For more information: http://www.examiner.com/culture-events-in-chicago/from-the-front-lines-of-punk-rock-the-suburbs-of-chicago
There is nothing better than hearing tales of wild abandon straight from those who've experienced them but if you can't make it tonight, you can still read about it. You won't need a comfy armchair. This is definitely more on the edge of your seat.
THE BOOKS
A Dead Boy's Tale From The Front Lines Of Punk Rock (autobiography by Cheetah Chrome, lead guitarist)
The autobiography of a punk rocker as he moves from the projects to music city told with honesty and wit. This is a story so well told that punk rock fans will read the insider information that they hunger for and general readers will learn about someone who has led a very different life and tells great story about it.
"I had to ask myself when I began writing this book was how did I want to do it? Should I carefully interview everyone I ever knew and spend hours online and in libraries researching details and making sure I have everything chronologically correct? Or should I just sit down at the computer, start typing and let it flow?
Being a professional musician -- and therefore geneticlly opposed to anything that looks like work unless it involves a guitar -- I chose the second one. I like easy....
Well, it wasn't easy. And I ran into problems like I was an out-of-control drug addict when a lot of this happened, so a lot of my memories aren't as sharp...I decided to go with my take on things, the way I remember them. I could be rigtht on the money, I could be off on a few things, but this is the way I remember..." (preface)
Diary of a Punk (autobiography by Mike Hudson, The Pagans)
Willing or not, the reader is quickly pulled into the world of punk rockers on the road; the wild rough ride, the drugs, the living for the music.
"I never met him, but I've been living with Peter Laughner's ghost for more than thirty years....He's remembered mostly for a song he wrote with Cheetah Chrome called 'Ain't It Fun?' that was made famous a few years after his death. Two decades later Guns N' Roses turned it into platinum on their LP 'The Spaghetti Incident'.
In any event, after he died and his scene became my scene -- his dope dealers my dope dealers and his mistresses my own -- there were people who said I was the 'new' Peter Laughner, speaking derisively and meaning -- hoping, perhaps -- that before too long I'd shed this mortal coil myself and leave them to go on talking about having known me in the same way they talked about having known him. But that didn't happen...." (preface)
University of Strangers (novel by Bob Pfeifer - Human Switchboard, former Senior VP A&R/Epic/Sony Records and President of Hollywood Records)
Art courtesy of Helene Smith: http://www.etsy.com/people/helenesmith
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