Noise Levels zine – issue 11 – Punx Picnic

Luke Bartolo, the brains and heart behind the Noise Levels Project, has now produced a book/zine , celebrating the Punx Picnic, one of Australia’s longest running punk traditions.

For those of you dipping into the Noise Levels project for the first time via this book, you will quickly learn about this unique archival project that seeks to document the histories of Australian bands through interviews, collation of historical material, and preservation of music, flyers, and other material associated with the alternative music counter culture of the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s.

This oral history of the Sydney Punx Picnic functions as Issue #11 of the ongoing zine series, notably being a glossy, full colour A5 book! Very impressive in its comprehensive coverage of the Punx Picnic, this publication has benefited from the generosity of the many people from the DIY / punk and local music community who provided ephemera, pictures and memories to this project. This is well captured in the very full list of thank you and credits at the back of the book.

Check out the website at noiselevelsau.blogspot.com and the new Noise Levels Substack!

About Noise Levels: Noise Levels is an archival project that aims to collect and preserve Sydney alternative music (with a focus on Western Sydney/Blue Mountains and surrounds) from the late 1980s to 2000s for everyone to revisit and enjoy.

Created by Luke Bortolo, the project was started with ‘a desire to document the many great bands who had thrived in the Penrith/Blue Mountains scene in the 90’s and 00’s.’ In doing this, he ‘began to realise how interconnected a lot of these bands were’ and soon was exploring the histories of bands across Sydney and into regional scenes such as Hornsby, Wollongong, Campbelltown, Fairfield, and Greater Western Sydney.