Brave Punk World: The International Rock Underground from Alerta Roja to Z-off

2017 | Music & Dance

Punk rock may have started in the United Kingdom and United States but it certainly didn't stay in either country. The genre flew around the globe like a contagion, touching off simultaneous movements in nearly every market imaginable: Japan, Yugoslavia, the Philippines, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, Mexico, Poland, Burma, Singapore, Turkey. Performing punk rock in many of these places wasn't just rebellious, it was legitimately dangerous, thanks to regimes far more oppressive and brutal than what existed in the West. Brave Punk World immerses readers in these foreign scenes, describing the lifestyles and art of passionate, hard-charging groups who remain secret to the punk majority but who are just as crucial as the Ramones or the Sex Pistols. James Greene, Jr. explores the South American bands like Bastardos Sin Nombre who refused to be drafted into their countries' destructive narco-terrorism, Germans such as Slime who see many of their outrageous songs still banned to this day, the Algerian-by-way-of-France performers Carte de Sejour who had an alleged hand in inspiring the Clash's landmark hybrid album Sandinista!, and so many more punk groups from more exotic locales.

Not only punk diehards, but also every travel enthusiast with a taste for chaos will enjoy the country-by-country cultural explorations and wild stories offered here.

James Greene (Author)