"We've always been of the mind that it's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask for permission." --Eddie Spaghetti, The Supersuckers.

So begins We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut: 1988-2001 by Eric Davidson, whose name you may have seen on by-lines for succinct, sucker-punching articles in Village Voice media papers and on features in CMJ, and elsewhere. Or you may know him as a member of New Bomb Turks, one of the bands that kept underground, garage-fumed punk rock alive through the 90s pop punk boom-bust.

Davidson has spent years putting together this over-300 page Bible of the fecund underbelly of three chord, deviant American independent rawk, beginning with the death throes of 80s hardcore as bands like The Cynics and Death Of Samantha pushed noise from "loud, fast rules" to "loud, lo-fi blues." Remember walking into Fallout Records on Olive and seeing vinyl kept alive by bands like the Raunch Hands, Didjits, A-Bones, and Devil Dogs (among all the zines and comix and gnarly t-shirts)? Or when you went in to get the new Spinanes or Built To Spill CDs at the Sub Pop Mega Mart and saw Sub Pop and other labels releasing and distributing rare and obscure scuzzy sounds from Thee Headcoats, Dwarves, and Oblivians? "We Never Learn" comes with a paralyzing free CD sample of this no sell-out, no-surrender punk to soundtrack the history Davidson tells.

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Good news for people who like good new music: we have a new podcast, ready for you to download and enjoy. Woo hoo!

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This week's podcast features tracks from the Supersuckers, Brent Amaker & the Rodeo, lackthereof, The Old Haunts, Police Teeth, Autolite Strike, The Little Ones, Michael Zapruder, Ivan & Alyosha, William F. Gibbs, Brotherhood of Broken Hearts, Roger Goodman, Quiet by Ten, and Silverhawk.