"Engrossing." --BEN GILL, "Mother Jones ""

""Passionate and detailed." --ROBERT CHRISTGAU, "The New York Times Book Review ""

""[An] epic, meticulously researched . . . biography." --ZAC CRAIN, "Esquire ""

""The most complete and honest account of Strummer's professional and personal life." --RON WYNN, "The Nashville City Paper ""

""There was a time when The Clash . . . was (quite properly) billed as 'The Only Band That Matters.' [This] biography about lead singer Joe Strummer explains why . . . Salewicz, a longtime Strummer associate and chronicler of the punk scene, quickly settles into his groove and stays there, his words as vivid as the lyrics to 'White Man in Hammersmith Palais' or 'London Calling.' Details abound, providing fresh glimpses into the Strummer persona, along with those that preceded it . . . [A] compelling tale of Strummer's too-short life." --LARRY MCSHANE, Associated Press

"Will likely go down as the definitive bio of Strummer and the Clash." --JEFF TAMARKIN, "Harp"

This is the first ever 'authorised' biography of this most inscrutable of bands - now updated. This new edition incorporates a new epilogue in which Mick Middles considers recent upheavels in the Fall camp, the "Heads Roll" album, Mark E. Smith's appearance at its launch and his ongoing tirades at anything and everything. Together music writer Mick Middles and Fall leader Mark E Smith have written an exhausting biography of the Fall. Spanning their years on the fringe of the Manchester punk scene, three dozen albums, numerous tours, two successful stage playes and numerous 'spoken word' events, this book is strangely compelling as the band itself.

Combining unique access to Green Day with a journalist's nose for a great story, Mark Spitz tells the complete account of the band Green Day from their earliest days to their most recent explosion in popularity--achieved after many in the business had written the band off as old news. It??'s hard to believe that in early 2004, Green Day was considered pass??--a strictly 90s phenomenon. Since then, they have rewritten the rules of rock???namely the rule that says: no comebacks allowed. Sure, there are second acts in rock, but usually they???re embarrassing. ???American Idiot??? has sold 4 million copies in America???the biggest selling rock record of the year. It??'s currently at number 20 on the charts???57 weeks after debuting at number 1. The band was awarded a Grammy for rock album of the year and seven MTV video music awards including video of the year. NOBODY LIKES YOU is a story of friendship and the transporting power of playing very loud music. It is the story of how high school drop out Billy Jo Armstrong came to write song lyrics that inflamed the political conscience of fans in a way that two Yale graduates couldn???t. Green Day??'s story???from rise, to fall, to rise again--has never been fully told, and Spin journalist Mark Spitz has exclusive access.

When it began, punk was an underground revolution that raged against the mainstream; now punk "is" the mainstream. Tracing the origins of Grammy-winning icons Green Day and the triumphant resurgence of neo-punk legends Bad Religion through MTV's embrace of pop-punk bands like Yellowcard, music journalist Matt Diehl explores the history of new punk, exposing how this once cult sound became a blockbuster commercial phenomenon. Diehl follows the history and controversy behind neo-punk--from the Offspring's move from a respected indie label to a major, to multi-platinum bands Good Charlotte and Simple Plan's unrepentant commercial success, through the survival of genre iconoclasts the Distillers and the rise of "emo" superstars like Fall Out Boy.
" My So-Called Punk "picks up where bestselling authors Legs McNeil and Jon Savage left off, conveying how punk went from the Sex Pistol's "Anarchy in the U.K." to anarchy in the O.C. via the Warped Tour. Defining the sound of today's punk, telling the stories behind the bands that have brought it to the masses and discussing the volatile tension between the culture's old and new factions, "My So-Called Punk "is the go-to book for a new generation of punk rock fans.

Irish Independent Music Book of the Year Guardian Book of the Week After discovering a derelict record plant on the edge of a northern English city, and hearing that it was once visited by David Bowie, Karl Whitney embarks upon a journey to explore the industrial cities of British pop music. Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Glasgow, Belfast, Birmingham, Coventry, Bristol: at various points in the past these cities have all had distinctive and highly identifiable sounds. But how did this happen? What circumstances enabled those sounds to emerge? How did each particular city - its history, its physical form, its accent - influence its music? How were these cities and their music different from each other? And what did they have in common? Hit Factories tells the story of British pop through the cities that shaped it, tracking down the places where music was performed, recorded and sold, and the people - the performers, entrepreneurs, songwriters, producers and fans - who made it all happen. From the venues and recording studios that occupied disused cinemas, churches and abandoned factories to the terraced houses and back rooms of pubs where bands first rehearsed, the terrain of British pop can be retraced with a map in hand and a head filled with music and its many myths.

