PUNK Magazine is Back!!! Again and Again!!!

This new issue (#21) is (by reader request) a final tribute to everybody's favorite punk rock hangout: CBGB. It contains several interviews with people you might (and might not) expect to see in PUNK: Richard Lloyd, Lenny Kaye, H.R. (Bad Brains), Jayne County, Bobby Steele, Harley Flanagan, Alan Vega, Pete Koller, Roberta Bayley, Godlis, Jed Davis, Tibbie X and others. Plus we got exclusive photos of the Ramones, Bad Brains, Television, the Patti Smith Group, the Dead Boys, Blondie, Talking Heads, Destroy All Monsters, LES Stitches, Lester Bangs (with Birdland), The Jam, Suicide, the Cramps, Helen Wheels, James Chance, The Fall, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Nico, the Magic Tramps, Hilly Kristal and even some early CBGB graffiti. Plus we got some comic strips by Steve Taylor, Bruce Carleton, Rick Trembles and Avi Spivak. And just wait until you see what Robert Romagnoli did in this issue...

Brett Callwood - Sonically Speaking (impbooks)
Pretty much the same reservations I have about the Television book (reviewed below) can be lined up again when it comes to this new MC5 biography. The story is there, and pretty much accurate as far as I can tell, but again there's no heart and a serious lack of new insights. Callwood did talk to most of the surviving participants and the thing actually has some weight to it (as opposed to the magazine sized TV book) But nothing in here comes close to the kind of excitement generated by the A True Testimonial film. The author keeps his distance, seems to be afraid to step on people's toes and lacks the perspective to do the job right (he came to the band relatively late and writes for metal and musicians mags) The Testimonial disaster gets glossed over, even tho' it's probably the only thing able to (re-)affirm the band's importance to future generations.
Again there's the "selected discography", and coupled to the fact that there's no index it doesn't even work as a reference guide.
I don't wanna slag this off entirely 'cause it's not that bad, but anybody who has seen the film knows that there's a real story here; inspirational, glorious, tragic, but hardly ever does that come across in the pages of this book...

the last detail
hal ashby, usa, 1973, 103 mins.
sunday 17th june, 7.30pm

stuart murdoch of belle & sebastian will present hal ashby's the last detail as part of the monorail film club's 'series of important film' or 'cinema we want to see' which takes place this sunday, 17th june at 7.30 pm in the gft, rose street, glasgow. the last detail from 1972 is part of what has been termed 'the new hollywood', which presented an unbeautiful american experience or america coming down cf. the last picture show, the french connection and taxi driver.
starring jack nicholson and randy quaid, in the uk it has hardly ever been seen, even on late-night television, mainly due to its full-on language. according to murdoch it contains no excessive swearing whatsoever. bring it on.
www.gft.org.co.uk
www.myspace.com/monorail_film_club