“I, Shithead” and Other Things Middle-Aged Musicians Say to Themselves

I, Shithead by Joey Keithley of D.O.A. (his stage name is Joey Shithead) is the lead dude in the most important band you never heard of but is totally considered one of the founders of hardcore punk along with the likes of Black Flag, Minor Threat and Bad Brains. I, Shithead – the book – chronicles and documents the entire nostalgic era of punk that everyone talks about these days but there’s no limelight here.  I, Shithead the book is very much the embodiment of the bands motto: talk-action=0.   It’s 256 pages of early and critical punk rock life that ultimately is a very good read.  There is also a book coming out in June entitled: Talk – Action = 0: An Illustrated History of D.O.A. with a foreword by Greg Hetson co-founder of the Circle Jerks and guitarist for Bad Religion.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12kcpP-8jfM

Cheetah Chrome: A Dead Boy’s Tale: From the Front Lines of Punk Rock.  Even if you have never heard of The Dead Boys this lil punk rock excess adventure is very much worth your eye time. Besides the expected perspective on the iconic Dead Boys vocalist Stiv Bators there’s plenty of tales about people like the Ghetto Dogs, the Ramones,   Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls, Pere Ubu,  the Clash, and the great CBGBs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7dqXHsDZ9M&feature=fvst

As usual I plan on steering off course.  Well only partially because early thrash metal and hardcore punk have the same roots.   Dave Mustaine, the leader of one of the best selling and most important thrash metal bands of all time, Megadeth,  recently published his completely sugar-free memoirs: Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir. Rolling Stone calls this one, “Remorseless.” It really doesn’t matter if you are into this style of music as long as you are up for getting a tour of a life that sold 25 million albums, had many close calls with death, 17 times in rehab, rags to riches, cofounded Metallica and then kicked out, and be known as the guy born with “A horse shoe up his ass” because he was lucky enough to survive it all then at least give the teasers a skim online and go from there.  It’s pretty much great guilty pleasure, “Wow” reading.