NYHC New York Hardcore 1980-1990 – Tony Rettman
Bazillion Points, 61 Greenpoint Ave. # 504, Brooklyn, NY 11222, Usa, www.bazzilionpoints.com, / Turnaround UK, www.turnaround-uk.com
I’m going to write a review of the book, not about the New York Hardcore-Punk scene and their characters and attitude. Rettman spoke to (or at least quoted) 117 (!!) people that have been or are part of the NY-scene. Musicians, scensters, promoters, everybody you can imagine is there. At least I did not miss anybody (it would have been helpful if continuesly thru the book all the individuals had their „function“ after the name and not only once….). The book opens with a foreword by Freddy Cricien and is followed by 52 chapters: The Stimulators, Max’s Kansas City, The Mad, Bad Brains, Even Worse, Avenue A, False Prophets, The Undead, The Nihilistics, WNYU, The Mob, Reagan Youth, Kraut, The zine scene, D.C. vs. New York vs. Boston, DIY Vinyl, East Village Nights, Urban Waste and Major Conflict, The Abused, The Misguided, Agnostic Front, Cause for Alarm, Apartement X, Skinhead Youth, Antidote, CBGB,
Agnostic Front, Skank yourself to death, Hare Krishna, The Cro-Mags, Peace Punks, Heavy Metal, Crumbsuckers, Murphy’s Law, The birth of unity, Youth of Today, Warzone, Youth Crew, Straight Ahead, Rock Hotel, Underdog, Some Records, Breakdown, Revelation Records, Blackout, NYHC on the road, Judge, ABC No Rio, Sick of it All, Shelter, Clean Slate, The Legacy. That makes a bit more than 380 pages of oral history, with alot of cool photos and flyers. Not much „news“ comes with this book, the cast of characters speak very authentic about how it was and how they thought/think, how the scene worked, and what their „goals“ where. Now if you know about that scene, all knowledge will be confirmed. If not, you can learn what it was like in that decade in the big apple („at that time, the lower east side was a warzone“, „I was fighting. We sang about street justice and survival on the streets because that was for real“) From the chapter rundown you see that alot of aspects are spoken about. Had Rettman put full interviews of all those people in the book, it would have been unreadable. But by breaking it up the way he did, it is entertaining. Sometime I miss some sort of comment or analysis from the author, but I guess that was not what he was interested in doing. Reading all this short quotes it proofs that alot of the key figures of the NYHC scene where rather simple minded kids and apart from a few exeptions it seems not much has changed. One thing I noticed is the language alot of these people use, not sure if that is „typical New York“ or just another proof of their attitude („I made him join the band“, „we then replaced him“ „I told him to do so and so“), human beeings appear like chess figures – that is always very selfcentered, even thou everyone does all the time speak about unity. It also makes clear that a band can loose and add bandmembers as long as the „boss“ stays there. And they are proud, not sure about what exatly, but they are…. Anyway, like I said, I dont wanna write about the NY-scene, that has been done alot before and you either like it or you dont, the book provides a good insight into it. Read it and you know. 29,95 US $ (dolf)
Isbn 978-1935950127
[Trust # 173 August 2015]
