focusing on the first book at the moment. I'm welcoming further suggestions and contact info for anyone. Here's my wish-list so far, the ones with an asterisk being ones who've been agreeable to an interview so far and the double asterisks being the completed interviews. About half of the others I have contact info for, but have not gotten in touch yet or not heard back from them. There are some obvious ones left off, who either aren't cooperative or there's so much existing material about I don't need to interview them myself.

70’s

(Accelerators - Kathy Freeman) (**Adverts – Gaye Advert) (Alley Cats – Dianne Chai) (**Avengers – Penelope Houston) (**Bags – Alice Bag) (*Brat – Teresa Covarrubias) (Controllers - Mad Dog Karla) (*Cyclones - Pleasant Gehman) (*Fatal Microbes - Honey Bane) (*Germs – Lorna Doom) (Go-Go’s/Eyes – Charlotte Caffey) (Gun Club – Pat Morrison) (Joan Jett) (**Kleenex/Lilliput – Marlene Marder) (Lydia Lunch) (Mo-dettes - Kate Korris/Jane Crockford) (*Mutants – Sue White, Sally Webster) (*Nastyfacts – Kali Boyce) (Neo Boys) (**Nuns – Jennifer Miro) (*Penetration – Pauline Murray) (*Raincoats - Ana DaSilva/Gina Birch) (**Rezillos – Faye Fife) (*Slits - Palmolive) (UXA – De De Troit) (Violators – Kathy Valentine) (X - Exene Cervenka) (**X Ray Spex – Poly Styrene)

80’s

(*the Bangs – Annette Zilinskas) (**Black Flag - Kira Roessler) (**Conflict- Karen Allman) (*Stimulators - Denise Mercedes) (**Mydolls- Trish Herrera) (*Sado Nation – Mish Bondage) (*Scrawl – Sue Harshe) (Even Worse –Rebecca Korbet-Wootton) (Legal Weapon – Kat Arthur) (**Fastbacks – Kim Warnick/Lulu Gargiulo) (*45 Grave – Dinah Cancer) (**Fire Party – Nicky Thomas/Amy Pickering) (*Nuclear Crayons – Lara Lynch) (Beastie Boys – Kate Schellenbach) (**Red Cross/Kross – Janet Housden) (Rubella Ballet - Zillah Minx) (Babes in Toyland - Lori Barbero) (*Raszebrae - Debbie Patino) (Sin 34 - Julie Landfeld)

this is the second edition of "Going Underground: American Punk 1979-1992", my most recent labour of love and at times bane of my existence. Go to www.zuopress.com for the full skinny on it.

people keep telling me nice things about it - here are a few of 'em:

"Getting lost in George Hurchalla’s terrific Going Underground: American Punk 1979-1992, I can almost smell the spilt Fosters beer and rancid bathrooms of the many punk palaces across America that kept it lively back then, from the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC and Club 57 in New York City, to the Gilman Center in Berkeley and the legendary Jockey Club in Newport, Kentucky. Chapter by chapter, Hurchalla captures each major cities’ contribution, with the formation and rise of seminal clubs, bands and indie record labels, all told through the anecdotes of the musicians, club promoters, zine publishers and scenesters themselves. Peppered with original show flyers and rare photographs, this anthropological perfect storm might leave latter-day punks thirsty at the trough, as baby, those were truly the golden years. “Honey – what’ll it be tonight? The Necros, the Dickies, Bad Brains, or Die Kreuzen?” - John James in his Positively Yeah Yeah Yeah column in the Cincinnati CityBeat, Anchorage Press, and Chattanooga Pulse

"...what makes Hurchalla's book so important is that it captures the spirit of the movement, its idealistic sense of purpose that, despite punk's many shortcomings, has managed to survive and continues to influence a wide swath of people...Coupled with the equally excellent Fucked Up and Photocopied, Going Underground now stands as the definitive statement on the history of America's punk/hardcore scene. George, I tip my worn-out beret to you." - Jimmy Alvarado, Razorcake

"Hurchalla gets it right for using Idle Timer Dixon Colbourn's blazingly punk rock, Cash-esque photo of Randy "Biscuit" Turner, late of the Big Boys and this earth, as his cover shot. This second edition is dedicated to both of those Austin punk icons – now presumably gigging across the great wide open in a winged Ford Econoline with Will Shatter, Joe Strummer, et al – and includes an additional chapter on the Austin/Texas scene that's invaluable, both as historical record (the perpetually inclusive Big Boys contretemps with homophobic DCenesters Bad Brains is thick with menace) and as decidedly un-rose-tinted backward glance (MRR No. 6 sported the arresting cover header "The Dicks: A Commie Faggot Band!??!"). Trying to encapsulate the entirety of American punk rock, even with the 1992 cutoff in which Hurchalla wisely caps this exhaustive look-back, makes Hercules' Augean stable-boy routine seem positively fun, fun, fun. Nevertheless, Hurchalla's efforts are impressive, given the fragmented and regional nature of American hardcore in the Eighties, a time well before the Web made for a truly Punk Planet. Mimicking an Eighties-era tour, it meanders all over the place without ever fully wearing out its welcome. To paraphrase the Butthole Surfers: Regret is not having been there the first time round." - Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle

"Exactly what it says it is - an exhaustive look at the American punk scene from the So-Cal days to NoMeansNo. Drawn in large part from zines of the times, every page brings another memory. Naked Raygun on one, countered by Black Flag or the Butthole Surfers on the next. This isn't some prettied-up, big publisher look at ancient history, but rather like the music it documents, it's a raw and passionate take on a revolution of sorts. This music never died, but it did get co-opted, yet Hurchalla steers clear of all that, and just records what matters. Good stuff! - James Mann, The Big Takeover

"Going Underground is the way books about punk should be written - from a personal and local perspective... This book's informal and very personal tone is a refreshing and much-needed counterpoint to the string of pretentious and overbearing retrospectives on American punk that have been written in recent years... Another thing that sets Going Underground apart from other books is that Hurchalla makes no effort to retrofit the scene with some kind of seriousness or importance. Yeah, sure, the fashions and sounds of punk have gone mainstream. But Hurchalla correctly argues that it was the utter lack of a sense of importance that made punk rock so fun. An excellent stab at a complicated and interesting subject." - Jeff Fox, Barracuda

And even some not so nice things:

"OK, I was trying to play it straight and be kind. But this George fellow has worn my ass out, along with the dumb fuck who wrote American Hardcore and all the ass clowns who helped him make it into a movie. All of these are missing the mark in the worst way: via self-absorbed interpretation with no personal observance. As much as I hate to say it, Henry Rollins, that ass-kissing, name-dropping self-promoter who has never missed a chance to tell us HIS opinion of anything, has done the best job of documenting what was really going on during a snatch of the era in his book Get In The Van." -Steve Miller, YourFlesh

(Steve was in a fine early 80's Detroit hardcore band called The Fix. I too enjoyed the personal observances of Rollins' book, such as the one where Rollins was spit on at a St Louis show, and wiped the spit off with the guy's shirt. Tough guy move. A St Louis friend of mine who was at the show clarified Henry's account: The actual offender, Lee, had kept silent when Henry demanded to know who did it, so his huge 6'5" friend Eric took credit. Rollins told Eric to meet him in the parking lot afterward. Eric showed up. Henry never did. Not quite as interesting a story as "what was really going on", though.)