Daniel Sinker, Editor: We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet, The Collected Interviews

Some punk fans seem so obsessed with the appearance and impropriety of "selling out" that they cynically frown on any risks or deviance from the punk party line, lest they accidentally lose face. In many ways, the six-year-old Punk Planet was created as a response to that myopic position. Unlike Maximum Rocknroll, Punk Planet doesn't come across as especially concerned with punk purity. Instead, as editor Daniel Sinker writes in the forward to We Owe You Nothing, the magazine aimed to ask "why?" rather than blindly declare "because." Punk Planet's dedication to independent music of all sorts as well as politics makes it worth regularly reading, but for anyone new to the publication, We Owe You Nothing collects some of its best interviews from the past half-decade. The title phrase comes from Fugazi, paragon of punk integrity, so it's fitting that the book opens with an interview with Fugazi's Ian MacKaye. The collection is divided into sections, and MacKaye is placed alongside the likes of Jello Biafra, Kathleen Hanna, and Thurston Moore in the category of "Punk's Trailblazers." The remainder of We Owe You Nothing possesses a similarly stinging sense of immediacy, applied to enjoyable and intelligent discussions with Steve Albini and Chumbawamba, as well as artists (Frank Kozik), academics (Noam Chomsky), and activists (The Central Ohio Abortion Access Fund). That last interview in particular, as well as an equally political feature on the sanctions against Iraq, serves as a reminder that punk is not just music but a movement, and that any activity that falls outside of the mainstream can be construed as punk, purple hair or no. That virtually no publications make radical politics as accessible as Punk Planet shows how important the magazine's voice has become, and We Owe You Nothing offers an easy, compact way to catch up.