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We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001
Nirvana, the White Stripes, Hole, the Hives--all sprang from an underground music scene where similarly raw bands, enjoying various degrees of success and luck, played for throngs of fans in venues ranging from dive bars to massive festivals, but were mostly ignored by a music industry focused on mega-bands and shiny pop stars. We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001 tracks the inspiration and beautiful destruction of this largely undocumented movement. What they took, they fought for, every night. They reveled in '50s rock 'n' roll, '60s garage rock, and '70s punk while creating their own wave of gut-busting riffs and rhythm.
The majority of bands that populate this book--the Gories, the Supersuckers, the Dwarves, the Mummies, Rocket from the Crypt, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and the Muffs among them--gained little long-term reward from their nonstop touring and brain-slapping records. What they did have was free liquor, cheap drugs, chaotic romances, and a crazy good time, all the while building a dedicated fan base that extends across the world. Truly, this is the last great wave of down-and-dirty rock 'n' roll.
In this expanded edition, Eric Davidson reveals more about the punk undergut with a new preface, postscript, and even more photos.
Includes free twenty-song download!
The majority of bands that populate this book--the Gories, the Supersuckers, the Dwarves, the Mummies, Rocket from the Crypt, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and the Muffs among them--gained little long-term reward from their nonstop touring and brain-slapping records. What they did have was free liquor, cheap drugs, chaotic romances, and a crazy good time, all the while building a dedicated fan base that extends across the world. Truly, this is the last great wave of down-and-dirty rock 'n' roll.
In this expanded edition, Eric Davidson reveals more about the punk undergut with a new preface, postscript, and even more photos.
Includes free twenty-song download!
384 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2010
15 people are currently reading
319 people want to read
About the author
Eric Davidson
14 books4 followersEric Davidson had his share of sleazy good times and success as the singer of the Columbus, Ohio punk band New Bomb Turks, who have played hundreds of gigs in dozens of countries on three continents and countless labels. Visit www.weneverlearnbook.com for more!"
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November 25, 2010Ever wondered why the average punk bio jumps from the hardcore movement straight to Nirvana? Because there's a secret history of punk that has yet to be told. UNTIL NOW. Eric Davidson of the New Bomb Turks takes you through the seedy underground that only true music dorks would care about. He introduces us to the importance of bands like Raunch Hands, Dead Moon, Mummies, Dwarves, Lazy Cowgirls, Supersuckers, Naked Raygun and Rocket From The Crypt. Bands who never truly got their due, yet spawned the garage-styled sound of more successful acts like White Stripes and The Hives. As with most rock, lesser talent achieved greater success on the backs of the ones who came before.
I just cracked it open and this "gunk punk" movement of pre-internet days and middling success does exactly what a rock bio should do. It's pushed me to search for these guys. And not stop until I've bought their entire catalogs.
I just cracked it open and this "gunk punk" movement of pre-internet days and middling success does exactly what a rock bio should do. It's pushed me to search for these guys. And not stop until I've bought their entire catalogs.
February 21, 2011
1. I’m too lazy to write a real review for this book, having arbitrarily promised myself that I would review on Goodreads every book I read in 2011, so I’m going to do it this way: sloppily, in a numbered list.
2. I bought this book because I have a sweet tooth for almost any book related to rock & roll, specifically punk (if rock & roll and punk are the same, or almost the same, as some would say they’re not), and I thought this book would fill in some of the gaps in my rock & roll (or punk, if rock & roll and punk are not the same) education.
3. The book did fill in some gaps. I learned quite a bit, in fact. The reader is even supplied with a code that allows him (or her) to download twenty songs by some of the profiled bands. Those twenty songs are now on my hard drive. Well done, book.
4. “Gunk punk,” the book's subject, is a term that the author, the erstwhile frontman of New Bomb Turks, invented for the retro rock heavily influenced by, or imitative of, sixties garage bands, such as the legendary Sonics. These bands were largely dismissed in the sixties in favor of the likes of the Beatles; they got their due later, beginning with the famous 1972 Nuggets album, which was curated by Lenny Kaye, who may have been the first to use the word “punk” as it’s now understood. He used it specifically in reference to the bands included on Nuggets.
5. The later garage bands, those of the eighties and nineties (or even the seventies, in the case of the Cramps), have pretty much been written out of punk history (as the Cramps, I know, have sometimes complained, though they were present in the CBGB scene of the Patti Smith/Television era, and Ian MacKaye has often said that he broke his punk cherry, show-wise, with the Cramps). This book restores those bands to punk history. Well done, book.
6. But, stylistically, this book is not well done. It was a struggle to read, in fact. How can a book about rock & roll, or punk or whatever, be so goddamned dull?
7. Here’s how. There are too many adjectives; too many adverbs; too many descriptions (of venues, for instance); too many bad similes. Flipping open the book at random, I find this passage, which is fairly typical: “’Twas a doozy, the kind of rickety boho warehouse loft gig a Cleveland kid dreams of when reading his first Creem magazine Warhol Factory reminiscence in ninth grade. Four floors up to a rust-crusted, twenty-foot-ceiling sink tank that had, in its ‘glory’ days probably offered endless hours of back-breaking steel forging and eventual lung cancer for the union ghosts whose moans of ‘Faggots!’ were luckily not traveling well in the dense, stale humidity that night.” The passage continues with still more description, dubiously phrased and punctuated. Now, expand that by 325 pages, and you’ve pretty much got this book.
8. Actually, you haven't. Because this book tells a lot of stories, band stories, almost all of which follow the Shakesperean rise-and-fall trajectory, as band stories tend to do. Again and again we read how a band got together, briefly flourished, albeit in a very limited way, and ultimately disintegrated. After a while, when a new band is introduced, it's like, “Oh, please, dude, don’t put me through this again. Can’t you find another way to do it?”
