***"'Homework' was an earth-shaker the first time I heard it. Blasting off the sketchy CD-R on the Hyped2Death volume of Homework Volume 1: American DIY R-T, it defined frantic punked-out power pop from the Midwest. In such great company on those comps, sometimes the tracks seemed to seep into each other, yet Screaming Urge seemed to consistently dig itself deeper, standing out and don’t forget, they named their entire SERIES after that invigorating cut! Columbus, Ohio, in the late 1970s had an incredible cast of characters running around Mr. Brown’s, Crazy Mama’s and such. Tommy Jay, Mike Rep, Ron House, Jim Shepherd, Nudge, it must have just been a brown leather fever dream! 'Released' on Mike Rep’s New Age label in 1980, the 'Homework' single is pure American DIY punk gold that really checks all the boxes. Overbearing parents, teenage frustration, beer, everything you’d want in a punchy underground would-be hit. Later the same year they released their powerhouse debut LP BUY, (aka The Blue Album) on Garner Records, which has sadly been out-of-print for 43 years, until now. Packaged together with the 'Homework' 7” tracks and freshly remastered, this Ohio Punk milestone is finally available again."—VictimofTime.com
LP $21.95
01/26/2024
***Tighter than nails, and with an irascibly bleak swagger, this indefinably irresistible female-fronted Sardinian/Istanbul supergroup (with members of The Rippers, Love Boat, Maggot Madness, Haywire Desire and Poster-iti) is just what your witch’s doctor ordered. Lightning-fast bass-blast rhythms intertwined with uncontrollable surges of anguished vocals from one Yaprak Kirdok, one of the best new vocalists you haven’t heard yet. Sounds of regional UK compilation cuts from ’79-80 seep in, and a blistering byproduct of invigorating post-punk cultural complexity pours back out, showering you with cuts of paranoid precision and an ever-growing intensity that seems to loom behind each passing track. A driving repetition, an escalating scale of confrontation, and it’s teeth-cracking tracks like “In The Flesh” that will persevere long after these souls pass on through the ether. It won’t be long until someone covers that one!
LP $20.35
01/26/2024
***The first book to chronicle the alternative music, art, and club scenes of a particularly amazing time and place: the 1980s in South Florida. Comprehensive in its approach, Punk Under the Sun documents the bands, venues, galleries, and scenesters who started and sustained the groundswell of activity that made Miami and nearby beaches a progressive hotspot, setting the stage for South Florida to become the international cultural destination it is today. Authors Joey Seeman and Chris Potash were there, participating in and documenting the first, second, and subsequent waves of musicians, indie labels, DJs, retail stores, publications, and players who came together to create a unique cultural moment and movement in South Florida history. This essential document of a powerfully expressive decade features never-before-seen photographs by Jill Kahn, Debbie Baylis Sunshine, Laurie Alaimo, and others, plus dozens of fliers, posters, and other souvenirs from that heady time. Punk Under the Sun includes a discography of 1980s albums and singles, along with an 11-page index that’s a valuable Who’s Who of people and places that created South Florida’s alternative culture. First edition of 600 copies. 224 pages.
BK $33.50
01/19/2024
Maida, Sal / Mitchell Cohen & Friends
(Vol. 2) The White Label Promo Preservation Society: More Flop Albums You Need To Know
Hozac
***The White Label Promo Preservation Society returns with another collection of essays celebrating albums that fell short of cracking Billboard’s top 100, but belong in the libraries of discerning music-obsessives. Among the artists who turn up in these pages are members of the pop, rock and soul pantheon, as well as many who remain obscure or underappreciated. Sal Maida and Mitchell Cohen and their dozens of contributors take a trip from the Kinks and the Beach Boys to the Violent Femmes and Teardrop Explodes. Get ready to spend your money at used vinyl stores, garage sales and flea markets. 383 pages. First edition of 600 copies. "The ultimate treasure map for striking gold in used record stores"—VictimofTime.com
BK $31.85
09/29/2023
***When NYC hit its punk stride in the mid 1970s, the one-of-a-kind ‘Neon’ Leon Matthews was already in the thick of it. Getting his start in music in the late 60s and having incredible luck in his friendships along the way, Neon Leon’s life story could easily be made into a really amazing film. Along with being roommates with Rolling Stones’ guitarist Mick Taylor (and dating his wife!) while living in the UK in the early 70s, he was recording acetates as far back as the mid 1970s with the original members of Pure Hell around Philadelphia, and ended up moving into the Chelsea Hotel in ’73 soon after, upon the insistence of his pal Johnny Thunders. Making fast friends with Elda and the Stillettos, the New York Dolls, and David Peel and Harold Black & the Teenage Lust crew, he soon fell into the maddening world of the Lower East Side zeitgeist right when everything was exploding. He was gigging at Max’s on the regular, seeing the incredible NY punk scene blossom before his eyes, and he even got to appear briefly in the exploitation film classic, Punk Rock (1977) with Elda and the gang. Leon put together his band with girlfriend/stripper Honi O’Rourke and hit the scene around Max’s, CBGB and the like, and upon entering the studio, caught lightning in a bottle with the recording of the Rock’n Roll Is Alive 7” EP in 1979. The title track is simply irresistible, laying down the filthy scuzz guitar...
LP $17.75
07/21/2023
***There really isn’t much you can do to prepare yourself for something as profound as Burnt Envelope. Punk this “pure” has to be fake these days, or does it? We stumbled upon this band (or is it high concept performance art?) the old fashioned way, on a podcast while being quarantined for a global pandemic, and its charm and impressively brazen lack of luster wiggled its way deep inside the Hozac brain trust, big time. Starring the eternally optimistic Anthony Pasquarosa (formerly of Weeping Bong Band, Frozen Corn, Gluebag, etc), the Burnt Envelope concept is very easy to swallow, and impossible not to immediately heave back up. If there was a “ballet” for sloptastic stoner-sweat exercise routines, this would be the Swan Lake. And Burnt Envelope would probably end up drowning in that lake, because you, my dear, are indeed “Stuck in this World.” If you’ve been curious about Ancestry.com and the like, “23 and Me” will be the song that gets you through the rest of 2023 with a spring in your step, a smile on your face, and a shot in your eye. “I’m A Chameleon Parts 1&2” are some of the most ambitious tracks ever released on this label, a seriously hypnotic soured mash of “Sister Ray” and Randy Savage/Mean Gene Okerlundisms that will cast a heavy spell, only to crack your wits out with a Maggots-esque “Nothing To Do” that will leave you dizzy and drooling. Set up as singles across the dehumanizing entire LP, every...
