Rating: 
Summary: I was there, and it wasn't like this
Review: Revisionist history is in the eye of the beholder, but I've yet to meet anyone who agrees with Steven Blush's take on 1980's hardcore.
Blush skips over some major players in his account, short changing the importance of many bands and scenes. He makes the mistake of many who have tried to write about this subject, ignoring a bigger picture to instead focus on events that were important to him.
The best part of AMERICAN HARDCORE are the interviews, with the passage of time the participants are able to dish the dirt and take some of the more self indulgent players down a peg or two.
As gossip, this book is a fine read, but as an overview of hardcore punk rock in the '80s, this falls short, and I cringe when I see Blush quoted as an authority on the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe if I were 40 this is how I would remember hardcore...
Review: ...but I'm not, and I can't believe the [stuff] that Steven Blush tries to pull in this work of alleged "non-fiction". Frankly, I suspect that Blush's primary motivation in writing this book was to justify and categorize the many reasons why he is no longer interested in hardcore. Well, that and to be able to interview celebrities. It is almost amazing how he manages to work in almost everyone who went from the early hardcore scene into some kind of mainstream success. Blush interviews Duff from freakin' Guns N' Roses, by slipping in a discussion of the Fastbacks in the Pacific Northwest section, while paying virtually no attention to bands like the Fartz and the Accused, who were vastly more important to the development of that scene. Anyone who gives a [hoot] about hardcore knows that Blaine Cook just reformed the Fartz recently and he was RIGHT THERE waiting to be interviewed. Blush, however, would clearly prefer to hang out with people he can feel comfortable with, specifically (for the most part) people who preferred to forsake hardcore for the more comfortable, average, boring existence that he has embraced for himself.
More importantly, Blush clearly did very little fact checking, allowing infamous liars (particularly from the New York scene) to make patently false claims about their importance and influence in the development of both D.I.Y. as a cultural paradigm and in the sound of hardcore as a musical form. Which makes sense, since Blush himself shamelessly inflates his importance to the DC scene, while constantly denigrating the much more relevant and important efforts of people like Ian Mackaye (who he presents as a naive egomaniac with no business acumen, despite the fact that Dischord has not only survived but flourished in the years since Blush faded into suburban obscurity).
In terms of sins of omission, I find it appalling that this book contains no substantial mention of the political content of early hardcore. How could this fool be as heavily involved in the DC scene as he claims to be and not even mention Positive Force DC? My suspicion is that any analysis of the importance of activism in hardcore would undermine Blush's deep desire to present the movement as stupid, valuless and doomed to failure. That agenda is most obvious in his complete dismissal of Maximumrocknroll as a reactionary organ of left-wing facism. However, history will show that while Mr. Blush was wandering around the heartland "managing" the incredibly unimportant...No Trend (whose he desperately tries to build up in order to inflate his own minimal importance), the individuals involved with Maximum were organizing Rock Against Regan and providing an important forum for punk and hardcore kids not only in the US but across the globe. Ironic that the kids at Maximum are compared to Nazis because of their liberal rhetoric, but Jimmy Gestapo gets a free pass to explain how he and his skinhead friends may have beat up gays and people who were ethnically different than him, but they really weren't bad guys or anything.
As for Blush's claim that hardcore is dead, I would advise the reader to save the cover price of the book and buy a copy of Total Fury's "13 Tracks" LP from Gloom records and a copy of Maximumrocknroll. Both are much more honest and valuable than anything included in "American Hardcore".
Rating: 
Summary: finally,somebody writes about the hardcore scene of the 80s.
Review: After a slew of books about 70s Punk, American kids in the 80s get their due. I am one of those "ageing punks" refered to in one of the above reviews. The author gets my thanks for documenting a most forgotten and neglected part of our musical/
cultural past.Sure he left some bands out,misspelled some names-so what? The book could have been as long as WAR AND PEACE,and still stepped on someones toes.I don't totally agree with all Blush says,but he wrote it-not me. Punk,like religion is a pretty subjective,messy thing.The book is fair,in that it dosn't
indulge in hero worship,or name checking.A lot of "scenes" get covered,including ones that I never knew of,or knew little of.
Aside for a few bumps,Blush takes you on ride down to a dark place,Reagan-era America.The only thing that made being a teenager not totaly [bad] was Hardcore.This book seems to be pretty much the way it was(as I remember it).If your like me,and
you want to relive those crazy,drunken days-or if you are 2nd,3rd
waver,whatever, and want to know what you missed out on-you should pick this up.
Rating:
Summary: Caveat Emptor: SAVE YOUR MONEY
Review: As a person actively involved in the underground music scene for over two decades, and who has lived very close to a huge chunk of ground this book aims to cover, I can state from an overly qualified position that this book is a pure abomination. Point of fact, American Hardcore IS NOT deserving of your hard earned cash, time, or attention. It is rife with inaccuracies, it is poorly researched, and it is very poorly written. Furthermore, it is crammed full of second hand and so on opinions presented as facts that truthfully live better as pure fiction. Anyone with a clear eye for detail and knowledgeable historical perspective will cringe in abject horror after reading page after page of glaring fiction, agenda laden opinions, personal axe grindings, etc presented as gospel. One simple example (and there are far too many that time won't allow to list): check out the entry in the Minnesota segment under Husker Du. Blush by default not only exposes himself as a homophobe but he goes on to point out for the record that the band's debut album, "Land Speed Record" was recorded live in Chicago. A cursory inspection of the still in print disc shows that it was indeed recorded at home in Minneapolis, at the Seventh Street Entry... The extensive discography in the back of the book will make some record collectors of the genre happy. Aside from that Mr. Blush should hang his chin upon his chest in shame and beware the hammer and tongs lynch mob I'm sure will soon--and should--be nipping at his heels. Yeah, it is that bad. Truly shameful and surprisingly, coming from Feral House press--an imprint that's always been reliable--an even bigger disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: For Real Hardcore Try These...
