Thursday, October 18, 2007

Abrams Image presents PUNK HOUSE, edited by Thurston Moore

PUNK HOUSE
Interiors in Anarchy
Photography by Abby Banks
Edited by Thurston Moore

VIBRANT PHOTOGRAPHS OF COLLECTIVE HOMES FROM ACROSS THE U.S.

“Punks are good people. At least the ones in punk houses are. They need to be and they try to be. Living together is a punk rock rite of passage into responsibility in complete disregard of social standards.”
– Thurston Moore, from PUNK HOUSE

For decades, across the U.S., individuals immersed in punk culture and aesthetics have come together to live in anarchical glory, communally, and for a low cost of living, in what have come to be known as “punk houses”. PUNK HOUSE (Abrams Image; December, $27.50 a celebration, an inspection, and a revelation of the punk rock lifestyle and its reflection in the homes of those devoted to living it. With an introduction by Thurston Moore, a founding member of Sonic Youth and indie rock progenitor, PUNK HOUSE captures in intimate and vivid full-color images the interiors, accoutrements of living, hand-scrawled signs, pots, pans, ragged furniture, and all other elements composing the carnival that is the punk rock lifestyle.

The punk house may come in any number of forms. The most common is the result of a large group of like-minded punks cramming into a house usually intended to accommodate two or three people. This results in low rent and, thus, extended hours of leisure for the residents to pursue their true interests.

PUNK HOUSE features anarchist warehouses, feminist collectives, tree houses, workshops, artists’ studios, self-sufficient farms, hobo squats, community centers, basement bike shops, speakeasies, and all varieties of communal living spaces. In over three hundred images of fifty houses in twenty-five cities in the U.S., photographer Abby Banks finds the already weathered face of a seventeen-year-old runaway, the soft hands of a vinyl junkie (record collector), the mohawked showgoer, the dirty dishes in the sink, silk-screened posters on the wall; and many other revealing glimpses of these anarchist interiors.

Houses included in PUNK HOUSE
* OAKLAND, CA: The Perple House & Bat Caave
* OLYMPIA, WA: Lucky Seven, Red House & Track House
* SEATTLE, WA: Villa Kula, Scribble Squat & Firebreathing Kangaroo
* PORTLAND, OR: Fuck Pit, Chickenhouse, Clown House, 19th Street House, Camp Congress & Nightmare Collective
* SALT LAKE CITY, UT: Bike House Squat
* MINNEAPOLIS, MN: International House of Mancakes, Bloomington House, Sobriety House & The Gallows
* BLOOMINGTON, IN: Sweet Little Dude House, House of 1,000 Daggers & Nate’s
* CHATTANOOGA, TN: Anarchtica
* MILWAUKEE, WI: Barely Legal, Robot House, Pierce St., Blue House & Twitch House
* PENSACOLA, FL: 309 House & Peppermint Patties
* GAINESVILLE, FL: Fort Ganja, Casa de Otto, Camp Blackbird & The Ark
* ALLENTOWN, PA: The Pirate’s Cove
* ASHEVILLE, NC: Big Side, Little Side & Outdoor Squat
* RICHMOND, VA: Flying Brick
* WORCHESTER, MA: Collective A Go-Go
* CLEVELAND, MI: The Farmhouse
* NEW ORLEANS, LA: Nowe Miasto, Bank Street & Ware House

About the Authors:
Abby Banks is an artist based in Brattleboro, VT. Abby traveled to over fifty punk houses across the U.S. in preparation for this book.
Thurston Moore is a founding member of Sonic Youth and a principal figure in the American indie music movement. He is the editor of the book Mixtape: The Art of Cassette Culture.

PUNK HOUSE
Photography by Abby Banks
Edited by Thurston Moore
300 full-color illustrations
December 2007; $27.50, Abrams Image
272 pages, 8 1/2 x 10 7/8”
Hardcover
ISBN 13: 978-0-8109-9331-0
ISBN 10: 0-8109-9331-7

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