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There's a large (and understandable) amount of coverage given to local bands - The Necros, Negative Approach, and later The Meatmen - but the book also covers the west coast scene by taking on bands like FEAR, Black Flag, and The Circle Jerks while continuously worshipping at the altar of the Washington, D.C. scene that gave birth to Minor Threat, S.O.A., and of course, the mighty Bad Brains. If that weren't enough, the record reviews section (a highlight of each and every issue) covers… everything. You'd think that given the zine's 'hardcore' slant that it'd just be crusty, thrashy, aggressive type stuff but look closely and you'll see an appreciation of avant garde acts like The Birthday Party, Crass, and even poppier acts like Joy Division and P.I.L. (okay, maybe they're not 'poppy' per se but they're certainly more accessible than G.G. Allin - whose early releases are essentially pissed on here). There are great write ups on legends like The Cramps but also an appreciation for British Oi!/street punk acts like Stiff Little Fingers. Touch And Go covered a lot more ground than the 'Hardcore Punk Zine' tag line might hav you believe.
On top of that, between its covers are some interesting editorials and rants about various aspects of the punk scene of the era, some really great vintage ads for shows and long out of print record releases, art from the likes of Pushead before he made bank by drawing stuff for Metallica, and an unusually high quotient of doctored pictures of Elvis. Oh, and a picture of Jello Biafra's head on the tip of a penis. That made me laugh for some reason.
If having each and every issue of the magazine in one nice softcover book wasn't great enough, the book also features all new introductory essays by Touch And Go main men Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson, Steve Miller, Black Flat/Rollins Band/Mediocre Movie star Henry Rollins, Black Flag/Circle Jerks alumin Keith Morris, Peter Davis, Henry Owings, Byron Coley, Corey Rusk, the scariest man in rock and roll - Negative Approach's John Brannon (who is only really scary on stage but holy shit will he fuck you up live - and who notes that he owes his career to the zine - that's him on the cover, by the way), and Minor Threat/Fugazi/Dischord Records Ian MacKaye. Even if you've somehow managed to get every issue of the magazine (and you haven't because they only made 100 copies of the first one) you haven't read the intros, nor have you read The 999 Times (which was Vee's first foray into publishing) or seen the reader letters and way too awesome show flyers tucked into the last pages of the book.
This is great stuff in every possible way. The brevity of certain sections not only make it perfect bathroom reading material but the weight of the tome will aid the digestive process. The writing is passionate and, if occasionally misguided, a Hell of a lot of fun to read. It obviously helps to have an interesting in the subject matter - that should go without saying but since it's been written evidently it does not - but even if you've never heard The Necros or Battalion of Saints if you've got any sort of appreciation for independent punk rock and DIY/zine publishing, this is one that you'll want on your bookshelf. It's a whole lot of fun and a throwback to an age where the internet hadn't really been invented on a mass scale and it actually required a lot more effort to get something out to an audience (and yes, the irony of the fact that you're reading this on the internet has not gone unnoticed), particularly one as niche as the target demographic that Touch And Go aimed at. Keep in mind that when this zine was thriving, Green Day hadn't shown up and sold an ass load of records. Punk rock was, as Mike Ness likes to say over and over again at every fucking Social Distortion show ever, still dangerous. The battle stories from the early 80s club shows are proof and the whole package just offers up an insurmountable amount of historically important documentation of a scene that was passionate, thriving, different, and that flat out didn't give a fuck.
For more information, please check out the Bazillion Points website by clicking here. These guys are releasing bad ass stuff and deserve some of your hard earned dollars. If you order the book from them, you get a free badge and the first 100 orders get a signed copy of The Meatmen's 'We're The Meatmen…. And You Still Suck!' signed by Tesco Vee himself.
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