Bøger af David Ensminger

Poems, prose, correspondence, emails, rantings, manifestos, observations, songs, and soliloquies by singer-songwriter, troubadour, and proto-punk Peter Case and writer, music journalist, educator, folklorist, and drummer David Ensminger. EPISTOLARY REX comprised of correspondence between friends and colleagues Houston beat/punk David Ensminger and California troubadour Peter Case, inspired by hero Allen Ginsberg's letters with his peers, and other documents of the once-upon-a-time counter-culture, in this day (and night) of materialist madness and right wing surges world-wide, while the people of the earth suffer. Visions, dreams, childhood memories, tales of the street, surrealist echoes of the horrors and bliss of the daily quotidian, along with off-the-cuff songs, word pictures of forgotten people and places, whispers of deep long- ings and other candid revelations ... knocked out in less than three weeks, over a space of two thousand miles, in odd moments and breaks in the days and nights of work, love, and survival.

Left of the Dial features interviews by musical journalist, folklorist, educator, and musician David Ensminger with leading figures of the punk underground: Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat/Fugazi), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Dave Dictor (MDC), and many more. Ensminger probes the legacy of punk’s sometimes fuzzy political ideology, its ongoing DIY traditions, its rupture of cultural and social norms, its progressive media ecology, its transgenerational and transnational appeal, its pursuit of social justice, its hybrid musical nuances, and its sometimes ambivalent responses to queer identities, race relations, and its own history. Passionate, far-reaching, and fresh, these conversations illuminate punk’s oral history with candor and humor.Rather than focus on discographies and rehashed gig memories, the interviews aim to unveil the secret history of punk and hardcore ideologies and values, as understood by the performers. In addition, Ensminger has culled key graphics from his massive punk flyer collection to celebrate the visual history of the bands represented. The book also features rare photographs shot by Houston-based photographer Ben DeSoto during the heyday of punk and hardcore, which capture the movement’s raw gusto, gritty physicality, and resilient determination.Interviews include Peter Case (Nerves, Plimsouls), Captain Sensible (The Damned), Tony Kinman (The Dils), El Vez, Charlie Harper (UK Subs), The Deaf Club (an oral history of the landmark San Francisco club), Mike Palm (Agent Orange), Gregg Turner (Angry Samoans), Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Gary Floyd (Dicks, Sister Double Happiness), Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE), Shawn Stern (Youth Brigade), Kira Roessler (Black Flag, Dos), Jack Grisham (TSOL), Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Off!) Fred “Freak” Smith (Beefeater), U-Ron Bondage (Really Red), Vic Bondi (Articles of Faith), Lisa Fancher (Frontier Records), Dave Dictor (MDC), and Thomas Barnett (Strike Anywhere).

Small town America built the punk rock revolution; but big city scenes have gotten all the coverage. No longer! Out of the Basement is a bracing, candid, democratic, and cutting edge portrayal of a rust belt city full of rebel kids making DIY music despite the odds. It combines oral history, brutally honest memoir, music history, and a sense of blunt poetics to capture the ethos of life in the 1970s-2000s, long before the Internet made punk accessible to small towners. From dusty used record stores and frenetic skating rinks to dank basements and sweat-piled gigs to the radical forebears like the local IWW chapter, the book follows the stories of rebels struggling to find spaces and a sense of community and their place in underground history.Includes hilarious untold stories and anecdotes about Fred Armisen, Green Day, and the Misfits.