"WELL I DON'T CARE ABOUT HISTORY": ORAL HISTORY AND THE MAKING OF

COLLECTIVE MEMORY IN PUNK ROCK

Author(s): Joseph M. Turrini
Source: Notes, Vol. 70, No. 1 (September 2013), pp. 59-77
Published by: Music Library Association
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"WELL I DON'T CARE ABOUT HISTORY":
ORAL HISTORY AND THE MAKING OF
COLLECTIVE MEMORY IN PUNK ROCK
By Joseph M. Turrini

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 60 Notes, September 2013

and flyer books, the republicati

by aged punks, and the publicati
of this last category in the creat
this essay.
Oral-history theorists have come to the "memory industry" discussion a
bit late, but are poised to make important contributions to the field.5
Sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, who published On Collective Memory in
1952, in French, is considered the father of memory studies.6 But it was
not until decades later, in the 1980s, that a scholarly boom in collective
memory - the "memory industry" - began.7 This essay will contribute to
the discussion of oral history and collective memory in a number of ways.
James Wertsch argues that collective memory "functions to provide a use-
able past for the creation of coherent individual and group identities."8
Collective memory, he continues, helps to form and sustain imagined
communities, as envisioned in the work of Benedict Anderson. This arti-
cle is discussing the creation of an imagined cultural community (really,
communities) , as opposed to a national political community, the subject
of Anderson's original study.9 Wertsch also argues that groups employ
"narrative tools" from their own "cultural toolkit" to fashion their collec-
tive memory.10 Moreover, Alón Confino argued that collective-memory

4. For a few examples of reissued fanzine collections, see Punk: The Original, ed. John Holmstrom
(New York: Trans-high Pubi., 1996; all content originally published in Punk magazine); Search and Destroy,
1-6: The Complete Reprint-, and Search and Destroy, 7-11: The Complete Reprint, ed. V. Vale (San Francisco: V
Search Pubs., 1996; facsimile of original 1977-79 publication, with added in tro. and index); Touch and
Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83, ed. Steve Miller (Brooklyn, NY: Bazillion Points, 2010). For
examples of the many photo retrospectives, see James Stark, Punk 77: An Inside Look at the San Francisco
Rock 'n' Roll Scene, 1977 (San Francisco: Stark Grafix, 1992; 3d ed., San Francisco: RE/Search, 2006);
Don Pyle, Trouble in the Camera Club: A Photographic Narrative of Toronto's Punk History, 1976-1980
(Toronto: ECW Press, 2011); Cynthia Connolly, Leslie Clague, and Sharon Cheslow, Banned in DC: Photos
and Anecdotes from the DC Punk Underground (79-85) (Washington, DC: Sun Dog Propaganda, 1999;
3d ed., 2005). For examples of punk autobiographies, see Alice Bag, Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to
Hollywood Stage, A Chicana Punk Story (Port Townshend, WA: Feral House, 2011; autobiography of Alicia
Aremendariz, who adopted the punk name Alice Bag, and became lead singer for the Bags); Mike
Hudson, Diary of a Punk: Life and Death in the Pagans (Niagara Falls, NY: Tuscarora, 2008); Johnny Lydon,
Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs: The Authorized Biography of fohnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols (New York:
St. Martin's, 1994).
5. Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, "Introduction: Building Partnerships Between Oral History and
Memory Studies," in Oral History and Public Memories, ed. Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, Critical
Perspectives on the Past (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008), vii-x.
6. Les cadres sociaux de le mémoire (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1952; numerous later editions
in various languages) . English translation and edition by Lewis A. Coser, On Collective Memory, The
Heritage of Sociology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). For more on Halbwachs, see Coser's
introduction to his translation and edition, pp. 1-34. See also Kerwin Lee Klein, "On the Emergence of
Memory in Historical Discourse," Representations 69 (Winter 2000): 127-50.
7. Klein, "On the Emergence of Memory in Historical Discourse," 127.
8. James V. Wertsch, Voices of Collective Remembering (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2002), 31.
9. Ibid., 64, 67. See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections of the Origins and Spread of
Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983; rev. eds., 1991, 2006).
10. Wertsch, Voices of Collective Remembering, 57.

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Oral History and the Making of Collective Memory in Punk Rock 61

studies are often "content to describe the representation of the past with-
out bothering to explore the transmission, diffusion, and ultimately, the
meaning of this representation."11 This study seeks to explore the cre-
ation, transmission, and diffusion of collective memory by analyzing the
publication of a particular format of punk oral-history books. It argues
both that oral interviews as a source and the do-it-yourself ethic are pri-
mary components of punk's "cultural toolkit," and that the format em-
ployed in these books is an extension of the use of those tools. The pub-
lication of these books in this format is grounded in punk's cultural
toolkit. The books are creating and disseminating the elements of a "us-
able past" which is fashioning "coherent individual and group identi-
ties." The circumstances of the creation of these oral-history books and
the format in which they are presented has important implications,
sometimes stated and other times implied, for questions related to how
collective memory is ultimately formed, transmitted, and diffused, and
the role of oral history in that process.
The history of punk rock has become a relatively popular topic for
journalists, academics, and other cultural observers. The authors of this
expanding body of articles and books rely on a somewhat narrow base of
source materials that includes the music, the accompanying lyric sheets
and other artwork and inserts, independently-produced fanzines, jour-
nalistic accounts found in the popular and alternative press, and often,
quite prominently, oral history.12 Outside of a few rare examples, people
involved in punk have not deposited archival collections containing tra-
ditional research materials like correspondence or dairies in archival fa-
cilities.13 This has made the use of oral histories prominent and necessary.
Oral history appears as a source in the literature in a variety of ways. Many
of the fanzines regularly included transcripts of interviews with people in-
volved with punk communities, for example.14 Many authors conduct and

11. Alón Confino, "AHR Forum: Collective Memory and Cultural History: Problems of Method,"
American Historical Review 102, no. 5 (December 1997): 1395.
12. Kevin Mattson, "Did Punk Matter?: Analyzing the Practices of a Youth Subculture During the
1980s," American Studies 42, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 71.
13. An example of a traditional archival collection that reflects on punk are the Richard Hell Papers,
which are deposited at the Fales Library and Special Libraries at New York University. See John Leland,
"Punk for Posterity," New York Times, 1 January 2004. The finding aid with the contents of die collection
can be found at: http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/hell.html. For an example of the use of a
more traditional source in punk history, see George Hurchalla's use of Joe Nolte's (guitar player and
singer for The Last) personal journal in: George Hurchalla, Going Underground: American Punk, 1979-
1992, 2d ed. (Stuart, FL: Zuo Press, 2006).
14. Punk fanzines have been collected at a number of archives. For example, see the Mike Gunderloy
Factsheet Five Collection at the New York State Library (finding aid at http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfe
/ sc20329.htm) , and the fanzine collection at the Browne Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green
State University (see "Zines at BGSU," http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/pcl/page38356.html).

