Some New Kind of Kick: A Memoir

Powers, cofounder of the punk group the Gun Club, debuts with an inharmonious memoir of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. As a queer Mexican American living in La Puente, Calif., in the 1970s, he got into the punk scene, drawn in by the Ramones, whose flaws, Powers writes, emphasized their humanity. By the time Powers was 18, he had “taken drugs, had anonymous sex, hung out with rock ’n’ roll bands, and earned [his] stripes in street smarts.” But it was only after after Lydia Lunch of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks encouraged him to pick up a guitar that he began making his own music. On a night out at Whisky a Go Go, Powers befriended Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who suggested they start a band. The group became the Gun Club, which belted out a miasmic blend of rockabilly, the blues, and country. An invitation to join the Cramps in late 1980 convinced him to leave the Gun Club, and he later joined up with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Along the way, Powers careens between self-confidence and self-doubt, losing himself to drugs and battling imposter syndrome. Maybe Powers can be forgiven for the meandering prose, unmoored narrative, and murky timeline; as he admits, his fate “was never to look at anything without an eye askew.” Despite the bumps, fans of early punk rock will revel in this pungent evocation of the scene. Agent: Matthew Hamilton, Hamilton Agency. (Oct.)