About
J-Card is an independent publishing company with one focus: to produce short biographies of the best alternative, indie rock, hip-hop, and riot grrrl groups of the past twenty to thirty years.
Why "J-card"? It's the folded paper insert tucked behind a cassette's plastic window — spine on one side, liner notes on the other. Every J-Card title is built the same way: pocket-sized, and just long enough to tell the whole story.
Our books are not listicles or clickbait blog entries cobbled together from press releases. They're also not academic think pieces or a purely critical take on just a band's recorded output.
Each biography covers the entire arc of a group's career: how they formed, why they're important, and how they fit into both their regional scene and a larger historical context.
Founder & editor
J-Card was founded in 2023 by author and former publishing executive Jeff Gomez. His books include the novel Our Noise (Scribner, 1995), There Was No Alternative, Math Rock for Bloomsbury’s 33⅓ series, and J-Card’s own Sammy.
Every band has a story. J-Card tells a few each year.