LP $17.00
07/21/2023
MP3 $5.99
07/21/2023
FLAC $6.99
07/21/2023
***HoZac Books is proud to announce the publication of Rebel Soul: Musings, Music and Magic by the one and only Bebe Buell. Rebel Soul isn’t so much a “sequel” to Bebe Buell’s 2001 New York Times best-selling memoir Rebel Heart, but more of an impressionistic scrapbook about becoming and being Bebe Buell, tracing her trajectory from being a rock “It Girl” to a pop culture icon, through a collection of essays that explore what it was like to be at the center of the pop universe during a golden era, and how she invented herself as a muse and a musician. In this book, Bebe recollects, in vivid and previously unexplored detail, the people and places of her past, from her well-known romances with members of rock royalty, to her influences and friendships, her family and her career (and how they came into conflict), her reflections and observations of the cultural and sexual climate of the ‘70s. Two decades after the publication of Rebel Heart, Bebe looks back from a different perspective, with candor, humor, and wisdom. Rebel Soul isn’t a straight-forward autobiographical narrative: it’s as though Bebe has taken a large box off her shelf, filled with ticket stubs, backstage passes, magazine covers and clippings, and gig flyers, each one triggering memories of who she was at the time. The book is illustrated with dozens of rare or unseen photos from Bebe’s personal archives, going back to her early days as a top fashion model, through her whirlwind years...
BK $46.50
03/24/2023
Drake, Jeff
GUILTY! My Life As A Member of The Joneses: A Heroin Addict, A Bank Robber, and a Federal Inmate
Hozac
***Jeff Drake has led an extraordinary life... and believe me, that’s a vast understatement. I say this with confidence, because we’ve known each other for four decades. His band the Joneses, co-founded with skateboard champion Steve Olson, was the shining light of the 1980’s Southern California underground rock scene, ages before the term “alternative music” was bandied about by MTV and rock critics. The Joneses were the damn bomb. A louche, sloppy, outlaw amalgam of punk, pop and Don’t Give A Fuck attitude, they played thrashy, trashy rock’n roll that owed as much to The New York Dolls as it did to the Rolling Stones. Jeff’s songwriting was pure, catchy pop, even though the lyrics were riddled with sex and drug references. It was as though he mixed up a potion from the blood and brain cells of Little Richard and The Ramones, came up with a perfect formula, ingested it, and made his own unique creation. The Joneses’ live shows were off the hook, as were their off-stage antics. Though neither of us can remember the exact moment we met, we became fast friends in 1983. We hung out constantly back then and he was a regular at my infamous punk rock crash pad, Disgraceland. Hollywood in the 1980’s was an ungentrified wasteland; the streets were ruled by delinquent twenty-somethings, most of whom were in bands. My own band The Screaming Sirens played numerous times with the Joneses. During the time, the Joneses were being courted by a number...
BK $29.85
12/09/2022
***"Marty Perez is a Chicago-based photographer who has been documenting the parallels between the worlds of underground rock as well as some of the biggest stars of pop music, from 1976 to the present. This is the first collection of his images from the last five decades of rock’n roll decadence, from the wild, unhinged crowds of unruly and footloose teenagers to the incredible juxtaposition of both house-hold names with the sub-obscure underground bands that didn’t see the bright lights as close, yet still hold that certain magic of the era."—Jim De Rogatis, First edition of 400 copies. 231 pages.
BK $39.95
12/09/2022
***Available on vinyl for the first time anywhere, The Revelons are known to punk prevaricators one of best “lost bands” of the CBGB era who simply released one earth-moving 7” single on Ork Records in 1979, didn’t get signed to a major, and shuffled back into the shadows of an ever-growing scene. Fronted by Gregory Lee Pickard, the band dug into the trenches of New York City’s seedy Bowery life and were frequent players alongside most of the top-tier punk bands of the time, becoming mainstays at not only CBGB but Mudd Club, Danceteria, Hurrah’s and Max’s as well as incorporating a rotating cast of members that, at times featured Richard Lloyd of Television and Jay Dee Dougherty of the Patti Smith Group in the lineup. Incorporating a brash and aggressive pop sound with a vicious edge, The Revelons teetered between Television-like sparkling minimal artistic flourishes, but with more raw & primitive delivery. To which, they solidified their street-level prowess with a tenderized toughness not many other bands could match. The Revelons also were pretty hard to pigeonhole sound-wise then as they are now, with Talking Heads comparisons generally falling short, but there were some genuine Doo Wop moments that sneak in as well, showing their deeper roots to the NYC of days long past. But the real crime here is that this previously unreleased collection of recordings has never appeared in the vinyl LP format, as it surely would have escalated The Revelons’ profile much higher in the timeline...
LP $17.75
12/09/2022
***Oh how we’ve missed The Rubs, let us count the ways! One of the finest of Chicago’s last wave of rock’n roll resuscitation of the late 2010s, who uprooted the whole project for greener pastures in Kansas City, MO, yet still continues to churn forth incredible hooks by the bucketload, no matter where they land. Here we have the anxiously awaited third long-player, still entirely written, composed, and performed by the one-man-army that is Joey Rubbish, and still creating those invigorating waves of euphoria you’ve come to know and love from this essential hit-machine. After settling into a new living situation in a new city, the hits just kept pouring out, and as the dust settled after several reconfigurations over the next years, the DUST LP finally took its final, gleaming form, as the LP you have here. Another knockout collection of pristine pop bangers laced with mesmerizing guitar and/or sizzling mellotron solos, woven into impossibly contagious harmonies that should effectively put the CDC on high alert. And as The Rubs have always had a clear window open on the meat-grinder of influences, with this outing you’ll feel whisps of the ethereal late 60s Kinks, as well as Thin Lizzy-esque soft explosions twisting effortlessly around core-revitalizing melodic exercises that might even make the Everlys blush with envy. DUST is one of those eternal records that seems like its always been here, and will always remain, its just always been behind a corner you hadn’t looked around yet. The sheer quality...
