Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79 '83

I like this format and wish more old school zines would put out their own collection in a similar way. I bought this mainly to harvest Misfits reviews of singles and shows. It didn't really disappoint and got a couple photos I hadn't seen before - one of Jerry in the Bookies 870 interview, and one of Glenn from '81 (looks like a Chase Park). There is also the Doyle cover which is cool - I had seen the original pic before. Along with the Misfits I also like the Necros, Negative Approach and Black Flag - along with a lot of other hardcore bands. The editorial is rather juvenile, with a lot of references to pooping pants and so forth, but I find it amusing.Another interesting aspect is how taken Tesco is with the early thrash/black metal band Venom. He praises very highly Welcome to Hell, Bloodlust/In Nomine Satanas and Black Metal. There is a Venom review of a live show where the opening act is Metallica. Amusingly Tesco says that the opening band had some good riffs but that the pantywaist singer wasn't any good (James Hetfield)!! At this early date James was using a higher pitch singing voice - so the review isn't surprising.I also plan on using this book to find more hardcore and punk that I haven't heard before (The Fix, Flesheaters, etc.) But NOT T.S.O.L.!!!

Made me feel awkward and embarassed just like I was in the early 1980s when this was happening. Meatmen lead singer and his buddies fanzine took me back to when the rebellious fraction was reaching out using new media and technology to spread the virus of culture. And to think it began in Lansing, MI.

I really enjoyed this complete edition of the T&G zine that I never got to explore as I was not old enough. It is great to have the entire collection in one book with awesome reviews, commentary, pictures and so much more. If you are a fan of music and most importantly, hardcore, punk, etc.....this should be in your collection.

This is a really fun read. And a great look into very important moments that still influence a lot of music that we listen to today.

To have all the issues of Touch and Go in their original form compiled into a single beautifully bound book is a godsend. I can not recommend this book enough. 576 pages of punk rock bliss.

Great!

This is an enjoyable tribute to what used to be the underground, before even alternative or college rock was coined, three decades ago. It's a hefty read, but conveniently assembled and longer lasting than aging newsprint. It's handsomely produced and sturdy, if heavy, to hold.Tesco Vee of the Meatmen teamed up with Dave Stimson in Ann Arbor to produce this slapdash, ornery, and entertaining fanzine. Cutting and pasting their typed reviews, concert flyers, salacious photos, found art, and random scrawls, they photocopied twenty-two issues. They surveyed the gloom of post-punk, they ridiculed the neon of the new wave. They insulted (TSOL, GG Allin, sometimes Fear) or celebrated (local groups The Fix, Necros, and, surprise, The Meatmen) those claiming to be hardcore.Wit wriggles into many reviews. Two entries cited in their entirety show a pithy style perfected. Stimson sums up "I Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats. "The little California miss could've done us all a favor had she taken her shooting spree to the Ensign studio when this grandiose piece of schmaltz was recorded." His soundbite on the LP "Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls": "(forgot the label) I bought it. I sold it. What more do you need to know?"Scatology scatters over nearly every page. A frustrated, lonely, adolescent mentality lingers. Its slogan: "Where hardcore doesn't mean pornography." Fecal fixation, erectile fascination, naughty peeps, and homophobic taunts fills margins. Two cartoon balloons appear over a tiny photo of two conversing celebrities. John Lennon is made to ask: "So, what's it like being black?" Muhammed Ali finds himself responding: "Better than being dead."This sophomoric reaction to convention conveys T&G's reaction to the usual media coverage of the angry, lonely fans of musicians hyped, caricatured, or dismissed. The fanzine champions albums such as Gypsy Blood from Doll by Doll, 154 by Wire, Seventeen Seconds by The Cure, and Hypnotised by The Undertones. It documents how the nascent alternative category widened. Later issues discuss Big Country, Cocteau Twins, Motorhead, and a metal band, Venom.Presciently, the critics pan such leaden tunes as "Punk's Not Dead" by The Exploited. Tesco praises 999. They despise a Midwestern mentality whose biggest contribution to the new music is "What I Like About You" by The Romantics. Oddly, Cleveland and Minneapolis bands seem overlooked; perhaps the decline of the Ohio scene and the delay in the rise of the Twin Cities one may account for this omission. Or it may be plucky rivalry between Ann Arbor and the rest of the country.They analyze the promise and the flaws within October by U2: "Soothing harmonies. I'm sure they feel as noble as they look on the cover...but there is something about their clinical and smug approach that really bothers." They warn against the otherwise forgotten group Chronic Generation. "Crutches couldn't help this band, their s[--]t's that lame."The edition opens with testimonials by scenesters, writers such as Byron Coley, and punks themselves. Keith Morris of Circle Jerks, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat, and Henry Rollins of Black Flag praise the fanaticism that fills these pages, edited by Steve Miller, whom I presume is not the Gangster of Love. Let the final word be a stray phrase from here, as hardcore in the early 1980s became as conformist and commodified as previous cultural and musical rebellions. "We are the hippies of tomorrow."

Just a fantastic read. Well worth a look if you have from a passing interest, to an obsession with the hardcore punk of old. (Well, the early 80's anyway...) Get it now! Cracking Read

Perfect gift for my son

Nun gut, ich dachte schon im Vorfeld wenn wirklich alle Ausgaben vom Touch and Go Fanzine in einem Buch versammelt sind dann wird es wahrscheinlich kein klitzekleines Taschenbuch sein welches da ins Haus hinein schneit, aber von dem Din-A-4-großen dicken Katalog bin ich schon schwer begeistert auch wenn ich nicht immer unbedingt konform mit der Meinung der Autoren gehe...es war eine andere Zeit und es ist spannend die engagierten Berichte und Reviews zu lesen...und besonders freue ich mich über eins: als ich ein kleiner Junge war hatte ich ein katholisches Gebetbuch wo die vielen vielen Seiten GOLD eingefärbt waren am Rand...hier sind die viel größeren Seiten SCHWARZ eingefärbt..... :oP Schön, schön....aber nicht nur deshalb...dieses Buch ist eine Fundgrube für Menschen welche die Anfänge der HC-Szene erforschen wollen....wirklich tolle Sache...