Hardcore, the hard-edged second generation of punk rock, whose peak period ranged from 1980 to 1986, has never before been captured in the way Steven Blushs authoritative, extensively illustrated oral history revisits its dynamic and sordid past. All the major hardcore scenes, particularly in Southern California, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Boston, New York City and Texas are given provocative voice through its major players, from drugged-out suburban Metal misfits to shit-kicking skinheads to vegan anti-drug pacifists. American Hardcore; A Tribal History not only recapitulates an important and influential scene, its provocative sociological snapshots reveal the apocalyptic desperation of a singular time in American history. Author Steven Blush was a prime mover in the scene he writes about; in the 80s, he promoted many hardcore tours and shows, DJ an influential college radio show, and ran a record label. Later Blush published Seconds magazine, and wrote for Paper, Spin, Interview, Village Voice, Details and High Times magazines. The primary photographers included in this volume are Edward Colver and Karen O Sullivan. Flyers, set lists, logos, and record covers have been provided by many collectors, and the book includes an extensive discography of Hard core rock releases from 1980 to 1986.

"American Hardcore sets the record straight about the last great American subculture"—Paper magazine Steven Blush's "definitive treatment of Hardcore Punk" (Los Angeles Times) changed the way we look at Punk Rock. The Sony Picture Classics–distributed documentary American Hardcore premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. This revised and expanded second edition contains hundreds of new bands, thirty new interviews, flyers, a new chapter ("Destroy Babylon"), and a new art gallery with over 125 rare photos and images.

A singular document of the aesthetic of American Hardcore music and culture, this collection brings together unseen photographs, personal letters, original artwork, rare albums, 45s, T-shirts, fanzines and various ephemera from the hardcore scene circa 1978-1993. It includes more than 500 images and illustrations presented in a manner that abandons the aesthetic cliches normally used to depict the genre by letting the subject matter speak for itself. With contributions from such luminaries of the scene as Jeff Nelson of Minor Threat, Dave Smalley and Pat Dunbar.

The product of decades of work and multiple self-published editions, Going Underground, written by 1980s scene veteran George Hurchalla, is the most comprehensive look yet at America’s nationwide underground punk scene. Despite the mainstream press declarations that “punk died with Sid Vicious” or that “punk was reborn with Nirvana,” author Hurchalla followed the DIY spirit of punk underground, where it not only survived but thrived nationally as a self-sustaining grassroots movement rooted in seedy clubs, rented fire halls, Xeroxed zines, and indie record shops. Rather than dwell solely on well-documented scenes from Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC, Hurchalla delves deep into the counterculture, rooting out stories from Chicago, Philadelphia, Austin, Cincinnati, Miami, and elsewhere. The author seamlessly mixes his personal experiences with the oral history of dozens of band members, promoters, artists, zinesters, and scenesters. Some of the countless bands covered include Articles of Faith, Big Boys, Necros, Hüsker Dü, Bad Brains, Government Issue, and Minutemen, as well as many of the essential zines of the time such as Big Takeover, Maximum RocknRoll, Flipside, and Forced Exposure. Going Underground features over a hundred unique photos from Marie Kanger-Born of Chicago, Dixon Coulbourn of Austin, Brian Trudell of LA, Malcolm Riviera of DC, Justina Davies of New York, Ed Arnaud of Arizona, and many others, along with flyers from across the nation.

As a homeless child prodigy, Harley Flanagan played drums for bands at Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs, and was taught to play bass by the famed black band Bad Brains, and drank with the notorious Lemmy of Motörhead. Most famously, Harley became a member of the famous hardcore band The Cro-Mags, and disputes accusations of stabbing two band members.

Uncompromising and innovative, hardcore punk in Washington, DC, birthed a new sound and nurtured a vibrant subculture aimed at a specific segment of the city's youth. Shayna L. Maskell explores DC's hardcore scene during its short but storied peak. Led by bands like Bad Brains and Minor Threat, hardcore in the nation's capital unleashed music as angry and loud as it was fast and minimalistic. Maskell examines the music's aesthetics and the unique impact of DC's sociopolitical realities on the sound and the scene that emerged. As she shows, aspects of the music's structure merged with how bands performed it to put across distinctive representations of race, class, and gender. But those representations could be as complicated and contradictory as they were explicit. A fascinating analysis of a punk rock hotbed, Politics as Sound tells the story of how a generation created music that produced--and resisted--politics and power.

Zen, plain and simple, with no BS. This is not your typical Zen book. Brad Warner, a young punk who grew up to be a Zen master, spares no one. This bold new approach to the "Why?" of Zen Buddhism is as strongly grounded in the tradition of Zen as it is utterly revolutionary. Warner's voice is hilarious, and he calls on the wisdom of everyone from punk and pop culture icons to the Buddha himself to make sure his points come through loud and clear. As it prods readers to question everything, Hardcore Zen is both an approach and a departure, leaving behind the soft and lyrical for the gritty and stark perspective of a new generation. This new edition will feature an afterword from the author.