9. Intermittently, the book tries to find another way to do it, via interviews, which aren’t much of an improvement. One interview, with members of the Raunch Hands, has the guys razzing one of their own for hooking up with a “disco square.” They seem to think that’s the funniest expression ever, disco square, so that they repeat it ad nauseum: “And then you were off with that disco square! You and that disco square were having sex! Why were you having sex with a disco square?” I’ve always been one for hanging out with the guys, but this interview is everything that’s joyless about hanging out with the guys, just as this book makes rock & roll decadence feel joyless. That’s because, somewhere in the middle of almost every band story, between the band’s rise and its fall, we get at least one anecdote of rock & roll decadence. The anecdotes soon run together, and you really start to hate musicians, if you don’t already. You think, “Okay, what Wild and Krazy thing did you do? Oh, really? Yeah, that’s real original. Well, I’m going to keep reading till I come to the next Wild and Krazy thing that somebody else did, and that’s sure to be original too.”
10. Speaking of lack of originality, many of the interviews in the book (those that aren’t presented as interviews per se) seem to have been conducted by e-mail, so that we witness just how similarly these people express themselves in writing. They tend to use too many adjectives, adverbs, and bad similes, much like the author. It makes sense, seeing that they were all raised on zines, and this book is proof that the zine style of writing, while sometimes effective in record reviews (in zines at least), is not wisely employed when it comes to a book, even when the book deals with people raised on zines.
11. There are exceptions to some of what I’ve said here. The interview with Trent Ruane of the Mummies is terrific. So is the rise-and-fall story of the Rip Offs, which actually gets interesting here and there, with its account of class tensions within the band (something you don’t hear often), and hints of mature regret. There’s also a wonderful sidebar of anecdotes of the rock & rock debauchery sort about the Candy Snatchers, perhaps the most debauched band of their time, or at least of their scene. Here, truncated, is one of the anecdotes: “The house was a real punk rock mess. There were puddles on the floor of what I hoped was just water from leaky pipes, and the electricity was shoddy at best. [….] After our set, the Candy Snatchers started to play, and it was complete mayhem as per usual: bottles, cans, and busted glass flying everywhere; blood spewing from Larry’s head and Matthew’s chest; and Willy’s bass was set on fire while he played. […] About fifteen minutes into this set, Larry gets on top of the bass drum and grabs hold of what he probably thought was a plumbing pipe. After hanging for a few seconds, I saw what it really was—an electrical conduit pipe. At that point I said to myself that we were all going to die here on this wet floor. The pipe did give way and thousands of sparks emitted from it—a real, beautiful punk rock dream. Nobody died, but the power went out.” To this anecdote I’d like to add that Matthew Odietus of the Candy Snatchers comes off as one of the book’s most fascinating characters, few though they are, and despite there not being much of Odietus in the book. Another fascinating character, for very different reasons, is Jerry Wick of Gaunt. Both Wick and Odietus are dead, and early death, especially for rockers, can contribute to undeserved fascination. But I don’t think it’s undeserved in their cases.
12. Billy Childish is kind of fascinating too, though his arrogance is such that I found myself wanting to argue with him. But I gather that’s the point, and I’m still musing on his remarks. And then there’s an interview with Johan Kugelberg, some Swede who thinks he knows fuck-all. Save us, Lord, from rock & roll nerds with academic credentials. For all his posturing, Kugelberg is never a fraction as quotable as Andy Gortler of the Devil Dogs on the subject of the Strokes: “[They were asked] if they had grown up in NYC listening to bands from the early ’90s, like the late, great Devil Dogs. And the reply was, ‘Dude, like, I was only eleven then!’ So how old was he when the first Velvet Underground record came out, huh?" Amen.
13. I like New Bomb Turks, and I would probably like the author of this book if I met him. And in a strange way I think it’s admirable that he wrote the book as he did. The obvious thing would’ve been to do it as an oral history, as most punk histories are. The idea must surely have been floated, and I would bet that it was rejected precisely because it is so obvious, because it’s become by now a cliché. And these bands deserve their place in punk history, and to repeat myself, this book has effectively written them into it (though of course they were always there for those in the know), but I can’t help but wish the book were better. Did I mention all the typos? Did I mention how weird it is that the cover features a band that’s mentioned just once, in a list of other bands, on page 319? I was rooting for this book; I was. But…
14. How the hell did I write as much as I just did? That wasn’t my intent. But because fifteen somehow seems a better number than fourteen, even though fifteen is an odd number, I’ll conclude by saying:
15. It’s 5:30 in the freaking morning, and I’m going to bed.
2. I bought this book because I have a sweet tooth for almost any book related to rock & roll, specifically punk (if rock & roll and punk are the same, or almost the same, as some would say they’re not), and I thought this book would fill in some of the gaps in my rock & roll (or punk, if rock & roll and punk are not the same) education.
3. The book did fill in some gaps. I learned quite a bit, in fact. The reader is even supplied with a code that allows him (or her) to download twenty songs by some of the profiled bands. Those twenty songs are now on my hard drive. Well done, book.
4. “Gunk punk,” the book's subject, is a term that the author, the erstwhile frontman of New Bomb Turks, invented for the retro rock heavily influenced by, or imitative of, sixties garage bands, such as the legendary Sonics. These bands were largely dismissed in the sixties in favor of the likes of the Beatles; they got their due later, beginning with the famous 1972 Nuggets album, which was curated by Lenny Kaye, who may have been the first to use the word “punk” as it’s now understood. He used it specifically in reference to the bands included on Nuggets.
5. The later garage bands, those of the eighties and nineties (or even the seventies, in the case of the Cramps), have pretty much been written out of punk history (as the Cramps, I know, have sometimes complained, though they were present in the CBGB scene of the Patti Smith/Television era, and Ian MacKaye has often said that he broke his punk cherry, show-wise, with the Cramps). This book restores those bands to punk history. Well done, book.