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 62 Notes, September 2013

use oral histories with participan

have also been larger oral-histor
the punk communities that ar
others writing on punk.16 All of t
part of the documentation of p
publications that create a narrat
ing together from dozens, at tim
and their use in the fashioning
The use of edited volumes of o
of punk in a particular geogr
related genre have become ex
authors/ editors interview a larg
a particular punk community, a
usually from one sentence to a
to create a narrative using the w
format for presenting oral hist
punk. Legs McNeil, coauthor of
Punk , the first book on punk p
that Edie : An American Biogra

15. For a few examples, see Mary Montgome

munity, and Individualism in an Uncertain E
Chapel Hill, 2007); Dewar MacLeod, Kids of the
University of Oklahoma Press, 2010); Hurchal
Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nati
4th ed., 2009).
16. For example, the EMP Museum in Seattle
includes interviews with a number of people
Lisa Fancher. For more on this, see http://w
/ oral-history-program.aspx.
17. Oral histories on punk have been publish
longer, more complete interview transcripts
The transcripts are far longer and often inclu
received far less attention than the books
Lahickey, All Ages: Reflections on Straight Edg
England's Dreaming Tapes: The Essential Comp
(London: Faber and Faber, 2009; Minneapoli
number of books that include a combination of
quotations where the author narrative and th
rely heavily on a combination of direct quot
on British punk is a good example of this fo
(2004); The Day the Country Died: A History of
Hardcore, 1985-1989 (2009), all published Lon
Glasper's books and his use of interviews,
Maximum RocknroU 320 ( lanuary 2010): unpa
18. The level of direct author/editor intervention is not consistent in these books. Some authors
/editors provide occasional comments interspersed throughout the book (i.e., Blush and Rettman), oth-
ers provide brief introductions to chapters (i.e., Robb), and still others provide almost no author/editor
text (i.e., Spitz and Mullen). But in all these books the vast majority of the text, well over 95 percent, comes
from the interviewees. In fact, sometimes the people assembling the content of these books are listed as
authors and sometimes editors, which demonstrates the unique character of the books' formats. This is
why I refer to the authors, editors, or compilers of the books as "authors/ editors" throughout this text.

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Oral History and the Making of Collective Memory in Punk Rock 63

Sedgwick - best remembered today as one of Andy Warhol's superstars -

"was a big influence."19 The format, however, has become far more com-
mon with punk-history books than with any other subject area since the
publication of the popular Please Kill Me in 1996. Books on punk-rock
history that have followed this format include the aforementioned Please
Kill Me, authored by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain; Steven Blush,
Ameńcan Hardcore : A Tubal History (2001); We Got the Neutron Bomb : The
Untold Story of L.A. Punk (2001), edited by Brendan Mullen and Marc
Spitz; John Robb's oral history of punk in England, Punk Rock (2006);
Gimme Something Better : The Profound, Progressive , and Occasionally Pointless
History of Bay Area Punk (2009), edited by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor;
Brian Peterson's examination of hardcore punk in the 1990s, Burning
Fight (2009); Tony Rettman's Why Be Something That You're Not : Detroit
Hardcore , 1979-1985 (2010); and Liz Worth's (coedited with Gary Pig
Gold) Treat Me Like Dirt : An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond,
1977-1981 (2009). 20 These books, which have evolved into the most pop-
ular historical books on punk, have a number of striking similarities in
format, purpose, and origination.
The authors/editors claim with some legitimacy a kind of authenticity
because they all have a direct connection to their topic. Legs McNeil,
coauthor of Please Kill Me, was the founder of Punk, an influential early
New York City punk fanzine, and a well-known New York City punk trou-
blemaker.21 McNeil recalled "that he was friends with most of the people
in the book."22 The coauthor of We Got the Neutron Bomb, Brendan
Mullen, opened The Masque in 1977, an important early Hollywood
punk club where many of the earliest Los Angeles-area punk bands, like
X, The Germs, The Dickies, and The Weirdos played.23 Mullen, who has

19. Interview with Legs McNeil by Sarah Vowell, SF Weekly, 24 July 1996; Jean Stein and George
Plimpton, Edie: An American Biography (New York: Knopf, 1982).
20. Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored History of Punk (New York: Grove,
1996; 10th anniversary ed., 2006); Steven Blush, American Hardcore: A Tribal History, ed. George Petros
(Los Angeles: Feral House, 2001; 2d ed., 2010); Brendan Mullen and Marc Spitz, We Got the Neutron
Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk (New York: Three Rivers, 2001); Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor,
Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive , and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from
Dead Kennedys to Green Day (New York: Penguin, 2009) ; John Robb, Punk Rock: An Oral History, ed. Oliver
Craske (London: Ebury, 2006, 2012); Brian Peterson, Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in
Ethics , Politics, Spirit, and Sound (Huntington Beach, CA: Revelation Records, 2009); Tony Rettman, Why
Be Something That You're Not: Detroit Hardcore, 1979-1985 (Huntington Beach, CA: Revelation Records,
2010); Liz Worth, Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, 1977-1981, ed. Gary
Pig Gold (Montreal: Bongo Beat, 2009; updated ed., ECW Press, 2011).
21. Clinton Heylin, From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-Punk History for a Post-Punk World (New York:
Penguin, 1993), 241-42; Simon Reynolds, Rip it Up and Start Over Again, Postpunk, 1978-1984 (New York:
Penguin, 2005), 153-54.
22. Jessica Steinhoff, "Legs McNeil Resurrects Please Kill Me for a New Generation of Punks, Drunks,
and Music-History Junkies Too Tough to Die," Isthmus: Daily Page, 26 September 2012, http://www
. thedailypage.com/daily/ article.php?article=37857.
23. Randy Lewis, "Brendan Mullen Dies at 60: Founder of Influential Masque Punk Rock Club," Los
Angeles Times, 13 October 2009, http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/13/local/me-brendan-mullenl3.

