All Ages: Reflections on Straight Edge

oral histories seem like an easy way out (as opposed to actually *writing* a book), and there are a lot of them these days, but at least Lahickey talks to key people from seminal sXe bands like Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Bold, etc. many of the stories told by the interviewees in "All Ages" read the same, but being that sXe started out as a very small scene created by middle class, suburban, white, teenage boys there's bound to be a common thread. most of the first wavers interviewed seemed to decry sXe's descent into pious, militant assholery, but nobody made any explanation as to why, or, more importantly, make any efforts to combat said assholery, the exception being Ian Mackaye. the lack of women in the hardcore & sXe scenes show more wasn't addressed as much i would've liked, which is interesting being that the editor of the book is a woman. most of the questions or comments about hardcore/sXe being one big boys club are met with a shoulder shrugging "yup, that's the way it was" kind of attitude. that doesn't make for much of an analysis on exclusion. show less