Mutations

by Sam McPheeters, Tobi Vail (Introduction)

How can so many people pledge allegiance to punk, something with no fixed identity? Depending on who and where you are, punk can be an outlet, excuse, lifestyle, escapism, conversation, community, ideology, sales category, social movement, punishable offense, badge of authenticity, reason to drink beer forever, or an aesthetic of belligerent incompetence. And if someone has a strong belief about what punk is, odds are they have even stronger feelings about what punk is not.

Sam McPheeters championed many different versions. Over the course of two decades, he fronted Born Against, released dozens of records and fanzines, and toured seventeen times across the northern hemisphere. In this collection of essays, profiles, criticism, and personal history, he examines the diverse realms he intersected—New York hardcore, Riot Grrrl, Gilman street, the hidden enclaves of Olympia, and New England, and downtown Los Angeles—and the forces of mental illness and creative inspiration that drove him, and others, in the first place.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Punk, Essays, Audiobook, Memoir, Pop Culture

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Sam McPheeters was born in Ohio and raised in upstate New York. In 1981, at age 12, he co-authored Travelers Tales; Rumors and Legends of the Albany-Saratoga Region. Starting in 1989, he sang for Born Against, Men’s Recovery Project, and Wrangler Brutes, touring seventeen times across North America, Europe, and Japan. Since 2009, he has written for Apology, Chicago Reader, Criterion, Vice, and The Village Voice, among others.

Reviews

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in the early nineties whenever I managed to get my grubby paws on the new issue of Maximumrocknoll it was always a toss-up over whose column I’d read first. Typically this came down to a choice between four of the most loudly opinionated (at the time) columnists in that storied punk fanzine. Would it be the discursive, highly parenthetical stylings of Rev. Nørb, ringleader of Green Bay band Boris the Sprinkler? Or perhaps it would be the transgressive New York attitude of Mykel Board, whose columns routinely and gleefully flexed the muscles of free speech. Then again it could be another slab of Chicago-born punk rock drama delivered by Ben Weasel, vocalist for pop-punk powerhouse Screeching Weasel. Finally, there was Sam McPheeters, whose oft-snide column ‘Currently Fucked’ seemed a logical extension of his rabble-rousing persona in the hardcore punk scene. At the time McPheeters was the outspoken vocalist for the hardcore band Born Against, a favorite of mine and my roommates ever since we discovered a dubbed cassette of one of their albums left behind in our apartment following one of the usual nights of debauchery. McPheeters and his band had in a relatively short time garnered a nationwide reputation, both for their innovative sound and their willingness to call others out over sociopolitical issues they deemed crucial to public discourse. Though the band was only active from 1989 to 1993 it left a lasting mark on the American hardcore punk scene (whether McPheeters is willing to ever admit it or not). Though the book is not meant to be about McPheeters’ bands (after Born Against ended he went on to form Men’s Recovery Project and, later still, Wrangler Brutes), his record label Vermiform, or even himself, per se, by the end bits and pieces of all three manage to seep out through the pages.

As musician Tobi Vail describes it in her foreword, the book is an anti-memoir. It is decidedly not a tell-all airing of grievances amassed over two decades of participation in the hardcore punk scene (a note on terminology: McPheeters prefers the term ‘hardcore punk’ in an effort to narrow focus and distinguish the genre he operated within from the initial incarnation of 1970s punk, but my terminology will vary). Nor is it a glorification of McPheeters’ legacy, as it is clear he doesn’t think much of this legacy himself. In one of the best pieces in the book—a conversation between McPheeters and fellow punk writer/musician Aaron Cometbus—he addresses this idea of legacy:

People don’t know what to make of artists who don’t like their own past art. For me, the right to regret mistakes is fundamental. This subgenre—underground, hardcore, whatever name we’re using—is saturated in self-congratulations. There aren’t many people in my position. I’ve always loved hardcore. I just don’t love my contributions to it.

This gets to the crux of why this book is so good and, ultimately, so fascinating to read (though perhaps only to people who were active in the hardcore punk scene at the time). McPheeters is correct in his assessment of the self-congratulatory nature of the genre. Case in point: I recently watched a documentary on the New York hardcore scene (in which McPheeters and Born Against were one-time participants) and, not surprisingly, it ended up being the sort of nostalgia-drenched infomercial McPheeters would abhor. So, rather than go down this road, in his book McPheeters set out to deliberately deliver a dispassionate accounting of what has been important to him about hardcore punk. While he does touch on other issues and musical styles outside this genre, he returns to hardcore as a reference point in nearly every chapter.

Note: this review exceeds the Goodreads character limit—please view the full text here.

[Bill Hsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of hardcore or Born Against (despite the piles of Maximum RnR I used to own). Of the bands that get significant pagecount here, my favorites are No Trend and Missing Foundation, neither of which I really consider hardcore. But there are great stories and insight here, and McPheeters' earnest and self-deprecatory manner is very engaging. Choice quote that I'll be repeating to myself all day:

I don't want to get buttfucked on the shipping.