LP $15.50
12/09/2022
***"Four our 15th book release, we present Wicked Game: The True Story of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey by author MICHAEL GOLDBERG. Another incredibly in-depth look into the dark side of San Francisco in the 1970s & 80s, and the dark side of rock ‘n roll in general, through the wild life of one JIMMY WILSEY. From his vantage point on bass in SF Punk legends THE AVENGERS in 1977, through his quick trip with BELFAST COWBOYS (with Rozz Rezabek from Negative Trend) and on into his next phase of real guitar virtuosity in SILVERTONE (the early band fronted by Chris Isaak which also included John Silvers from The Dils), Wilsey’s life unfolded sadly as many others of his era and from this scene. Full of amazing and previously unseen photos from the Michael Goldberg, HUGH BROWN. BRUCE CONNER,JAMES STARK, SUE BRISK and CHESTER SIMPSON archives, and complimented with intimate interviews from his past relationships with CLAUDIA SUMMERS and JENNIFER RUBIN (Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Bad Dreams, The Crush, etc), everything looked so promising, until it wasn’t…"
BK $31.50
06/17/2022
***BACK IN STOCK!!! In the late ‘70s and early to mid 1980s, San Francisco was a creative incubator, bringing forth all manner of new music acts. Ground zero for the scene was the Mabuhay Gardens, home to huge barrels of popcorn, once-a-week spaghetti nights, colorful emcee Dirk Dirksen, and punk/new wave bands from all over the Bay Area. Concert booker and renegade radio deejay Howie Klein joined with Aquarius Records owner (and fellow deejay) Chris Knab to launch a record label in support of that scene. Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave is Bill Kopp’s chronicle of the groundbreaking independent record label founded by Howie Klein & Chris Knab, featuring the stories of Romeo Void, Red Rockers, Translator, Wire Train, Roky Erickson, The Nuns, Pearl Harbor and Explosions, and nearly two dozen other bands. Based on nearly 100 interviews with the artists, industry execs, producers, friends, rivals, onlookers, journalists and hangers-on, Disturbing the Peace also features hundreds of photos and memorabilia from the personal archives of those who were there. 341 page paperback. First Edition of 500.
BK $31.50
02/04/2022
Hinely, Tim & Friends
Where The Wild Gigs Were - A Trip Through America's Underground Music Venues
Hozac
***BACK IN STOCK!!! When Tim from Dagger zine approached us about his book idea covering long-loved "spaces" held sacred for countless music fans, we knew it was a great project to get behind, Similar in its community effort to our last book release (The White Label Promo Preservation Society), Hinely organized an incredible list of contributors from all stripes of the underground music spectrum, each waxing their own warm recollections of wild nights seeing life-changing bands and/or terrible bathroom experiences. Chock full of photos, original newspaper ads, flyers, and long-lost monthly calendars of the pre-Internet age, Where The Wild Gigs Were illustrates how important these sacred spaces really are, and how much it's noticeable when we can't actually be AT these homes-away-from-home, spread all across the USA. From Stache's in Columbus, OH to Flynn's Ocean 71 in Miami, FL (the 'CBGB's on the beach'), back to The Brewery in Lansing MI (complete with previously unpublished Stooges photos!), to City Gardens in Trenton, NJ (staffed by Comedy Dentral's Jon Stewart) to Peter Aaron's sordid details on the mob-run Jockey Club in Newport, KY, you won't find many dull moments as each page bleeds into the next, oozing with recollections of blurry good times and endless excitement before the world changed, as we know it. Includes a foreword by Byron Coley and an afterword by Tesco Vee. 235 pages, paperback. First edition of 500 copies.
BK $28.45
01/28/2022
Green/Blue have thrust forth their second-born Offering to the gods of noise, washed in hypnotic barbed-wire guitar slices wrapped in troubled dreams of paranoid isolation, it’s the perfect cerebral soundtrack for these endless, draining days. A dizzying balance of riveting guitar interplay brings Heavy Times’ influence full circle, and their minimalist backbeat just further illustrates how Green/Blue are taking the sum of their parts to the brink of air-tight tonality. Brisk, break-neck guitar patterns slide effortlessly over each track, channeling that certain euphoric tension we all yearn for in modern music, and here it is with so much to spare. Jim Blaha (Blind Shake/Shadow In The Cracks), Annie Sparrows (Soviettes/Awesome Snakes), and Dan Henry (Sgt 6 Assault/Dummies/France Has The Bomb) come together here on their Offering LP like a temporarily restrained force, just waiting to explode. While not clinging to any of their prior bands’ styles, Green/Blue kicks through the glass into a new dimension of icy pop precision, unlimited in its warmth and invigoration. With their hushed waves of intricate heaven-woven vocal layers drizzling over each track, this Minneapolis “conglomeration of rock” comes together in incredible colors on their continuously impressive Offering. It's quite the mesmerizing blur of styles you might just need like we do right now, so dive in and don't look back! Recommended If You Like: The Wipers, Heavy Times, My Bloody Valentine, Radar Eyes, Pixies, Fizzbombs, Sonic Youth
LP $15.50
02/04/2022
MP3 $9.90
01/28/2022
FLAC $11.99
01/28/2022
It’s with extreme pleasure that we unleash the only true document from Adam Roth's underground music. Since discovering the endless joy that the 1981 film Down The Shore demonstrated we made it our mission to track down Adam and get this amazing LP back out into the world. Unfortunately Adam passed away far too young and left us in 2015, but before that tragic event, we got the wheels in motion for this project. Recorded as part of a DIY film soundtrack for the top-tier DOWN THE SHORE (aka Beach House), Adam Roth and his brother Charles formed a pickup band based around scenes from the amazing teen trash film. The resulting LP is one of the best of the era, a truly KNOCKOUT album of pure Power Pop prowess, and until now, nearly impossible to find. Adam’s longtime pal and comedian/actor Denis Leary even co-wrote one of the tracks included here, and Adam later was the music director for his TV series Rescue Me. Adam also was known for working on the film To Die For, starring Matt Dillon …who Roth had taught to play guitar for his role in 1983’s classic Rumble Fish. So many crazy connections, and such an incredible album AND film! This year’s 40th anniversary remaster sounds crisp & deadly, and featured new liner notes on the insane film & LP project from Adam’s brother Charles Roth, detailing how their manager ended up dumping the majority of the original LPs in junk stores after a...