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 64 Notes, September 2013

since died, had known most of those interviewed for decades. Silke
Tudor, coauthor of Gimme Something Better , roamed the streets of San
Francisco as a skinhead punk who was a "furious, wasted, drunk, druggie
kid," before writing for the SF Weekly , a Bay Area alternative weekly arts
and entertainment newspaper.24 Steven Blush, the author of Ameńcan
Hardcore , promoted independent punk shows in the nation's capital, and
managed the somewhat notorious D.C. punk band No Trend through
much of the 1980s.25 Blush recalled that "half of those people [inter-
viewed] crashed at my couch or at Pauls' roommate's house."26 Tony
Rettman, the author of Why Be Something That You're Not , which chroni-
cles Detroit hardcore in the early 1980s, first became "fascinated" with
Detroit hardcore as a twelve-year-old after his older brother, who was in-
volved in the early Detroit hardcore scene, began bringing "home all
those early releases as well as issues of Touch & Go magazine. . . ."
Rettman recalled that "those records and magazine really informed the
way I think to this day."27 John Robb, the author of Punk Rock : An Oral
History , was a founding member of the punk-rock band The Membranes,
and author of his own fanzine, The Rox. In the introduction to Punk Rock,
Robb exclaims that "It [punk rock] changed everybody's life who was
touched by it."28 Liz Worth, the author of Treat Me Like Dirt, which chron-
icles the Toronto punk scene, pursued the topic because as a younger
fan (born in 1982) of punk music, she was unable to find much informa-
tion about the early Toronto punk scene.29 Gary Pig Gold, who was in
The Loved Ones, an early Toronto punk band, and the founder Pig
Paper , an influential early Toronto punk fanzine, coedited Treat Me Like
Dirt with Worth. Gold's own interview is peppered throughout the book,
and he had personal connections with most of the interviewees dating
back to the 1970s. It would be difficult to find a group of authors/editors
more directly and personally influenced by the subject matters of their
books, and perhaps invested in their subject's legacy.

24. Gabe Mellin, "Yellin' In My Ear," Bohemian , 23 September 2009, http://www.bohemian.com

/bohemian/09.23.09/music-0938.html.
25. Blush, American Hardcore , 9, 153-54.
26. In this interview Blush is specifically talking about those interviewed for a documentary movie
based on the book, also called American Hardcore. The movie is the same topic and same time period as
the book, and thus includes the same people as the book. Paul was Paul Rachman, who codirected the
movie with him. u American Hardcore'. The Complete Interview," SFBG: San Francisco Bay Guardian Online,
10 October 2006, http://www.sfbg.com/pixel_vision/2006/10/10/american-hardcore-complete-
interview.
27. Amy Sciarretto, "Why Be Something That You're Not Book Chronicles Detroit Hardcore Scene,"
Noisecreep, 19 May 2010, http://www.noisecreep.com/2010/05/19/why-be-something-youre-not-book-
chronicles-detroit-hardcore-scene/ .
28. Robb, Punk RocĶ 3.
29. Worth, Treat Me Like Dirt, 5.

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Oral History and the Making of Collective Memory in Punk Rock 65

The authors/editors of these books argue that their books are present-
ing a history that is far more objective than traditional narrative history,
autobiographies, cultural studies, or journalistic accounts, specifically be-
cause of their reliance on the participants own words as the primary text.
This is evident in the tides of some of them. For example, the subtitles of
Please Kill Me and We Got the Neutron Bomb are The Uncensored History of
Punk and The Untold Story of LA, Punk , implying that what they are creat-
ing is a far more objective and unknown history. In the foreword to the
first edition of American Hardcore , Steven Blush claims that he is giving
"the scene's participants not only their day in the sun but also their day
in court." Blush continued with the dubious claim that he "spoke with
virtually all of the important characters of the era. . . . Participants not
represented herein were unreachable or did not respond to my in-
quiries."30 The book "ain't no revisionist history based on what I person-
ally think happened," according to Blush.31 Jesse Michaels's introduction
to Gimme Something Better makes similar claims.32 Michaels excitedly states
that the "oral history format has the great advantage of eliminating The
Rock Writer. The Rock Writer writing about punk generally has one aim:
to arrogate intellectual ownership of something he or she know ab-
solutely nothing about. That bullet is dodged here."33 Jack Boulware,
coauthor of Gimme Something Better, insisted that the format was "the only
way to write about certain things" because it was the only way "to keep
your own frickin' voice out of it."34 In the introduction to John Robb's
oral history on British punk, Michael Bracewell claimed that Punk Rock:
An Oral History was important because the format restored "the author-
ship of punk to the individual testimonies of its participants. . . ."35 This
represents the general tone of the authors/editors of the books. This is
the real history, unfiltered, uncensored, and accurate because it is in the
words of the participants.36
Many reviews of die books mirror this perspective. In a review of Please
Kill Me, NY Rock argued that the "use of straight quotes works well" be-
cause it adds "authenticity to the material."37 A Maximum Rocknroll review

30. Blush, American Hardcore, 9.

31. Ibid., 10.
32. Michaels was the singer in the Bay Area ska/punk band Operation Ivy. He is also an artist whose
work has been used by a number of Bay Area punk bands, including Green Day and Neurosis.
33. Boulware and Tudor, Gimme Something Better, xiii.
34. Anneli Rufus, "Punk Is Not Dead," East Bay Express, 14 October 2009, http://www.eastbayexpress
.com/ebx/punk-is-not-dead/Content?oid=1371507.
35. Robb, Punk Rock, xiii.
36. The only exception is Brain Peterson, author of Burning Fight. In his introduction he makes no
grand proclamations of objectivity or definitiveness. He explicitly acknowledges (p. 2) that the book is an
"attempt to document some of the issues, movements, bands, and trends that played an important role
in the nineties hardcore scene as I experienced it.w
37. "Please Kill Me," NY Rock, October 1996, http://www.nyrock.com/killme.htm.