Thanks to S̶e̶a̶n̶ for another excellent tip. You should read his usual detailed and thoughtful review.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

So great! This hit the spot and made me revel in the art of crafting a perfect sentence. I mean really - such a well written description that it makes me swoon. I also thoroughly enjoyed reading about an over lapping concurrent view point of my life as shared by someone in my orbit yet from a very different perspective. Sam and I could ride the Same path train back to jersey after the same show and he would be reading The NY Times while I was listening to my Walkman and we would not speak. Or we’d stay at the same punk house in Oakland while he hid in a closet somewhere while I drank 40s till the sun came up. Yep... different perspectives. Many of the same characters and places and times.
Sams writing and my appreciation for the great sentences reminded me of Aaron Cometbus- yet for all they may share they could not be more different either and their conversation here is priceless!
I loved the descriptions of important bands and landmark moments. And the honesty in admitting the failings and flaws of youth.
Soooooo good! I haven’t been so wrapped up and moved by a collection of stories- well maybe ever!

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Commenting on the world isn't the same as engaging the world."--from the book

I recall overhearing my mother discussing a client who had come into the lawyer's office where she was a secretary. The client was a teenager; a troubled sort who had the letters spelling "skinhead" tattooed on his knuckles in that done-at-home blue ink that would eventually become familiar. The 1980s was a time of many fears related to delinquent youth: Satanists, homosexuals, D & D Players, punks and goths and many other identities that could get you beaten up, arrested, institutionalized, kicked out of the house, or even killed. Skinheads, though, were scary (despite my dad repeatedly saying that those neo-nazi skinheads had the right idea). As a fourteen year old, I shared my mother's fear, as skinheads were violent and certainly scary.

A year later, a kid at my high school complimented my Adidas. Soon, we were talking and hanging out. You already guessed he had "skinhead" tattooed on his knuckles. This scary dude with teenage delinquency issues was now my friend and mentor in all things punk rock. As racist as any white kid in Oregon in the 1980s, Daniel certainly wasn't a neo-nazi--he was more into Sham-69 and the 4 Skins than that other crap. He was also an opioid addict and funny guy. He put his brawling days behind him and he was far from scary.

Like most things in our lives, meaning is derived partially from perspective and our own experiences, prejudices, and desires. Daniel was all and none of the things my mom feared. While my parents tried to forbid me from becoming a punk rocker, I knew I needed punk far more than I needed them and their perspectives and beliefs. It was a life saver.

As Sam McPheeters touches on the meaning of hardcore punk again and again in these excellent essays, reviews, interviews, and remembrances, I kept thinking about how lucky I was. I didn't grow up in a particularly violent place. The punks who became my first family were great for a misfit kid. By college in 1992, the punk scene I was a part of was vibrant, huge, and amazing. Divisions were plenty, but small town kids on the West Coast cared more about the positive aspects of building community than toughness and exclusivity (mostly). Most importantly, I viewed punk rock as an essential identity; a thing I was and not a music genre, affectation, or outfit.

There is much to debate in that declaration, and I'm sure Sam McPheeters would take issue. That's okay. There is no over-arching meaning of life except what we make of it. We each make our own meaning in how we live, what we believe, how we act and treat others. Mine is punk rock and that is okay for me. A sign of my maturity was realizing the "for me" part and that it is not for everyone.

I was also lucky that I never considered punk--music, zines, clothes, action--art. I have never considered myself an artist and view the idea that punk music is an art form with skepticism. I'm being willfully obtuse, yes, but I prefer it to the alternative.

At any rate, read this. I was at that show in Oakland in 1992!

[Kyrylo Brener · Rating 4 out of 5]

Дуже талановито написано - багато гумору, цікавих роздумів і навіть в певному сенсі філософії щодо місця і ролі андеграундної музики у житті людей. Не так часто буває що книги про музику написані в такому ключі, як це зробив Сем з Born Against. Окремо виділив би endnotes, з яких можна зліпити окрему главу.
Коротше однозначно рекомендував би всім, хто цікавиться історією хардкору і панк-року, а особливо сценою у 80х та 90х. Всім іншим книга звісно буде дуже специфічною, а контекст не дуже зрозумілим.

[Russ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never got into Sam's bands or his label, and also not into many of the bands he writes about in this book. One of the bands I do like that's written about (Die Kreuzen) has some major errors (he says the band played at an indie rock tempo for 3 decades, despite breaking up after 12 years or so. Not to mention his dismissal of their post-HC work, which seems odd as his post-Born Against bands certainly strayed from hardcore orthodoxy.)

That stuff didn't really affect my enjoyment of the book, which is well written. It's less about the individual bands he writes about, and more about a person looking back at a scene he spent a couple decades invested in, and seeing both the good and the bad, and trying to figure out his current opinions on the whole thing.

You can read the best chapter of this book on the Vice magazine site - that is "The Troublemaker", a wild exploration of the history of Doc Dart of the Crucifucks. If you enjoy that, I'd recommend the book, though Doc is a far more interesting figure than people like Ray Cappo or Kevin Seconds. Really wish the part about Doc had an update exploring how he's been in the decade-plus time since the original piece was written.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. Don't skip the endnotes!

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a jaded, rapidly aging hardcore (no longer a) kid, I love this book a whole hell of a lot. McPheeters writes from a perspective similar to my own, having moved on from the smelly basement shows and the hoarding of crappy 7”s, but his love for what was shines through in these pages. I truly miss the weirdo perspective in whatever passes for a hardcore scene nowadays, and this book is a great reminder of the days when that perspective was easily found at shows and on record. Highly recommended.