LP $17.50
12/10/2021
MP3 $9.90
12/10/2021
FLAC $11.99
12/10/2021
***“If Cincinnati quintet the Dents had done what so many other early U.S. punk/new wave bands were able to do in their day, wax just one limited-press seven-inch single before they splintered apart, that 45 would now be spoken of in reverent tones and commanding ridiculous sums on Discogs. There are hundreds of deep-pocketed, rabid overseas collectors who gladly fork over numerous euros or yen for exactly such types of dusty and uncomped DIY efforts, just to have something ripping and rare to spin for their knowing buddies before they slip it neatly back into its Xeroxed fold-over sleeve and file it in the “D” box between nuggets by, say, the Deadbeats and the Desperate Bicycles. And that would be a crime, really. Because music as uniquely cool and rocking as the Dents’ doesn’t deserve to be hidden away and only enjoyed by some secret circle of mystic vinyl cabalists. The group were early American pioneers of what would retroactively be termed synth punk: a scorching fusion of futuristic synthesizers and grinding, garage-y guitars. Too tough for the synth pop lightweights and too contemporary for the brutes who dared not deviate from the guitars-only Ramones/Pistols template. In 1988, I started gathering material for the compilation that would ultimately become 2019’s We Were Living in Cincinnati on HoZac/Shake It. Keyboardist Doug Hallet made me a tape of some choice cuts, and I loved what I heard: squealing synths, growling vocals, chunky guitars, propulsive bass, and four-on-the-floor drums, the collective machine...
LP $17.50
10/29/2021
MP3 $9.90
10/29/2021
FLAC $11.99
10/01/2021
***We’re excited to announce the debut LP from Glasgow’s SOURSOB this month, a viciously minimal 3-piece that does so much with so little, yet packs such a powerful punch you won’t soon forget. A bass-driven groove holds these songs in an awesome aggressive limbo between the lush, heavy-noise of the post C-86 sound and the brash early 90s invigoration of riot grrrl noise. Like nothing we’ve ever encountered, their anger toward simple modern pleasures is just short of breath-taking, dragging everything you hold sacred into their pit of resilience. Thick accents drizzle over thick blocks of drastic fuzz as each song bleeds effortlessly into the next, encompassing some of the catchiest choruses this side of Dolly Mixture, yet with a sinister darker underpinning, all tied into their increasingly hypnotic bass lines. With the three members of SOURSOB originating from Glasgow, Lithuania, and Australia, they are currently in limbo post-pandemic, but with the immediate impact of this crushingly infectious new LP, they hope to be bashing it out in front of live crowds again soon. Such an impressively confident collection of songs here, and your fleeting taste for craft beer, cocaine, mass transit, watching TV on a cell phone, and Berlin in general, is very much “on the line” with these sublime and profound revelations. One these teeth sink in, you won’t believe how you’ve lived this long without the prickling & sickening throb of SOURSOB!
LP $15.50
10/29/2021
MP3 $5.99
10/29/2021
FLAC $6.99
10/01/2021
Maida, Sal / Mitchell Cohen & Friends
The White Label Promo Preservation Society: 100 Flop Albums You Need To Know
Hozac
***BACK IN STOCK!!! HoZac Books is proud to present The White Label Promo Preservation Society: 100 Flop Albums You Ought to Know, written and compiled by Sal Maida and Mitchell Cohen, who have recruited for their “society” a gang of esteemed music obsessives: musicians, label executives, and journalists who chose favorite albums from the 1960s and 1970s to rave about and expound upon. The only criterion was that the albums never made the top 100 on Billboard’s LP Top 200 (although in a few cases, they did quite well on the R&B or country chart). The selection ranges from east coast vocal-group harmony to punk and metal, from superstars like The Who and the Beach Boys to virtual unknowns. As Sal and Mitchell write in the book’s introduction, “These are the albums you might not read about, except here. No one needs to tell you why Pet Sounds, Revolver or Blonde On Blonde are essential parts of any decent record collection, or guide you towards classics – or even somewhat lesser efforts – by the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry or the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Or which Pink Floyd album is indispensable (hint: the debut; you can stop right there). Although we have strong opinions about pantheon artists like Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye, and are happy to share those views with anyone in earshot, that isn’t what this book is about. We aren’t here to challenge or endorse rock orthodoxy. Neither is the mission to, once again, assert the brilliance...
BK $29.95
06/18/2021
***"This one has truly been a long-time-coming. As huge fans of the early '90s Seattle trash rock sound, stumbling upon The NIGHT KINGS in a sea of stale grunge and alternative pap in 1992 was just what the doctor ordered. To this day, my hairs still stand on end when the guitar from 'Black Fluid' revs into gear, which was love at first blast, and from that day forward, seeking out anything music-wise released in the in the ROB VASQUEZ (NIGHT KINGS, MAN TEE MANS, CHINTZ DEVILS, APE LOST, PISSED OFF ZOMBIES, RIGHT ON, NICE SMILE, and of course, The GORLS) universe was nothing short of prerequisite. Formed by core members Rob Vasquez and DAWN JOHNSON, and joined by DONNIE HILSTADT (ex-STATICS, future DUTCHESS & DUKE drummer), and DYLAN MAIDEN (ex-Night Kings) The Gorls blasted out of the gate on their own new imprint, DOPE Records in early 1993, and quickly followed up their debut split 7” with only one more 3-track EP before completely disappearing, and leaving a huge void in their wake. Which brings us to 2020. Thanks to the help of Dan Wood and Aaron Gilbreath, we tracked down Dawn Johnson who we’d hoped would be holding the keys to our suspicions. Luckily for us all, she was sitting on a full LP’s worth of Gorls tracks recorded with JOHNNY VINYL 1992-93, which we can now present for your adoring ear-holes. With 8 of the 12 tracks here previously unreleased, it’s a crucial and desperately needed blast...
