Category: punk

  • Larry Livermore Brings How To Ru(i)n A Record Label to Quimby’s 3/26

    Hot To Ruin CoverIn How To Ru(i)n A Record Label (Don Giovanni Records), Larry Livermore describes the spectacular rise and ignominious collapse of Lookout Records, the iconic label he co-founded in 1987 and which helped launch the careers of Green Day, Operation Ivy, Screeching Weasel, and a host of other artists.

    Paying due homage to his Detroit roots, the author recounts his personal journey, from Berkeley, California to Bialystok, Poland, as he built the label from the ground up, only to walk away abruptly from what had grown into a multi-million company when it was at the peak of its success.

    “[An] engrossing account of being in the epicenter of the East Bay punk scene when it exploded, told from the perspective of the man holding the detonator.”  – Liz Prince, author of Tomboy

    “A great book by a true veteran. Well told, funny and entertainingly opinionated.” – Jesse Michaels, Operation Ivy

    Larry Livermore was co-founder of Lookout Records, editor and publisher of Lookout magazine, and a longtime columnist for Maximum Rocknroll and Punk Planet. His first book, Spy Rock Memories, was published in 2013 by Don Giovanni Records.

    More info:

    larrylivermore.com

    dongiovannirecords@gmail.com

    Here’s the Facebook event invite for this event! Invite your friends!

    Sat, March 26th, 7pm – Free Event

    ruinalabelspines

  • Daniel Makagon Reads From Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows With Photographers Patrick Houdek and Craig Kamrath 9/15

    BookCoverNoSpineIn Daniel Makagon’s new book Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows (Microcosm), he writes about DIY punk shows in the USA. The book focuses on the development of a DIY punk touring network, the emergence of punk house shows, and the establishment of volunteer-run community punk show spaces. Makagon describes how DIY punk shows provide opportunities for punks to form communities and enact social and economic alternatives to top down mainstream music industry practices. Underground weaves interviews with punk band members and show promoters to flesh out an argument about the reasons why punk shows are at the core of doing DIY.

    “Daniel Makagon was there, and he’s likely forgotten more about DIY than many of you will ever know.”
    -Adam Pfahler, Jawbreaker

    Patrick Houdek has been photographing punk shows for nearly three decades. He founded the P&S Productions cassette compilation label in the 1980s and was involved with early show promotion at Lost Cross house in Carbondale, IL.

    Craig Kamrath has been photographing punk bands in the Midwest for the past ten years. He’s documented long-lasting and short-lived show spaces in Chicago as well as some of the most important DIY spaces in the Midwest.

    Patrick’s photos and Craig’s photos are featured in Underground.

    For more info contact Daniel Makagon: dmakagon(at)depaul(dot)edu

    Facebook event post for this event is here.

    Tuesday, September 15th, 7pm – Free Event

  • Bob Suren reads from Crate Digger: An Obsession with Punk Records 7/17

    cdig_lgCrate Digger: An Obsession with Punk Records is a funny, honest and personal memoir of thirty years in the D.I.Y. punk scene. There are stories about touring, recording studios and record stores. There are stories about success, failure, disappointment, self-actualization and heartbreak. There are 60,000+ words, 192 pages and 39 photos. The story takes place over three decades in nine countries on four continents. There are nine deaths, two basset hounds and one love poem. There are special appearances by Jello Biafra, Ron Reyes (possibly), Tesco Vee, Joey Shithead, Cheetah Chrome and one very serious FBI agent.

    

    "Really brings to life the early days of the American punk scene as it spread slowly across the country, through turntables, fanzines, and word of mouth.  His vivid vinyl recollections illustrate how good record stores and adventurous college radio stations were so essential in bringing startling new music into the lives of many previously isolated kids.  It follows the trajectory of a kid as his passion for music became all-consuming."
    

    – Jeff Nelson, Minor Threat and Dischord Records
    

    

    "A fun, easy-to-read, personal narrative of 30 years of living through "Punk Rock" - finding records, going to concerts, making discoveries, and a myriad of other experiences - that help the reader "make sense" of a still-inspiring cultural revolution and breakthrough "philosophy of life" that spawned the current "entrepreneurial culture" (where everybody wants to start their own "start-up"). D-I-Y, indeed..."
    