[Scott Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book about punk rock I’ve been waiting for. Earnest and cynical. Hilarious and thoughtful. This is a microcosm of my life, though Sam has weathered it in a considerably more public and known context. Honestly the chapter on 7 Seconds was worth the 15$ alone - I laughed so hard and felt compelled to call everyone and read the whole thing out loud to them. (I didn’t).

Anyway, thanks Sam. Anticipate a postcard.

[Jeffrey Bumiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mutations is amazing. This is a top 5 music book for me. McPheeters is a phenomenal writer and this book is incredibly smart and at times very very funny (see the endnotes). There are chapters on Die Kreuzen, Discharge, SSD, 7 Seconds, and so much more. The whole thing is just so insightful. There's a chapter, late in the book, called, "Please Don't Stop the Musak: Psychic Carpet Bombing as Mass Marketing" that so perfectly captures my feelings on the subject that I thought for a split second that someone was trolling me somehow. If you care about this music at all read this book, you won't be disappointed.

[Lesyk Mahula · Rating 5 out of 5]

той випадок коли десь на 1/3 я був готовий перестати її читати - так якось важко мені вона заходила. Хоч і багато контексту і проблем були мені знайомими загалом мене не чіпляло + той факт що зноски займають майже 1/5 книги дуже дратувало на початку.
Але як же я змінив своє враження до кінця книги!
книга дуже умовно поділена на 3 секції - question, artists, problems
перша мені видалась надто нерівною - інтервʼю, довга оповідь про вокаліста the cruxifucs і інші (анти-)мемуарні замальовки з молодості автора.
а ось вже з artists стало дуже подобатись. і гумор (чорний, кмітливий, несентиментальний та інсайдерський - місцями гигикав в голос), і красномовність (абзац про відчуття часу і відносин між музикантами в турі це те що я не міг для себе сформулювати так влучно), і щирість (визнати що був панк-рокером з трастовим фондом який успішно просрав за кілька років).

[Greg D'Avis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve admired Sam’s work in multiple fields since 1991 or so - no way was I gonna miss this. It exceeds my lofty expectations- he’s able to look at hardcore punk from the perspective of an ex-insider, while simultaneously avoiding nostalgia and contempt. Plus he’s a fantastic writer.

[Jack Mckeever · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those interested in Hardcore punk - and particularly those who were there during its reign of multi-faceted creation and rage throughout the '80s and '90s - Sam McPheeters and his band Born Against are cult heroes. Now channelling his wit and realism-based imagination into novel writing, McPheeters' half memoir/half essay collection comes unexpected. At various stages throughout the book, he expresses relief at getting out of the hardcore scene (and performing in general) when he did. But his connection to/regret about many facets of the scene across America (and occasionally the UK) is still as vivid, poignant and engaging as ever.

The sub-header of 'The Many Strange Faces of Hardcore Punk' is fitting too, because largely McPheeters veers aware from talking about the big names from the scene's golden era - Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys. He mentions them peripherally; it'd be impossible to write a book about hardcore without doing so. But instead he focuses on artists who changed, transformed and destroyed the game within the nationwide's purely underground hard-line; the likes of Die Kreuzen, The Flying Lizards and SSD.

When he writes about these artists, he reflects their cultural relevance and how they were manifestations of the scene's response to cultural upheaval. He jumps to the UK to talk about Discharge, how they made sense of and epitomised armageddon during Thatcher's reign. There's a quite incredible story about the history behind Green Day's hateful 'Platypus: I Hate You', disconcerted dissection of SSD's ridiculous appropriation of Nazi imagery, and most intriguing of all, a disdainful chapter about Youth of Today and how they ushered in an era of flavourless conservatism; 'Hard politics were out. Fuzzy platitudes were in'.

There was one moment that struck particular resonance with me. Years ago I wrote an article about how Black Flag's record 'Damaged', and the song 'Depression' especially, helped me through a mental health crisis (incidentally, McPheeters is honest, transparent and contextual about his own struggles with depression). In his chapter about the short-lived group No Trend, McPheeters offers a reading and perception of 'Depression' which never occurred to me, but makes total sense all the same. It's quite remarkable.

'Mutations' is full of bizarre, sometimes hilarious happenings and deep-set despondency about certain aspects of McPheeters' own personal history. He doesn't necessarily do much to challenge those occurrences in hindsight, and I found my interest waning towards the end. There are almost 40 pages of end notes which you can either take or leave to be honest; they only make total sense if you read them as they're referenced throughout the book.

But in general it's a fabulous book - not one that even hardcore fans would've been expecting, but a refreshing, dynamic and thrilling one all the same.

[Jay Kistler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most puzzling thing Sam says in this collection of essays and stories is “hardcore’s main selling point is accessibility”. To think that angry, aggressive, sometimes hateful music can be labeled as “accessible” is beyond me. This has to be a joke, but it didn’t really read that way to me. The author and former frontman of Born Against is funny, but this might have been a serious take.

Sam also makes a distinction between “punk” and “hardcore” which kind of irks me. Hardcore is punk but punk is not hardcore, and yet he still uses the term “hardcore” and “hardcore punk” separately.