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 66 Notes, September 2013

of the same book stated that the

illuminate the words of the partic
Bomb extolled the virtues of th
proach is that rather than gettin
author, you gets a whole bunc
Barnwell's review of Why Be Some
Razorcake fanzine, also empha
quality when he argued that "R
compelling tale by letting the p
words."40 A Metro Times rev
"Rettman gets the story straigh
promoters. . . ."41 Reviews of th
"definitive" history.42 Althoug
most of them highlighted the fo
it makes the books not only un
able, and less prone to individ
words of many participants a
authored monographs, which ar
liable as historical documents.
The authors/ editors and many of the reviewers privilege the oral
sources as a more authentic and reliable way to produce a definitive his-
tory without exploring the limitations of those sources. Oral testimony
has become an acceptable source for most social-science research. The re-
liability of oral history is, however, always a concern. Most argue that oral
history should not stand alone as a source, let alone as a definitive narra-
tive; this is particularly true of historical methodology which suggests that
information from oral sources should be corroborated with other
sources.43 What the authors/editors and many of the reviewers per
as a distinct methodological advantage in producing an historical wo

38. Chris Davidson, review of Please KiU Me, in Maximum RocknroU 162 (November 1996): unpaged.
39. "Chatterbox" [column] , review of We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Pun
TalkPunk, 30 June 2004, http://www.punk77.co.uk/ talkpunk/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=263.
40. Garrett Barnwell, review of Why Be Something That You're Not : Detroit Hardcore, 1979-19
Razorcake, 17 March 2011, http://www.razorcake.org/punk-book-reviews/why-be-something-that-yo
not-detroit-hardcore-1 979 1 985-by-tony-rettman-240-pgs.
41. Michael Jackman, "Teenage Wasteland: Detroit's First Wave Hardcore Finally Gets its Due,"
Times, 28 August 2010, http://www2.metrotimes.com/editorial/story .Asp?id= 15231.
42. For a few examples, see Gabe Meline, "Yellin' in My Ear," Bohemian.com, 23 September
http://www.bohemian.com/northbay/yellin-in-my-ear/Content?oid=2173776; Steve Heilig, rev
Gimme Something Better ; in SF Gate, 27 September 2009, http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Gim
Something-Better-3216208.php; Sartwell Crispin, "Combat Rock," review of American Hardcore: A
History, in Los Angeles Times, 1 September 2002.
43. For a couple of examples on historical-research methods and oral sources, see Donald R
Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide, 2d ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 119; Martha Ho
and Walter Prevenier, From Reliable Sources: Introduction to Historical Methods (Ithaca, NY: Cor
University Press, 2001), 26.

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Oral History and the Making of Collective Memory in Punk Rock 67

not based on an understanding of the benefits and limitations of the

source. In fact, these books are created by layers of unexplored method-
ological suppositions that begin with the assumption that using oral
sources alone provides the best way to create a definitive, accurate, unbi-
ased historical account.

The perception that the construction of the narrative by the authors/

editors is a neutral process is another layer of the unexamined method-
ology. Historians know that the particular format of these books does no
create unbiased, definitive historical accounts; they understand that the
decision of who to interview and the selection and placement of the in-
terview quotes does indeed mean that the authors/editors are makin
decisions that fashion and create the historical narrative, even if using
the participants' own words.44 The personal connection of the authors/
editors to the subject matter provides them with easier access to inter-
viewees, and an authenticity, but also an increased stake in the narrativ
they are fashioning. All of the authors/ editors of these books inter
viewed many people, usually hundreds, for hundreds of hours, an
pared them down and arranged them to create the narrative.45 For ex-
ample, Legs McNeil estimated that he "used between 1% and 5% of th
interviews."46 This obviously required he and his coauthor to make im-
portant decisions about what was most important and needed to be in-
cluded, and what was not important and not included. The other 95-99
percent have not seen the light of day.47 For another similar example,
Tony Rettman interviewed Die Kreuzen lead singer Dan Ribinski for his
book on Detroit hardcore, but none of that interview made it into the
book. Rettman stated that "sadly, the interview was never used for any
part of the book."48 Given the quantity of the interviews necessary for all

44. Not to mention that none of them print the questions asked, and it is unlikely that any of these
hundreds of interview transcripts will ever be deposited in an archival facility where they would be avail-
able for others to see. For an older, strident critique of books similar to the ones considered here, see
Betty McKeever Key, "Publishing Oral History: Observations and Objections," Oral History Review 10
(1982): 145-52.
45. Again, the fact that the authors sometimes refer to themselves as the authors and sometimes as edi-
tors indicates the uncertainty of who are the authors or creators of the books. The number of people
interviewed varies, but it appears to be in the hundreds for most of the books. Tudor and Boulware, for
example, interviewed over 300 people, and Peterson interviewed 150.
46. Steinhoff, "Legs McNeil Resurrects Please Kill Me"
47. A couple of the authors/editors have posted select portions of unused interviews on their books'
promotional Web sites. For example, both the Gimme Something Better and Why Be Something That You're
Not Web sites contain a limited amount of interview material not included in the book. The Gimme
Something Better site includes material like that in the book: interviews chopped up to create a narrative.
The Why Be Something That You're Not site includes some complete transcripts with questions. See,
"Excerpts: Bonus Materials," Gimme Something Better Web site, http://gimmesomethingbetter.com
/excerpts; and "An Interview with Dan Kubinski of Die Kreuzen (Simple as That ...)," and "Todd Swal
Talkin! Early Necros and Whatnot. . . ," Why Be Something That You're Not Web site, 22 July 2010 a
25 June 2010, respectively: http://wbstyn.blogspot.com/2010/07/interview-with-dan-kubinski-o
die.html; and http://wbstyn.blogspot.com/2010/06/todd-swalla-talkin-early-necros-and.html.
48. See n. 47, "An Interview with Dan Kubinski."

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 68 Notes, September 2013

of the books, it is not surprisin

sion. It was the job of the autho
what to include and exclude from those interviews, and in what order
they should appear. Thus, the role of the authors/editors are just as cen-
tral as if they had written the book in their own words using the inter-
views as evidence.

