WE NEVER LEARN: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001

Well, well—what do we have here? Why, it's the first book to chronicle the emergence of possibly the most submerged (in terms of "alt-nation" popularity and commerciality) rock subculture of the '90s. Eric Davidson, lead snot-spewing singer of Ohio's New Bomb Turks, has interviewed and written about the groups and movers and shakers of what he's colourfully labelled "the gunk punk undergut": lo-fi garage bands which were too wildly raunchy to subscribe to a strict "'66-only" approach, but too rootsy for hardcore punk purity.

From the U.K.'s Thee Headcoats (led by the ridiculously prolific Billy Childish) to The Mummies out of San Francisco (some nutcases who performed in, you guessed it, sweaty mummy costumes), a crazed commitment to rockin' noise is the common thread among the many diverse gunky groups. None of these sounded like the alt-rock bands which resonated with the indie-loving public at the time, mainly because the gunk-punkers were too uncompromisingly raw, savage, and unapologetically non-arty. Finally, close to a decade ago, The White Stripes, coming out of Detroit's garage-rock underbelly, had the wide-ranging impact that their predecessors/compatriots couldn't/wouldn't muster. With We Never Learn, educating yourself in the fun and frantic times that were had in the gunk punk world is, like the music, a total and bonafide blast!