Review: Blush and Petros provide some useful material and leads to other
material, but overall this is sensationalistic cheap tabloid hack
headline seeking journalism. There are only two books that truly
capture the reality and insanity of making it on the fringes:
Azzerad's Our Band Could be Your Life for music and Ray Carney's
Cassavetes on Cassavetes for film. The punk scene, in film and music,
is brilliantly, scarily depicted in both--the fate of garage artists
who too much of the world takes for garbage artists. The doom and the
horror. The excitement and the craziness. Long live indie art, the
one thing you can't buy or sell, even in Amerika. Long live Harmony
Korine and his dad John Cassavetes. Long live Azerrad and Carney as
chroniclers of the real, the beyond the hype, the stuff they wouldn't
Rating: 
Summary: Certainly NOT the definitive book...
Review: Everyone else has done the big speil on this one so I'll make it brief (as I can manage): the only reason I'm giving it 2 stars as opposed to 1 is because it's on a subject I still find fascinating and in need of heavy documentation after all these years. After all, American hardcore punk essentially laid the foundations for all non-commercial music of the last 20 years, possibly more so than the original late '70s punk explosion. That said, this book is a disgrace.
Blush writes like a semi-enthusiastic 15 year-old penning his first fanzine, his levels of illiteracy almost staggering at times; he makes many dubious claims asserting the worth - or lack thereof - of various seminal bands (the Big Boys faded out after two "lame" albums?! They're stone-cold classics!); and his fact-checking leaves a lot to be desired (Darby died December 1980, not 1979; it's ANTISEEN, not "Antiscene").
There are many faults with this book, too many to go into here. Needless to say, it needs a good editor (Mr. Parfrey of Feral House: how could you let this go to print?) and some serious rewrites. For a much better look into the scene covered herein, I thoroughly recommend Michael Azzerad's "Our Band Could Be Your Life", a literate, passionate and insightful look into American underground music ca. '81-'91.
Rating: 
Summary: Essential punk rock oral history
Review: Finally, there's a book that attempts to seriously chronicle 1980s hardcore punk rock in the United States! "American Hardcore" documents American hardcore punk rock between 1981 - 1986. Its structure is very similar to Legs McNeil's and Gillain McCain's "Please Kill Me" and Clinton Heylin's "From the Velvets to the Voidoids", in that it's an oral history of the movement, with interview snippets propelling the story along. Blush deserves major credit for trying to cover all the major (and many minor) punk rock scenes during this period, from the obvious (L.A., San Fransisco, and D.C.) to the less obvious (Detroit and Texas). However, in being so broad, many people will undoubtedly say there is a lot of detail left out and/or that their favorite band / scene is either ignored or not chronciled enough. To which I would say, you're absolutely right. However, this is not the intent of the book and if you're looking for more detailed histories of individual bands or scenes, I recommend checking out some of the other more exhaustive and specific histories that have been released (i.e. "Dance of Days," "Get in the Van," "Our Band Could Be Your Life") that focus on specific scenes and bands. "American Hardcore" provides an excellent overview of the period and is highly recommended, not only for punk rock fans, but cultural / social historians as well.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book of Punk Rock Place(s) & Time(s)!
Review: Great, and Personal overview of the American Underground Hardcore Rock scene. Steven Blush gives a Fantastic first hand account of this American Scene Phenomenon. I was there too, working in an indie Record store. I remember struggling to get these records into the hungry hands of Rock Fans desperate for more than Just Rush & Def Leppard! He captures the Great Music & the Attitudes that shaped the short lived scene. Excellent Band, & Scene Information as well as an Excellent comprehensive discography. It did end in '86, but it's Music, Attitudes, Drive & Style are to be celebrated not just imitated!
Rating:
Summary: Cultural Historians, take note of "American Hardcore"
Review: I finished this book last night and I really *loved it*
Blush hits every note perfectly, IMHO. A really great job of defining what that scene was all about and where it emerged from. I could find no faults with the book and one aspect of it that I especially find worth lauding is the chronology. It's certainly in the right "running order" (conveying so much to the reader as a result). Looking back at my own teenage years, I found that I myself initially learned about "hardcore" in the very same manner that he and his childhood posse did and from the same media outlets, both mainstream and fanzine alike. I had the same experiences with my friends vs. the jocks, drugs (acid, PCP and speed were plentiful in the scene), "Nazi" assholes, etc. The discussions of how hardcore became "political" was also note perfect. So is his assessment of how juvenile it all was, what idiots the MRR crew were, etc. ... Blush understands the "motivation" --broadly defined-- of what made that scene tick. What made all of them tick, actually, as it was, at base, the same thing going on in so many places, all a result of the same forces working their way into the culture one kid at a time. A brilliant book and again, I loved it. Also worth checking out is the old "Hardcore California" by Peter Belsito and photographer F Stop Fitzgerald if you can find it. It goes in and out of print.
Rating:
Summary: NW Punk as it was
Review: I just have one comment about the book, in the section about NW, Portland in particular the book states that the Met was the first punk club. The Met came along after many clubs hosted punk bands, for instance, The Long Goodbye, Clockwork Joes, NWSC, Crystal Ballroom, Euphoria and Satyricon. There were shows back in 1977 in Portland, the Met didnt come along until 1984 I believe. I would also like to dispute the comment that Sado Nation was a neo fascist band, that is simply untrue. I am not sure Jerry A is the best person to comment on the scene, however Mark Sten in my eyes is the Godfather of Portland Punk and would be a wealth of great information. I would invite the author to return to Portland for an indepth discussion of the scene as it was with some of us who were there from the start.
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