Overview

For fans of Dan Ozzi's Sellout and Ben Mezrich's The Antisocial Network comes the true story of a Boston punk's efforts to fund a hardcore record label by hawking ""Yankees Suck"" merchandise in the streets. While the Boston Red Sox battle it out on the field in an attempt to finally win their first World Series title in nearly 90s years, the would-be punk music mogul and his raucous group of friends navigate newfound riches and delicate relationships with the Boston cops, competitors, a violent gang, and each other. For eighty-six years Boston Red Sox baseball fans lived in the shadow of their rivals, the New York Yankees, who more or less dominated the sport each season. Red Sox fans grew dejected as their team often got close, but ultimately would be eliminated from contention each year as New York went on to win yet another World Series championship. Author Chris Wrenn, a member of the Boston hardcore punk scene, had a dream of his own-to start his own record label. Embracing the do-it-yourself ethos of the scene, Chris set out to make it happen, networking and forging relationships with local bands. But such an endeavor required money he didn't have ... until he and his friends heard a familiar phrase echo out of Fenway Park, the home field of the Red Sox. The phrase ""Yankees Suck!"" was chanted at every single Red Sox game. Possessing the wherewithal to produce inexpensive merchandise and the free time to stake a claim to the sidewalks outside the baseball stadium, Chris and his crew of punks began a lucrative endeavor of selling ""Yankees Suck"" merchandise such as stickers and T-shirts to the fans. While navigating cops, competitors, a violent gang, and in-fighting within the crew, Wrenn and his friends turned Boston's rivalry with New York into ""six-figure summers,"" affording him the capital to launch Bridge Nine Records and bring local Boston hardcore bands including American Nightmare and Have Heart to stages worldwide just as the Red Sox got closer than ever to finally winning the World Series again. A rousing story of entrepreneurship and ingenuity that also reveals fresh insight into one of the most epic rivalries in sports history, Fenway Punk is a gripping read for both fans of punk music and readers of Ben Mezrich, Lizzy Goodman, and Chuck Klosterman.

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Reviews

""Fast, wild and scrappy, Chris Wrenn's improbable success story reminds us of how powerful the DIY spirit at the heart of hardcore remains. Fenway Punk is a bare-knuckled time capsule, an unabashed celebration of a time and place anyone who was a part of will remember forever. 'Jeter Drinks Wine Coolers.' Hell yes.""--Stewart O'Nan, author (with Stephen King) of Faithful and A Face in the Crowd

Author Information

Since his salad days as a teenage skateboarder, Chris Wrenn has focused on two tasks: releasing albums for his favorite bands, and finding unusual ways to pay for it. The indie record label that he started three decades ago in his college dorm room, Bridge Nine, has gained an international following by releasing over three hundred recordings from some of the most impactful bands in the punk music underground. At the same time, Sully s, the Beantown-centric brand that Chris founded with an initial goal: to earn the money needed to fund the record label, went from profiting on bitter sports rivalries to celebrating all things Boston. The slogan that he coined in the spring of 2004, Believe In Boston, has become a rallying cry embraced by all of the city s professional sports teams twenty years later. Chris and his wife Katherine live just north of Boston in Beverly, Massachusetts. Together they are raising a toddler and a teenager while also managing the day-to-day responsibilities of both brands. You can learn more about what Chris is up to next at www.ChrisWrenn.com.

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