LP $17.50
02/12/2021
MP3 $9.90
02/12/2021
FLAC $11.99
02/12/2021
***After the short, bright light on the musical horizon from the other-worldly and alien-borne ZOLAR X in the mid 1970s had fallen away, original members ZORY ZENITH and ED DORN formed another short-lived outfit, AURORA PUSHUPS, and forged ahead with their original material to try their hand at a modernized sound. By 1979 they had solidified their debut tracks and self-released a 7” single, “Angels on Runway One” b/w “Victims of Terrorism” to moderate fanfare and enthusiastic radio play, but this early lineup wouldn’t last as Zory’s role began to fade. Soon after Zenith’s exit, Ed took the reins and put together the frequently-changing band that would record and perform around San Francisco over the next few years as simply ‘PUSHUPS.’ They evolved into a tight-knit unit that rivaled an American Tubeway Army with Incredible Kidda Band flourishes of Brit-soaked power pop, and even some moves that could have easily been swiped from The Cars or The Quick. Although most of the space-themes were shook off by the time Zory departed the band, Pushups shifted focus to a more of an airtight pop sound, with breath-taking full-bore studio production that really benefitted their style. As one of many bands that only lasted for a quick flash at the and of the 1970s, they didn’t get to tour much, and although they only had one other self-released 7” single in 1979 as Pushups, the wealth of their material has been sitting, waiting for its moment. Its one of those rare bands...
LP $17.50
02/12/2021
***Just when you thought you knew all there was to know about ’70s San Francisco underground music, here we have Michael Belfer—one of the SF scene’s earliest progenitors, who straddled two very different worlds playing guitar in two of the Bay Area’s most creative musical groups, The Sleepers and Tuxedomoon. By far two of the most unique bands in the early San Francisco musical landscape. When Can I Fly? is a harrowing memoir filled with stories encapsulating the seedy side of the San Francisco punk and post-punk scene in great detail, from the opening of the Mabuhay to the closing of the Savoy Tivoli and every back alley overdose in between. Tracing the earliest roots of The Sleepers in Palo Alto in 1975-76, Belfer was privvy to witnessing the nascent SF punk scene development as his bandmate Ricky Williams (aka Ricky Tractor) was already playing drums in the first lineup of CRIME at the time. This memoir offers a glimpse into the inner workings of the complications of street-level avant-garde musicianship, as well as the drug empire that was fueling the fires within the movers & shakers of the late 1970s in seething detail, and on a few occasions with grotesque precision. 225 pages
BK $24.95
12/18/2020
Collins, Paul
I Don't Fit In: My Wild Ride Through The Punk and Power Pop Trenches with The NERVES and THE BEAT
Hozac
***BACK IN STOCK!!! After two long years of painstaking research and development, we present to you, the first major memoir covering the birth of DIY Power Pop, from Paul Collins. From it’s initial conception as a film script to it’s re-birth as a full-bore rock & roll revelation, this is one crazy story from beginning to end. Outlining the first National DIY cross-country tour by an unsigned band in 1977, and by default, creating the pathway for the true indie underground network of the 80s to take as a template. It wasn’t even a second thought for Collins and bandmates Peter Case and Jack Lee, but the underground rock & roll world is a better place for it. But until now, the real details of the origins of The Nerves, Breakaways, and The BEAT have eluded most of us, so with this tome of incredible survival stories from the trenches, Paul Collins opens up and reveals all the drama, victories and defeats with such an impassioned voice, you won’t be able to put it down. The coverage of the pre-Punk 1975 landscape of both LA and San Francisco is unmatched, and your mind will be BLOWN. Featuring TONS of previously unseen photos, flyers and ephemera from the earliest days of The Nerves lineup as a FOUR PIECE, to the legal documents challenging The Paul Collins BEAT vs The English Beat, to the ill-fated Nerves reunion, and so much in between. Truly a smorgasbord of juicy details and revelatory discoveries await,...
BK $28.75
10/23/2020
***To accompany the Paul Collins I Don’t Fit In book, HoZac delivers a killer Archival 7″ single featuring a rare non-LP THE BEAT demo track from ’79, backed with the original 1978 demo of “Walking Out On Love” as performed by the first lineup of THE BREAKAWAYS!
7" $7.75
10/23/2020
“I’m not living my life so good, tell me, how about you?” What can we really say about 14th Wish, how did this band even exist? This record and band were COMPLETELY unknown up until the last couple of years, when we were approached by a notorious record fiend who was looking for more info after our official release of David Peel’s King of Punk LP. Here we have a band with no paper trail, zero online search results, and released in a tiny quantity on Orange Records in 1980, right alongside the first GG Allin and Eddie Criss Group LPs. But instead of a stylized gutter glam workout with a hot-shot studio guitarist, 14th Wish trip over themselves with a snotty/sloppy amateurism that veers farther into the beloved “Killed By Death” arena, with it’s sweltering TAPEWORM-style lead guitar freak-outs. Fronted by the mysterious figure known as Halo Peace, both 14th Wish tracks offer a refreshing mid-tempo crud-punk slop-take on the sounds swirling around the drain of the Lower East Side at the end of the 1970s. Although both tracks aren’t lightning fast, their instant ominous catchiness and absolutely sordid and squalorous guitar tone suggests a more murderous background, as well. Mention of this record just drew blanks across from the board, from all of the rare punk record dealers, to the most avid international collectors, and even NYC scene members from the time. Never even turned up in a Mike Bastarache Want List! And of course, the internet was...
7" $7.75
08/28/2020
MP3 $1.98
06/26/2020
FLAC $2.49
06/26/2020
***BACK IN STOCK!!! At this point, it’s pretty fair to assume that the USA’s most famous “Punk hotspot” has been pretty well-mined for it’s obscure fringe rock’n roll nuggets for some time now. And with further investigation within the deep confines of David Peel’s Orange Records catalog in recent years since his passing, we’ve found a couple of tragically-overlooked rippers. Behold: the Undertaker LP from the elusive Eddie Criss Group, released to minimal fanfare in 1980. Little to no information really exists on the band, who were a short-lived studio-only project that employed the MC-5’s legendary Wayne Kramer on blistering lead guitar on every track. What comes out of the speakers cooks up a vibe that feels right at home with the first GG Allin LP (most notably the MC-2 with Wayne & Dennis Thompson on the EP recordings), caked with NYC scum-punk gold! But don’t leave your first impressions there, as the Undertaker LP has quite a few stylistic flourishes that border on the psychedelic glam that Mr. Criss grew up around, and the flanged-out rhythm guitars and dramatic vocals criss-cross with Wayne Kramer’s scorching leads, creating a real “outsider” feel on a few of the less-intense tracks. Combined with an eerie organ accompaniment that seems to lead down an ominous path to certain death, the Undertaker LP covers a lot of ground, and reveals another still unknown NYC punk-era figure that history left out. While working on the King of Punk LP, David had regaled...
