This publication is an interview with punk rock dynamo Grace Ambrose, conducted on December 16, 2015.

It is one of a series of printed publications emerging from Hardcore Architecture, a project by Marc Fischer and Public Collectors that explores the relationship between the architecture of living spaces and the history of underground American hardcore bands in the 1980s.

From August 2014 to October 2017, Ambrose was the primary coordinator of Maximum RocknRoll (MRR), an iconic, often contentious publication whose founding year predated Ambrose's own birth by seven years. Grace took the helm of this legendary monthly DIY punk publication when she was barely in her mid-20s, moving across the country to San Francisco to begin her life as a “full-time professional punk.”

The interview details Ambrose's personal background and history as well as her experience at MRR, which was founded in 1977 by Tim Yohannan (1945-1998). As the magazine neared its 400th issue, its legacy was apparent: each monthly copy topped a hundred pages, with thousands of words and column upon column devoted to punk culture around the world. Surviving and even thriving during a period of hardship for most print publications, MRR's history mirrors the waves of interest in punk music itself. As a magazine about subculture printed continuously between 1982 and 2019, MRR also serves as an important source and evidentiary document of hardcore and punk history.

This booklet is a must for those interested in the mechanics of running an independent monthly magazine, punk history, radical history in San Francisco, and DIY publishing. Discussion of Tim Yohannon's ghost is also included, along with photographs and a diagram of MRR headquarters.

By Grace Ambrose, Marc Fischer, and Public Collectors

Published by Half Letter Press
First edition, 2016
Printed in an edition of 500

Softcover, 24 pages, two-color Risograph, and full color digital, 8.5 x 11 inches