6. But, stylistically, this book is not well done. It was a struggle to read, in fact. How can a book about rock & roll, or punk or whatever, be so goddamned dull?
7. Here’s how. There are too many adjectives; too many adverbs; too many descriptions (of venues, for instance); too many bad similes. Flipping open the book at random, I find this passage, which is fairly typical: “’Twas a doozy, the kind of rickety boho warehouse loft gig a Cleveland kid dreams of when reading his first Creem magazine Warhol Factory reminiscence in ninth grade. Four floors up to a rust-crusted, twenty-foot-ceiling sink tank that had, in its ‘glory’ days probably offered endless hours of back-breaking steel forging and eventual lung cancer for the union ghosts whose moans of ‘Faggots!’ were luckily not traveling well in the dense, stale humidity that night.” The passage continues with still more description, dubiously phrased and punctuated. Now, expand that by 325 pages, and you’ve pretty much got this book.
8. Actually, you haven't. Because this book tells a lot of stories, band stories, almost all of which follow the Shakesperean rise-and-fall trajectory, as band stories tend to do. Again and again we read how a band got together, briefly flourished, albeit in a very limited way, and ultimately disintegrated. After a while, when a new band is introduced, it's like, “Oh, please, dude, don’t put me through this again. Can’t you find another way to do it?”
9. Intermittently, the book tries to find another way to do it, via interviews, which aren’t much of an improvement. One interview, with members of the Raunch Hands, has the guys razzing one of their own for hooking up with a “disco square.” They seem to think that’s the funniest expression ever, disco square, so that they repeat it ad nauseum: “And then you were off with that disco square! You and that disco square were having sex! Why were you having sex with a disco square?” I’ve always been one for hanging out with the guys, but this interview is everything that’s joyless about hanging out with the guys, just as this book makes rock & roll decadence feel joyless. That’s because, somewhere in the middle of almost every band story, between the band’s rise and its fall, we get at least one anecdote of rock & roll decadence. The anecdotes soon run together, and you really start to hate musicians, if you don’t already. You think, “Okay, what Wild and Krazy thing did you do? Oh, really? Yeah, that’s real original. Well, I’m going to keep reading till I come to the next Wild and Krazy thing that somebody else did, and that’s sure to be original too.”
10. Speaking of lack of originality, many of the interviews in the book (those that aren’t presented as interviews per se) seem to have been conducted by e-mail, so that we witness just how similarly these people express themselves in writing. They tend to use too many adjectives, adverbs, and bad similes, much like the author. It makes sense, seeing that they were all raised on zines, and this book is proof that the zine style of writing, while sometimes effective in record reviews (in zines at least), is not wisely employed when it comes to a book, even when the book deals with people raised on zines.
11. There are exceptions to some of what I’ve said here. The interview with Trent Ruane of the Mummies is terrific. So is the rise-and-fall story of the Rip Offs, which actually gets interesting here and there, with its account of class tensions within the band (something you don’t hear often), and hints of mature regret. There’s also a wonderful sidebar of anecdotes of the rock & rock debauchery sort about the Candy Snatchers, perhaps the most debauched band of their time, or at least of their scene. Here, truncated, is one of the anecdotes: “The house was a real punk rock mess. There were puddles on the floor of what I hoped was just water from leaky pipes, and the electricity was shoddy at best. [….] After our set, the Candy Snatchers started to play, and it was complete mayhem as per usual: bottles, cans, and busted glass flying everywhere; blood spewing from Larry’s head and Matthew’s chest; and Willy’s bass was set on fire while he played. […] About fifteen minutes into this set, Larry gets on top of the bass drum and grabs hold of what he probably thought was a plumbing pipe. After hanging for a few seconds, I saw what it really was—an electrical conduit pipe. At that point I said to myself that we were all going to die here on this wet floor. The pipe did give way and thousands of sparks emitted from it—a real, beautiful punk rock dream. Nobody died, but the power went out.” To this anecdote I’d like to add that Matthew Odietus of the Candy Snatchers comes off as one of the book’s most fascinating characters, few though they are, and despite there not being much of Odietus in the book. Another fascinating character, for very different reasons, is Jerry Wick of Gaunt. Both Wick and Odietus are dead, and early death, especially for rockers, can contribute to undeserved fascination. But I don’t think it’s undeserved in their cases.
12. Billy Childish is kind of fascinating too, though his arrogance is such that I found myself wanting to argue with him. But I gather that’s the point, and I’m still musing on his remarks. And then there’s an interview with Johan Kugelberg, some Swede who thinks he knows fuck-all. Save us, Lord, from rock & roll nerds with academic credentials. For all his posturing, Kugelberg is never a fraction as quotable as Andy Gortler of the Devil Dogs on the subject of the Strokes: “[They were asked] if they had grown up in NYC listening to bands from the early ’90s, like the late, great Devil Dogs. And the reply was, ‘Dude, like, I was only eleven then!’ So how old was he when the first Velvet Underground record came out, huh?" Amen.
13. I like New Bomb Turks, and I would probably like the author of this book if I met him. And in a strange way I think it’s admirable that he wrote the book as he did. The obvious thing would’ve been to do it as an oral history, as most punk histories are. The idea must surely have been floated, and I would bet that it was rejected precisely because it is so obvious, because it’s become by now a cliché. And these bands deserve their place in punk history, and to repeat myself, this book has effectively written them into it (though of course they were always there for those in the know), but I can’t help but wish the book were better. Did I mention all the typos? Did I mention how weird it is that the cover features a band that’s mentioned just once, in a list of other bands, on page 319? I was rooting for this book; I was. But…
14. How the hell did I write as much as I just did? That wasn’t my intent. But because fifteen somehow seems a better number than fourteen, even though fifteen is an odd number, I’ll conclude by saying:
15. It’s 5:30 in the freaking morning, and I’m going to bed.
January 31, 2011
It's only the first month and I already have to make an amendment to my "book a week" goal: if a book is particularly long, I'm giving myself two weeks to finish it instead of one. Eric Davidson's "We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001" caps off at 323 pages and although a great and interesting read, took me a bit longer than a week to finish!
