Brian Gorsegner

Ancient Artifax [Book] (2024)

John Gentile

Review by ricky Frankel If you have found yourself scrolling through the punk side of Instagram in the last eight or so years, you have probably come across Ancient Artifax at some point. The account is run by former Night Birds frontman Brian Gorsegner and the posts usually entail some amazing finds from when punk and hardcore were still relatively young. Old school t-shirts, original show fliers and setlists, and original pressings of absolute classic records are either posted for show or for sale on the account. Some of the items on there are absolutely mind-blowing. Now Brian has taken the next step with Ancient Artifax and released a book with the same title.

By digging through the collections of some of East Coast hardcore’s biggest names, Gorsegner managed put together an incredibly impressive book here. Ancient Artifacts features photos of some unearthed gems that belong to John Brannon (Negative Approach), Todd Swalla (Necros), Brian Baker (Minor Threat), Michael Hampton (SOA, The Faith, Embrace), Denise Mercedes (The Stimulators), Jesse Malin (Heart Attack), and so many more. Just to highlight a few items that are shown in the book, it includes an original show flier for Negative Approach with The Meatmen and Minor Threat opening, Nathan Strejeck’s home made Teen Idles jacket, John Brannon’s punk badge collection, Minor Threat’s set list from the band’s second show at The Underheard Music Festival, and Dave Grohl’s fan letter to Necros on a flashcard.

But what makes Ancient Artifacts extra special is how much commentary through the book for each item from the owners themselves, which adds so much more context to what you see on each page. The stories and explanations really bring each page to life. And for the record, it isn’t just a sentence or two. There are plenty of multi-paragraph narratives that take you through the stories behind the artifacts.

On the physical side of things, the quality of Ancient Artifax is top notch. It’s a very sturdy hardcover with a collage of different album art and show fliers from the early East Coast hardcore era for the jacket. The actual cover behind it is a white with blue fold-stamped cover of the Ancient Artifax logo, which looks and feels awesome. And finally, the pages are high gloss with photos that are incredibly high resolution. I have to reiterate that the quality is really pretty amazing.

At just under 250 pages Ancient Artifax is a fantastic achievement especially when you consider that it all started from an Instagram account. For punk history fans, I would always recommend Edward Colver’s 2006 photography book Blight At The End Off The Funnel, but now I have to add Ancient Artifax, too.