"For those who were there and those who missed out."
Encased in a gorgeous, vibrant-colored jacket, We Could Not Do Any Better is a new book that covers the history of the European straight edge hardcore community. Told in an oral history narrative, the book was co-written by Jean-Paul Frijns and Marc Hanou.
"Marc and I played in the beginning of this century together in a band, a 30+ straight edge band—which was ridiculous at that time, but that’s a different story," Jean-Paul tells me over email about the authors' connection. "When we worked on our full length record it unintentionally became sort of a concept called 'the past the present.'
"We decided to collect and write down our shared stories (that we talked about while in a van driving to shows) and interview a bunch of people we met during the course of (30) years. Not everyone responded to our call and emails at that time, but since we had a tight deadline we decided to put the book out (on 12” format) with the LP.
The overall package of book and LP looked great. But I was not happy with the turn out of the book as it did not live up to my (design) expectations. Once the record and book were out, people got in touch with us and asked why they weren’t featured in the book. We had to tell them that we did get in touch, but that they didn’t respond to our email." As someone who reaches out to musicians for No Echo, I can say that I have been there!
With over 700 (!) pages, We Could Not Do Any Better features insight from participants (musicians and others) of the European hardcore scene, plus tons of photos (both live and candid) and ephemera for days. Jean-Paul picked up the making of the book's story: "So, in 2008 the idea was born to do an update of the book. But make it a 'real' book this time and not a 12” size book.
"We made a list of people we wanted to talk to and right before corona we started working on it. Going to the Liar reunion show was basically the kick off when we started working on the book. It was the perfect moment to talk to all missing Belgians that we wanted to have in the book. During the pandemic we did a lot of zoom meetings with people from all over Europe and this is how it basically started rolling. During the end of 2023 the book was done and sent off to the printer."
According to Jean-Paul and Marc, the straight edge scene in Europe developed from "Lärm’s DIY ethics towards the socialist activism of ManLiftingBanner. Mainstrike and Reaching Forward put the emphasis on straight edge and ‘clean living’, followed by a strong emphasis on veganism as Eye of Judgement shows."
"Since we are from the Netherlands we based the story on (influential) Dutch bands Lärm, Manliftingbanner, Mainstrike and the final chapter is based on bands like Reaching Forward, Abusive Action, Eye of Judgement, and our own band Birds of a Feather."
Along with The Story of H8000 Hardcore 1977-1999, and RÅPUNK: The Birth of Swedish Hardcore, 1981–1989, no hardcore music book collection would be complete without a copy of We Could Not Do Any Better sitting in it. I can't recommend this book enough.
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We Could Not Do Any Better is out now and available at these retailers:
Rev HQ (US)
Directly from the authors (EU/World)
Tagged: book, colt turkey, larm
