“This is an extremely important and long-overdue analysis of the work of three key American artists. Cary Levine sets up a seductive context—his discussion of the alternative music scene of the 1970s is nothing if not a compelling form of music journalism—so that he can then drag us through the literal and metaphorical gore and excrescences of the artists’ actual output. The latter is both a harrowing and a pleasurable experience—we learn to ‘pay for our pleasures’ willingly and with gratitude.”

Colin Gardner, University of California, Santa Barbara

 “Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, and Raymond Pettibon never constituted a movement, but starting in the late 1970s they worked separately as well as collaboratively to break the mold of conceptually driven image and object making in Southern California—and then extended their convention-shattering reach across the United States and the Atlantic Ocean. Wreaking havoc with the cultural politics of ‘High and Low’ and the gender politics of traditional masculinity and femininity, this rambunctious threesome—at times augmented by friends such as Tony Oursler—rejuvenated American art by injecting it with the dark, furious humor and formal anarchy of minds freed from the hopeful illusions of the 1960s. Cary Levine admirably explores the background of this radical shift in the music, art, and social sciences of the late twentieth century. His is a valuable contribution to the growing literature on a current that still flows forcefully against the mainstream—and around the world.”

Robert Storr, Dean, Yale University School of Art