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Phantoms: The Rise of Deathrock from the LA Punk Scene
When drummer Don Bolles was sacked from LA punk band the Germs he was already a member of Vox Pop, girlfriend Mary was quickly becoming 'Dinah Cancer' and their horror-punk band 45 Grave was in its infant stages.
Around the same time bands like the A-Sexuals, the Decadent and Speed Queens would soon become Christian Death and Super Heroines. Add to this the early incarnations of Kommunity FK, Nervous Gender and Voodoo Church, plus Castration Squad, Aphotic Culture and Die Schlaflosen, along with Radio Werewolf, Ex VoTo, Screams for Tina and a host of others...
The roots of the Los Angeles deathrock scene, an integral part of the later goth movement were starting to take shape.
Phantoms relays this previously unheard story, told in the oral history style through extensive interviews band members, scenesters, photographers and club-/label-owners.
Around the same time bands like the A-Sexuals, the Decadent and Speed Queens would soon become Christian Death and Super Heroines. Add to this the early incarnations of Kommunity FK, Nervous Gender and Voodoo Church, plus Castration Squad, Aphotic Culture and Die Schlaflosen, along with Radio Werewolf, Ex VoTo, Screams for Tina and a host of others...
The roots of the Los Angeles deathrock scene, an integral part of the later goth movement were starting to take shape.
Phantoms relays this previously unheard story, told in the oral history style through extensive interviews band members, scenesters, photographers and club-/label-owners.
630 pages, Paperback
Published November 15, 2019
11 people are currently reading
149 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 19, 2020
It took me more than 3 months to finish this! The world went to shit, and I didn't feel like reading at all, so it's been sitting on my living room table and been used to prop my DJ controller up, hahaha.
It's quite the monster of a book, it's huge! Over 600 A4 pages. Each page has two columns, and it's written kind of in an interview style. There are little pictures sprinkled throughout, mostly of flyers, but they don't take up much of the book, really. The chapters are kind of split into bands, so it goes a little back and forth, but I think it was a much better choice following a couple of bands, the people and scene around them than going chronologically.
I absolutely love reading bands tell crazy stories from back in the day, so I immediately knew I'd like this book. I'm not very knowledgeable on deathrock, so this was a really cool insight into the history and what the scene was like. I learned about new bands, musicians other people in the scene back then.
I don't really have much to say specifically, it's kind of hard to recall all the thoughts I've had about it since it has taken me so long, but yeah, I found it really interesting to read people's stories and see pictures. If you're a fan of deathrock and want to learn about how that scene was back in the day, I definitely recommend it. Just be aware that it will probably take a long time to read it! It's the perfect coffee table book, you could flip through it and read any chapter you want at any time.
You can buy it here: https://www.lulu.com/shop/mikey-bean/...
It's quite the monster of a book, it's huge! Over 600 A4 pages. Each page has two columns, and it's written kind of in an interview style. There are little pictures sprinkled throughout, mostly of flyers, but they don't take up much of the book, really. The chapters are kind of split into bands, so it goes a little back and forth, but I think it was a much better choice following a couple of bands, the people and scene around them than going chronologically.
I absolutely love reading bands tell crazy stories from back in the day, so I immediately knew I'd like this book. I'm not very knowledgeable on deathrock, so this was a really cool insight into the history and what the scene was like. I learned about new bands, musicians other people in the scene back then.
I don't really have much to say specifically, it's kind of hard to recall all the thoughts I've had about it since it has taken me so long, but yeah, I found it really interesting to read people's stories and see pictures. If you're a fan of deathrock and want to learn about how that scene was back in the day, I definitely recommend it. Just be aware that it will probably take a long time to read it! It's the perfect coffee table book, you could flip through it and read any chapter you want at any time.
You can buy it here: https://www.lulu.com/shop/mikey-bean/...
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February 22, 2020The real deal, befor goth we had Death rock and now you can real all about it.
February 26, 2020
Essential. Well-written and extensively researched.
January 14, 2023
This book is absolutely amazing in its informational importance. I know of no other book that has attempted at what it has accomplished but it’s format is challenging especially for its size! This book is a monster! 611 pages of experience and stories! Much of what I read I had to use context clues to understand what was being discussed because every chapter is literally just conversations with no little to no input from the interviewer. Sometimes I was left lost for a while.
I would also add that this book is probably best enjoyed by those somewhat familiar already with quite a few of the bands discussed. My reason for saying this is there is little set up for each chapter which can sometimes leave the reader not understanding why a band is significant to the person speaking in the book. We often have no introduction to new speakers in the book and have to constantly refer to a “cast of characters” in the front of the book which is incredibly interruptive to the reader. So often we are given no reason to care about new people introduced which is unfair.
This book would really benefit from an annotated version.
But other than the mental undertaking this book sometimes requires, it was awesome and I will refer back to it for information for years to come. Do give it a read!
I would also add that this book is probably best enjoyed by those somewhat familiar already with quite a few of the bands discussed. My reason for saying this is there is little set up for each chapter which can sometimes leave the reader not understanding why a band is significant to the person speaking in the book. We often have no introduction to new speakers in the book and have to constantly refer to a “cast of characters” in the front of the book which is incredibly interruptive to the reader. So often we are given no reason to care about new people introduced which is unfair.
This book would really benefit from an annotated version.
But other than the mental undertaking this book sometimes requires, it was awesome and I will refer back to it for information for years to come. Do give it a read!
April 29, 2025
I bought this after someone somewhere relayed a Christian Death anecdote he'd "read about in the book Phantoms." For the Christian Death portion alone this thing is worth its weight in gold. I haven't finished it, I think I'm still in the 80s. No matter where you entered the dark stream of deathrock waters (I'm leaving that in here) or where you may have left it, this book covers it all.
An incredible piece of work over, what, 600+ pages? Damn. It's the only book of its kind and, clearly, the only one you'll ever need.
An incredible piece of work over, what, 600+ pages? Damn. It's the only book of its kind and, clearly, the only one you'll ever need.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews