Bazillion Points US Vinyl & CDs

Notes: In 1986, the idea that death metal and grindcore would ever impact popular culture was unimaginable. Initially circulated through a scattered tape-trading network of underground thrillseekers, bands rose from every corner of the globe and death metal and grindcore spread faster than a pandemic plague of undead flesheaters. By 1994, the genre's most prominent labels had sold millions of albums. Choosing Death examines the rise, fall, and resurrection through the eyes and ringing ears of the artists and entrepreneurs behind the movement. Features forewards by JOHN PEEL and SCOTT CARLSON (Repulsion). 384-page heavily-illustrated dexluxe softcover books with 16-page colour section.

Notes: From disenchanted Catholic schoolgirl and glam maniac to instigator on the 1980s hardcore punk scene, NANCY BARILE discovered freedom at a time when punk music was new and dangerous. She made her place behind the boards and right in the front row as insurgents such as SSD, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys and Black Flag wrote new rules and made history. She survived punk riots and urban decay, ran the streets with outcasts, and ultimately found true love as she fought for fairness and found her purpose. A unique insider perspective and life lessons from this national award-winning teacher on the dynamics of the DIY punk scene. Features over 50 live and candid photos of Bad Brains, Minor Threat, SSD, Andy Warhold and... Nils Lofgren. Includes an intro with IAN MACKAYE discussing the crucial role of women in early hardcore punk. 192 heavily illustrated pages. Softcover book.

Notes: Photographer and road warrior Hannah Verbeuren presents a vivid, lurid, rabid history of mysterious heavy-metal animals Midnight. Captured in explosive live, comically candid, and lurid fantasy settings, the hooded band plays with fire, swords, and naked bodies in settings ranging from European castles to the the smutty back alleys of their native Cleveland, OH. Essays by Verbeuren and Midnight main-man Athenar ring the bells and keep everything street.

Hardback book

Notes: EERIE VON's treasure trove of MISFITS / SAHMHAIN / DANZIG images features hundreds of live and candid shots from a peerless POV. Fly-on-the-wall photos from the best seats in the house document everything from the Misfits' humble beginnings in Lodi, New Jersey, to the heights of Danzig's stadium-rock glory. Few dared tread where Eerie walked during his years as unofficial Misfits photographer and bassist of Samhain and Danzig... and he was the only one wearing a camera. 180-page full-colour deluxe hardcover.

Notes: A spectacular large-format 272-page view inside "the metal scene that banged those heads that did not bang" includes over 400 of some of the earliest colour and black-and-white photos of METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH, EXODUS, POSSESSED, DEATH ANGEL, LEGACY/TESTAMENT, VIO-LENCE and many others. Photographers HARALD OIMOEN and BRIAN LEW were dodging bodies from the very start, in front of the stage, backstage, and on the stage itself.

They captured the public victories and private parties of a scene where fans and musical idols were equally hellbent on faster, heavier music and endless outrageous fun. Oimoen and Lew fought on the frontline of a war for individuality, snapping frame by frame as thrash metal was born, along with stagediving, crowd-walking, and countless other magical moments filled with key local personalities.

Includes passionate personal accounts by Bay Area veterans Harald Oimoen, Brian Lew, RON QUINTANA of Metal Mania, GARY HOLT of Exodus, ALEX SKOLNICK of Testament, and ROBB FLYNN of MACHINE HEAD. From DIY origins to world domination, the Bay Area thrash metal scene screams to life in these fearless pages. 272 page hardcover.

Notes: Known for its glamorous 1970s punk rock scene, New York City matched the grim urban reality of the 1980s with a rawer musical uprising: New York hardcore. As bands of misfits from across the region gravitated to the forgotten frontier of Manhattan's Lower East Side. With a backdrop of despair, bands like Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law, and Youth of Today confronted their reality with relentlessly energetic gigs at CBGB, A7, and the numerous squats in the area.

Tony Rettman's ambitious oral history captures ten years of struggling, including the scene's regional rivalries with D.C. and Boston, the birth of moshing, the clash and coming to terms of hardcore and heavy metal, the straightedge movement, and the unlikely influence of Krishna consciousness.

With a foreword by Freddy Cricien of Madball, who made his stage debut with Agnostic Front at age seven, NYHC slams the sidewalk with savage tales of larger-than-life characters and unlikely feats of willpower. The gripping and sometimes hilarious narrative is woven together like the fabric of New York itself from over 100 original interviews with members of Absolution, Adrenalin O.D., Agnostic Front, Antidote, Bad Brains, Bloodclot, Bold, Born Against, Breakdown, Cause for Alarm, Citizen Arrest, Cro-Mags, Crumbsuckers, Death Before Dishonor, Even Worse, False Prophets, Don Fury, Gorilla Biscuits, H20, Heart Attack, Inhuman, Into Another, Irate, Judge, Kraut, Leeway, Life's Blood, Major Conflict, Max's Kansas City, Murphy's Law, Nausea, Nihilistics, Nuclear Assault, Numskulls, Outburst, Pro-Pain, Quicksand, Rat Cage Records, Raw Deal, Reagan Youth, Rorschach, S.O.D., Sacrilege, Savage Circle, Sheer Terror, Shelter, Shok, Sick of it All, Side by Side, Skinhead Youth, Straight Ahead, the Abused, the Cryptcrashers, the Mad, the Misfits, the Misguided, the Mob, the Psychos, the Ritz, the Stimulators, the Undead, Token Entry, Underdog, Urban Waste, Virus, Warzone, Youth of Today, and many, many more.