This distinction lead me to an epiphany: punk, along with its sub-genres, is the most pretentious music on the planet. Usually when someone thinks of anything pretentious, they’re probably drawn to “high art” like opera, art galleries, expensive wine, turtlenecks, and pursed lips. I’d argue you will not find a more pretentious lot than punks. I’m speaking from experience, of course: from the time I discovered Bad Religion when I was 13 to around the time the Triple Rock here in Minneapolis closed, I was INSUFFERABLE. To think of all the friends I could have made/kept if I would have just not been a raging asshole about honestly the worst noise to subject a living being to, I’d probably have a much more fulfilling life.

And boy does this book reflect that sentiment in spades. It’s riddled with endnotes that were sometimes rewarding, but mostly unnecessary. I think the guy really didn’t know how to write a memoir, so he collected a few experiences, compiled them all out of order, put them to print, and then decided to add thoughts to sentences he felt needed to be expanded on (they didn’t).

With that aside, I actually enjoyed it for the most part! I especially loved hearing about the man known as 26 and his band The Crucifucks, and I’m always here for a good Green Day shitpost. The 80’s hardcore scene also sounded harrowing; I do not wish to go back in time to see heyday CBGB, that’s how you lose an eye. Thank you all for paving the way, I’ll just stick to the Dead Kennedys and Black Flag records I have.

I would’ve knocked this up to a 4 had he not shown his age and railed against millennials for allowing Hall & Oates to be played at supermarkets. The death of Muzak is apparently our fault? After that essay, he meanders on about vinyl distribution and then the book just kinda fades away; no real ending, just a sad thought about how he and his friend don’t want to be fucked over by shipping.

Well, I’ll grant it this: it’s just as accessible as hardcore.

[Gregory Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not so much a book about hardcore punk as it is a book about what hardcore punk does to a person. Still, it’s the smartest, most self-aware, and least sentimental book on the subject I’ve ever read. It’s also funny as fuck. After guffawing though the heart wrenching chapter on 26/Doc Dart, I revisited “Wisconsin” by The Crucifucks and wept. Millennials probably wouldn’t even recognize that music as hardcore today but holy shit...what that hardcore record did to 14 year old me...what that hardcore record does to 46 year old me.... Thank you, Sam McPheeters.

[Cae Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mutations is a lot of things: a fragmented memoir, a collection of band profiles, rambling musings on the commodification of identity, an admittedly biased history lesson, and possibly a mid-life crisis. It's also a lot of fun to read.

"Hardcore" and "punk" are both words that mean different things to just about everybody who swears by them, and McPheeters tries to reconcile these contradictions via a snapshot of his involvement with "the scene" from the mid-80s through the early 2000s. The resulting essays are often illuminating, thought-provoking, and thoroughly entertaining.

It does lose some steam in the last third with a couple "back in my day" style ok boomer moments, but overall the line between nostalgia and self-reflection is well balanced.

Would recommend to anyone who likes hardcore and/or punk, anyone who hates hardcore and/or punk, anyone who thinks they're the same thing, and anyone who thinks they know the difference.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great, something for anyone that’s ever had more than a passing interest in hardcore punk, underground culture, or self loathing.

[Johnmcdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the first wave of hardcore, which I still love, I thought the rest sucked. I didn’t even listen to single band he mentioned that I didn’t know, except Casual Dots. Great, not hardcore. But that didn’t stop me from loving McPheeter’s stories and rib-tickling observations about punk. He’s a gifted writer, who covers a lot of ground, culturally. Reminds me of Klosterman at times, voice-wise. McPheeters has some great tour stories.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about the evolution of American punk rock & underground weirdo music by one of my favorite artists of the genre/scene. This book is mostly an attempt to suggest a framework to understand the various ideas, features, and institutions of underground punk music of the 80s-early 2000s. McPheeters treats his own biography in the hardcore scene as kind of a case history, without getting in to too much detail about the stuff he did with Born Against & Men's Recovery Project. He depicts himself as more of a member of a scene or cultural movement than a member of a band. Mutations is does not provide a lot of gossip; you could probably get a lot of that from looking at zines or old Maximum RocknRoll issues from the era. I listened to the audio version, read by the author himself, so I couldn't easily flip back to parts that I thought of a question about in the middle of the night after I read them, and so some of my thoughts about this book are little underdeveloped. Maybe I need to learn how to listen to audiobooks, but I'm thinking I should pick the print version up for flipping through when I eat my dinner. Can't decide if this is the sort of book I should have read back when I was dipping my toe into weirdo underground's degenerate provincial offspring, or if it would have been as incomprehensible as any number of other 2020 artifacts.

[Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sam McPheeters completely sold out the scene with this book (/sarcasm). Had this been written when I was 19, I would have gobbled up the contents – it feels like it was written a decade or two too late to be of much relevance. It is interesting that the author spends most of the time writing about the bands the preceded his own musical career (it says he was born in ’81, so I doubt he was spending much time with Rites of Spring or Youth of Today in the mid to late 80’s). As a work of history this might be interesting to someone in 50 years as likely there will be some musical genre that sounds like hardcore and this might provide enthusiasts with a peek at what it was in its heyday, but it never feels like a definitive history and more like a pastiche of remembrances of bands and people, personal stories of his life, and some interviews. There’s likely a pretty decent history of hardcore out there. Had the topic been a subject I had no connection whatsoever I likely wouldn’t have made it through to the end.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huge, delightful, laugh-out-loud funny, deeply insightful, often poetic, this book could conceivably be enjoyed by readers with no familiarity with the bands discussed or by those deeply enough invested in underground music to want to hear gossip about Mordam Records, the Epicentre, ABC NO RIO, and the last years of punk before the internet. McPheeters takes a few controversial positions that strike me as silly—that’s sort of his job in life, to find something to say that nearly every single person can find something to disagree with. I agree with him far more often than not. But in either case he writes with a stupendous combination of wit and eloquence. He uses both to occasionally annoy, but for the most part enthral.

[Park Frost · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love the work of sam mcpheeters - the music of every band he was in, his illustration work, zines, and his overall general sense of humor / way of communicating with the world if this is not the case for you, this book may not be 5 star level for you. but if youre even just kinda obliquely interested in 80-00's hardcore punk, you'll still be amused & get some bizarro arcane knowledge from this. its a stream of weird stories filtered by the perspective ripened with hindsight, adulthood and a curious mind's durational research. RRREEEEEAD IT. also: glow in the dark cover, c'mon.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't care about almost every band mentioned in this book and I still loved it. Who knew I wanted to read about the singer of Crucifux? The writing is so funny and good, and there are a ton of endnotes that add extra humor and weirdness to the chapters.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow...

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

TL;DR
Buy this book. Read it. Read it again. Buy it for your friends. Whether they like hardcore punk music or not. Discuss it with them. Buy some Applebee's gift cards.


THE LONG VERSION WITH MILLION-DOLLAR WORDS.
What happens when one holds up a mirror to a culture that made them who they were? Furthermore, what happens when said perpetrator uses that mirror as a critical lens, showcasing all of the deformities, insecurities, skeletons-in-the-closet, and self-effacing toxic traits that left it both obscure and, in the worst cases, scorned by its very founding fathers? Is the movement seen more in the light of cult than cultural? In answer to these questions, you get the wonderful Black Mirror episode of deviant musings of Sam McPheeters; author, vocalist, apologist, and downright hilarious contrarian.

First off, going into this book, one must know that it tackles cultish fandom. Where manipulative leaders hearkening/reacting to a bygone era are revered by their fans with near-messianic fervor; where straightforward and usually baseless claims are treated as holy screeds that are parroted by the masses; where movements have zero tolerance for satire or detractors; where fiendish and outspoken self-imposed pariahs are unable to listen to their critics without an ounce of constructive or introspective self-respect... all of this sounds like I could be describing the last five years since 2016... where Trumpism's diehard loyalty is demanded and enforced lest one suffers banishment or total character assassination; misinformation reigns supreme because of Shepherd's Crusade-esque figures misinterpret screeds and spin straw into bullshit. I could very well be talking about post-2016-election-America...but no, I am talking about hardcore music.

Without going into too much detail, the hardcore music era was an offshoot of punk rock, born in the late 1970s, and peaking between 1980 and 1986 during the Reagan era, not necessarily gaining is largest following in Los Angeles and New York City, it was a subculture that appealed to angry, young--and mostly suburban--white youth. Once these formative years passed, hardcore was reborn again and again with newer and trendier facets that watered down the original spunkiness and outrageous behavior that earned the genre the merit badge of "controversial." No longer were they the menace to Conservative White America, but rather something well on its way to becoming a future cash-cow, with many of the founders trading in their mohawks for money bags, much like the hippies of the 60s who became soulless corporate enthusiats in the mid-80s. And the hangers-on became monsters of their own making.

With these subsequent rebirths, the movement went into various mutations of subgenres akin to the heretical religious sects of Medieval times, crossbreeding fans and sounds to create unholy afterbirths which turned into cultural phenomena. These metastases gave us anything from sheer noise (grindcore/industrial/black metal) to multi-platinum pop music (Green Day/P!nk/Holly Valance). Yet at its humble beginnings, it was a movement started by kids, made for kids, and carried on by kids with a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ethic. Yet at its core was a lot of darkness and anger, not to mention confusion and self-sabotage.

Having missed the 1960s and the '77 Punk Movement entirely, and arriving just at the tail-end of the original Hardcore era, author Sam McPheeters saw a lot of his own generation's tactics and malfeasance. With a keen knack for storytelling and an expert grasp on language of Punk, McPheeters chronicles his twenty-odd-years as a jack-of-all-trades in the scene: vocalist for iconic hardcore bands, columnist for high-profile punk publications like Maximumrocknroll, record label owner, friend of many a hardcore personality, enemy of even more hardcore personalities, and trust fund rabble rouser whose level of humility is one that most of us wish were capable of. McPheeters' expert caveat in this wonderful collection of essays and musings, is not one of–what he deems throughout the book–"backslapping self-congratulations," which is probably one of the most astute three words describing icons of such a niche movement; where wistful memories lead to bragging about "the scene" and "what it was" and "how it never will be like it used to be." However, at the same time, McPheeters DOES conjure up these memories, albeit with about as much enthusiasm as one has when their mother brings out the baby photos when you bring your date home.