Before going into the review I'm going to tell a story. For a long time I worked as a sorter for The US Postal Service. I stopped working for them due to early signs of carpal tunnel (I did data entry work, constantly typing for 8 hour shifts) and never finished college. My grand plan was to be a "Postal Lifer" and I never really had a Plan B. Although it was a difficult decision to make, the use of my hands was more important than the career path that I dreamed of. While in a midst of "what am I gonna do with my life now?" woe, I went for a walk in the college neighborhood of Pittsburgh looking for employment close to my home. A help wanted sign was posted to a place called Mailboxes Etc and I thought to myself, "hey I should apply, mail is what I do." I walked in looking kind of ratty with torn up jeans and a black hoodie asking for a job application. Behind the counter was a man in a polo shirt and khaki shorts that looked like someones dad. He noticed the little Husker Du pin on my jacket and smiled from ear to ear. "You wanna work here and you like punk rock? That's awesome!" and then proceeded to tell me stories of seeing Black Flag and Husker Du when he was a teenager. I would have never assumed he was a punk based on his appearance, but those are the best kind: The Secret Punks. Later that night he was djing at a local bar where bi-weekly he'd play classic and new punk records and started asking around if people knew me. Luckily my friends only had nice things to say and I was offered the job later that week. Who would have thought punk rock would get me a job? I ended up working there for almost 5 years and developed a close friendship with him and I was one of the few people I knew that never hated going to work. He'd constantly tell me crazy stories of old shows in Pittsburgh and would bring records to work to play. I heard and learned about so many bands through him during our shifts and was generally excited about music again in a way I hadn't been for quite some time.
Reading this book reminded me of him over and over, as a lot of the bands mentioned were ones I was introduced to through him. The biggest one is New Bomb Turks, who Davidson sings for. I remember NBT as a band I heard on Punk-O-Rama comps and played at Warped Tour while I was in High School (OK, I'm kind of young. So what?) and honestly I never paid that much attention to them. A few of their records were lying around at work and I liked what I heard and mentioned it to my co-worker. He played more records from other Columbus bands and mentioned that so many greats came from that city: Gaunt, Cheater Slicks, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, The Gibson Brothers, and more. Columbus was kind of a second home for me, as one of my best friends lived there for many years and I'd make the 3 hour trip to visit him a couple times a year. Little did I know that I'd end up in Columbus years later reading this book and appreciating Eric Davidson's "gunk punk" history in a way I might not have still living in Pittsburgh. Even if the raw and sloppy sounds of what most people know as "garage punk" isn't your thing, the local history in this book is really interesting! The regional punk history and insane stories I have are all Pittsburgh-based and while I'm glad I have those memories, a lot of them don't come up in conversation while living in a different city with people who didn't live them with me. It's good to know more of that where I live now, thanks to this book.
We Never Learn is varied all over the place: interviews with different bands, wild tour stories, conversations with record labels, and photos of punks playing live and old flyers. It all flows together in a good easy-to-read way. Davidson's writing is both smart and witty in an unassuming way. There's also a great downloadable compilation that comes with the book, which is funny that I didn't notice right off the bat. I had been writing down different bands that Davidson mentions in a little notebook while reading, ones that I should check out. The compilation has most of the bands I had written down already, ha! The whole idea of "The Gunk Punk Undergut" is telling a kind of a lost/secret history about a slew of bands and a scene that most people skipped over somewhere tucked in between grunge and the hype "garage" bands like The White Stripes and The Hives. Familiar bands you might recognize are The Mummies, The Oblivians, The Gories, Thee Mighty Caesars, Supercharger, Teengenerate, Chesterfield Kings, Raunch Hands, and The Back From The Grave compilations on Crypt Records. Labels you might be familiar with are In The Red, Goner, Crypt, Estrus, and Norton. I generally like most music in this vein and really enjoyed learning more about it.
I wish I had heard of this book sooner, as it was released over the summer and I bet there was probably a cool release party or show to celebrate it right here in Columbus. I got to see New Bomb Turks, The Gibson Brothers, Cheater Slicks, and The Oblivians all in one day here over the summer and it was such a fun time! Everyone played a great set and I was excited to be living here in Cbus and able to take a quick bike ride and see awesome bands. Just like I'm excited to live here and have constant access to awesome record shops, turning more into a music nerd than I am already, and appreciating what's around me. Anyway, I feel like this book can appeal to people all over the map: where you live in Columbus and want to read some punk rock history, you like a lot of bands on Goner Records, or just want to read some funny tour stories and interviews. It's an entertaining read and well worth it!