In the late '90s, third-wave ska broke across the American alternative music scene like a tsunami. In sweaty clubs across the nation, kids danced themselves dehydrated to the peppy rhythms and punchy horns of bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish. As ska caught fire, a swing revival brought even more sharp-dressed, brass-packing bands to national attention. Hell of a Hat dives deep into this unique musical moment. Prior to invading the Billboard charts and MTV, ska thrived from Orange County, California, to NYC, where Moon Ska Records had eager rude girls and boys snapping up every release. On the swing tip, retro pioneers like Royal Crown Revue had fans doing the jump, jive, and wail long before The Brian Setzer Orchestra resurrected the Louis Prima joint. Drawing on interviews with heavyweights like the Bosstones, Sublime, Less Than Jake, and Cherry Poppin' Daddies-as well as underground heroes like Mustard Plug, The Slackers, Hepcat, and The New Morty Show-Kenneth Partridge argues that the relative economic prosperity and general optimism of the late '90s created the perfect environment for fast, danceable music that-with some notable exceptions-tended to avoid political commentary. An homage to a time when plaids and skankin' were king and doing the jitterbug in your best suit was so money, Hell of a Hat is an inside look at '90s ska, swing, and the loud noises of an era when America was dreaming and didn't even know it.

Please Feed Me is a punk rock vegan cookbook. Each recipe features an anecdote by a band that performed at the Hope Collective, a popular punk venue in Dublin the author helped maintain for over a decade. (The Hope Collective became a blue print and inspiration for punk and DIY spaces across Ireland and the UK.) The book features contributions from over 120 people who donated their vegan recipes and thoughts on the importance of the punk rock community and culture, including stories from seminal punk banks such as Fugazi, Bikini Kill, and Chumbawamba.
In addition to great recipes, Please Feed Me uniquely illustrates the connections between community, art, activism and health. The thunderous subtext of the book is the vital underground community and network created and maintained by a collective of organizers and hundreds of musicians at a time when most punk bands were signing to major labels for the highest dollar amount. The book documents pieces of the stories of many popular US and international punk bands that continue to have a major influence on youth subcultures today.

"Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo" tells the story of a cultural moment that's happening right now-the nexus point where teen culture, music, and the web converge to create something new.
While shallow celebrities dominate the headlines, pundits bemoan the death of the music industry, and the government decries teenagers for their morals (or lack thereof) earnest, heartfelt bands like Dashboard Confessional, Jimmy Eat World, and Thursday are quietly selling hundreds of thousands of albums through dedication, relentless touring and respect for their fans. This relationship - between young people and the empathetic music that sets them off down a road of self-discovery and self-definition - is emo, a much-maligned, mocked, and misunderstood term that has existed for nearly two decades, but has flourished only recently. In "Nothing Feels Good," Andy Greenwald makes the case for emo as more than a genre - it's an essential rite of teenagehood. From the '80s to the '00s, from the basement to the stadium, from tour buses to chat rooms, and from the diary to the computer screen, "Nothing Feels Good" narrates the story of emo from the inside out and explores the way this movement is taking shape in real time and with real hearts on the line. "Nothing Feels Good "is the first book to explore this exciting moment in music history and Greenwald has been given unprecedented access to the bands and to their fans. He captures a place in time and a moment on the stage in a way only a true music fan can.

This comprehensive A-Z listing has over 100 rap-rock, rap-metal and funk-metal bands, plus a host of other hard-hitting acts from the hip-hop and hardcore punk branches of metal. All of nu-metal life is here, from leaders of the scene such as Limp Bizkit, Korn, Slipnot, Deftones, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson, Soulfly, Tool, Amen, At the Drive-In, and System of a Down, through the pioneers of the movement such as Primus, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, and Biohazard, all the way up to the newest cutting-edge bands such as One Minute Silence, A Perfect Circle, Coal Chamber, Orgy, Alien Ant Farm, Godsmack, and Videodrome. There's also a full history of events that led to the formation of nu-meta, putting the pieces of the puzzle together with the story of grunge and early rap rockers such as the Beastie Boys.

