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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
I was hoping this was going to be a history of X, but it is more of an LA Scene report--which is not bad, in fact it allows for a certain truth that I had not heard before...
Lots of stuff on the early scene--including Go-Go's which is great. Each chapter has a different author who tells basically the same story--you know, the same old Hippie story ... early idealism was corrupted to drugs ... and intolerance ... and crushed by outsiders. boo-hoo... You know, LA Punk was brilliant and great and edgy and inclusive and different from London and New York and yadda-yadda-yadda until the evil knuckle dragging OC idiots show up...this regurgitaed narrative goes on and on from various different perspectives until the OUTSIDERS Speak!
By allowing TSOL and Black Flag to tell their side of the story this book becomes VERY interesting--because their side is the honest pure side that punk was allegedly about--plus Rollins and Grisham are just better writers then the other authors...tellingly, the final frame, from the Blasters point of view backstage before going on stage to open for Black Flag make it very clear that OC did not destroy a scene rather Orange County Hardcore kept a scene accountable--and if that meant the destruction of some important community centers and stuff then so be it.
Recommended to LA music fans--John Doe is just fun to listen to--and people curious about where punk went wrong...
Lots of stuff on the early scene--including Go-Go's which is great. Each chapter has a different author who tells basically the same story--you know, the same old Hippie story ... early idealism was corrupted to drugs ... and intolerance ... and crushed by outsiders. boo-hoo... You know, LA Punk was brilliant and great and edgy and inclusive and different from London and New York and yadda-yadda-yadda until the evil knuckle dragging OC idiots show up...this regurgitaed narrative goes on and on from various different perspectives until the OUTSIDERS Speak!
By allowing TSOL and Black Flag to tell their side of the story this book becomes VERY interesting--because their side is the honest pure side that punk was allegedly about--plus Rollins and Grisham are just better writers then the other authors...tellingly, the final frame, from the Blasters point of view backstage before going on stage to open for Black Flag make it very clear that OC did not destroy a scene rather Orange County Hardcore kept a scene accountable--and if that meant the destruction of some important community centers and stuff then so be it.
Recommended to LA music fans--John Doe is just fun to listen to--and people curious about where punk went wrong...
Here is the author reading an excerpt with a lot of noise in the background. I enjoyed this set of memoirs from the early punk era in LA, excepting the piece by Jack Grisham of TSOL, who was just too far for me, being an unrepentant criminal in his memory. I found this interesting, because I really liked his piece in More Fun in the New World. Anyway, cool stories, if you're into that.
https://youtu.be/5h2YADuHtxo
https://youtu.be/5h2YADuHtxo
A wonderful book and collection of essays. I knew some of the stories, but learned a lot and having them all synthesized together was really impactful. I highly recommend the audiobook as the writers/narrators are incredible. It's really given me pause to recollect the "moments in history" that I've been a part of, whether I was aware of their temporal nature or not.
The audiobook of this is one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to. The original voices reading their stories, including famous people like Jane and Charlotte from the Go-Gos, and not so famous people like Chris D. from Slash/Flesh Eaters and Pleasant Gehman. I loved how it represented the female, gay, and latino contingent of punk. The two guys who came off the worst were henry rollins and jack grisham. Their nihilistic macho trip is so tired. I cried at the end of Mike Watt's - thirty years later and you can still hear how broken hearted he is about d. boon's death.
This is a series of people, each describing the first wave of the LA punk scene from their own perspective.
It's not a history, it's not a chronology.
At the same time it somewhat repeated itself without actually being particularly informative.
It mostly feels like they're saying "you'd have to have been there to understand". Some contributors are better than others, Henry Rollins is great as always. Others mostly list bands.
It does describe the atmosphere, the unity, the spirit, but it doesn't make you feel part of it.
It's not a history, it's not a chronology.
At the same time it somewhat repeated itself without actually being particularly informative.
It mostly feels like they're saying "you'd have to have been there to understand". Some contributors are better than others, Henry Rollins is great as always. Others mostly list bands.
It does describe the atmosphere, the unity, the spirit, but it doesn't make you feel part of it.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
funny
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
I listened to the audio book and hearing the voices of all of the punk heroines and heroes of my youth tell their stories was like listening to a dream. Each contributor told their story, or stories, in their own way and own voice.
There's not much new information in this if you've read other material about Los Angeles punk rock [We've Got the Neutron Bomb is really recommended], but this book of a collection of essays by people from that era is still worth your time. A bunch of people write personal essays of their memories--Doe does numerous but Henry Rollins, Jane Wiedlin, Dave Alvin, Mike Watt and a bunch of other people write a single essay. What ramped this up for me was it was an audio book, so it was each person reading their own essay. That made the book even better.