The release of new punk book Ancient Artifax was celebrated at TV Eye in Ridgewood, NY on Saturday (8/3) with a special event featuring walls of memorabilia, a record and flyer pop-up, screen printing by Eric Kaplansky from an original Cause for Alarm screen, and a panel discussion with Paul Bearer (Sheer Terror), Johnny Kelly (Type O Negative, Silvertomb, etc), Alex Kinon (Cause For Alarm, Agnostic Front), and Jack Rabid (The Big Takeover). Following that was a show with sets from Negative Approach, No Time, and Mugger; see pictures from the whole night by Keith Marlowe and Harriet Roberts below.
I also caught up with Ancient Artifax author Brian Gorsegner (Night Birds) to talk about the book and event. Read our conversation below.
KM: Can you give me a quick description of book for people who don’t know about it?
BG: The book focuses on three regions where I had acquired the densest archive in a small time frame. It’s DC, Midwest, and NYC/NJ. It is a photo book of the most unique and interesting items I obtained, with stories about the items themselves, context as to what was going on in the world regarding politics, pop culture, drugs, stuff like that, and the cross sections of these particular scenes all from the folks who were there to witness the birth of the hardcore counterculture first hand.
It seems like you’ve been collecting and appreciating punk memorabilia most of your life, When did you officially start Ancient Artifax?
I had to scroll back to see, but I started Ancient Artifax as an Instagram account on December 20th, 2016. My wife and I had a baby a bit before that and my family started following me on social media to see baby pictures. I thought maybe it’d make sense to start a separate account for posting shit like the Misfits Bullet EP with JFK’s blood squirting out of his head or the cover of the Reagan Youth 12″ that my Aunt Marianne or whomever wouldn’t totally get.
When did you come up with the idea for the book and what was the process of creating it?
I had started working on making a TV show with Creem Magazine a couple years ago. I had an opportunity to go check out and potentially purchase four really interesting and crazy collections within a short period of time, and realized I needed to be documenting the process. Going through the collections with the people, hearing the stories, asking questions, things like that. We shot four episodes, but it’s currently sitting on a shelf somewhere.
I think I kind of had the idea for a book in the back of my head before that, but that really accelerated it and helped direct it a bit. I wound up purchasing all of those collections, plus several others in a really small window, and all of these special and unique items with stories attached from the folks who were there were fresh in my head. I’d call my friends after leaving any one of those collections and frantically relay stories like a madman, because I knew they’d think it was as cool as I did, but also so it didn’t leak out of my sieve of a brain.
Once I started actively working on the book and having a clearer idea of what I wanted it to be, I knew exactly who I wanted to talk to, and the stories I wanted to get down on tape as to not fuck them up or misquote. I guess if anything the show filming serves as field research, I think the pros would call it.
I broke it into three regions / chapters as dictated by the collections I had purchased, and then put the timeline in order, and did several rounds of interviews to help tie certain stories together or to give context, and then we’d do a lot of photo shoots of items as I’d pull more things to serve the story. I wanted all the images photographed as opposed to scanned because the book, as much as it’s about the content and the imagery, is really about the actual items themselves. A close friend and great photographer, Chris Ernst, was super accommodating about coming over every couple of weeks when I’d say, “OK, I found some more stuff that needs to be shot, but I swear this is it!”, for like a 16 month period. He got it, and fortunately I didn’t drive him too bonkers.
What are some of the more memorable meetings and purchases that led up to this book?
Some of the ones that were the real catalyst in doing the book were getting a grip of Stiv Bators from the Dead Boys personal items through his ex-fiancee and B Girls member Cynthia Ross. John Brannon from Negative Approach was also a big one. His mom had sadly passed away, and when cleaning out her attic he found boxes of notebooks, fan mail, cut and paste fliers, setlists, items he had gotten directly from the Misfits like unassembled record sleeves and some spikes they’d wear on their guitar straps and clothes. He hit me up and was like, dude, you gotta come out here to Detroit. That was the first one where we decided to film. Then Nathan who started Dischord Records with Ian and was the singer in the Teen Idles… that was nuts. All of his stuff was still in the basement of his parents house where the Bad Brains and SOA and all these bands practiced. It was like a time capsule, like the stuff never left that location in 40 some odd years, and I got to dig through it all like Indiana Jones and film it all. He had the first ever Bad Brains flyer, which I’ve neer seen anywhere before, he had a mixtape Ian made him in 1979, stuff like that. It’s all in the book. Also Todd from Necros, Alex from Agnostic Front and Cause for Alarm were really important ones.
What do you think is the take away significance for some of these items?
