A History Lesson In Garage Punk Sleaze

Ghettoblasters & Switchblades book club recommendation: We Never Learn

For any fan of garage rock this is a must read. It's the history (Please Kill Me style) of the late 80s and 90s garage punk scene that pretty much got ignored by the mainstream media until the Strokes and White Stripes struck gold. this is the story of those bands who laid down the foundation for the garage rock revival of the 2000s. for any fan of the The Dwarves, The Gories, Oblivians, Thee Headcoats, New Bomb Turks, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Mummies, Rocket From The Crypt, Teengenerate, etc... this is your bible.

Things you will learn, Billy Childish is one bitter asshole. Jack White fucked over a lot of people to get to the top.

Like any book written about a music scene that was never super popular there tends to be an attitude that THIS WAS THE REAL PUNK SCENE, which is of course bullshit and kind of annoying, but overall this is a love letter to the era and there's lots of great stories and pictures to enjoy. the book also has a list of essential singles and records of the era. Cool shit.

There's also a tumblr for the book, if you are interested: http://www.weneverlearnbook.com/