Although he would give me a stern talking-to for mentioning it, McPheeters was the vocalist for legendary hardcore band Born Against. Without any proselytizing, McPheeters does not turn his book into a tell-all of what it was like being in a trendsetting band, what things were like on the road, or how his contribution created and inspired countless followers. Instead, he doesn't look too fondly on these years, choosing to move on in life, and for good reason. Far from giving himself some due accolades (he was an excellent frontman), he chooses to snidely poke fun at himself for his idealistic and idyllic time spent harping on about everything from the hardcore scene to just about anyone who did not meet his chosen criteria...and his critics were legion. McPheeters retains his sarcasm, albeit with the seasoned mind of one who has seen many things and been ostracized from an entire scene once or twice. McPheeters uses these anecdotes and personal musings to reinforce his opinions into ironclad observations.

That being said, if you are expecting a "stories from the road" book, you will be disappointed. Now, bear in mind, I merely said "disappointed," not "this book is not for you" because I believe you should read this book. Anyone who had anything to do with any form of hardcore music should read this book. It is a forensic study of a genre that continues to murder itself through pantomime, levels of ethics which border on the puritanical (and as a result, hypocritical), and overt drama that really just boils down to two meatheads staring each other down, yelling, "Hey! You're not ME!"

McPheeters pulls the shorts down on these stereotypical viewpoints and exposes them to the open fresh air of constructive criticism, while only sometimes bordering on elitism. However, he always checks himself and points some accusatory fingers inward, never claiming to be above suspicion of some bad scene politics. Covering a period from about 1984-2004, where McPheeters brought it upon himself to end his stint within hardcore (but never truly abandoning it), this book is a wild and beautiful chronicle of many contributing factors to what we know as hardcore, both good and bad. Most interestingly, McPheeters also delves deep into the role mental illness and depression play in most hardcore circles, and he even begs the question: Was all the legendary music produced by McPheeters and his buddies back then the result of a serotonin imbalance? You decide.

In the midst of his rants and ravings, which are more structured around satire than anything else, we get some wonderful interludes via a series of endnotes, which don't necessarily interrupt the narrative, but give way further (and 90% of the time hilarious) insight into the twisted mind of its author. His sense of style is immaculate and his timing perfect. In a great example, one endnote consists of a brief but concise overview of McPheeters' love/hate relationship with Fugazi, where the punchline has all the tact and wit of a perfectly-executed standup routine. Had he adapted this story for the stage, it would get a lot of laughs.

Getting into the nitty-gritty, the book is separated into three parts: Questions, Artists, and Problems. "Questions" is McPheeters' birds-eye view of the scene during his time spent within it. Here there be monsters. McPheeters challenges the very notions of hardcore whether it be through Born Against's music or various repeat offenders of self-effacing back-slapping attention hogs who allowed what they created to wilt in the sun, not to be shared by future generations. While not being mean about the negative things he has to say about hardcore music's "central players," he has good reason to be critical, because he can back his claims. Here, McPheeters makes some very odd, but indelible comments about how the hardcore way of life has transcended music and permeated in Right Wing/Conservative cultures such as ISIS being a "hardcore" wing of Al-Qaeda's more straightforward "punk" approach, with emphasis on a do-it-yourself brand of terrorism complete with terrifyingly threatening posturing and a dress code that is not overly unfamiliar to those who attend hardcore shows today. A more astute observation is the "hardcoreization" of Trump's America, where Right Wing fanatics have fallen into the trends of the very kids they were so scared of during Reagan's 80s, and adopting a loud, brazen, and abrasive political stance, complete with aggressive merchandising and sloganism. The parallels are jarring, and McPheeters has done his homework.

"Artists" is the best part of this book if you are a hardcore fan. It is an 84-page look into about a dozen bands (and one venue) that either carry some form of vital importance to hardcore's many "mutations" and/or have some form of reverence on the part of the author. Here, McPheeters examines the cause and effect tactics of bands like the U.K. hardcore act Discharge's heavy political stance that shocked Thatcher's England and Reagan's America in 1982, only to have anybody with a social platform--whether they be 11 years old or 111--able to enact the same punkish brand of snotty attitude on both sides of the political spectrum. McPheeters' examination of the racism and the semantics surrounding the use of the N-word in hardcore as a form of anti-racist racism is also a top notch example of introspective writing. Also in this section, McPheeters' trifecta of articles written about the Straight Edge movement and its own permutations is sheer mastery of music journalism.
Having been part of that movement myself, McPheeters' astute look at the eventual unrisky, but way-too-serious fate of the movement is one of the most brilliant takes I have ever read on the subject.

"Problems" is reserved for some stories from the life of Sam McPheeters. Although not going into too much "slap-happy" detail, he does provide a window into the ups and downs of his years as a hardcore vocalist, journalist, and label owner, quashing some old beefs and reminiscing about friends lost due to hardcore's toxic traits. It is an excellent bridge-gapping segment in an otherwise compendium of semi-charred bridges from the past.

