"I rank Feral House, a small press with a taste for the outrageous, among the most valuable in America."
-Richard Kostelanetz, Rain Taxi
There was a time—not so long ago—when pomp and spandex dominated MTV and pop radio playlists. American Hair Metal celebrates this orgy of flamboyance, androgyny and animal magnetism, of big-haired alpha males and the beautiful women who surrounded them. Rare photographs of the biggest bands and unsung heroes surround revealing quotes about the sex, drugs and [...]
The Second Edition of the “definitive work on one of rock’s most important eras” (Juxtapoz), has over 100 new pieces of artwork, hundreds of new band bios and a radically expanded discography. The first edition, which became the Sony Classics released documentary of the same name, was 328 pages; the new edition clocks in at 408 pages.
According to the Los Angeles Times, American Hardcore is the “definitive treatment of hardcore punk,” changing the way we look at punk rock. And according to Paper magazine, American Hardcore sets the record straight about the last great American subculture.”
From the Archies to Britney Spears, bubblegum music has excited every generation of music lovers. Featuring interviews with many of the genre’s major creators, this ambitious anthology dismantles the worst myths about how bubblegum is produced and identifies the gum tendencies of artists as various as the Sex Pistols, Abba, the Monkees, and the Ramones. [...]
LEXICON DEVIL, an oral history that probes the brains of over 100 characters, and contains 140 never-before-seen photos, goes beyond early punk rock into secret regions of suicide, mind control, suppressed sexuality, corrosive humor, self-abuse, and addictions to rock celebrity, drugs and cults. Thieves, surfers, skinheads, nymphettes, chickenhawks, skateboarders, Scientologists, boho artists, under-age sado-masochistic punk [...]
REVISED EDITION The 2003 edition of LORDS OF CHAOS is revised and expanded, adding fifty new pages, detailing outbreaks of Black Metal crime in Finland, Germany and the United States; and includes the secret history of occult Rock, a new section on Varg Vikernes’ promulgation of bizarre Aryan UFO theories, and material on the career of [...]
Joe Petagno’s iconographic covers for the hard rock band, Motörhead, are only a small part of his prolific painting career. Starting out with the renowned Hipgnosis, designing for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, this book emphasizes Petagno’s work for heavy metal recordings and paintings seen only in his Denmark home. Orgasmatron: The Heavy Metal Art of [...]
In the early ’30s, Russ Columbo, dubbed the “Vocal Valentino,” rivaled Bing Crosby in a widely publicized “Battle of the Baritones.” He had looks, charm, and a beautiful voice to match his violin playing. But his endearing aura also had a haunted side. Just two days after he attended a Hollywood sneak preview of the [...]
Currently Out of Print Forget the glossy trade mags, only TAPE OP opens the door to the minds and techniques of the most innovative recording engineers, producers and artists around. Creativity, ingenuity and using whatever facilities are available are the keys, from amazing albums recorded on 4-track cassette by the likes of Pavement, Quasi, Man or [...]
Rock musicians, the best of them, have been outspoken proponents for social change, but through their celebrity and alternative lifestyles are also easy targets for mob exploitation and pursuit by government intelligence agencies. The FBI’s counter-insurgence program COINTELPRO and the CIA’s illegal domestic OPERATION CHAOS were both designed to stop the dissent that rock music [...]
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) will be remembered for its crucial influence on youth culture throughout the ’80s and ’90s, popularizing occult investigations, tattooing, body piercing, acid house raves, and other ahead-of-the-curve cultic flirtations and investigations. Its leader was Genesis P-Orridge, co-founder of Psychick TV and Throbbing Gristle, the band that created the industrial music genre.
eBook available for Kindle, iPad, Nook and more! The proximity of the East L.A. barrio to Hollywood is as close as a short drive on the 101 freeway, but the cultural divide is enormous. Born to Mexican-born and American-naturalized parents, Alicia Armendariz migrated a few miles west to participate in the free-range birth of the 1970s punk movement. Alicia adopted the punk [...]
Long ago … (are the mid-1980s considered “long ago”?) … well, back in the mid-1980s, we began our book publishing efforts with the collaborative and financial assistance of Kenneth Swezey, and agreed to name our emerging publishing company Amok Press as a way to help promote a mail order catalogue (the Amok Dispatch) and a [...]