Before going into the review I'm going to tell a story. For a long time I worked as a sorter for The US Postal Service. I stopped working for them due to early signs of carpal tunnel (I did data entry work, constantly typing for 8 hour shifts) and never finished college. My grand plan was to be a "Postal Lifer" and I never really had a Plan B. Although it was a difficult decision to make, the use of my hands was more important than the career path that I dreamed of. While in a midst of "what am I gonna do with my life now?" woe, I went for a walk in the college neighborhood of Pittsburgh looking for employment close to my home. A help wanted sign was posted to a place called Mailboxes Etc and I thought to myself, "hey I should apply, mail is what I do." I walked in looking kind of ratty with torn up jeans and a black hoodie asking for a job application. Behind the counter was a man in a polo shirt and khaki shorts that looked like someones dad. He noticed the little Husker Du pin on my jacket and smiled from ear to ear. "You wanna work here and you like punk rock? That's awesome!" and then proceeded to tell me stories of seeing Black Flag and Husker Du when he was a teenager. I would have never assumed he was a punk based on his appearance, but those are the best kind: The Secret Punks. Later that night he was djing at a local bar where bi-weekly he'd play classic and new punk records and started asking around if people knew me. Luckily my friends only had nice things to say and I was offered the job later that week. Who would have thought punk rock would get me a job? I ended up working there for almost 5 years and developed a close friendship with him and I was one of the few people I knew that never hated going to work. He'd constantly tell me crazy stories of old shows in Pittsburgh and would bring records to work to play. I heard and learned about so many bands through him during our shifts and was generally excited about music again in a way I hadn't been for quite some time.
Reading this book reminded me of him over and over, as a lot of the bands mentioned were ones I was introduced to through him. The biggest one is New Bomb Turks, who Davidson sings for. I remember NBT as a band I heard on Punk-O-Rama comps and played at Warped Tour while I was in High School (OK, I'm kind of young. So what?) and honestly I never paid that much attention to them. A few of their records were lying around at work and I liked what I heard and mentioned it to my co-worker. He played more records from other Columbus bands and mentioned that so many greats came from that city: Gaunt, Cheater Slicks, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, The Gibson Brothers, and more. Columbus was kind of a second home for me, as one of my best friends lived there for many years and I'd make the 3 hour trip to visit him a couple times a year. Little did I know that I'd end up in Columbus years later reading this book and appreciating Eric Davidson's "gunk punk" history in a way I might not have still living in Pittsburgh. Even if the raw and sloppy sounds of what most people know as "garage punk" isn't your thing, the local history in this book is really interesting! The regional punk history and insane stories I have are all Pittsburgh-based and while I'm glad I have those memories, a lot of them don't come up in conversation while living in a different city with people who didn't live them with me. It's good to know more of that where I live now, thanks to this book.
We Never Learn is varied all over the place: interviews with different bands, wild tour stories, conversations with record labels, and photos of punks playing live and old flyers. It all flows together in a good easy-to-read way. Davidson's writing is both smart and witty in an unassuming way. There's also a great downloadable compilation that comes with the book, which is funny that I didn't notice right off the bat. I had been writing down different bands that Davidson mentions in a little notebook while reading, ones that I should check out. The compilation has most of the bands I had written down already, ha! The whole idea of "The Gunk Punk Undergut" is telling a kind of a lost/secret history about a slew of bands and a scene that most people skipped over somewhere tucked in between grunge and the hype "garage" bands like The White Stripes and The Hives. Familiar bands you might recognize are The Mummies, The Oblivians, The Gories, Thee Mighty Caesars, Supercharger, Teengenerate, Chesterfield Kings, Raunch Hands, and The Back From The Grave compilations on Crypt Records. Labels you might be familiar with are In The Red, Goner, Crypt, Estrus, and Norton. I generally like most music in this vein and really enjoyed learning more about it.
I wish I had heard of this book sooner, as it was released over the summer and I bet there was probably a cool release party or show to celebrate it right here in Columbus. I got to see New Bomb Turks, The Gibson Brothers, Cheater Slicks, and The Oblivians all in one day here over the summer and it was such a fun time! Everyone played a great set and I was excited to be living here in Cbus and able to take a quick bike ride and see awesome bands. Just like I'm excited to live here and have constant access to awesome record shops, turning more into a music nerd than I am already, and appreciating what's around me. Anyway, I feel like this book can appeal to people all over the map: where you live in Columbus and want to read some punk rock history, you like a lot of bands on Goner Records, or just want to read some funny tour stories and interviews. It's an entertaining read and well worth it!
September 13, 2010
This is a book I'd always hoped would be written but never figured could be: the participants are such a bunch of sots and sleazes and idealistic malcontents, and the music is so hard to subject to analysis, that it seemed extremely unlikely. Well, it ain't as good as it could have been--it's too often boring and repetitive, and more biased than it had to be--but it's packed with stories and a pretty decent ebb-and-flow history, and, really, I picked it up to get directed to music I might have missed. So far, the music I've picked up from the discography has been pretty excellent. Recommended to anyone who knows who the Oblivians are and love 'em.
August 28, 2011
Sloppily written book of a musical scene that barely gets mention. Glad to see it from the point of someone who was there but it's arrangement of story (jumping from band to band in a mix of interviews and scene-jumping), I don't really feel like I've learned why this musical scene was important. Oh well!
August 19, 2017
It is tricky for me to give this book a proper review. I knew some of the bands mentioned, particularly ones with Cleveland and Columbus ties like New Bomb Turks, Gaunt, Cheater Slicks, and a few others. However, with many of the rest, they were quite new to me. It may just be that it is really tough to describe a band's sound, or I do not read enough music reviews, criticism, and zines to be familiar with the vernacular. Either way, Davidson's descriptions of many acts just seemed like an incomprehensible word salad. Perhaps if I had more advanced knowledge, that would have made things more insightful.
The interviews were interesting, with a colorful cast of characters. I am not sure how many of these people I would like to know personally, but they seemed to have a gift of creating a spectacle at shows.
Given Davidson's Ohio roots, a lot of the book touched on the scene in Columbus (a friend moved into the New Bomb Turks house on East Patterson several years after the band and apartment were in an Entertainment Weekly article), Cincinnati, and Cleveland. That was a big draw for me. It was fun hearing passages about the venues before my time, like Stache's and the ones I knew, like Dick's Den, Larry's and especially Bernie's. "At its busiest (1991-'96), Bernie's was the axis point of the Columbus scene--well, unless you considered the stench of human waste wafting through the pipes two feet above your head to be a detriment." (Page 205) No truer words about Bernie's have ever been written! It was a fun trip down memory lane.
