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Punk Houses Defy All Things Mainstream

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By PENELOPE GREEN, The New York Times

Published: January 15, 2008

There are certain things you can count on in a punk house. A killer name: Anarchtica, Scribble Squat, Firebreathing Kangaroo. Bikes and skateboards. Homemade tattoos. A tattered photocopy of "Soy, Not 'Oi!,'" the vegan anarchist's "Joy of Cooking."

Guests are always welcome in a punk house, if they follow the rules. "Don't be a jerk," reads a sign in one.

The punk house might be a trailer, a van, a warehouse or a bus. There are lots of treehouses and more than a few squats. The old anarchist's dictum - all property is theft - is part and parcel of the punk house mind-set, which is lovingly chronicled in a new book of photographs by artist Abby Banks. Banks, 29, found all 42 houses in "Punk House: Interiors in Anarchy" (Abrams Image, $27.50) the same way: by phoning a few friends.

The punk house is a curious and sometimes beautiful habitat, the expression of a music scene and do-it-yourself culture that went underground decades ago in an attempt to opt out of just about everything that smacked of mainstream: cities, clubs, bars, alcohol, processed foods, agribusiness and record companies, for example, not to mention all media larger than a photocopied zine. With its roots in old-fashioned counterculture communes, the punk house is a multifunctional dwelling: typically a place for like-minded males in their 20s to live and to make and hear music. This is not to say there aren't all-female punk houses or ones with girls living among the boys. As with punk itself, the punk house eludes a tidy definition. "Punk Is (Whatever We Made It to Be)" is a song from the Minutemen, a 1980s punk band.

"It's just a completely liberated aesthetic," said Thurston Moore, a member of the art-house alt-punk band Sonic Youth who helped Banks find a publisher and contributed an essay to the book.

You won't find many punk houses in major urban areas because, as Moore explained, "You don't go to the media eye of New York or Los Angeles to achieve success." Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to live a punk life in areas with costly real estate.

Bands on tour are more likely to perform in basements and living rooms. There's a preponderance of acoustic guitars: Big amps might spook the neighbors.

Moore's successes are more commercial. In his essay, he writes of his experience walking into a legendary punk house in Minneapolis wearing a nice parka and sneakers, and was promptly sneered at.

Though she was once in a thrash-punk band called Vomit Dichotomy, Banks has never lived in a punk house, but she has an enormous appetite for the aesthetic. "It's self-expression in the living space, not just on their bodies," she said, noting that punk house interiors are logocentric. As with T-shirts or tattoos, they contain lots of writing - hortatory, descriptive, diaristic - on walls, stoves and toilets.

"I'm so goth I'm dead" is inscribed on a wall of a punk house in Minneapolis. "Dead witnesses tell no tales" is on a toilet in another.

Banks grew up in a tidy 1920s bungalow in Claremont, Calif. Her mother is a city planner; her father a psychology professor and aerobics instructor who was into all kinds of music, including punk. "It was more than acceptable in our house to blast the Ramones," she said.

She had always made art but never a photograph until one day after art school, when she had an epiphany. She had been drifting, she said, working as a maid and dog walker. She had friends at The Fourth Street House, a punk house in San Pedro, Calif. There was a show there one day; dueling bands were playing the kitchen and living room and passing the mic back and forth.

The house was about to be sold, and its distinctive flourishes - the casket outside, the skate ramp - dismantled.

"I wanted to document it before it went away," said Banks, explaining that despite their hoary history, many punk houses are ephemeral. "I just think they're really important and beautiful. For some people, it will be their lifestyle forever, but for others it's just a phase."

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