Why Be Something That You're Not: Detroit Hardcore 1979-1985

Tony Rettman,Tesco Vee (Foreword)

ISBN 10: 1889703036 / ISBN 13: 9781889703039

Published by Revelation Records, 2010

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Why Be Something That You're Not: Detroit Hardcore 1979-1985
• Publisher: Revelation Records
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1889703036
• ISBN 13: 9781889703039
• Binding: paperback
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

In the early 70s, Detroit was the musical hub of America, but by the early eighties, it was a wasteland. It took a group of skateboarders, a teacher and a census clerk to wake the city up and start one of the first hardcore punk scenes in America.

"Why Be Something That You're Not" chronicles the first wave of Detroit hardcore from its origins in the late 70s to its demise in the mid-80s. Through oral histories and extensive imagery, the book proves that even though the California beach towns might have created the look and style of hardcore punk, it was the Detroit scene - along with a handful of other cities - that cultivated the music's grassroots aesthetic before most cultural hot spots around the globe even knew what the music was about.

The book includes interviews with members of The Fix, Violent Apathy, Negative Approach, Necros, Pagans, Bored Youth, and L-Seven along with other people who had a hand in the early hardcore scene like Ian MacKaye, Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson.

About the Author

Tony Rettman is a freelance music journalist whose work has appeared in The Village Voice, Arthur, Swindle, Signal to Noise and Mean. He is also a regular contributor to on-line publications such as Swingset, Terminal Boredom, Blastitude and Double Cross and provided liner notes for releases by such artists as Religious Knives, King Darves and Violent Students. He currently resides on the north shore of Long Island, New York with his girlfriend and cat.