As a fan of Born Against, I am one of the many people he makes fun of in this book. Having missed out on BA's run completely (I was 7 years old by the time they called it quits), I was able to vicariously experience the band's sheer energy and breathtaking ferocity thanks to technology, where my fandom of his and his bandmates' music grew exponentially. And McPheeters covers this topic as well throughout, albeit with total self-deprecating humor. Even so, I still tell people to watch the video of Born Against playing at the Mountain Lodge, Washington, DC on January 30, 1993 just to let people know who exactly they are dealing with in this book. The video shows a 24-year-old Sam McPheeters flailing around like the mandrill that adorns the cover of this book as if someone has pointed a TV remote at him and hit "fast-forward" while the rest of the band--and crowd--remain at normal speed. And even at his current 50+ year-old age, his mind is still as sharp, if not sharper, than ever before, in a punk rock Diogenes kinda way, so that cover image of the mandrill is a choice animal to pick to advertise McPheeters' writing.

This book passes with flying colors. It is a short read, and I hope McPheeters has at least three more books like this in him, because his take is so fresh and unhindered. It was a perfect read and my book of the year.

Post-script: The one thing that I need to explore more is McPheeters' mentions of rewarding old foes with Applebee's gift certificates as a peace offering. It is by far one of the more funnier aspects in the book, and it begs the question, "Does he just carry them around with him?!" Are these gift cards symbolic? Are they actually backhanded "sorry-not-sorry" apologies? I need to know!

[Jeff B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm somewhat familiar with Sam McPheeters and some of his past bands, especially Born Against. I didn't really know about the behind-the-scenes gossip too much. I think I knew about their feud with Sick of it All because of the hilarious Born Against song, "Born Against are Dead". I never read any of Sam's MRR columns. Anyway, this book exceeded my expectations and I really enjoyed it. Sam McPheeters can really write. The book is funny, insightful, and poignant and Sam is more mature and self-aware than I was expecting.

I do have a caveat to my recommendation, though - I'm not sure how this book reads to someone unfamiliar with the world of Hardcore Punk. I think it maybe would still be great as there were many pieces on bands I had never heard of (Flying Lizards, Missing Foundation, etc) that I still thoroughly enjoyed, but again, YMMV.

The book is made up of around 25 short pieces, all of which revolve in some way around Hardcore Punk. Some were previously published, some are essays, some are transcribed interviews, many are autobiographical, and they are all entertaining.

A few random thoughts:
1. I thought he was a little tough on Youth of Today by comparing them to William F. Buckley Jr.. They may be a little culty, but they have songs about vegetarianism (No More), criticism of blind patriotism (Live Free), and a critique of hustle culture (Slow Down) - not really what I think of as conservative propaganda.

2. Don't miss the end notes. There's three paragraphs about why his favorite album, Age of Quarrel, is better than the demo version. I agree with him for the most part for similar reasons (better vocal performance and track list). Hopefully the next book will tackle the Rock For Light vs the ROIR tape debate, though RFL will win for the same reasons - but I want it in print. BTW, Age of Quarrel is my second favorite hardcore album.

3. He writes an amazing article about Doc Dart (aka 26), the singer on my all-time favorite hardcore album. This piece was beautiful and kind of sad. I loved it.

4. His self-awareness about how judgmental and difficult and immature he (and the scene) was in the day was refreshing and funny. His behind-the-scenes look at his band, label, and beef with Sick of it All were fascinating and with the gift of time, he is quick to admit his own absurd takes at the time that caused many of his problems.

Well, I loved this book. I think I will read everything this guy ever writes.

[Ollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This, in the business, is what we call a “headscratcher.” On one hand, there is a ton to enjoy in Mutations, but I’m not sure what the goal of this book was or if it tries to accomplish anything. If you were to ask me now what it’s about, I’d say it’s several stories and observations from a minor (?) player in the 90s hardcore scene. But if you were to ask me what the book thinks it’s about, I might say it’s about “The Many Strange Faces of Hardcore Punk.” I know it’s written right there on the cover, but I don’t think that’s what it’s really about.

Before I forget, let me just point out that, artistically, this book has it going on. The cover is cool, the font choices are great, and the publisher has an awesome distressed grindcore design. I thought about that every time I picked it up. But the book itself? It reads like a giant zine put together by one person. It by no means does an exhaustive catalogging or documenting of Hardcore Punk. It’s more like one man’s experience through the scene and what he chooses to highlight. What’s obvious to me, at least, is that Mutations is kind of boring when Sam McPheeters talks about other bands or band members and infinitely more interesting when he talks about himself, which is about half of the book. I honestly don’t care about the scene described in the photography of Frozen Pits, or Aaron Cometbus, or 26, but find his stories about clashing with Sick or it All, Tim Yo of Maximum Rocknroll, his critique of Discharge’s career (which is hilariously unobjective), rescuing plates from a bankrupt record pressing plant, and being an extra in a punk music video for an Australian pop star far more entertaining. Basically, I’m into the gossipy parts of this book and maybe that makes me a bad person. Also, it’s clear reading that McPheeters has dominance with the language and the sentences roll beautifully into one another. It’s all a pleasure to read. NOT something you encounter in most zines (or the one I read frequently, anyway).

So, Mutations chronicles one man’s life through the scene, and anyone looking for something more meaty might be disappointed. I know I was. But I quite grew to like McPheeters towards the end, so I guess I did enjoy this book. The guy has been inside the belly of the beast and has some interesting observations now that he’s out. At least, I think he’s out. Whatever the case, he seems like a guy I would love to sit down with and talk about music for hours until we run out of beer, and I’m sure he’d hate me and every second of that experience.