LP $17.00
08/28/2020
MP3 $9.90
06/26/2020
FLAC $11.99
06/26/2020
***BACK IN STOCK!!! Whirlywirld was an Australian Post-Punk band led by Ollie Olsen (Reals, Young Charlatans), and the first of his musical collaborations with drummer John Murphy (News). The band formed Whirlwirld in 1978 with their stated priority from the outset, to go electronic, determined as they were to take flight from the sonic limitations of the conventional, guitar-based rock format. A pioneer of synthesizer punk, the band came across with something of the experimentation of Suicide, Throbbing Gristle or Cabaret Voltaire, and also with the more song-oriented sound of Joy Division. Along with The Primitive Calculators they were supporters of the Melbourne 'Little Band' scene. Whirlywirld was completed by two keyboardists, who got credited with 'electronics', Andrew Duffield and Simon Smith (Olsen, by this point, had abandoned guitar in favour of 'electronics') together with guitarist Dean Richards. The band made their live debut at The Crystal Ballroom in 1979, by which time Duffield left to join The Models and had been replaced by Philip Jackson. Whirlywirld would go on to play only fourteen performances in their entire career. Gradually, in accordance with a change in direction, Richards, Jackson and Smith departed, with Richards going on to front a couple of cult combos, Equal Local and Hot Half Hour. Arnie Hanna came in on guitar and Greg Sun on bass. During this period Murphy played an array of percussion devices, natural, electronic or otherwise and Olsen even played saxophone as well as keyboards.
LP $17.00
08/28/2020
MP3 $7.99
06/26/2020
FLAC $8.99
06/26/2020
***It’s finally come to fruition. Chicago photographer & graphic designer BRIAN SHANLEY may best known for his work with Wax Trax! Records during the 1980s, but for the first time anywhere, Hozac books has collected his seminal band photographs that he shot during his time before settling in at the record label’s art department. Most of these incredible shots are previously unpublished, and not even seen by many of the bands themselves. From 1976 to 1984, Brian Shanley fixated himself at the epicenter of whichever show was happening around Chicago (and a few from NYC and London as well) and locked in on the talent. Setting his craft apart from most of his photographer brethren, Shanley focused on portrait-style shots of bands that rarely ever sat still, and along with his trusty camera, was welcomed into a world where most people aren’t allowed to tread. You won’t find a better snapshot of the fledgling ‘70s Chicago punk scene than in Dodged & Burned, which collects rare images of bands such as EPICYCLE, THE IMPORTS, SUNDOG SUMMIT, SPECIAL EFFECT, and more, that escaped attention and fame at the time, yet still are firmly rooted in the city’s rich music history. But that still can’t overshadow Shanley’s incredible shots of the new and exciting touring bands that criss-crossed the U.S. passing thru Chicago on many of their maiden voyages, most of which have never been seen before anywhere. Features commentary from BRUCE PAVITT and DAVID KENDRICK. 123 page 8" x 8.5" paperback...
BK $19.95
06/19/2020
V/a
We Were Living In Cincinnati - Punk And Underground Sounds From Ohio's Queen City (1975-1982)
Hozac
***While the more famous punk parties were going full swing in Warholian New York, press-savvy London, glittery LA, and other big towns, the early scenes in Ohio’s cities were toughing it out on their own. Instead of being courted with major-label deals, their handfuls of brave bands were mostly ignored, ridiculed, and physically threatened within their surrounding hostile environments. And although the pioneering activities in Cleveland and Akron have been well documented through several compilations, the early action in southern Ohio’s largest city has not—until now. Tirelessly compiled, annotated, researched, and produced by punk historian, author, and musician PETER AARON (the Chrome Cranks, Young Skulls) and co-released by HoZac Records and Shake It! Records’ Music from Ohio series, We Were Living in Cincinnati rounds up rare, raw tracks (18 on vinyl LP plus 15 bonus download-only cuts) by 21 of the town’s toughest, coolest punk and new wave outfits, several of them sourced from unheard tapes by acts who never released records in their day. Includes a tri-fold poster.
LP $17.75
02/21/2020
***"'Sonny Vincent is a true punk pioneer, we all know that already. But did you know how deep this man's well of punk madness really goes?' Well, I guess it’s taken seven long years since we made that statement, but luckily, here we are with a full LP’s worth of those recordings we’d wondered about, providing a pivotal glimpse into one of NYC’s most shadowy figures of the underground. It’s almost incredulous that his rock’n roll lineage goes back this far, with his first recording made while home on leave from the Vietnam War, and yet he was still a part of the first wave of '70s Punk. If you remember the FURY 7” we released, along with THIS massive interview, it was apparent that there was more to dig up, and luckily our engineer was able to shine up these riveting primitive proto-punk monsters into reality. Distance were in a primordial heavy psych state on their earliest recording here from 1969, but the VOICE that you know so well is already in place, and cuts through the foggy throb like a knife’s edge. Distance was Sonny’s first active band, and were known to have opened for The Dogs & Suicide in 1973, as per the two incredible handmade flyers included on the back cover, and as the liner notes can attest, provided a real-life slice of shock-rock insanity.”