Not everyone could be interviewed for these projects. Some critical

participants have died and others refused to participate. Authors/editors
dealt with these issues differently. Please Kill Me and We Got the Neutron
Bomb , for example, used quotes from older interviews taken from
fanzines and magazines to represent the views of the deceased. But the
text does not indicate which interview portions are from retrospective in-
terviews and which were taken from contemporary magazine and
fanzine interviews.49 Treat Me Like Dirt also included text directly from
fanzines and interviews, although it clearly notes this after the text. Some
refused to participate. For example, Corey Rusk, the bass player for the
Necros and the owner of the influential Touch and Go Records, de-
clined to be interviewed for Why Be Something That You're Not . Key parti-
cipants in the Bay Area punk scene, such as David Hayes (cofounder
of Lookout Records in 1987), John Kiffmeyer (original Green Day
drummer), and Blake Schwarzenbach (singer and guitar player for
Jawbreaker) , refused to be interviewed for Gimme Something Better. All of
the projects encountered people who refused to participate.50 This is, of
course, inevitable. But it does show the impossible nature of the claims
to be providing a definitive narrative history within the format, no mat-
ter how thorough the authors tried to be.
That all of these books include at least one author/editor who had a
direct connection and involvement with the subject of the books is an-
other similarity. There are explanations why so many involved with
punk are compelled to publish books about it, and why they have chosen
this format. Most of those who study punk have argued that one of the
most important and enduring legacies of punk was the emergence and

49. Longer retrospective oral-history interviews done decades after the fact, and contemporary shorter
interviews done for magazines and fanzines obviously have far different qualities.
50. For a few other examples, Black Flag and SST Records founder Greg Ginn, and Pat Smear and
Lorna Doom from The Germs refused to be interviewed for We Got the Neutron Bomb. Nick Spitanitz,
drummer for Teenage Head, refused to be interviewed for Treat Me Like Dirt. It is interesting that many
of the people who refused to be interviewed for the books have consented to be interviewed for other
projects. For just one example, Corey Rusk was interviewed for Pitchfork fanzine in 2006 where he dis-
cussed in great detail the early history of the Necros and Touch and Go records. See, Jason Crock,
"Interview with Corey Rusk," Pitchfork , 5 September 2006, http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews
/6419-corey-rusk/; Spitz and Mullen, We Got the Neutron Bomb , xvii; Marisa Iabobucci, "Interview with Liz
Worth" (transcript from podcast interview), This Magazine , 15 March 2010, http://this.org/blog/2010
/03/15/liz-worth-treat-me-like-dirt-interview/; review of Why Be Something That You're Not, in The Punk
VauU, 6 July 2010.

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Oral History and the Making of Collective Memory in Punk Rock 69

embrace of the do-it-yourself attitude that led to the creation of new in-
dependent national touring patterns, the creation and distribution of
scads of independent fanzines (long before the Internet made this far
easier) , the creation of a distinct aesthetic style and artwork, as well as
the creation of independent record labels and the independent distribu-
tion of records.51 For many, punk was centrally about creating their own
culture apart from the larger commercial world and capitalist motiva-
tions. Given this perspective, it is a somewhat natural progression that
those involved in punk and influenced by punk would apply this do-it-
yourself perspective in the creation of their own history. The books' for-
mats, interestingly, borrow heavily from punk fanzines, which were filled
with interview transcripts of bands and other people involved with the
punk community. In a very real sense, the creation of the books consid-
ered here are a natural extension of the characteristics and practices of
the punk communities, which had always made a point to create their
own. The primary common features of the books emerge from what
Wertsch would refer to as punk's "cultural toolkit." First, they created
their own unique culture, and now they are creating their culture's col-
lective memory, which is helping to shape its larger group identity.
There are also other likely motivations for the involvement of the par-
ticipants in creating their own historical legacy to such a large degree.
There appears to be a decided defensiveness about the lack of apprecia-
tion for the importance of punk as a cultural movement of lasting impor-
tance that influences not just the books under consideration here, but a
good deal of the writings on punk. Everybody seemed to understand that
the 1960s youth movement was important politically and culturally, and
although many participants wrote about it, the literature has not been
dominated by the activists/participants. Some of the early and important
writings on punk, on the other hand, dismissed it as a brief period of cul-
tural aesthetic or stylistic opposition quickly co-opted.52 A good deal of
the recent scholarship, and these oral-history books, are motivated to
counter that argument. For example, the titles of two of the better aca-
demic considerations of punk - the article, "Did Punk Matter?"; and the
collection of essays, Punk Rock , So What ? - indicate this phenomenon.
Indeed, much of the punk community has always defined itself culturally
in opposition to the 1960s, and at times aging punks personally affected
by punk seem annoyed that their legacy is not acknowledged in the same

51. For example, see Mattson, "Did Punk Matter?"; Alan O'Connor, Punk Labels and the Struļļgle for
Autonomy : The Emergence of DIY, Critical Media Studies (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2008); Craig O'Hara,
The Philosophy of Punk: More Than Noise!!, 2d ed. (Edinburgh; San Francisco: AK. Press, 1999), 153-66.
52. The classic work here is still Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style. See also Greil Marcus,
Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989).

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 70 Notes, September 2013

manner.53 Paul Mähern, the singer f

olis punk band, stated this clearly w
movement that was way more impo
lot of levels. It was a movement base
that you could do right here."54 Thi
lication of the oral-history books wr
cation at least pardy makes the case
better-recognized legacy.
This trend then might be viewed a
sciously contribute in the creation o
to Lewis Coser's analysis of Maurice
tion between historical and autobiog
the social actor only through written
such as photography." Coser contin
... is memory of events we have
merging of individual autobiographi
rative format provides the impressi
unified collective autobiographical m
lective memory of the group. Mo
(highly selective) autobiographical m
into a much more coherent and unif
tive memory in a manner that othe
authors/editors of the books have not sat down and considered this in
the manner presented here, but it is likely that they understand that pre-
senting their story in this manner has far different implications for read-
ers than if they had been produced as traditional historical narratives in
the authors' own words, or, if they had written autobiographical accounts
of individual experiences, both formats which are viewed as inevitably
more biased from within these punk communities. The books' introduc-
tions and prefaces, author/editor interview comments, and reviews em-
phasize the uniqueness of the format for just this reason: the format ei-
ther implicitly or explicitly provides the content with an authenticity and
perceived accuracy that differentiates it from other historical formats,
whether they be autobiographies, or academic or journalistic narratives.
The format of these books provides a much different sense of their reli-
ability as historical documents to many of the readers.

