Some New Kind of Kick
A Memoir
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- USD 14.99
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- USD 14.99
Descripción editorial
An intimate, coming-of-age memoir by legendary guitarist Kid Congo Powers, detailing his experiences as a young, queer Mexican-American in 1970s Los Angeles through his rise in the glam rock and punk rock scenes.
Kid Congo Powers has been described as a “legendary guitarist and paragon of cool” with “the greatest resume ever of anyone in rock music." That unique imprint on rock history stems from being a member of not one but three beloved, groundbreaking, and influential groups—Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the Cramps, and last but not least, The Gun Club, the wildly inventive punk-blues band he co-founded.
Some New Kind of Kick begins as an intimate coming of age tale, of a young, queer, Chicano kid, growing up in a suburb east of East LA, in the mid-‘70s, exploring his sexual identity through glam rock. When a devastating personal tragedy crushes his teenage dreams, he finds solace and community through fandom, as founder (‘The Prez’) of the Ramones West Coast fan club, and immerses himself in the delinquent chaos of the early LA punk scene.
A chance encounter with another superfan, in the line outside the Whiskey-A-Go-Go to get into a Pere Ubu concert, changes the course of his life entirely. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, a misfit Chicano punk who runs the Blondie fan club, proposes they form a band. The Gun Club is born. So begins an unlikely transition from adoring fan to lauded performer. In Pierce, he finds brotherhood, a creative voice, and a common cause, but also a shared appetite for self-destruction that threatens to overwhelm them both.
Quirky, droll, and heartfelt, with a pitch-perfect evocation of time and place, and a wealth of richly-drawn supporting characters, Some New Kind of Kick is a memoir of personal transformation, addiction and recovery, friendship and belonging, set against the relentless creativity and excess of the ’70s and ’80s underground music scenes.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Powers, cofounder of the punk group the Gun Club, debuts with an inharmonious memoir of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. As a queer Mexican American living in La Puente, Calif., in the 1970s, he got into the punk scene, drawn in by the Ramones, whose flaws, Powers writes, emphasized their humanity. By the time Powers was 18, he had "taken drugs, had anonymous sex, hung out with rock 'n' roll bands, and earned stripes in street smarts." But it was only after after Lydia Lunch of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks encouraged him to pick up a guitar that he began making his own music. On a night out at Whisky a Go Go, Powers befriended Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who suggested they start a band. The group became the Gun Club, which belted out a miasmic blend of rockabilly, the blues, and country. An invitation to join the Cramps in late 1980 convinced him to leave the Gun Club, and he later joined up with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Along the way, Powers careens between self-confidence and self-doubt, losing himself to drugs and battling imposter syndrome. Maybe Powers can be forgiven for the meandering prose, unmoored narrative, and murky timeline; as he admits, his fate "was never to look at anything without an eye askew." Despite the bumps, fans of early punk rock will revel in this pungent evocation of the scene.
