030 Will York on San Francisco Post-Punk

On this episode, Marc talks with Will York, author of “Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco and the End of the Analog Age,” published in April 2023. It’s a thorough and fascinating history of underground music in San Francisco, from the punk scene at Mahubey Gardens, to the post-punk craziness of Flipper, to the art rock of Tuxedomoon and the Residents, to the weirdness of Thinking Fellers, Caroliner, and Amarillo Records, to the massive success of Faith No More. Will captures San Francisco at a time when truly creative freaks were drawn there, could survive there, and changed the course of underground music.

As Will writes, “With the benefit of hindsight, it’s possible to detect premonitions of things to come…as if they could sense that this was somehow a last gasp for a certain age of humanity. Yet instead of fear and loathing, the overriding mood was one of desperation and urgency. To paraphrase Flipper’s Bruce Loose, “It was the dance to the death at the end of the world.”

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Will York!