Radio Silence
A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music (book)
by Nathan Nedorostek and Anthony Pappalardo
MTV Press
4 out of 5 stars
I’m not going to try to act like I was into hardcore when I was a kid. Truth be told, besides a bootleg 7 Seconds tape which was passed around my high school with hushed enthusiasm (and a rumor that a kid in an adjacent school had committed suicide to the tape), I have as much hardcore roots as your average monk.
But this absolutely gorgeous book makes we want to go back and hear more. Radio Silence is essentially a visual book, but throughout, the authors have quotes from the bands, fans and scenesters, which add flavor, humor and true insight into the tumultuous musical phenomenon.
But what makes this book awesome are the last 30 or so pages which feature album and t-shirt art from that era. Cool as shit! Oh, and the picture of a very young Henry Rollins, who was a skinny rail and had only a couple of visible tattoos at the time is priceless.
— Brian F. Johnson
