We Can Be The New Wind By Alexandros Anesiadis (Earth Island Books)

Back in the pre-internet days, the only way you could learn something about punk rock or any other subculture was through fanzines, bulletins, or any other sort of underground media. Surely, punk rock was explored by the mainstream many times, but somehow they never captured the meaning and the true essence of punk rock subculture like the zine makers. That was probably because all the zine makers were involved in the punk rock scene as musicians, label owners, distro owners, promoters, or enthusiasts willing to help out. If you wanted to inform yourself about it, you would go and find out firsthand, and in this case, the zines were the perfect source of information. They still are, but most zines nowadays are located on the web. Like our web page, for example.

We Can Be The New Wind dives straight back to days when the zines were the most important source about bands, artists, and subcultures in general. The book serves as a comprehensive collection of interviews and insights about almost 150 music groups, plus about 900 who are mentioned along the way. One of the most important facts about this book is that you’ll stumble upon melodic hardcore, hardcore punk, pop-punk, melodic punk rock, indie, emo, garage, alternative rock, and even some metal bands. Therefore, this will be a good read even to those bookworms who’re not entirely into punk rock music. What completely blew my mind was the amount of previously unknown information about certain bands, and it’s not the first time that Alexandros Anesiadis showcased his knowledge about it. His previous book, Crossover the Edge: Where Hardcore, Punk, And Metal Collide, is more than a good source of information, so the knowledge invested in the making of We Can Be The New Wind doesn’t surprise at all.

There are certain pieces of information about the bands that even music geeks like me never heard of, so even if you think you’re a know-it-all, We Can Be The New Wind deserves your utmost attention. Also, what caught my mind the most was how the author and Earth Island Books sorted out content by the location these bands and artists are based. Of course, you’ll stumble upon renowned bands like 7 Seconds, Uniform Choice, Agent Orange, ALL, Down By Law, Big Drill Car, The Dickies, Government Issue, Rites of Spring, Dinosaur Jr, Embrace, Gray Matter, Dag Nasty, Moving Targets, Supertouch, Goo Goo Dolls, Shudder to Think, Husker Du, Pegboy, Superchunk, Mega City Four, Hard-Ons, etc. Still, there’s a decent amount of unknown or less-known bands as well. Earth Island Books did an incredible job, as usual, so the entire book is professionally printed, designed, and formatted, and the cover illustration draws attention even more. I could go even more into the tiniest details, but I encourage you to purchase this book and find out about these rad bands for yourself. Head over to Earth Island Books for more information about ordering.