LP $17.75
02/21/2020
MP3 $9.90
02/21/2020
FLAC $11.99
02/21/2020
***"Teenagers are the future, not Millennials, sorry, but that’s just the truth, and it’s time you got used to it. Upon entering the Melbourne record shop known as Lulu’s last fall, I was approached by one BILLY TWYFORD, clutching a copy of the recently-released Cheap Nasties LP. After a short chat, I suggested he send his band’s recordings to us, and surely enough, not even 9 months later we have the debut EP from DISCO JUNK here for your virgin ears. Brash, rude, inconsiderate punk from a kid who can’t wait to break LOOSE, with impressive mid-tempo chops, and whose hatred of his surroundings has runneth over with style. It’s just so refreshing, four teeth-smashing tracks of teenage angst boiled in benzoil peroxide, and smeared all over your greasy face. We really hope he doesn’t get grounded for his anti-social disposition, not to mention his good taste in song material, but this pure teen turmoil distilled into pure, raw rock’n roll is something to behold, and this kid really knows his stuff. With help from BILLY GARDNER (AUSMUTEANTS, LIVING EYES, Anti Fade Records), this debut EP really jumps down your throat with echoes of Jay Reatard’s bedroom demos, along with the most wirey early moments from The Fall, and the sick menagerie of Murder Punk progenitors."—VictimofTime.com
7" $6.75
09/20/2019
MP3 $3.96
09/13/2019
FLAC $4.99
09/13/2019
***"New Orlean’s most vicious byproduct is back with their most impressive effort to date. If you like your showers scalding, your sun blinding, and your brain crushed into a fine powder and then blown into your face, then this band is definitely for you. TRAMPOLINE TEAM's sophomore LP is here and it’s got everything real punk is lacking these days. Toxic tonality, gutteral enunciation, and a guitar/bass/ drums onslaught that just doesn’t let up until you’re withered, drained, and left in a puddle of black fluid. The new LP is a step in the right direction from their debut and earlier singles, with a more guitar-focused brash’n bash, and angrier, less-stylized (yet just as desperate) vocals, which really crank up the animosity and intimidation factor across the board. For a three-piece, this is hard-fried punk economics that does wonders for your lost brain cells, and it swings much heavier and harder than their previous efforts, where you could feel a pop-inflection in most of the chorus hooks. Those good times have been replaced with rage, and it’s a welcome emotion in our current state of affairs. Everything is straight for the throat here, restrictors unleashed, regulators removed, and what was hinted at on their 'Drug Culture' single is now fully realized in all it’s filthy punk glory. Features newly added drummer DREW OWEN (SICK THOUGHTS, DTK), along with core members MICHAEL HE-MAN and SAM.
LP $15.00
09/20/2019
MP3 $9.90
09/13/2019
FLAC $11.99
09/13/2019
***"There’s a secret world of stylish glam pop music most people will never encounter, the stuff dreams are made of, and with very limited access to outsiders. Modern execution is barely ever fruitful in this realm, yet there are still a few droplets of liquified genius that seep out of the cracks from time to time, and VELVETEEN RABBIT (ex-members of THE JEANIES) have that special something in spades. A sparkling debut so glaring in its brilliance and pomp, it’s almost reaching levels of absurdity, but yet always remains tactfully cognizant. Building on the flashy and addictive 7” single they released last year, Velveteen Rabbit lay down a dizzying array of ten tracks of incredible variance, nudging slick-production head-first into the underworld of sleaze pop. From futuristic flanged-out, funked-up Prince-style stompers conquering self-fragility, to misty-eyed, blue-eyed soul-smashers, it’s more than just a reason to wear crushed velour, it’s a whole flavor of glam rock all to itself. Bridging their genre-bending game fully across the gamut, Velveteen Rabbit still understands and utilizes the best nuances of late 60s-early 70s pioneering pop forces to great effect, yet doesn’t manage to put too many irons in the fire at once. But one thing is for certain, this band is moving fast and already into the void of what’s next around the corner, but they certainly won’t leave you in an unaltered state. Everything about the silky production, the breathy vocals straddling that swilrling, skull-expanding guitar around every corner just works so well, you’ll...
LP $15.00
09/20/2019
MP3 $9.90
09/13/2019
FLAC $11.99
09/13/2019
***BACK IN STOCK!!! "We never really thought it could happen, but here we are with the official reissue of the incredible, unforgettable, and oh so elusively un-comped ANEMIC BOYFRIENDS, one of the only punk movements of such perversion and grace from the fair state of Alaska that can come to any stretch of the mind. Lead by the inimitable Louise Disease, The Anemic Boyfriends’ uber-punk classic 'Fake I.D.' is one of the most riveting, jarring, and arresting TEEN PUNK blasts you will EVER hear, and you will NOT forget it. As the title track from their second 7” single released in 1981 on Red Sweater Records, 'Fake I.D.' is not just one of the most perfect teenage rebellion anthems of the 20th century, it ranks right up there with 'My Generation' and 'Cherry Bomb' as one of the most shockingly memorable tracks your ears will EVER hear. And with your help in perpetuation, it will be the THE most inescapable teenage anthem of the 1980s. And although The Anemic Boyfriends qualify as one of the best fake punk outfits of their time (and definitely their region), they managed to produce another classic track 'Bad Girls In Love' from their debut single in 1980, which will make their other forgettable B-sides sound like mincemeat."—VictimofTime.com
7" $7.75
06/07/2019
MP3 $1.98
05/10/2019
FLAC $2.99
05/10/2019
***"JULIAN LEAL behold the Romoeville Ripper! His name is always heard around pop cognoscenti circles due to his irresistible and impossible to find 1985 debut LP and a handful if blisteringly good singles, all self-released homemade power pop magic from the near Chicago south suburbs. With a self-taught confidence and a knack for sophisticated synth-soaked bubblegum hooks, Leal gigged around the local band circuit and pitched his material to anyone that would listen, but ended up forming his own imprint and tackling the record pressing head on, as well as handling almost ALL of the instrumentation on his own. Wading through all the skinny ties and goofy New Wave haircuts of the mid '80s landscape, somehow his independent releases found their way to a few crucial ears. Most notably, was some continued encouragement from Bomp! founder Greg Shaw, as well as even landing a rating session on beloved teen TV show American Bandstand. Leal’s furiously infectious synthesizer-charged power pop wasn’t really like most of his peers, and really zoned in on a focused “teenage crush” vibe, the perfect vehicle for the unprofessed king of ‘Roller Skate Rock.’ There’s just something so purely Midwest, so 80s teenage, you can even smell the scented lip gloss if you close your eyes, and the way Leal’s searing guitar solos wrap it all together, it’s the perfect time capsule, …and it’s here just in time for Summer."—VictimofTime.com
LP $16.35
06/07/2019
MP3 $9.90
05/10/2019
FLAC $11.99
05/10/2019
***"Behold, another classic gem from the Detroit punk underbelly of the late 1970s, the elusive MATT GIMMICK ‘Detroit Renaissance ’79’ EP, which rose to notoriety in its second wind via the Year of the Rats LP compilation, one of the first ‘raw & rare KBD-style’ comps released just a few years ahead of the Killed By Death and Bloodstains compilations series. It’s slash and burn at it’s core, but anchored heavily into a punked up Stooges template, and as much as the EP rules on it’s own merit, with one slow-burn “Gimme Danger”-style original throbber, and the smoking hot title track oozing with enough factory grime to choke any Asheton on sight, this EP has come to stand as a bit of historical anomaly in the Detroit punk timeline. Two of the four tracks included here are/were actual unreleased Stooges songs the band learned from a late 1970 performance they had witnessed and recorded onto cassette. A few years earlier, the Matt Gimmick band was known as THE PUNKS, another heavily-Stooges influenced band that never had any releases during their time, yet made their name around town and luckily stayed busy in the studio (checkout their 1974-era LP on Rave Up) despite the lack of label action. Both “Rag” and “Ya Don’t Want My Name” were the unreleased Stooges originals, performed during the band’s 1971 post-Funhouse era with both Ron Asheton and James Williamson on guitar, and Jimmy Recca on bass. It wouldn’t be until 2010 that the Stooges original...
