Filmmaker David Markey Discusses Recently Uncovered Onstage Footage From Nirvana’s Final L.A. Show
WE GOT POWER! Book Author Talks L.A. Punk and Seattle Grunge
Filmmaker David Markey was recently interviewed by Seattle Sounds about his freshly released unique onstage footage of Nirvana’s last show in Los Angeles, shot on December 30th 1993. Footage by the 1991: The Year Punk Broke director quickly went viral after release. Besides going into detail about his time spent traveling with Nirvana before and after their massive breakthrough, Markey discusses touring with Nirvana and Sonic Youth in Europe, his hardcover hardcore history book WE GOT POWER!: Hardcore Punk Scenes From 1980s Southern California,and more.
The entire conversation can be heard at this location.
Markey’s essential photo book We Got Power!: Hardcore Punk Scenes from 1980s Southern California, co-authored by Jordan Schwartz, is available from Bazillion Points.
The early years of Nirvana are also documented in the new book Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe, 1989 by Sub Pop Records co-founder Bruce Pavitt.
“[WE GOT POWER!] is vital to understanding the birth of American punk rock…an essential addition to the history of a movement…” ~ Los Angeles Times
“Essential reading…the funniest of the local mags…” ~ Matt Groening
As teenagers in 1981, David Markey and his best friend Jordan Schwartz founded We Got Power, a fanzine dedicated to the first-generation hardcore punk music community in their native Los Angeles. Their text and cameras captured the early punk spirit of Black Flag, the Minutemen, Social Distortion, Red Cross/Redd Kross, Suicidal Tendencies, the Descendents, White Flag, the Last, the Gun Club, Saccharine Trust, Sin 34, Nip Drivers, Circle One, M.D.C., Big Boys, Youth Brigade, D.R.I., the Butthole Surfers, Firehose, and many others at the height of their precocious punk powers.
In the process, the duo’s amazing photographs also captured the dilapidated suburbs, abandoned storefronts, and dereliction of the early Reagan era ~ a rubble-strewn social apocalypse that demanded a youth uprising! Never before seen except in crude fanzine form, these detailed and richly narrative photos are now collected to present an intimate portrayal of a uniquely fertile creative moment.
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