While many volumes devoted to the punk and hardcore scenes in America grace bookstore shelves, Canada’s contributions to the genre remain largely unacknowledged. For the first time, the birth of Canadian punk—a transformative cultural force that spread across the country at the end of the 1970s—is captured between the pages of this important resource. Delving deeper than standard band biographies, this book articulates how the advent of punk reshaped the culture of cities across Canada, speeding along the creation of alternative means of cultural production, consumption, and distribution. Describing the origins of bands such as D.O.A., the Subhumans, the Viletones, and Teenage Head alongside lesser-known regional acts from all over Canada, it is the first published account of the first wave of punk in places like Regina, Ottawa, Halifax, and Victoria. Proudly staking Canada’s claim as the starting point for many internationally famous bands, this book unearths a forgotten musical and cultural history of drunks and miscreants, future country stars, and political strategists.
Perfect Youth: The Birth of Canadian Punk
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
Review
"Perfect Youth effectively imparts a sense of agency to local communities, and easily demonstrates that punk was more than an imported phenomenon. . . . Sutherland colourfully illustrates how, when, and where Canadian bands contributed to punk's early development." —BC Studies
About the Author
Sam Sutherland is a Toronto-based journalist. He is a former Assistant Editor at Exclaim! Magazine and Music Editor of Broken Pencil, whose work has appeared in such publications as The National Post, Maisonneuve, Alternative Press, and alt-weeklies across the country. He currently works as the Online Producer of AUX.TV.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is great fun. Well researched, thorough, and Sutherland's passion for his subject is electrifying. Weaves stories from across Canada together through common threads of isolation. These stories matter and Sutherland never fails to explain why. In the words of the author: "It's not Pierre Berton's Canada, but it's just as real and just as crucial. And it's got way, way more vomit."
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is one of those books that once you pick it up you can't put it down until its done. The research that has gone in to this is just incredible. very well written and extremely compelling. Anyone with even the slightest interest in the Canadian punk scene has to read this book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars
1 review
3.0 out of 5 stars
Skims the Surface
May 4 2013
By blubberella
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
"Perfect Youth" explores some neglected history of the fungus known as punk. The chapters are short, and provide a rudimentary sketch of what was happening on the punk front in specific communities at a given time (ie approximately the beginning of their scene). Places like Regina or Edmonton get a chapter with a little history of some of the bands that were around and some anecdotes and a photograph. This is what is good about this book - as I know of no other book that references these neglected places. BUT - the quality of the information is very superficial, and so many relevant facts/scenesters that would help to understand the context of the time/place are unheard. I found the layout of the book confusing - it is not organized by a chronology of events or geography or even connected personalities. The writing style/skill is very simple, like a person with a solid B+ in grade 8 English wrote report on Canadian punk, one chapter at a time.
I wanted to like this book more than I did, but truthfully it felt like a box of notes that someone shuffled into a book. It has a lot of basic facts about some of the major players, with a few tepid tales that just sound like clunker lies (and I was there for some of it!). Ultimately it felt like so much relevant information was missing, and that the author just didn't get the experience of being a part of a maligned subculture, especially in a place that was not Toronto or Vancouver. It just felt cobbled together.
Another book that focusses on the Toronto-centric roots of Canadian punk is "Treat Me Like Dirt". It is much more intensively researched and interviewed but both books left the impression that Canadian punks of that time/place were just complete jerks. This may have as much to do with the authors' perceptions of their subjects, as with the people who were interviewed. I did not find either of these books to be engaging or enjoyable reads. I loved "Please Kill Me" as it was funny, sharp, gossipy, entertaining, horrifying, with a logical chronology of events/personalities, where the flavour of the time/place/people shines through(and I understand a lot got left out of that book, too).
This book might be a good starting point for a person who wants a rough sketch of this history, who could use this information as a jumping off point to get the real stories by pursuing their own research.
I wanted to like this book more than I did, but truthfully it felt like a box of notes that someone shuffled into a book. It has a lot of basic facts about some of the major players, with a few tepid tales that just sound like clunker lies (and I was there for some of it!). Ultimately it felt like so much relevant information was missing, and that the author just didn't get the experience of being a part of a maligned subculture, especially in a place that was not Toronto or Vancouver. It just felt cobbled together.
Another book that focusses on the Toronto-centric roots of Canadian punk is "Treat Me Like Dirt". It is much more intensively researched and interviewed but both books left the impression that Canadian punks of that time/place were just complete jerks. This may have as much to do with the authors' perceptions of their subjects, as with the people who were interviewed. I did not find either of these books to be engaging or enjoyable reads. I loved "Please Kill Me" as it was funny, sharp, gossipy, entertaining, horrifying, with a logical chronology of events/personalities, where the flavour of the time/place/people shines through(and I understand a lot got left out of that book, too).
This book might be a good starting point for a person who wants a rough sketch of this history, who could use this information as a jumping off point to get the real stories by pursuing their own research.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see the review
3.0 out of 5 stars
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