High-quality trade paperback; 384 densely illustrated pages

Notes: This formidable oversized hardcover runs 288 pages (including a 32-page colour section), and combines hundreds of unseen early HELLHAMER and CELTIC FROST photos with a vast treasure trove of artwork and memorabilia. A substantial written component by TOM GABRIEL FISCHER (aka TOM G. WARRIOR). Fischer details his upbringing on the outskirts of Zurich, Switzerland, and the hardships and triumphs he faced bringing the visions of his ground-breaking bands Hellhammer and eventually Celtic Frost to reality.

In addition, the book includes an introduction by NOCTURNO CULTO of Norwegian black metal act DARKTHRONE, and a foreword by noted metal author JOEL MCIVER. There is no question that this book goes farther than any other source in exploring the origins of underground heavy metal. The wealth of visual information is astounding, both in terms of documenting early 1980s headbangers and exposing the still-relevant imagery of the first Hellhammer and Celtic Frost photo sessions. On top of that, the written chapters combine Tom Fischer's often shocking stories with lengthy quotes from MARTIN ERIC and the other main Hellhammer members, explaining in intimately human terms how extreme metal was born. Stunning.

288pp (24pp colour) deluxe Wibalin-bound hardcover.

Notes: Starting in 1981 via MINOR THREAT's revolutionary call to arms, the clean and positive straight edge hardcore punk movement took hold and prospered during the 1980s, earning a position as one of the most durable yet chronically misunderstood music subcultures. Straight edge created its own sound and visual style, went on to embrace vegetarianism, and later saw the rise of a militant fringe. As the "don't drink, don't smoke" message spread from Washington, D.C., to Boston, California, New York City, and, eventually, the world, adherents struggled to define the fundamental ideals and limits of what may be the ultimate youth movement.

TONY RETTMAN traces the story of straight edge from adolescent origins to enduring counterculture via fresh first-hand accounts from the clear and alert members of Minor Threat, SS DECONTROL, YOUTH OF TODAY, DYS, SLAPSHOT, UNIFORM CHOICE, 7 SECONDS, STALAG 13, JUSTICE LEAGUE, CHAIN OF STRENGTH, NO FOR AN ANSWER, INSTED, GORILLA BISCUITS, JUDGE, BOLD, PROJECT X, LARM, BROTHERHOOD, SHELTER, H2O, HALF OFF, RESURRECTION, RAID, STRIFE, EARTH CRISIS, VEGAN REICH, MINDSET, STOP AND THINK, MOUTHPIECE, FLOORPUNCH, TEN YARD FIGHT, MENTAL, FUCKED UP, TRIAL, HAVE HEART, CLEAR, THE GEEKS, and many others. 384-page softcover book with 16-page colour insert.

Notes: Over 1,000 recording artists hunted down and hyped in their original indie habitats, including Black Flag, Sonic Youth, Husker Du, the Wipers, Dinosaur Jr., Run-D.M.C., Slayer, Beastie Boys, Mudhoney...plus an entire nation of inspired amateurs.

In 1979, Bruce Pavitt moved from Chicago to Olympia, Washington, and began programming a show called Subterranean Pop on local community radio station KAOS-FM. In 1980, he launched Subterranean Pop magazine, dedicated to the unsung punk, new wave, and experimental regional bands of the Pacific Northwest and Midwest. Calvin Johnson of K Records joined the zine's staff later that year, beginning with the second issue.

The Sub Pop zine puzzled punk and new wave fans from major cities; readers were surprised that there were enough bands in the forgotten cities and states to devote a column, let alone an entire fanzine. Even more puzzling was the exclusion of artists like the Clash, Gang of Four, Blondie, or PIL, solely because of their major label associations. Driven by the power of independent thinking, early issues featured impassioned rallying cries for local action that make more sense than ever today, alongside early published artwork by Linda Barry, Charles Burns, and Jad Fair.

In 1983, Pavitt moved to Seattle and commenced his widely-read Sub Pop USA column in the Rocket newspaper, each month exposing new underground and independent artists. From Beat Happening and Pell Mell to early records by the Beastie Boys, Metallica, and Run-D.M.C., Sub Pop was a 1980s independent music bible, written with a diverse appreciation for happening scenes across the USA. In 1986, Pavitt put his ideas into practice, launching Sub Pop Records with the historic Sub Pop 100 compilation and Soundgarden's first release, Screaming Life. While the Sub Pop Records legacy is today legendary, the groundwork and creative wellspring that put Seattle on the musical map is assembled here for the first time.

