Re/Search 4-5 | William S. Burroughs, Throbbing Gristle, and Brion Gysin

In an inspired touch, RE/Search publisher V. Vale brought together the work of groundbreaking novelist William Burroughs and avant-garde painter Brion Gysin (already linked by their collaborations in the "cut-up" method of artistic creation) with the founders of industrial music, Throbbing Gristle, for this seminal document of '80s underground culture. Originally published in 1982, the book combined "primary source interviews," in which subjects discuss advanced ideas involving the social control process, creativity, and the future; scarce essays; rare fiction excerpts; bibliographies; discographies; and biographies. The book quickly became a celebrated addition to RE/Search's notorious list and to the canon of '80s subculture. This expanded edition contains previously unpublished interviews with Burroughs, Gysin, and Throbbing Gristle by V. Vale; a new article on Throbbing Gristle with photographs; unseen photographs of Burroughs; and much more to satisfy both the Burroughs, Gysin, and Gristle completist and anyone who wants to make sense of the kinds of cultural assaults they embodied. Edited by V. Vale.

About V. Vale and RE/Search

Possibly the ONLY surviving 70s punk publisher who never quit, V. Vale’s RE/Search continues to provide ‘Against-the-Status-Quo’ publications that stimulate the imagination and optimistic skepticism.

Vale has been doing counterculture publishing since 1977, when he founded the Punk tabloid, Search & Destroy, San Francisco’s first. It was published at City Lights Bookstore, where V. Vale worked, and was funded by $100 each from Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg. Then in 1980, V. Vale launched RE/SEARCH, which is best known for its impact on the total world of underground culture.

In the early years RE/SEARCH gained international attention by introducing the world to artists such as William S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Genesis P-Orridge, SPK, Monte Cazazza, and many others. RE/SEARCH has continued to remain vital in its lengthy history by refusing to adhere to a formula for an easily identifiable “Punk Culture.” Its best-selling books include The Industrial Culture Handbook (which inspired 10,000 “noise music” bands), Incredibly Strange Films (little-known filmmakers), Incredibly Strange Music Vol. One and Two (little-known vinyl LPs), Modern Primitives (which launched the body-piercing underground), Pranks (and its follow-up, Pranks 2), Zines Vol. One and Two, Modern Pagans, and many more.

RE/SEARCH has remained at the same address in San Francisco since 1979. Aside from being a book/magazine publisher, it is also a mail-order company selling its own wares, which include underground T-shirts, books, DVDs, music, and other merchandise. With Marian Wallace, RE/Search has produced specialty videos (notably, on J.G. Ballard and W.S. Burroughs) and done live presentations, panels and workshops all over the world.

Non-Stop Punk Rock, Black Humor, Anti-Authority, Provocative Publishing by V. Vale—A Cultural ReMapping Project; Punk is a Lifetime Philosophical Outlook!