[Rick Seery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should really be five stars, but it's not like it's going to change your life.

A very good first-hand, highly subjective, frequently hilarious account of life from the inside of the U.S hardcore punk subculture with a more diverse range of topics than that would imply.

Firstly, Sam McPheeters is a very capable writer with a lot of stylistic flourish.

Favourite chapters:

- The interview with Doc Dart from the Crucifucks. Dart would make a singular antihero in a modern American novel. In fact someone should do this.

- chapter on the changing face of Discharge which featured this withering putdown of Discharge's foray into hair-metal on 1986's Grave New World album: "Gone are the screams and howls, replaced by a shrill, reverb-drenched falsetto and the kind of migraine-blunt bar rock that might soundtrack a lesser Chuck Norris flick."

- interesting class analysis on how hardcore punk was hijacked by the apolitical nature of rich kid bands like Youth of Today - "in the space of a single decade, punk had willed itself into existence and then mutated into its own inverse." Or to expand more elegantly on the same point:

"Up to this point, identifying with punk [..] carried a price, socially if not physically. You dressed as a hostile in a hostile society, and you assumed the burden of resistance. [...] Until Youth of Today, conservatism thrived in the germy corners of punk scenes. When it popped up in public, it took the forms of extremists, usually skinheads, people whose shitty behaviour forced a fight or flight response. The Youth Crew [followers of Youth of Today] ushered in true conservatism, the norms and boundaries of William F. Buckley's America. [...] This new scene fostered normal thinking. Hard politics were out. Fuzzy platitudes were in. Bands looked the same. sounded the same, and sang about the same very limited range of experiences and emotions."

- the absurd debate between members of ultra-hard NYHC band Sick of It All, and McPheeters' band Born Against which serves to illustrate the variety and tensions within the overall hardcore milieu.

Also, make sure to read the endnotes.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think the writing is great. Given that he could likely gossip and tell lots of wild stories, the stories and opinions here are restrained (and well edited), and not drawn out and dramatized. I appreciated that, and I think that's what makes this book so good and the author so sympathetic. Simultaneously, I wished for a little more detail at times. Still, I understand that this is not an autobiography in a strict sense, and I trust him as a filter and storyteller.

Prior to this I was only familiar with Mr McPheeters from his bands, and photos of his bands, and from his label's releases. Despite considering myself knowledgeable and with it, all of Sam's defining events (the debate, etc) were completely unknown to me. Still, this book dispelled my preconceived notions (photos of a guy splayed out on the ground with a mic in his mouth have a way of giving you the impression that you "know what this person is like") of him, and made me really like him. It helps that he's such a good writer. I'm now going to dip back and check out his published fiction.

I was big into hardcore in the mid-90s to early-00s. But at that point I think we had reached a stage where a lot of us didn't "look back" at the first wave of early '80s hardcore. I completely skipped those bands (basically starting with Born Against in my timeline of bands... or maybe Moss Icon. Speaking of them, why isn't Tonie Joy even mentioned in this book?), and had no concept of NYHC. So it was cool to get more context and history. And now I have a list of bands I want to explore. Likewise, I never read MRR, and where I hung out in SoCal, I never saw an issue of MRR anywhere. Instead, Heartattack was our MRR (I wrote for it). Additionally, I reviewed 'zines, and I have a box with 100s of them, and I never read any of Sam's or any of the other people's he mentions here. My point is that it's strange how we can ostensibly be within the same scene (I literally lived with one of the people mentioned in this book), and yet pass by each other so silently.

[Nestor Rychtyckyj · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about hardcore punk, so let’s just get to the point – no intro, no leadup: This is the best book about hardcore punk that I’ve ever read! (and I’ve been reading these since 1983). Just like the Dickies could turn “Nights in White Satin” into a listenable song, Sam McPheeters could take the typical punk rock memoir and turn it into a classic.

Sam McPheeters managed to cover virtually all of the job listings that should be included on a punk rock LinkedIn Profile: singer in several hardcore bands, writer (for Maximum Rock & Roll!), fanzine editor and indie record label owner. His book, subtitled “The Many Strange Faces of Hardcore Punk” does talk about all of these things, but it also manages to try to explain the essence of hardcore. This is done through a set of mostly unrelated chapters that each focus on a particular episode in his life. Most of these experiences seems to (or not) have a lesson about what we all learn throughout our lives. His writing style is excellent with lots of self-deprecating humor and references to obscure punk bands throughout the country. I found it impossible to put down and would find myself nodding my head in agreement and then swearing that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about (often on the same page). (Negative Approach is influenced by Oi??? Not in my universe).

The (dis)-organization of the book is one of its strengths. Instead of reading a typical rock & roll memoir with an Intro followed by a chronological retelling of the author’s life we get a seemingly random collection of stories that each drive home a point. The central theme is always “hardcore punk” and all of the incredible and stupid things that we all experienced because of our love and devotion for this type of life and music.

Another fantastic addition to this book is the set of 150 footnotes that cover 40 pages and are just as critical as the rest of the book. Even having to leaf through the book to discover what footnote 113 is referring to becomes an enjoyable exercise in punk rock research.

This book is really that essential: where else can you immerse yourself in both the Crucifucks and the Flying Lizards and love it?