Trouser Press

Disclaimer: Ira Robbins, the longtime editor of Trouser Press magazine, is an old and dear friend, and I slept on his couch for a week when he lived in Queens; he resides in Brooklyn now. From 1974 to 1984, Robbins published Trouser Press, which specialized in British Invasion rock, glam, prog and punk, with an emphasis on indie-label and import records. In 1983, Robbins published The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records, which he revised for three subsequent editions; he also published The Trouser Press Guide to ’90s Rock in 1997. This site contains all the content from those guides. The entries were penned by a number of writers, and Robbins hasn’t engaged in any historical revisionism here; the original entries stand as they were written—even for new-wave and synth-pop bands we now perceive as cheesy. This is a fine online destination for those curious about the alt-rock revolution.