FACTORY RECORDS' REPUTATION AND FORTUNE WERE FOUNDED ON TWO BANDS -JOY DIVISION AND NEW ORDER - AND ONE SINGLE-MINDED AND STUBBORN PERSONALITY: ITS MEDIA-FRIENDLY COMPANY DIRECTOR ANTHONY H. WILSON. AT THE HEIGHT OF IT'S SUCCESS IN THE LATE 1980S, THE COMPANY REIGNED OVER THE MANCHESTER RAVE SCENE, RAN IT'S OWN CLUB, THE HACIENDA, AND HAD A STRING OF HIT RECORDS AROUND THE WORLD. BY 1992 THE BACK CATALOGUE HAD BEEN SOLD OFF, NEW ORDER AND HAPPY MONDAYS WERE IN DISARRAY, AND THE HACIENDA WAS SHUT DOWN BY THE POLICE. SINCE THEN THE STORY OF FACTORY RECORDS HAS BECOME THE STUFF OF MYTHS AND LEGENDS. A MAJOR NEW BRITISH FILM, TWENTY FOUR HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, REVISITS THE HEYDAY OF THE HACIENDA, AND STARS STEVE COOGAN AS ANTHONY H. WILSON ALONGSIDE MANY OF THE ARTISTS AND PERSONALITIES WHO WERE AROUND AT THE TIME. THE FILM IS RELEASED IN MARCH 2002. FROM JOY DIVISION TO NEW ORDER, ACCLAIMED ON IT'S ORIGINAL PUBLICATION IN 1996, TELLS THE REAL STORY OF FACTORY'S SPECTACULAR HISTORY. DRAWING ON EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH THE MAJOR PLAYERS, MICK MIDDLES PROVIDES A TIMELY AND FACINATING LOOK AT THE UNIQUE PERSONALITIES AND MESSY REALITY BEHIND ONE OF THE UK'S MOST INFLUENTIAL AND (AT ONE TIME ) COMMERCIALLY SUCCESSFUL INDEPENDENT RECORD COMPANIES.

England’s Dreaming is the ultimate book on punk, its progenitors, the Sex Pistols, and the moment they defined for music fans in England and the United States Savage brings to life the sensational story of the meteoric rise and rapid implosion of the Pistols through layers of rich detail, exclusive interviews, and rare photographs. This fully revised and updated edition of the book covers the legacy of punk twenty-five years later and provides an account of the Pistols' 1996 reunion as well as a freshly updated discography and a completely new introduction.

The authorized story of an American band who shaped the history of music for generations. Today's new music-makers are looking back at the bands that broke the ground, and the Ramones are it: the original high priests of punk, the stars of rock 'n roll high school, the royal avatars of rock, raunch, and rebellion. 60 photographs and illustrations.

The last word on Sid Vicious - the world's most iconic punk figure. The old school register for Soho Parish Primary school has a note in the margin recording that five-year-old John Simon Ritchie turned up for his first day at school unaccompanied in September 1962. He'd walked from his mum's council flat near Drury Lane, across Covent Garden and several major road junctions to Gt Windmill Street alone. Somehow it's a fitting start to the wild and troubled life that would be Sid Vicious's. It's also a story that's indicative of the detailed research Alan Parker has put into this biography of Sid Vicious. He spent an evening discussing young Simon Ritchie's schooldays with the headmistress of Soho Parish, has interviewed the likes of fellow Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Glen Matlock at length, as well as numerous other punk luminaries. The basics of Sid Vicious's brief 21 years are well known: art school, junkie mother, life in a squat, a year in the Sex Pistols until their demise in 1978, Nancy Spungeon's death, Sid's arrest, followed by Sid's own fatal overdose on 2 February 1979. Parker brings a wealth of new detail to the story, much gained from the New York Police Department and extensive interviews with Anne Beverley (Sid's mother), prior to her own suicide in 1996. This enables him to come to dramatic conclusions about who killed Nancy Spungeon and how Sid himself died. This will be the definitive and final word on Sid Vicious, and the perfect tribute to a man who has become a true icon of the 21st century.

'I couldn't put this book down. Malcolm inspired us to make art out of our boredom and anger. He set us free' Bobby Gillespie, Primal Scream Included in the Guardian 10 best music biographies 'Excellent . . . With this book, Gorman convincingly moves away from the ossified image of McLaren as a great rock'n'roll swindler, a morally bankrupt punk Mephistopheles, and closer towards his art-school roots, his love of ideas. Tiresome, unpleasant, even cruel - he was, this book underlines, never boring' Sunday Times 'Exhaustive . . . compelling' Observer 'Definitive . . . epic' The Times 'Gobsmacker of a biography' Telegraph 'This masterful and painstaking biography opens its doorway to an era of fluorescent disenchantment and outlandish possibility' Alan Moore Malcolm McLaren was one of the most culturally significant but misunderstood figures of the modern era. Ten years after his life was cruelly cut short by cancer, The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren sheds fascinating new light on the public achievements and private life of this cultural iconoclast and architect of punk, whose championing of street culture movements including hip-hop and Voguing reverberates to this day. With exclusive contributions from friends and intimates and access to private papers and family documents, this biography uncovers the true story behind this complicated figure. McLaren first achieved public prominence as a rebellious art student by making the news in 1966 after being arrested for burning the US flag in front of the American Embassy in London. He maintained this incendiary reputation by fast-tracking vanguard and left-field ideas to the centre of the media glare, via his creation and stewardship of the Sex Pistols and work with Adam Ant, Boy George and Bow Wow Wow. Meanwhile McLaren's ground-breaking design partnership with Vivienne Westwood and his creation of their visionary series of boutiques in the 1970s and early '80s sent shockwaves through the fashion industry. The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren also essays McLaren's exasperating Hollywood years when he broke bread with the likes of Steven Spielberg though his slate of projects, which included the controversial Heavy Metal Surf Nazis and Wilde West, in which Oscar Wilde introduced rock'n'roll to the American mid-west in the 1880s, proved too rich for the play-it-safe film business. With a preface by Alan Moore, who collaborated with McLaren on the unrealised film project Fashion Beast, and an essay by Lou Stoppard casting a twenty-first-century perspective over his achievements, The Life & Times Of Malcolm McLaren is the explosive and definitive account of the man dubbed by Melvyn Bragg 'the Diaghilev of punk'.