53. Indeed, it appears that most of the academic writing on punk is also written by people with an at-
tachment to punk and its historical legacy. For example, most of contributors to the essays in Punk Rock,
So What?: The Cultural Legacy of Punk, ed. Roger Sabin (London; New York: Roudedge, 1999), have youth-
ful connections to punk (see esp. pp. ix-x) .
54. Quoted in Blush, American Hardcore, 301.
55. Coser, "Introduction," 22-24.

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Oral History and the Making of Collective Memory in Punk Rock 71

The books gain an increased authenticity not just because of their for-
mats and the credentials of the authors, but also because of events that
surround and support their release. Historian David Thelan has argued
that there is a "social dimension" to collective-memory creation. He con-
tinues that "people develop a shared identity by identifying, exploring,
and agreeing on memories."56 The book-release events serve this pur-
pose in collective-memory creation and diffusion. Book-release gather-
ings for many of these publications are comprised of numerous activities
that include the interviewees, who in turn provide the books with an im-
print of authenticity and the implied approval as the official or definitive
history. For example, book signings often include musical performances
by re-formed bands whose members were interviewed for the books,
photography and flyer shows, and panel discussions that include both
the authors/editors of the books and interviewees. Why Be Something That
You're Not book-release events, for instance, often included performances
by re-formed Detroit-area hardcore bands Negative Approach, The Fix,
Teseo Vee's Hate Police, and Sorcen (with three-quarters of the original
Necros) . All of these bands had players interviewed for the book. In ad-
dition, the release of Teseo Vee's original Touch and Go fanzine (1979-
83) was also included in the events.57 The release of Gimme Something
Better also occurred with a variety of events that included punks and
punk bands interviewed for the book. For example, Gilman Street, a
seminal punk-music venue, hosted a book-release event that included
performances by Social Unrest, Dr. Frank (from The Mr. T Experience),
and Operation Ivy's Jesse Michaels 's (Classics of Love) recent band.58 All
of these bands and Gilman Street are documented in the book. The
2009 Litquake - San Francisco's annual literary festival - includ
panel discussion dedicated to the book, "Journey to the End of the B
Punk Rockers Spill Their Guts," with participation by Gimme aut
Tudor and Boulware signing the book, punk authors and musicians, l
author Bucky Sinister; Negative Trend singer Rozz Rozzbeck; Avenge

56. David Thelen, "Memory and American History, n Journal of American History 75, no. 4 (March
1122.
57. The Why Be Something That You're Not book-promotion tour, which included many of the
mentioned, had stops in Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York, among other l
tions. It also featured events at book stores that included a number of participants/interviewees a
See " 'Detroit Hardcore 1979-1985' Set For Release," Lambgoat, 11 May 2010, http://lambgoat.com
/14472/Detroit-Hardcore-l 979-1 985-set-for-release; "Negative Approach, Pissed Jeans, Teseo Vee
Police, & Mind Eraser, Tomorrow NYC," Hardcore Gig Volume, 27 August 2010, http://hardcoregigvol
.blogspot.com/2010/08/negative-approach-pissed-jeans-tesco.html; Rich Tupica, "Punk Preservat
City Pulse, 7 July 2010, http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-4526-punk-preservation.htm
58. In fact, Gimme Something Betterbegan as a book about the Gilman Project, but then morphed in
much more expansive work. On the Gilman Project, see 924 Gilman: The Story So Far, compiled by
Edge (San Francisco: Maximum Rocknroll, 2004); Molly Samuel, "924 Gilman Celebrates a Hist
Punk," KQED Arts, 16 October 2009, http://www.kqed.org/arts/ music/article.jsp?essid=25594.

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 72 Notes, September 2013

singer Penelope Houston (and he

Strike, both from Crime, who mo
band. The event was held at the O
punk bands on a regular basis in t
Please Kill Me, and the other books
included interviewees.60 These events do much more than celebrate the
release of the book and boost sales; the participation of so many of
the principal interviewees in the books brands them with an increased
authenticity. These events bolster the idea of the books as the official
history and contribute to their use in creating a common group identity.
These events are a medium where, as Thelan suggested, people create a
"shared identity" by "identifying, exploring, and agreeing on memo-
ries."61 The events both solidify the important experiences contained in
the books that bond the older participants, as well as bridging them with
a younger generation of punks. They help cement the stories in the
book as the basis for the group's collective memory. Coser has argued
that "public events leave deep imprints in the minds of direct partici-
pants," and encourage the making of collective memory.62 These events
serve that purpose.
Participants who disagree with the content of the oral-history books
are relegated to venues that provide them with far less exposure than
these oral-history books. For example, Gary Valentine, the original bass
player for Blondie and coauthor of "Sex Offender," a popular early
Blondie song, was interviewed for Please Kill Me , but none of his interview
made it into the book. In New York Rocker , Valentine's little-read and
largely ignored autobiography, the disgruntled rocker refers to Please Kill
Me as "their [McNeil and McCain] highly distorted and egregiously one-
sided 'oral history* of the New York punk scene."63 Mike Sanders (known
as "Metal Mike"), who played in early Los Angeles-area punk bands VOM
and The Angry Samoans, expressed his displeasure with We Got the
Neutron Bomb by engaging in a battle in the book's Amazon.com review
section with coauthor Brendan Mullen. To be sure, Sanders's attacks

59. "Journey to the End of the Bay: Punk Rockers Spill Their Guts," Litquake 2009 Schedule, 12 October
2009, http://www.litquake.org/archives/jouraey-to-the-end-of-the-bay-punk-rockers-spill-their-guts.
60. For just a few of the many examples, see Eric Asimov, "Chronicle," New York Times , 18 September
1997; Kerry Doole, "Fucked Up, Forgotten Rebels and Toronto's Punk Elite Help Launch Treat Me Like
Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond? exclaim, ca, 19 January 2010, http://exclaim.ca/News
/fucked_up_forgotten_rebels_torontos_punk_elite_help_launch_treat_me_like_dirt_oral_history_of_
punk_in_toronto_beyond; Kevin Warwick, "A 90s Hardcore Breakdown for Author Brian Peterson,"
Chicago Reader , 1 July 2009, http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2009/07/01/a-90s-
hardcore-breakdown-from-author-brian-peterson.
61. Thelan, "Memory and American History," 1122.
62. Coser, "Introduction," 30.
63. Gary Valentine, New York Rocker: My Life in the Blank Generation with Blondie , Iggy Pop, and Others,
1974-1981 (London: Sidgwick & Jackson; New York: Thunder's Mouth, 2002), 59.

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Oral History and the Making of Collective Memory in Punk Rock 73

were clearly personally motivated. But in addition to complaining that

he and his bands should have had a prominent place in the book, he
also pointed out a number of factual inaccuracies, accused the book of
being far too Hollywood-centric, and argued that any oral history of Los
Angeles punk that did not include interviews with AI Flipside, the cre-
ator of the influential and long running Flipside magazine, and Greg
Ginn, the founder and guitarist of the seminal Hermosa Beach punk
band Black Flag, and the founder of SST, a label he created in the late
1970s that was responsible for putting out some of the most important
American punk records in the later 1970s and 1980s, was inherently
flawed. Mullen claimed that Al Flipside has disappeared, and the diffi-
cult and somewhat reclusive Ginn refused to participate. Amazon.com
removed the caustic posts and responses from its review section, and
they would have disappeared forever except that Terminal Boredom
fanzine published the exchange.64 The important point here is not
whether Gary Valentine's or Mike Saunders's complaints are correct or
not, it is that the forum to contest information or interpretation is ex-
tremely limited. Dissenting voices simply do not have anything near an
equal avenue to address complaints, and when they attempt to do so
they come across as cranky whiners.
Although this essay is not focused on the content and interpretations
in the books, a few broad examples demonstrate that they are presenting
implied arguments. Please Kill Me, for example, emphatically makes the
case that punk was created in the mid-1970s in New York City clubs like
CBGBs and Max's Kansas City. This places Legs McNeil and his friends at
the epicenter as the creators of the international cultural phenomenon.
But others argue that punk was created in England by Malcolm McLaren
and The Sex Pistols. It is not necessary to take sides here on this argu-
ment, but to acknowledge that this is one of the purposes of Please Kill
Me.65 Similarly, the text of We Got The Neutron Bomb implicitly argues that
hardcore was centered and created in Hollywood, as opposed to the
larger Los Angeles metropolitan area and its expansive suburbs, an argu-
ment with which some disagree.66 The authors/editors are implicitly ad-
vancing arguments within the history of punk, while pretending to only
be presenting the interview contents in an unbiased narrative.
But perhaps the books' primary contribution to collective-memory cre-
ation is that they all establish the framework of what punk is by deciding

64. "The Angry Samoans Files," Terminal Boredom Archives , November 2005, http:/ /www. terminal-
boredom.com/samoansfileslO.html.
65. For example, see Ton Savage, England's Dreaming: Anarchy , Sex Pistols , Punk Rock, and Beyond (New
York: St. Martin's, 1992).
66. For a different perspective, see MacLeod, Kids of the Black Hole.

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 74 Notes, September 2013

what to include and what not to in

mat of the books, none of the aut
what punk is, or to explain why s
emphasized and others are not. Es
punk is, of course, a difficult if no
rative historical accounts often m
their subject in a way that none of
cause to do so would undermine the idea that the authors/editors are
simply presenting the story as told to them.67 It would be admitting that
the books are just as influenced by the authors/editors as traditional nar-
rative history. It would strip them of their claims to being more authen-
tic. By virtue of content and topic selection they are making a statement
about what they think punk was, even if they deny this. For example, the
coauthor of Gimme Something Better ; Silke Tudor, may claim that "It's not
up to us [her and coauthor Boulware] to decide what's punk or not."68
But they really are. Gimme Something Better , for instance, ignores the early
synth punk bands that were very important to the late 1970s San
Francisco punk scene, which was far more varied musically than the
punk scene of the 1980s. Additionally, there is no mention at all of
the lo-fi budget punk bands, like Supercharger and The Mummies,
of the late 1980s and early 1990s. If you read San Francisco punk
fanzines, like Maximum RocknroĶ in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you
would get the impression that that was the most important musical punk
trend of that period. It is not that it is wrong or right of Tudor and
Boulware to decide what to include in their almost 500-page book, but
they are making decisions about what they think the framework of the
subject is, and that decision is based solely on their perspectives.
Moreover, since their book (and all of these books) are often referred to
as definitive, are readily available, and appear as community-approved,
those decisions have strong ramifications for the collective-memory cre-
ation of San Francisco punk.
But does this really matter? If we are to understand the transmission and
diffusion of collective memory, as Alón Confino suggests we should, then
the answer is yes, the manner in which oral history is accumulated and
presented, and the circumstances and motivations of its creation are im-
portant because it contributes to the group's collective-memory creation.
Moreover, there is a decided hostility to both academic and journalistic

67. For an example of an author at least attempting to establish the scope of his studies on punk, see
the "Disclaimers" sections in Ian Glasper's three books: Trapped in a Scene , 7; The Day the Country Died* 6;
and Burning Britain, 5.
68. Joel Selvin, "Book Tells History of San Francisco Punk Music," SF Gate, 6 November 2009,
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Book-tells-history-of-San-Francisco-punk-music-3282006.php.