    -- V. Vale, founder of SEARCH & DESTROY and RE/SEARCH Publications
    

     
    

    Bob Suren has written for numerous underground music magazines over the decades such as Maximum Rocknroll, Engine, Seven Inches to Freedom and published his own magazine, Heavy Rotation. Crate Digger is his first book.
    

    For more info: microcosmpublishing.com or surentime(at)gmail(dot)com 
    

    Untitled2Fri, July 17th, 7pm
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Celebrate International Zine Month all July long with Quimby's!
    
			
    

    Have you heard the good news? July is International Zine Month! Thanks to Alex Wrekk of Stolen Sharpie Revolution and Brainscan fame, you can celebrate every day with a fun zine-centric activity. Peruse our blog for daily suggestions from the crew at Quimbys too! Stay tuned for awesomeness. And thus, we commence International Zine Month, (a ribbon to cut and a horn to toot, if you will), with a top ten list courtesy Liz Mason, Quimby’s Manager, Zine Maven and all-around Jill of all trades. David Letterman, watch your back.
    

    July 1st’s activity is “Make a Top 10 list of reasons why your love zines!”
    
Well OK then! In no particular order:
    
1. Zines are not usually done for financial profit, so there isn’t a lot of advertising.
    
2. Since zines aren’t published by big fancy magazine publishers, the writer is usually also the editor and publisher, so that means there is less interference from someone with a mainstreamy agenda.
    
3. Everything looks cool when laid out in scrappy black and white cut-and-paste style.
    
4. Zines are usually less expensive then magazines.
    
5. Zines can focus on charmingly specialized topics, like dishwashing, pirate radio, or how to make a haunted house.
    
6. When you meet other people who are into reading or publishing zines, they are usually really cool people.
    
7. As a zine publisher, you can publish as often or as little as you like, which I like to think of as the “I’ll put out another issue when I’m damn good and ready” publishing schedule.
    
8. When you meet someone new you can school them in everything they need to know about you if you just hand them your zines and say, “Read these.”
    
9. There is no intermediary editor! What you say goes!
    
10. If you publish a zine you can trade with other zine publishers for theirs, and it’s a great way to make friends.
    

    More about International Zine Month at stolensharpierevolution.org.
    

     
    

    zinemonthgraphicday1
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Chicago Zine Fest Punk Rock Karaoke Fundraiser at The Beauty Bar 1/9
    
			
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Prepare to belt out your favorite punk songs Thursday, January 9th at Chicago Zine Fest’s first fundraiser of 2014, their 3rd annual event partnering with Punk Rock Karaoke Chicago at Beauty Bar at 1444 W Chicago Ave.
    

    The Punk Rock Karaoke songbook has selections from bands including Ramones, Rancid, Green Day, Blonde, Against Me!, the Clash, Misfits, the Smiths and more! These tunes will make you pump your fist in the air and pogo around all night long. Bring your friends to join in on the fun.
    

    Beauty Bar staff will offer a unique drink special all night long, a signature martini and a manicure.
    

    Hosts for the night will be the energetic and outrageous duo of Marisa Overton and Tara Anley.
    

    There is a $5 admission which will benefit the 2014 Chicago Zine Fest. The event beings at 8pm and is 21+.
    

    About Chicago Zine Fest: The Chicago Zine Fest is an independent event creating an outlet for small press and independent publishers to showcase their work. Our goal is to make DIY zine-making accessible, highlight the talents of self-published artists, and give independent artists a chance to interact, and swap skills through tabling, community events, and workshops. The festival will be held on March 14 and 15, 2014. For more information visit chicagozinefest.org.
    

    Note: This is NOT at Quimby’s! It is at Beauty Bar at 1444 W Chicago Ave.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Danny Bland Reads from In Case We Die 10/2
    
			
    incasewediecvr
    

    This debut novel by veteran Seattle musician Danny Bland follows a pair of outsiders who find themselves locked in the palpable, dizzy grunge-rock scene of early ’90s Seattle. Drenched in cloud of second hand smoke, Bland’s prose is funny and heart-breaking as he explores falling in and out of love, redemption and what you will and won’t do for one more cheap thrill all backed by the swelling sound of electric guitars, booze and petulant misbehavior.
    