If you buy this book, it comes with a neat download code for 20 songs to encapsulate the gunk punk sound. Sadly, my library copy's code had already been used. A very good idea for a music book. It also has some essential singles and albums which I hope to check out.
I picked this up because a former co-worker at the Columbus Metropolitan Library recommended it, and I trust her taste in books and music. It has definitely piqued my curiosity in a lot of these acts.
The interviews were interesting, with a colorful cast of characters. I am not sure how many of these people I would like to know personally, but they seemed to have a gift of creating a spectacle at shows.
Given Davidson's Ohio roots, a lot of the book touched on the scene in Columbus (a friend moved into the New Bomb Turks house on East Patterson several years after the band and apartment were in an Entertainment Weekly article), Cincinnati, and Cleveland. That was a big draw for me. It was fun hearing passages about the venues before my time, like Stache's and the ones I knew, like Dick's Den, Larry's and especially Bernie's. "At its busiest (1991-'96), Bernie's was the axis point of the Columbus scene--well, unless you considered the stench of human waste wafting through the pipes two feet above your head to be a detriment." (Page 205) No truer words about Bernie's have ever been written! It was a fun trip down memory lane.
If you buy this book, it comes with a neat download code for 20 songs to encapsulate the gunk punk sound. Sadly, my library copy's code had already been used. A very good idea for a music book. It also has some essential singles and albums which I hope to check out.
I picked this up because a former co-worker at the Columbus Metropolitan Library recommended it, and I trust her taste in books and music. It has definitely piqued my curiosity in a lot of these acts.
November 12, 2010
A nice time capsule of a burgeoning underground garage rock scene.
May 29, 2024
As close as a book has ever gotten to the great Please Kill Me. Documenting the underground garage and roll punk movement from the late 80s to roughly the late 90s. Davidson , who is also the singer for the great New Bomb Turks, does a fantastic job of not only writing about a plethora of amazing bands that I already knew but also giving me the itch to search out the ones I hadn’t already. I love this music and this book.
September 30, 2012
I'm glad books like this exist, that trace the otherwise lost history of punk rock through the 1990s, and Eric Davidson writes with the same verve and swagger that he did while penning songs for NEW BOMB TURKS. Loved going down memory lane and finding out the behind the scenes story of some of my favorite acts like THE LAZY COWGIRLS, THE DEVIL DOGS, JON SPENCER, THE DWARVES, and THE SUPERSUCKERS. And of course, there's the joy of learning about new bands, labels, and compilations, too, that were only names in the my mind's eyes from listening to friends talk about them (Nuggets, Sympathy, Crypt).
But it's also a book to be read in doses. How many times can you read about how music sounds before even Davidson's army sack of cool slang starts to become a little monotonous (although I will applaud his many digs at mopey Grunge music, which I loved, but in retrospect seemed odd. To paraphrase ED, "There was no war, the economy was good, and all these bands in the burbs were complaining about the fatigue of life? What the fuck???") And because the life of a rock and roll band tends to be similar no matter which band we're talking about (bad shows, stabs at good money, babes, drugs and recovery or death, etc), if you read it start to finish you'd probably not enjoy it as much. And eventually, you can get band fatigue and forget who the hell they're writing about or why we should care that SHIT FUCK from Rat's Ass, Arkansan were the missing psychobilly ink between AMERICAN SOUL SPIDERS and Alternative country music or whatever.
Be that as it may, Eric Davidson has created a map to the lost country of Gunk Punk. And only he could have done it. It rekindled my interest in a lot of these bands and their bastard brood. If you liked ROUTE 666: THE ROAD TO NIRVANA, OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE, ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING, I'd add WE NEVER LEARN to your shelf of punk rock history. You'll no doubt enjoy the ride.
But it's also a book to be read in doses. How many times can you read about how music sounds before even Davidson's army sack of cool slang starts to become a little monotonous (although I will applaud his many digs at mopey Grunge music, which I loved, but in retrospect seemed odd. To paraphrase ED, "There was no war, the economy was good, and all these bands in the burbs were complaining about the fatigue of life? What the fuck???") And because the life of a rock and roll band tends to be similar no matter which band we're talking about (bad shows, stabs at good money, babes, drugs and recovery or death, etc), if you read it start to finish you'd probably not enjoy it as much. And eventually, you can get band fatigue and forget who the hell they're writing about or why we should care that SHIT FUCK from Rat's Ass, Arkansan were the missing psychobilly ink between AMERICAN SOUL SPIDERS and Alternative country music or whatever.
Be that as it may, Eric Davidson has created a map to the lost country of Gunk Punk. And only he could have done it. It rekindled my interest in a lot of these bands and their bastard brood. If you liked ROUTE 666: THE ROAD TO NIRVANA, OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE, ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING, I'd add WE NEVER LEARN to your shelf of punk rock history. You'll no doubt enjoy the ride.
May 11, 2011
I came of age (high school and college) in the mid to late 90s and loved almost all the bands Davidson discusses. His band, the New Bomb Turks, are probably my favorite band of all time; others discussed in the book, such as the Supersuckers, the Gories, Gaunt, and Billy Childish were and are huge favorites too. I loved reading about Crypt Records honcho Tim Warren, a real unique, wacky, and unrecognized character in the history of rock music. As singer/songwriter for the New Bomb Turks, Davidson offers insider looks at all the great bands from that era and their drunken, drug-addled antics -- the Rip Offs, the Infections, the Devil Dogs, Billy Childish, the Candy Snatchers, and so on.
