Punk Spirit!: An Oral History of Punk Rock, Spirituality, and Liberation

by John Malkin, Penny Rimbaud (Foreword)

A wide cast of musicians and artists provide surprising and thought-provoking insights into punk rock from the lens of spirituality and liberation.

Punk Spirit! is an oral history that examines this movement from many unique perspectives, bringing together well-known and cutting-edge bands including Sex Pistols, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, The Ramones, Gang of Four, Pussy Riot, Crass, Talking Heads, Propagandhi, The Slits, Bad Religion, Shelter, Rebel Riot, Blackfire, and many others.

Punk Spirit! ventures into the emotional and personal experiences of punk artists and activists from around the world and highlights intelligent, thoughtful, and humorous discussions on liberation, spirituality, and living freely. They discuss a myriad of topics from creativity and anger to freedom from suffering and the ways that punk rock has opposed or embodied religious and moral tenets. Chapters dive deeply into a variety of interconnected realms of punk rock such as the subgenre of straight edge, Krishnacore and Taqwacore, evangelical punk concerts in southern California churches, illegal punk concerts in East German churches, anti-religious sentiment within punk rock, the vital connections between punk and self-expression, and the myriad ways punk rock has been combined with spiritual and religious traditions to illuminate ideas from science, atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other ways of being in the world.

424 pages, Hardcover

Published November 13, 2025

Reviews

[Brian Shevory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big thanks to Bloomsbury Academic and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of John Malkin’s interesting and insightful new book Punk Spirit! An Oral History of Punk Rock, Spirituality, and Liberation. I’m always interested in books about music, and especially those that examine genres like punk rock. Punk Spirit! follows in the tradition of some other great oral histories about punk like Please Kill Me, American Hardcore, and Our Band Could be Your Life in that it explores specific time periods in this music’s evolution through the words and experiences of those who were integral in creating the music, styles, and pushing its trajectory in different directions. John Malkin is a journalist and radio host whose extensive experience interviewing punks from across the world enables him to paint a colorful and diverse image of the varieties of punk rock. Not only do readers gain a comprehensive understanding of how spirituality, including both religion and social activism, has shaped punk rock over the past 50 years, but they will also see how Malkin and his subjects repeatedly push back against the stereotype that punk is a nihilistic and agnostic trend. Rather, Malkin’s subjects and his questions help to show how much of punk was shaped by constant questioning, questing, and rebelling against the currents, trends, standards, and norms that society often embraces, or in some cases, that the state enforces. I found this to be interesting especially considering how a lot of the 80s punk rock in America was rebelling against the Reagan republicans and the religious right that emerged. However, the first half of the book examines different aspects of spirituality and how the push for social justice and equality, challenging inequities in society, created a different kind of spiritual ethos in punk rock. Although this first half was a little less focused than the second half of the book, it was still interesting to hear from many punk luminaries and how their own views and ideas on spirituality challenged the dominant view that punk music was either nihilistic without any kind of hope or guidance for the future, or was completely individualistic and hedonistic—I’m thinking about the Circle Jerks song “Live Fast Die Young” or the sad examples of early deaths like Darby Crash, whose addiction seemed to snuff out an interesting, bright light. Malkin includes considerable interviews with Penelope Spheeris, whose Decline of the Western Civilization helped to capture the contradictions and worldviews of Crash, and these interviews present a different kind of side of Darby and the whole Germs movement. It was interesting to think more about how much punk rock relies on the same kind of community and fellowship as a church or religious movement, yet it isn’t always viewed in that kind of perspective. This was one of the themes that emerged from the first half of the book.
The second half of the book I liked a little more due to the focus for each of the chapters. While I enjoyed reading the chapters in the first half, I wish there was a little more contextualization or commentary from Malkin where he might provide some explanation of how he planned to organize these quotes and interviews. These earlier chapters did have titles and they seemed focused, but the quotes and interviews weren’t always set up or connected with other quotes, so it was a little hard to follow at times. The second half of the book dealt more with specific scenes and movements within punk rock. Beyond being more focused, I felt like I learned so much from these chapters. Although these chapters get really into the weeds, Malkin does provide more context and detail either from participants or scholars who researched these movements. For example, Chapter 11 “Church from Below” examined the East German Punks whose movement remained underground due to state surveillance and repression from the Stassi. Since the state could not prosecute religion, religious punk bands were able to play shows in churches and evade the same kind of scrutiny that other secular or political bands might face. Other chapters detailed the intersection of other religions and punk rock including Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. It was cool to learn more about Krishnacore and the whole 80s and 90s hardcore movement with Revelation Records since I remember seeing a lot of these albums, but not really being that into the music and really kind of questioning those Shelter album covers that featured Hindu deities. Books like American Hardcore got into earlier straight edge and vegetarian/Krishna bands like the Cro-Mags, but these books didn’t get too into their beliefs and ideas or how they influenced the later bands that emerged in the late 80s and 90s. It was interesting to learn more about them, as well as other movements to involve more spiritual practices in punk music like mediating and yoga. I also liked learning more about Michael Muhammad Knight, an author I’ve always wanted to check out and someone who I associated more with hip-hop than punk rock. It was interesting to learn more about how he more or less invented a punk rock style/genre that some even question whether it is real or not. Regardless, Chapter 23 details Haram and how Muslims use their experiences as minorities in punk rock to question inequality, racism, and racial profiling. Nader Haram’s own experience growing up Muslim in NYC post-9/11 was both heartbreaking and inspiring to see how he used punk rock as a means to challenge the kinds of inequality and Islamophobia he experienced. Although I felt that the latter half of the book was more focused and provided more context and explanation on the specific chapter’s focus, the earlier chapters are still interesting since they are largely comprised of the words of punk rock participants. Highly recommended!

[Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC and give an honest review.

An honestly incredible exploration of spirituality in punk, the general spirituality of music, and spirituality removed from religion. Folks from bands I recognized chime in as well as bands and subcultures I’m not as familiar with - so many different viewpoints and differing opinions on how punk affects spirituality and the inverse that it felt really well-rounded and full-bodied. I’m familiar with John Malkin as I’m from central California and Santa Cruz is a big part of the scene, and he does an incredible job of accumulating all these diverse interviews into a great, informative read.

One warning - There is a chapter that focuses on the self-harm(both on-stage and off) of the scene, referencing Iggy and others. It is not overly graphic but it is detailed and could be a bit intense for some readers.

The formatting on the e-book is a little funky and hard to read but as it is an ARC I believe that will be fixed.

[Venneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good look at punk and spirituality, as explored through first person interviews with various bands and people in the scene. I learned about whole new subcultures of punk (taqwacore!), and generally speaking, it's really neat to learn how these folks hold and regard spirituality in their lives.