    “Our anti-hero is floating in a tiny lifeboat made of heroin, graveyard shifts & rock music. His companions are two fabulous women: a bombshell who robs banks & a beautifully pale rock violinist who can barely dodge suicide. ICWD is much funnier & more satisfying than any other junkie rock’n’roll tragedy.” – John Doe (X)
    

    Danny Bland has been a musician (The Dwarves, Cat Butt, Best Kissers in the World) and road manager (Dave Alvin, The Knitters, The Gutter Twins, The Supersuckers) for over 25 years. Born in South Carolina, the longtime Seattle resident is most likely in a Ford Econoline van on a long stretch of highway, driving a rock band to its next engagement.
    

    Also available: A star-studded AudioBook featuring Duff McKagan, Marc Maron, Donal Logue, John Doe, Mark Lanegan, Mark Arm (Mudhoney), Norman Reedus and Lew Temple (The Walking Dead), Aimee Mann, and more! Visit InCaseWeDie.com to hear a sample.
    

    “A great piece of work — full of filth and heart.”  –Steve Earle
    

    For more info: www.fantagraphics.com/incasewedie
    

    Contact: Jen Vaughn, Marketing and Outreach Manager vaughn(at)fantagraphics(dot)com
    

    Wednesday, October 2nd, 7pm – Free Event
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Steve Miller Talks Detroit Rock City Book and  Punk Rock Provocateur Tesco Vee Squawks Touch and Go
    
			
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    Michigan madmen Steve Miller and Tesco Vee, veterans of the unbridled musical sounds that made the Midwest famous, appear together July 26 to talk about Miller’s new oral history, Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Five Decades of Rock ‘N Roll in America’s Loudest City (Da Capo). The two will also discuss the classic punk rock tome Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79-’83 (Bazillion Points), the 576-page monsterpiece written by TV and edited by Miller.
    

    Steve Miller is a noted true crime author, award-winning investigative journalist, and former singer of hardcore punk legends the Fix. In Detroit Rock City, Miller spins a tale of rust belt rebellion culled from hundreds of hours spent interviewing a litany of rock titans, from Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop to Jack White and John Brannon. Miller does the walkin’ and lets the principals do the talkin’ as he creeps through 50 years  of hard rockin’ magnificence from the “Mitten.”
    

    Tesco Vee is the irascible, ageless, iconic punk rock impresario, renaissance man, and founder of Touch and Go. His band The Meatmen continue to amaze and astound. His rapier wit will be on full display Friday.
    

    Detroit Rock City is …A sharply edited oral history that nails most of the major players and includes the inherent contradictions in each person’s account of how history went down, it offers up that singular Detroit attitude that somehow fuses an inferiority/superiority complex into something loud, aggressive, and delightfully unique. Not to be crude, but– holy crap. – Dave DiMartino, former editor, Creem magazine
    

    “Creem may have taught me how to piss, but Touch and Go taught me how to shit. I owe my career to that magazine.”—John Brannon, Negative Approach
    

    facebook.com/detroitrockcitybook
    

    touchandgobook.com
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Punk Rock Karaoke Fundraiser for Chicago Zine Fest
    
			
    And hey! Chicago Zine Fest is march 8th-9th, 2013. Click here for more info.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Marie Kanger-Born Reads From Confessions Of A Chicago Punk Bystander 5/27
    
			
    Confessions Of A Chicago Punk Bystander is a gritty insight into the city, clubs and lifestyle of the early Chicago Punk scene of the late 1970s and ’80s. This narrative follows the author’s introduction to punk rock via the notorious Chicago night clubs– O’Banion’s and OZ. The hedonism of the lifestyle and her harrowing exploits stand in stunning contrast to her accidental role as the primary caregiver for her mother, who was disabled by Multiple Sclerosis.
    