Within things like mail correspondence to a band, you’d find things like fanzine interview questions, all done through back and forth letters. Tour contact telephone numbers. The original cut and paste mock up for fliers. It’s a window into the birth of a counterculture, but also how things were done before the digital age. I’m not like anti technology or whatever, I was born in 83 so I’ve had the benefit of experiencing finding cool records in the wild before ebay, or having to make my own cut and paste flyers… but as a 20 year old I was also able to experience the ease of hearing any obscure music I wanted, or interviews or live footage of like any band at the click of a button. But, still, those tangible things tell the story of how it all began, this thing that without it, we’d have no Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters, whatever. And the fact some of these folks are still around to talk about it is a gift. It’s maybe a bit bleak, but also reality, that the average human lifespan is like 80 something… I think it’s important to get as much of this stuff in the history books as we can while we can.
How did the record come about with the Artifax release?
We released a 7″ by a band called the Radicals who were a Jersey band that recorded in 81 and it never came out. The band featured Alex from Cause for Alarm and Agnostic Front, and when I was rummaging through his basement buying records and things, we found it, and he was so casual about it, and I was like, I NEED to hear this! So he allowed me to borrow it and have it digitized, and it was just so cool that it existed. I was already working on the book with the Radio Raheem folks so it was all just very organic.
Then also at some point when we were working on the book I bought a collection from a guy named Rank who was in a band called Latin Dogs who put out a killer 7″ in 83, I think. Actually the pins that kick the whole book off belonged to Rank. We got talking and I found out he had a band before Latin Dogs in the late 70’s called The Lips Are Back. They had recorded an EP and were going to self release it with their band fund, but someone got the bright idea to buy PCP with the band fund in an attempt to sell it for a profit, and essentially put their record out for free and keep the band fund intact. But, alas, that’s obviously not what happened. The band did all the PCP and the record never saw the light of day! So naturally when I came to Radio Raheem with that one it was a no brainer.
What’s the story behind Cause for Alarm screen printing?
The Cause for Alarm screens were made by CFA singer Keith, but I got them from the guitarist and founder of the band, Alex. The band had them on tour in 83 with DRI and MDC, and would print shirts at peoples houses and leave them out in the yard for the ink to set in the Summer sun. I just love the fact they survived all this time, and while some of this stuff gets the white glove treatment, I think if there’s still some life in an item like this, it’s way cooler to actually put it to use and take it out of retirement, so that’s what we did, and people seemed to really love it. They brought their own shirts and we just did it for free as part of the $7 entry fee. Keith from Cause for Alarms daughter actually came and got her shirt printed! She introduced herself to me after the fact and I really thought that was the coolest thing.
How did you pick the panels?
The panel was mostly folks who were interviewed in the book. Same with the Jersey panel we have this week with Brian Baker from Minor Threat and Bad Religion, Mark Haggerty from Iron Cross, and Mike Hampton from the Faith, Embrace, SOA, etc. Detroit we have John Brannon from Negative Approach, Tesco Vee from Touch & Go and the Meatmen, and Andy Wendler from the Necros.
This seems like an entire family activity at this point, how does it feel to have a wife and daughter so involved?
My anxiety had gotten a bit soul crushing, and almost to the point I was really having trouble leaving home. It was part of the reason I stopped playing music. But when it was something I was really truly excited about, it would sort of overcome the anxious feeling and that momentum would help me travel and function like a regular human. So, we started taking these trips… Out to Detroit to see JB, out to Maumee, OH to see Todd from the Necros, up to Portland, Maine to see Mark Ryan from Supertouch / Death Before Dishonor, all over the place… and we were making little family vacations out of them. We’d go to Pittsburgh on the way and hit the Warhol museum as my wife is an artist, and we’d go to Kennywood, the sickest theme park ever, so my daughter could have a killer day, and then we’d make it out to Detroit or wherever so I could do my thing, and we sort of found our own groove travelling and having a blast as a family. We started traveling a lot like that, and they are some of my fondest family memories. We so much fun. We went to Punxsutawney and saw all the groundhog madness, we went out to LA, would hit the boardwalk and rides and beach during the day, and then I’d go have dinner and dig through the archive of Ed Colver, shit like that. It’s awesome. The traditional go to Disneyworld and stand in two hour lines and fucking hate human existence is not for us.
After this show, and Jersey and Detroit, what upcoming plans are there?
The 16 month plan kinda comes to an end after Detroit. I want to take a beat just to reevaluate where to focus attention, which I’m kind of looking forward to. It’s fun to execute a plan, but I really enjoy devising a plan, so I’m excited to see what’s next.
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There are two more release events, happening tonight (8/9) at Atlantic Highlands Art Council in NJ, and August 17 at Third Man Records in Detroit. Find more details here. Mugger also just released a new song with John Brannon from Negative Approach.
