Here’s a couple raw vintage performances of the Misfits you may enjoy:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xrl7w_themisfitsjanuary071983dearborn_extreme
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/music_indie_music/watch/v15567200QJywdEcD
Beware, any performance you see after 1983 or so isn’t really the same band, Glenn Danzig went out and started his own band(s).
If you like their “horror punk” style of music, “Walk Among Us” or “Static Age” are great albums.
Well stated, one and all. I endorse this post. **Please Kill Me **and **Our Band… **are such good reads that they made go chase down all the bands being written about. They love their subject matter, warts and all - and you get a great sense of why.
One exception: Rip it Up and Start Again was as dry and academic as the topic was not. Frustrating to read about these exciting bands, people and scenes delivered in a flat, passionless monotone writing style.
I would add another shout-out for End of the Century, the Story of the Ramones. Essential.
I’d question 24 hour party people as an example of punk, by anything other than the loosest definition, it seems to be much later to me. And about Manchester of course, not London or New York. However, it’s a brilliantly evocative film and very entertaining in its own right. Very funny in places, particularly if you grew up watching this stuff happen around you. If you can find anything by Caroline Sullivan - not sure her old stuff is still in print - that would give you a good picture. I haven’t read anything for years, but she wrote contemporaneously and I remember it being vivid, but not the greatest writing. Again, I haven’t read it for years, but you might want to try The Boy Looked at Johnny by Julie Birchall and Tony Parsons, which I remember being not bad.
…oh - one other piece of essential Punk reading: The chapter in **Lester Bangs’ Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung **about his touring with The Clash through small clubs in the UK. Realizing how passionately Bangs appreciated what the Clash represented - a breath of rebellious, passionate rock danger after he (Bangs) thought it had been lost at the end of the 60’s - provides a bit of “you are there” perspective to the power of Punk in the face of rock as we knew it then…
Can I third (or fourth or fifth, whatever we are at) both Please Kill Me and Our Band Could Be Your Life?
Might I also second the endorsements of Suburbia and Repo Man? Suburbia in particular was on a constant loop for about 3 months when I was 15. The Filth and the Fury is a decent documentary, Sid and Nancy is a fun film, but Suburbia was as much a part of being a punk when I was growing up as the music was. (Do be sure to track down the right film. See the wiki link earlier in the thread).
What have you been listening to so far? Reading about the scene is all well and good, but it is really about the music…sort of.
Is it ok if we suggest some listening?
Yeah, at some points Suburbia was almost part of an initiation. First someone gives you a punk mix tape they made or something. Then you spend an afternoon watching Suburbia with kids who have seen it a bunch of times and talk along with it and point out the part where someone calls Flea Flea instead of his character’s name. And after you watch the movie, someone gets out the hair clippers and cuts you a mohawk, and bam - you’re a punk.
NOFX - Ten Years of Fucking Up was pretty good
Punk:Attitude by Don Letts is an excellent documentary, although it focuses mostly on the US side of things. Lots of great interviews with Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra etc give it a real feel of authenticity.
Urgh! A Music War is a pretty good collection of live performances from 1981. It covers the middle ground between punk and new wave. X, Devo, The Go-Gos, the Cramps, Joan Jett, Oingo Boingo, The Police.
It’s REALLY good. It came on one of the movie channels at like 1 in the morning and I stayed up watching. Lots of actors you know, but you’ll hardly recognize today because they are so young.
“All Ages: Reflections on Straight Edge,” by Beth Lahickey is a great document of the late eighties hardcore scene. There are a ton of awesome pictures in it, too. “Everybody’s Scene,” by Chris Daily is about the Connecticut Anthrax, an important east coast venue during the 80’s. Norman Brannon’s “The Anti-Matter Anthology” has a ton of good interviews that document the 90’s hardcore scene.
Double Cross webzine is also an awesome resource for punk/hardcore stuff: doublecrosswebzine.blogspot.com
SLC Punk is a good one. It’s a movie about the punk rock scene in super conservative Salt Lake City during the early 1980’s.
SLC Punk is like an afterschool special with a better budget.
Dogs In Space is a good movie about a punk band in Australia. Well, about them and their friends and doing drugs and having sex… and it’s based on a true story, apparently. It stars Michael Hutchence of INXS.
Wow. You were just waiting to pounce on that one, weren’t you? 
New York Doll - what happens years later at a reunion. Excellent Doc.
I actually saw SLC Punk a bit after I saw Sid and Nancy…didn’t love SLC Punk all that much. I’m putting whatever is available on my netflix queue in terms of movies, and requesting whatever books are available from my local library. Thanks, guys, for all the help!
If you like Henry Rollins, he wrote a book about his time with Black Flag, Get in the Van, I found it pretty interesting.
The Fabulous Stains seemed to be about rebellious teenage girls, and it doesn’t have a lot of great music, mostly just the one song “Be a Professional” they kept singing over and over. But they tried to show life on tour with almost no money. Ray Winstone and Diane Lane were excellent. Worth seeing once.
Get in the Van is a great, great book. See if you can find the book on double disc CD read by Rollins himself.
I just picked up “Redemption Song–The Ballad Of Joe Strummer” by Chris Salewicz, which is a very well written account of London’s early punk scene.
The author was close friends with Joe Strummer (The Clash) but still manages a even, unbiased account of Strummer’s life and times.
Highly recommended.