7" $7.75
06/07/2019
MP3 $3.96
05/10/2019
FLAC $4.99
05/10/2019
***BACK IN STOCK!!! It is instructive that NUN released their first single five years ago with a track named ‘Cronenberg’. Their new LP THE DOME opens with a track named ‘Wake In Fright’, and presents a conceptual framework inspired by R. Buckminster Fuller that arms the record with a cohesive horror. On THE DOME, NUN’s development echoes the first wave of post-punk and Industrial music, from the malevolent broken electronics of Throbbing Gristle to the sensual trance of Chris and Cosey, or Human League’s journey from the turgid grind of ‘Being Boiled’ to the giddy synth-pop of DARE. An example: in contrast to the early recordings in which Branagan’s vocals were a heavily affected cyborg wail, the vocals on THE DOME have an immediacy and clarity. This clarity does not sever a connection with the sinister and disturbed themes that have been NUN’s character, but enforces the sense of confidence you would hope from a band on their second LP. This is most apparent on the first single from the album ‘Can’t Chain’, on which Branagan recently elucidated: “Desire is fundamental to THE DOME - I see it as the life force that drives human connection, not just to other humans, but also to the will to live. It is both cruel and necessary. This song is about the struggle to maintain desire. It’s drain disco music.” The aforementioned cohesion of theme and conviction of delivery are qualities one would hope for in a contemporary...
LP $15.00
06/07/2019
MP3 $9.90
05/10/2019
FLAC $11.99
05/10/2019
Bert, Bob
I'm Just The Drummer - My Time Behind Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Chrome Cranks & BB Gun Magazine
Hozac
***BACK IN STOCK!!! Hozac Books is proud to present our third art book, I’m Just The Drummer: the BOB BERT artist compendium of photography and interviews, establishing his irreplaceable link between the 1970s No Wave movement and contemporary noise rock. Although Bert’s immediate work is best known drumming in his wide array of musical projects he’s been involved with (such as SONIC YOUTH, PUSSY GALORE, CHROME CRANKS, LYDIA LUNCH, and many more) since the early 1980s, the focus of his book isn’t drum-centric as it is an encapsulation of the artistic world he’s developed within. It’s not a drumming instructional guide, or a critical assessment of how the drummers in bands are treated, but a 200-plus page guide through Bob’s musically adventurous life, and what a ride! Starting out with his teenage love of photography and his process of capturing the underground downtown figureheads as well as the emerging unknown No Wave bands, Bob was just as much of an enthusiastic fan of music as he was a fixture in some of the most crucial music of the 1980s, 90s, and beyond. And that’s what’s really important in the long run, as his excitement for music bursts from each page, providing the springboard to his long-running life in bands on the fringe of the mainstream. Includes a foreword by LYDIA LUNCH and introduction by KID CONGO POWERS. 200 page paperback. First edition of 450 copies.
BK $31.95
04/26/2019
***BACK IN STOCK!!! "We’ve reached our 200th release here at HoZac, and we couldn’t be more excited for this archival LP, a real dream come true for us devoted fans of 70s Australian Punk. THE CHEAP NASTIES emerged from Perth, Australia in late 1976, 'the most isolated city in the world,' with only a vague notion of the actualized punk format, from what founding member KIM SALMON had read in copies of NME magazine, and purity of heart. Combined with high school friends NEIL FERNANDES, DAN DARE, MARK BETTS and ROBBIE PORITT, the band emerged and for a few months, took hold of the punk market in Perth and shook it for all it’s life. Luckily their sole 1977 demo has survived, and we’ve got it here for you, finally in the LP format, the way God intended, for the first time anywhere. Ten songs of blistering teenage slime, screaming guitars screech in & out of the chorus, drums bash relentlessly, and that special Australian something you can’t ever put your finger on. It’s trashy, raw, and brutal punk slop at it’s finest, fitting in perfectly with the noisy aesthetic of the legendary Australian bands such as News, Babeez, Leftovers, Victims, and Psycho-Surgeons on the Murder Punk compilation series, and less like the early SCiENTISTS or MANIKINS, both of which sprung from the ashes of the Cheap Nasties.
LP $16.35
10/26/2018
***BACK IN STOCK!!! Canberra, Australia in the mid 1970s: Teenagers STEVE KILBEY, DAVE SCOTLAND, JOE LEE, KEN WILEY and PETER KOPPES form the ultimate amalgamation of sneering, vicious glam rock, BABY GRANDE, out of the ashes of the short-lived, PRECIOUS LITTLE. Taking cues from Roxy Music, Alice Cooper, Stooges, Bowie, T. Rex, and other sub-level trash-decadents, Baby Grande rode their own wave and carved out their own sound, but with some high-profile opening slots for AC/DC in 1975, their salacious glitter rock was too late for the trend, caught between cultural shifts, as happened to so many other bands during this era. Cranked up glam rock with snotty vocals wasn’t exactly new in 1975, but in Australia, a new breed of hard-rock-fueled fans congregated around the beer-guzzling Sharpie scene had emerged, and Baby Grande just didn’t quite fit in, despite their all of their finely-crafted aggression and savage delivery. Their decadence was showing through their crushed velour, and the meatheads probably felt threatened, so even after a promising signing to EMI records, the band was dropped, and reluctantly split up. It’s a story you’ve heard a million times by now, but at least this time, there’s one incredible chunk of somehow buried, yet blazing rock’n roll holding it up. Just the way the band stops mid-song on "Going There And Back" and inserts the chorus to Mott/Bowie's "All The Young Dudes" and then dips right back into their own song is something to behold. The tracks included...
LP $16.35
10/26/2018
MP3 $9.90
10/12/2018
FLAC $11.99
10/12/2018