    This poignant memoir traces the transformation of punk to hardcore, along with the author’s personal evolution as a photographer and zine producer. Story recounts the rise of the teenage hardcore scene over the bar based punk scene, to the later decline that began with the emergence of a skinhead jock era. Battles between the racist and anti-racist factions sealed the author’s belief that punk had lost it’s way. In disillusionment, she quit the scene in 1986, never to return until 2006. It was then that she found a web site which facilitated her discovery of a thriving underground scene in the Pilsen/La Villita neighborhoods. Today she is happy to declare that punk is not dead, and neither is she.
    

    Includes the author’s photographs of the 1980s and 2006 bands, the crowds, her BS Detector fanzine, and other memorabilia. A visual delight, this book truly paints a picture of the era.
    

    Marie Kanger-Born is a photographer and a participant of both the early and current Chicago punk music scenes. Her photos have appeared in various punk publications.
    

    For more info: chicagopunkpix.com
    

     
    

    Friday, May 27, 7:00 pm
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Monstrous Achievement : Jack Grisham Reads From His New Memoir An American Demon 5/14
    
			
     An American Demon is Jack Grisham’s story of depravity and redemption, terror and spiritual deliverance. While Grisham is best known as the raucous and provocative front man of the pioneer hardcore punk band TSOL (True Sounds of Liberty), his writing and true life experiences are physically and psychologically more complex and unsettling than those of Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk.
    

    Eloquently disregarding the prefabricated formulas of the drunk–to–sober, bad–to–good tale, this is an entirely new kind of life lesson: summoned through both God and demons, while settling within eighties hardcore punk culture and its radical–to–the–core (and most assuredly non–evangelical) parables, Grisham leads us, cleverly, gorgeously, between temporal violence and bigger-picture spirituality toward something better. An American Demon flourishes on both extremes, as a scary hardcore punk memoir and as a valuable message to souls navigating through an overly materialistic and woefully self–absorbed “me first” modern society.
    

    
An American Dem    on conveys anger and truth within the perfect setting, using a youth rebellion that changed the world to open doors for this level of brash destruction. Told from the point of view of a seminal member of the American Punk movement — doused in violence, rebellion, alcoholism, drug abuse, and ending with beautiful lessons of sobriety and absolution — this book is as harrowing and life–affirming as anything you’re ever going to read.
    

    Now in heavy demand as a public speaker, Jack Grisham currently receives thousands of monthly phone calls from individuals and organizations seeking his advice, expertise, wit, mentorship, and support, especially on drug and alcohol–related issues. Grisham is a master hypnotherapist and resides in Huntington Beach, California. He spends his time with his family, surfs, and voluntarily offers his services to his community. An American Demon is Grisham’s first book.
    

    “If you’ve ever found yourself unable to turn away from witnessing  an accident, crash or natural disaster, you’ll read An American Demon  straight through, like I did.  Jack Grisham’s memoir is as original as  it is horrifying.  I couldn’t put it down.”    — James Frey, bestselling  author of A Million Little Pieces
    

    “What isn’t shocking is that Jack wrote a fantastically depraved, heart wrenching, thoroughly engaging book that you’ll want to read in one sitting. What is shocking is that it wasn’t written from inside a jail cell at a maximum security prison.”     — Jim Lindberg, former lead singer of Pennywise, and author of Punk Rock Dad
    

    “…the book is unnervingly brilliant, compulsive reading for those of us that are glad it’s all over.” 
    
 — Rat Scabies, musician.  Scabies played drums for the punk band The Damned.
    

    “Jack Grisham is a legend to those in the know.  Much of the success of punk rock was built on the blood, sweat, and tears of this surf punk, Southern California mad man. After such a compelling read, it’s so nice to see him break on through to the other side…some weren’t so lucky…” — Mark McGrath, singer
    

    “Jack Grisham finally, irrevocably, puts to death the slander that the early Los Angeles punk scene was ‘plastic.’ The first true literature to come out of our pathetic little punk lives, American Demon is haunting and awakens monsters. But it should come with a warning label: it’s a dangerous book. Read Patti Smith’s Just Kids. Then read this. But only if you have the courage to follow poetry as far as it can go.”— Paul Roessler, producer, composer, musician
    

    For more info: jackgrisham.com and  ecwpress.com
    

     
    

    Saturday, May 14th, 7pm