Notes: Daniel Ekeroth's (Insision, Tyrant, Dellamorte, Diskonto) exhaustive, 450-page history of Swedish Death Metal. Ekeroth captures the epic tale with enlightening detail, beginning with Sweden's violent loss of innocence in the 1980's, through metal's virtual chokehold on the country during the 1990's, into the lasting legacy and influence in the turbulent 2000's of the Sunlight guitar tone, the Gothenburg Sound, and the countless offshoots of Sweden's most lethal cultural export.

Notes: Born in the drive-in theatre backseats of the 1970s, the demonic fun of Teen Movie Hell ignited the 1980s VCR, cable TV, and multiplex booms that burned well into the 1990s. Between George Lucas's American Graffiti (1973) and Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993), lust-driven laff riots on the order of Animal House, Porky's, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, and Revenge of the Nerds boomed at the box office and celebrated adolescent misbehaviour run amok.

Author Mike "McBeardo" McPadden (Heavy Metal Movies) passes righteous judgment, one boobs-and-boner opus at a time, plus penetrating insight from Eddie Deezen (Grease, Zapped!), Samm Deighan, Kat Ellinger, Wendy McClure, Katie Rife, Heather Drain, Lisa Carver, Rachel McPadden, Liz Mason, Christina Ward, and Kier-La Janisse.

Tap the keg, tailor your toga, and belly flop into an exploitation odyssey of bikini Beaches, summer camps, study halls, wayward teachers, cool camp counsellors, wet t-shirts, custom vans, sexy ESP, shower peepholes, and other overlooked penal code violations!

360-page softcover book.

Notes: Bazillion Points Books announces the June 2010 release of Touch & Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83, a collection of wild-eyed artefacts from the very dawn of hardcore punk, penned in poison ink by legendary frontman TESCO VEE of the MEATMEN and his partner-in-crime DAVE STIMSON, and edited by former THE FIX singer STEVE MILLER. The landmark collection of all twenty-two issues of Touch And Go magazine also includes extra archival material and new introductions by authors Tesco Vee (the Meatmen) and Dave Stimson; punk icons HENRY ROLLINS (S.O.A./BLACK FLAG), KEITH MORRIS (Black Flag/CIRCLE JERKS), COREY RUSK (NECROS/Touch and Go Records), JOHN BRANNON (NEGATIVE APPROACH), IAN MACKAYE (MINOR THREAT), and Steve Miller (The Fix); plus literary appreciation by PETER DAVIS (Your Flesh), HENRY OWINGS (Chunklet), and BYRON COLEY (Forced Exposure). Created during the key years of the American hardcore punk music underground, these acidic essays, impassioned record reviews, eyewitness gig reports, unrehearsed interviews, and incendiary artworks preserve the original thoughts and attitudes of DIY culture. Today, punk music is mainstream youth music - this is how it all happened, and this is who did it.

The book's pages are plastered with early gig flyers, inspirational artwork, eyewitness action photos, and candid vintage interviews with now-legendary squads like the Fix, Necros, Minor Threat, Youth Brigade, Iron Cross, Misfits, Negative Approach, JFA, Battalion of Saints, Crucifucks, SSD, 7 Seconds, Faith, the Effigies, Bad Religion, the Minutemen, Scream, Die Kreuzen, Crucifix, Void, Poison Idea, and others - plus hundreds of reviews of historic DIY punk, new wave, ska, industrial, no wave, and hardcore records and live shows, all captured fresh during the underground big bang by the merciless Midwestern masters of mayhem and mimeograph journalism.

576 pages, full-size 8.5"x12" paperback.

Notes: As teenagers in 1981, DAVID MARKEY and his best friend JORDAN SCHWARTZ founded We Got Power, a fanzine dedicated to the first-generation hardcore punk music community in their native Los Angeles. Their text and cameras captured the early punk spirit of Black Flag, the Minutemen, Social Distortion, Red Cross/Redd Kross, Suicidal Tendencies, the Descendents, White Flag, the Last, the Gun Club, Saccharine Trust, Sin 34, Nip Drivers, Circle One, M.D.C., Big Boys, Youth Brigade, D.R.I., the Butthole Surfers, Firehose, and many others at the height of their precocious punk powers. In the process, the duo's amazing photographs also captured the dilapidated suburbs, abandoned storefronts, and dereliction of the early Reagan eraia rubble-strewn social apocalypse that demanded a youth uprising!

Never before seen except in crude fanzine form, these detailed and richly narrative photos are now collected to present an intimate portrayal of a uniquely fertile creative moment. A deluxe 304-page large format hardcover book featuring essays by DAVID MARKEY, JORDON SCHWARTZ, JENNIFER SCHWARTZ, HENRY ROLLINS, KEITH MORRIS, CHUCK DUKOWSKI, DEZ CADENA, LOUICHE MAYORGA, CAMERON JAMIE, PAT FEAR, STEVE HUMANN, TONY ADOLESCENT, JACK BREWER, JULA BELL, MIKE WATT, SEAN WHEELER, JOE CARDUCCI, DANIEL "SHREDDER" WEIZMANN, and JANET HOUSDEN. Presenting nearly 400 first-generation LA hardcore punk photographs, including complete color reprints of We Got Power fanzine 1981-1983 and beyond.