We Got Power!: Hardcore Punk Scenes from 1980s Southern California [Hardcover]

In 1979, punk was over . . . but by 1981, hardcore was born. As teenagers in 1981, David Markey and his best friend Jordan Schwartz foundedWe Got Power!,a fanzine dedicated to the first-generation hardcore punk music community in their native Los Angeles. Their text captured the early punk spirit of Black Flag, the Minutemen, Social Distortion, Suicidal Tendencies, and Hüsker Dü at the height of their powers. Meanwhile, their amazing photographs captured the dilapidated houses, abandoned storefronts, and disaffected youth culture of the early Reagan era. Never before seen, except in crude fanzine form, these detailed and richly narrative photos are now collected to present an intimate document a uniquely fertile creative moments.

“Essential reading...the funniest of the local mags”—Matt Groening, 1983

“The book is a wonderful document of something that has continuity and lasts, the stuff that matters. It’s the finding of a voice of a generation.”—Chuck Dukowski

Vital to understanding the birth of American punk rock...an essential addition to the history of a movement —Los Angeles Times

Celebrating the hardcore punk scene of 1980s Southern California... a new book by zine gods David Markey and Jordan Schwartz —LA Weekly

One of the most thorough and lush compendiums of any punk movement —Dangerous Minds

There are no rose-colored glasses, zero phoned-in memories, and no homogenized takes; gritty, raw, and real as real can get is the tone delivered on every page. —Metal Army America

This is a book of human stories, funny and sad and tragic… It offers a reminder that what separates the heroes from the burnouts can be just a stroke of luck, or a twist of fate. —The Wire

Absolutely stunning —Creative Loafing

Stunning and beautiful —AP

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