Davidson is a good storyteller but some of his highly stylized prose gets irritating after a few chapters. Wordplay like "jalapeno-fed gorilla," "skin smasher" instead of "drummer," and "psychotic, fiery, fractured fuzz bombs" gets old real fast. His songwriting is brilliant, but his gift for wordplay doesn't translate as well in prose. Not to mention the dozens of typos and often irrelevant, meandering asides. Definitely could have used some tighter editing, as Davidson spends a good deal of time spouting his political beliefs (with which I tend to agree, but that's not the point).
All in all, a deeply entertaining book for fans, but I'm not sure just any old music fan or casual reader would enjoy it -- I think "you had to be there" would apply here. I loved the stuff, so this was a real treat for me.
Davidson is a good storyteller but some of his highly stylized prose gets irritating after a few chapters. Wordplay like "jalapeno-fed gorilla," "skin smasher" instead of "drummer," and "psychotic, fiery, fractured fuzz bombs" gets old real fast. His songwriting is brilliant, but his gift for wordplay doesn't translate as well in prose. Not to mention the dozens of typos and often irrelevant, meandering asides. Definitely could have used some tighter editing, as Davidson spends a good deal of time spouting his political beliefs (with which I tend to agree, but that's not the point).
All in all, a deeply entertaining book for fans, but I'm not sure just any old music fan or casual reader would enjoy it -- I think "you had to be there" would apply here. I loved the stuff, so this was a real treat for me.
May 25, 2011
I expected more from Davidson, actually. His lyrics in the Turks were pointed and funny, and I remember reading some reviews he'd written for Gearhead, which were along the lines of the kinda Your fLESH/Motorbooty type rock writing I liked (continue to like).
There are some good interviews, and some good writing, but so much of the time it feels like Davidson's writing ad-copy for a fanzine page, especially given his overuse of shikka-shikka-gonzoid-hyphenates.
Also, sorry, but a good chunk of what's being championed here was/is really pedestrian bar band rock. In this same line of complaint, omissions with this type of book are inevitable, but some here are really glaring: I mean, maybe it was a little late in the game, and yeah, they did transition into lame Warped tour pop-punk, but Denton's Riverboat Gamblers warrant some mention for their live shows and earlier MC5 by Dictators-esque recordings alone. Mention of Tenderloin without mention of Ernie Locke's legendary pre-'loin band The Sin City Disciples? No Sons of Hercules? Cretin 66? Somebody was real selective about their homework.
So, yeah, it was worth a read, but didn't really work. There was no way it could have, I don't think. It's like taking a chunk of a huge picture and calling it the whole picture, or at least most of it, and it ain't.
One thing I'll say for it, it did get me to thinking about Rock N' Roll again, and all of it's possibilities. So that alone makes it not a waste of time.
There are some good interviews, and some good writing, but so much of the time it feels like Davidson's writing ad-copy for a fanzine page, especially given his overuse of shikka-shikka-gonzoid-hyphenates.
Also, sorry, but a good chunk of what's being championed here was/is really pedestrian bar band rock. In this same line of complaint, omissions with this type of book are inevitable, but some here are really glaring: I mean, maybe it was a little late in the game, and yeah, they did transition into lame Warped tour pop-punk, but Denton's Riverboat Gamblers warrant some mention for their live shows and earlier MC5 by Dictators-esque recordings alone. Mention of Tenderloin without mention of Ernie Locke's legendary pre-'loin band The Sin City Disciples? No Sons of Hercules? Cretin 66? Somebody was real selective about their homework.
So, yeah, it was worth a read, but didn't really work. There was no way it could have, I don't think. It's like taking a chunk of a huge picture and calling it the whole picture, or at least most of it, and it ain't.
One thing I'll say for it, it did get me to thinking about Rock N' Roll again, and all of it's possibilities. So that alone makes it not a waste of time.
August 7, 2011
“The Didjits inclination to snugly pummel grew from the Ramones' night school of the instinctual caveman awareness to take no chances when taking no prisoners.” -an actual verbatim sentence from We Never Learn. There are many, many more every bit as appalling to be found inside.
I'm really disappointed in this almost impossibly badly-written book. I always though Davidson was a great singer in NBT, but the schtick wore thin live-- all that mugging and posturing was so contrived. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the writing style here mirrors that tendency, and what is meant to be witty or clever is densely, relentlessly smarmy and cloying to the point of unreadability. The metaphors are clumsy, even stupid, while the grammar and blatantly misused words leave me wondering if this even had an editor. The bio, noting that the author makes a living writing and editing, is depressing. Too bad, because I was excited to finally read a rock book about something that I experienced first hand myself. That said, there are some articulate, interesting and enlightening people interviewed herein, and when Davidson steps back and allows them to speak, the book still produces some enjoyable and informative passages.
I'm really disappointed in this almost impossibly badly-written book. I always though Davidson was a great singer in NBT, but the schtick wore thin live-- all that mugging and posturing was so contrived. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the writing style here mirrors that tendency, and what is meant to be witty or clever is densely, relentlessly smarmy and cloying to the point of unreadability. The metaphors are clumsy, even stupid, while the grammar and blatantly misused words leave me wondering if this even had an editor. The bio, noting that the author makes a living writing and editing, is depressing. Too bad, because I was excited to finally read a rock book about something that I experienced first hand myself. That said, there are some articulate, interesting and enlightening people interviewed herein, and when Davidson steps back and allows them to speak, the book still produces some enjoyable and informative passages.
July 15, 2018
Maybe Kindle has ruined my ability to read actual paper books. I certainly read much more than I did pre-tablet, but I find myself turning away from the cost and inconvenience of carrying around hard copies of books.
That said, I don't think the reason I didn't, and probably never will, finish We Never Learn has to do with the mode of transmission. I guess I kind of lived this in real time, and reading about it now gives me a weird feeling of fake nostalgia. Also the fact that the Spits are on the cover and get about a page mention in the book is annoying (and hardly a mention of Gaunt, another band from Cleveland who helped define the scene and sound). I made it through 100 pages and I can count on one hand the number of books I've started but not completed.
