Search & Destroy #1-6: The Complete Reprint

by V. Vale

Search & Destroy, a zine self-published from 1977-1979 by V. Vale, was a thorough anthropological survey of an emerging social-change movement: the San Francisco punk scene. The original periodical was a major catalyst in the explosion of clubs and bands that dominated the San Francisco underground, and documented every punk show, band, and ethic to spring out of the Bay Area.

Now, the entire set of Search & Destroy tabloids is available in two volumes. These complete reprints (at 90% size), include all interviews, street reports, articles, ads, illustrations and photographs, capturing the rage, riots and revelations of an extraordinary period. Innovators such as Devo, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and the Ramones are featured alongside writers and filmmakers such as William Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, John Waters, and David Lynch. This is the real thing, written when punk was first inventing itself. In 2 Volumes, both with complete indexes.

Genres: Music, Cultural, Punk

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Japanese-American writer and publisher. He also played keyboards for the later famous power trio Blue Cheer.

In 1977 he started to publish the punk fanzine "Search and destroy" In 1980, he began publication of RE/Search, a tabloid format zine focusing on various counterculture and underground topics.

RE/Search later became always a format for books, of which Vale is a regular contributor.

Reviews

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO good. The Devo interviews, in particular, are amazing, as are many others from lesser-known bands. The Pere Ubu interview is a good read, too. What this book clearly shows is that we are currently sorely lacking in a cogent, substantive conceptual youth culture. Maybe I'm wrong because I'm old and out of the loop, but it seems to me that there isn't a concrete movement taking the place of this now. on the whole the new wave and punk movement encapsulated a broad range of thoughts and ideas while still remaining diverse. Do the dead boys sound like devo? Does suicide sound like the damned? Do the avengers sound like the screamers? None of these bands sound alike, yet they all harvested seeds of a rebellious, aware youth culture that contained art, music, poetry, writing, fashion and film. The best thing about this collection is that it's a document and shows that rather than just being violent and nihilistic, as so simply portrayed in the media, the punk/ new wave movement was more disparate, thoughtful and multi-faceted, and avoided easy pigeon-holing. I love the early pre-computer graphics! Recommended.

[Aaron the Pink Donut · Rating 4 out of 5]

classic reprints of the famous punk fanzine. A must have for fans of the early years of punk.