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Oral History and the Making of Collective Memory in Punk Rock 75

historical narratives of punk from within the punk communities, partly

because the do-it-yourself ethic, which provides an additional emphasis
on the desire to create the history of the culture they created. This ex-
plains why aging punks have become so attached to this particular for-
mat. Moreover, there is a dearth of physical markers related to punk on
which those studying collective memory tend to concentrate, such as
commemorative enactments and physical historical structures. There is
no physical Gettysburg for punk rock.69 The many book-release parties
serve this purpose. The creation of the meaning and importance of par-
ticular events in these communities and people as transmitted through
these oral-history books then take on additional importance. They are
defining the important events, bands, and people. They are implicitly es-
tablishing the scope of what punk was (and is) to a large group of peo-
ple. They are presenting markers of importance and collective-memory
creation of particular events such as the 1979 St. Patrick's Day Elks Club
massacre in Los Angeles - the cause of this police "riot" at a punk-rock
concert is disputed - and ongoing and somewhat complex issues in the
communities, such as the connection (or lack of connection) of racist
skinheads within punk in places like San Francisco.70 These were at the
time contentious issues that are now historical disputes that should be
open to interpretive and analytical debate. This is not an evil or mali-
cious plot to deceive. Collective memory is not a given, but rather is "a
socially constructed notion."71 If we want to know how collective memory
is being "socially constructed," and the use of oral history in this process,
these are important issues to consider. Hamilton and Shopes have ar-
gued that "many people speak of remembering when they write or talk
about oral history but are not particularly reflective about the process by
which the articulation of memories takes place or how they become pub-
lic."72 This study sheds light on how these oral histories are becoming
public.
This study also demonstrates why punk history privileges this format of
historical presentation. Punk's "cultural toolkit" leads it in this direction.
Interviews had always been a primary component in punk fanzines.
Fanzines privileged interviews with band members and others in the

69. There is, however, now a Joey Ramone Street in New York City near CBGBs, and the alley next to
the Fabulous Mabuhay Gardens (Fab Mab) is now formally named Dirk Dirkson Alley, after Dirk
Dirkson, the man who first began booking punk shows there, and who for years famously showered
abuse on the patrons as the emcee of events.
70. On these, see Spitz and Mullen, We Got the Neutron Bomb, 188-91; and Boulware and Tudor, Gimme
Something Better, 142-52.
71. Coser, "Introduction," 22.
72. Hamilton and Shopes, "Introduction: Building Partnerships Between Oral History and Memory
Studies," in Oral History and Public Memories, ix.

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 76 Notes, September 2013

punk communities far more than

which you would be more likely to
like Rolling Stone . The oral interv
familiar with and embraced. The d
notion that people should be creati
own shows, creating their own reco
taking pictures at punk shows, and
as an important element of punk.
"the best thing about it was that w
owned it as well."73 These ideas als
tory. Of course they should be cre
words. This was simply an extens
elements within much of the punk
this format has been embraced. In fact, the format has come to define
what oral history is in the punk community. Punk fanzines have started
to mimic the cut-and-paste multiple-interview format found in these
books, and refer to them as oral histories. Oddly, they do not refer to the
single-person interview transcripts as oral histories, but they now do so
when they cut-and-paste a narrative together based on multiple oral-
history sources, mimicking the format of oral-history books discussed
in this article.74 To punk fanzines, an individual interview is not an oral
history, but a collection of interviews assembled and edited together to
create a narrative is now considered an oral history. These oral-history
books created this definition of oral history now embraced within punk
culture.

There is every reason to believe that this format will continue to grow
in importance. The books mentioned in this essay remain in print.
American Hardcore has been translated to five languages, and a much re-
vised second edition was published in 2011. Please Kill Me has gone
through a number of printings, and has also been translated to a num-
ber of languages. Legs McNeil continues to do book readings where he
presents excerpts from Please Kill Me as a way to draw in an audience to
listen to his more recent writings, which generate less interest.75 Treat Me
Like Dirt and Punk Rock have both also gone through a number of print-

73. Robb, Punk RocĶ 3.

74. For example, see Ryan Leach, "The Gun Club: An Oral History," Razorcake, December 2005/
January 2006, 62-75; David Grad, "Everything Went Black: A Complete Oral History," Punk Planet,
September/October 1997, unpaged; David Ensmiger, "From the Depths of the Deaf Club: An Un-Oral
History," Maximum Rocknroll, September 2011, unpaged.
75. He has done book readings of Please Kill Me as recently as 2012, sixteen years after it was first pub-
lished. At the book readings he explicitly acknowledges this, making fun of himself by saying that he will
read from his greatest hits to keep people happy so that he can then read what he wants to, from his
more recent works in progress. He compares himself to a re-formed band that wants to play new material
when the audience just wants to hear the old hits.

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Oral History and the Making of Collective Memory in Punk Rock 77

ings and remain in print and readily available, as do all these books.
There is evidence that we will continue to see the publication of new
punk oral-history books in this format in various geographic areas in the
future that will have a similar effect on creating collective memory and
group identity. For example, a book on Milwaukee punk in the 1970s
and 1980s, tentatively titled The Cease is Increase , is being worked on
which is strikingly similar to those discussed in this essay. The author/
editor, Steve Nodine, played in a punk band called Between Walls with
his brother in Milwaukee in the late 1970s. An upcoming benefit for the
book includes bands with participants from the 1970s and 1980s
Milwaukee punk scene.76 The Ramones may not have cared about his-
tory in 1979 when "Rock 'n' Roll High School" was released, but the
spate of oral-history books produced by aging punk rockers in the last fif-
teen years indicate they sure do care about history now.

ABSTRACT

The history of punk rock has become a popular topic for histori
musicologists, journalists, and other social observers. In addition, t
connected with punk music and culture have also been active in cr
their own history. How the history of punk is being created and w
best able to do this is contested terrain. This essay explores the ro
oral-history publications created within punk culture, and their ro
the creation of the collective memory in punk rock. It analyzes th
mat, motivations, and origination of a series of oral-history bo
punk rock. It argues that a standard format has emerged for oral-h
punk books that resulted from within the culture of punk, or, fr
"cultural toolkit," in the words of social theorist James Wertsc
essay also examines how oral histories are becoming public an
being used to create collective memory within these communities.
essay explains how oral history is being used to not only fashion c
tive memory, but also how it is being transmitted and diffused. It
that punk culture encourages people involved in punk to create
own history, and to privilege the oral-history format analyzed in th
over other historical formats.

76. Thomas Michalski, "Inside the Writing of The Cease is Increase: An Oral History of the Milwaukee Punk
à? Alternative Scene," AV Club Milwaukee , 1 August 2012, http://www.avclub.com/milwaukee/articles
/steve-nodine, 82368/; "The Cease is Increase Benefit," ShowTix, 1 December 2012, http://www.showclix
.com/event/ 372 1 530/ tag/ widget.

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