Punk Ethnography

I am one of several contributors to a brand new book Punk Ethnography: Artists & Scholars Listen to Sublime Frequencies, edited by Micheal E. Veal and E. Tammy Kim. Brothers Alan and Richard Bishop (who co-founded the punk rock trio Sun City Girls) and filmmaker Hisham Mayet founded the Seattle-based Sublime Frequencies label in 2003 to catalog and release music the three were discovering and recording in their travels throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia. However, unlike well-known "world music" record labels such as Nonesuch and Smithsonian Folkways, Sublime Frequencies’ releases have always provided a radical alternative to conventional and established ethnomusicology practices. Punk Ethnography explores some of the thornier issues surrounding the label, including cultural appropriation and the ethics of intellectual property, while charting the impact of the label through listener interviews and critical commentary.

Later this month, I'll be interviewing Veal and Kim for this blog. I've interviewed Veal before about his incredible book Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae, which you can read here.