Perhaps someday when I'm older and I want to re-live this era I'll pick it up again, but for now I'll stick to reading histories of times where I wasn't so intertwined. Also it doesn't help that Davidson has a snarky way of writing that distracts from the actual events (which are obviously colored by the fact that he was there).
That said, I don't think the reason I didn't, and probably never will, finish We Never Learn has to do with the mode of transmission. I guess I kind of lived this in real time, and reading about it now gives me a weird feeling of fake nostalgia. Also the fact that the Spits are on the cover and get about a page mention in the book is annoying (and hardly a mention of Gaunt, another band from Cleveland who helped define the scene and sound). I made it through 100 pages and I can count on one hand the number of books I've started but not completed.
Perhaps someday when I'm older and I want to re-live this era I'll pick it up again, but for now I'll stick to reading histories of times where I wasn't so intertwined. Also it doesn't help that Davidson has a snarky way of writing that distracts from the actual events (which are obviously colored by the fact that he was there).
December 13, 2011
There are a lot flaws in this book but the author is not a novelist or historian so this is to be expected. But it fits with the kind of music he's covered, often badly recorded, released on labels you've never heard of and played in tiny run down venues to obnoxious drunks. This is not about profesionalism or career opportunities (though a few actually managed that!), its what was happening underneath grunge, gangster rap, nu metal and other media invented 'movements'.
I'm old enough to remember some of these bands and did see the author fronting the New Bomb Turks in a pub years ago. That was a great gig, I remember it like it was yesterday! So at least he wrote about something he was a part of. The interviews are what holds this thing together: the arguments, the substance abuse, crazy european tours, legal battles, some great rock'nroll tunes, fun!
This book is about rocking out in the face of adversity. You might even (re)discover some great bands and records along the way.
I'm old enough to remember some of these bands and did see the author fronting the New Bomb Turks in a pub years ago. That was a great gig, I remember it like it was yesterday! So at least he wrote about something he was a part of. The interviews are what holds this thing together: the arguments, the substance abuse, crazy european tours, legal battles, some great rock'nroll tunes, fun!
This book is about rocking out in the face of adversity. You might even (re)discover some great bands and records along the way.
December 20, 2013
I loved reading and checking out all the bands in this book, but it was a chore to work through the author's "style". You know how as a writer you have to kill your darlings? Every sentence is Eric Davidson's darling. If you edited out all the alliteration, cliches, ridiculous similes, and unnecessary adjectives, this book would be half as long as it is. Eventually I got used to his writing enough to just ignore how over-the-top it was, but I'd still groan and roll my eyes when I'd come across a particularly obnoxious use of words. Still, lots of great bands and this is pretty much the only book that talks about that scene.
August 18, 2013
Unromantic but affectionate and written by the leader of The New Bomb Turks We Never Learn is required reading for any fan of garage punk (or whatever you want to call it.)The best thing is that Eric Davidson has an endless supply of things to call it. Few books on rock history evince as much love for language as they do for a scene or genre like this one does. Writing in the tone of a smirking carnival barker Davidson never runs out of inventive ways to call a band a bunch of drunk assholes who play inept punk and so We Never Learn never gets dull -- even as it goes into minute detail with its histories of bands and labels that mostly self-destructed years ago.
August 18, 2016
As much as I liked many of the bands this book talks about, and I like Davidson's willingness to poke at some sacred cows (how nice to see Jack White be taken off the pedestal), the prose feels a bit forced-gunk-punk cool at times, and giving us complete transcripts of interviews with the questions, etc may work in a 'zine, but I'd have preferred those moments be delivered as oral history--we're smart enough to infer the questions. A good read, but a book that pales in comparison to other histories of alternative music.
PS. The link to the 20 song download doesn't work anymore--so buying the book new and getting the code is moot.
PS. The link to the 20 song download doesn't work anymore--so buying the book new and getting the code is moot.
January 1, 2011
I enjoyed reading this book even though it does become a bit samey as it goes on. A few bands have very similar 'they were great but not amazingly successful and broke up' stories without much extra meat. However even in those cases the author's enthusiasm for the music really shines through and makes you want to listen to almost every band - I haven't been disappointed in that respect yet! There are a lot of genuinely fascinating characters who are a joy to read about too, Tim Warren and Billy Childish being prime examples.
June 19, 2020
Sort of a Loser's Edition of Our Band Could Be Your Life, covering the acts that were sometimes on Sub Pop, but weren't really the most notable acts of the label. Enjoyable overall, though I felt like a lot of it was written with the idea that one already knows these bands, but based off the book I couldn't tell you what some of them sounded like (other than a lot of them apparently owing a debt to The Cramps).
August 19, 2010
This book has a lot of flaws, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit despite the fact that it's not about a type of music I've ever cared about too much. The Billy Childish stuff was my favorite, though...
January 7, 2011
Pretty good survey of dirty, nasty, garage-y punk rock from the dates listed on the book's cover. Author Eric Davidson was a member of the New Bomb Turks, a volatile punk combo from Ohio who knocked my socks off when I saw the group play a tiny grange hall in Airway Heights, WA, in 1994.
May 21, 2011
Really informative read regarding late 80s-through 00s of underground music rarely covered in mainstream music rags. Most bands featured in this book are named checked these days in current independent music.
August 14, 2010
The interviews were good but I expected the author to better tie together all of the different stories.
July 12, 2010
badly written piece of shit/nothing.
July 29, 2012
Never managed to finish this, kept it through two moves, thinking I'd pick it back up someday. Finally pawned it off to my roommate today, maybe she can tell me how it ends.
February 9, 2016
Essential for all fans of scuzz punk
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