To wander the streets of a bankrupt, often lawless, New York City in the early 1970s wearing a T-shirt with PLEASE KILL ME written on it was an act of determined nihilism, and one often recounted in the first reports of Richard Hell filtering into the pre-punk UK. Pete Astor, an archly nihilistic teenager himself at the time, was most impressed. The fact that it emerged (after many years) that Hell himself had not worn the T-shirt but had convinced junior band member Richard Lloyd to do so, actually fitted very well with Astor's older, wiser self looking back at Blank Generation. Richard Hell was an artist who could not only embody but also frame the punk urge; having seeded and developed the essential look and character of punk since his arrival in New York in the late 1960s, he had just what was needed to make one of the defining records of the era. This study combines objective, academic perspectives along with culturally centred subjectivities to understand the meanings and resonances of Richard Hell and the Voidoids' Blank Generation.

THESE ARE THE WORDS THAT CAME TO ME. NO MATTER HOW THEY GOT HERE, THEY DID THE F***ING JOB. Iggy Pop hasn't left a mark on music; he's left it battered and bruised, too. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, here for the first time are his selected lyrics, complete with stunning original photographs, illustrations, alongside Iggy and others' reflections on a genre-defining music career that spans five decades. Coinciding with a new album, FREE, this is the ultimate book for every rock and roll fan.

Rock 'n' Roll Movies presents an eclectic look at the many manifestations of rock in motion pictures, from teen-oriented B-movies to Hollywood blockbusters to avant-garde meditations to reverent biopics to animated shorts to performance documentaries. Acclaimed film critic David Sterritt considers the diverse ways that filmmakers have regarded rock 'n' roll, some cynically cashing in on its popularity and others responding to the music as sincere fans, some depicting rock as harmless fun and others representing it as an open challenge to mainstream norms.

This updated reissue of Mark LeVine's acclaimed, revolutionary book on sub- and countercultural music in the Middle East brings this groundbreaking portrait of the region's youth cultures to a new generation. Featuring a new preface by the author in conversation with the band The Kominas about the problematic connections between extreme music and Islam. An eighteen-year-old Moroccan who loves Black Sabbath. A twenty-two-year-old rapper from the Gaza Strip. A young Lebanese singer who quotes Bob Marley's "Redemption Song." Heavy metal, punk, hip-hop, and reggae are each the music of protest, and are considered immoral by many in the Muslim world. As the young people and subcultures featured in Mark LeVine's Heavy Metal Islam so presciently predicted, this music turned out to be the soundtrack of countercultures, uprisings, and even revolutions from Morocco to Pakistan. In Heavy Metal Islam, originally published in 2008, Mark LeVine explores the influence of Western music on the Middle East and North Africa through interviews with musicians and fans, introducing us to young people struggling to reconcile their religion with a passion for music and a thirst for change. The result is a revealing tour de force of contemporary cultures across the Muslim majority world through the region's evolving music scenes that only a musician, scholar, and activist with LeVine's unique breadth of experience could narrate. A New York Times Editor's Pick when it was first published, Heavy Metal Islam is a surprising, wildly entertaining foray into a historically authoritarian region where music reveals itself to be a true democratizing force-and a groundbreaking work of scholarship that pioneered new forms of research in the region.

In Punk and Revolution Shane Greene radically uproots punk from its iconic place in First World urban culture, Anglo popular music, and the Euro-American avant-garde, situating it instead as a crucial element in Peru's culture of subversive militancy and political violence. Inspired by Jose Carlos Mariategui's Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality, Greene explores punk's political aspirations and subcultural possibilities while complicating the dominant narratives of the war between the Shining Path and the Peruvian state. In these seven essays, Greene experiments with style and content, bends the ethnographic genre, and juxtaposes the textual and visual. He theorizes punk in Lima as a mode of aesthetic and material underproduction, rants at canonical cultural studies for its failure to acknowledge punk's potential for generating revolutionary politics, and uncovers the intersections of gender, ethnicity, class, and authenticity in the Lima punk scene. Following the theoretical interventions of Debord, Benjamin, and Bakhtin, Greene fundamentally redefines how we might think about the creative contours of punk subculture and the politics of anarchist praxis.