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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
Many voices telling their tales of the early days of LA punk. Well worth the read.
So, so so Great!
I'm so glad @wilwheaton recommended it and the audio version at that. 99% of the contributors had interesting and profound things to say about this time and did it so well. Some write better than they read but that's to be expected. Just listen for content, not professional tone and modulation. And I'm so surprised they can all remember so much from these crazy days!
I was not in LA in the late 70s or early 80s when this is centered but got to San Diego in 84 and could see a lot of what the authors mention as how things were changed or changing by that time.
Blast from the past is right. Nostalgic in all the right ways. Good mix of collaborators. Only music included is X and it would be nice if there had been other excerpts by each band but oh well.
If listening, stay till the very, very end! ;-)
I'm so glad @wilwheaton recommended it and the audio version at that. 99% of the contributors had interesting and profound things to say about this time and did it so well. Some write better than they read but that's to be expected. Just listen for content, not professional tone and modulation. And I'm so surprised they can all remember so much from these crazy days!
I was not in LA in the late 70s or early 80s when this is centered but got to San Diego in 84 and could see a lot of what the authors mention as how things were changed or changing by that time.
Blast from the past is right. Nostalgic in all the right ways. Good mix of collaborators. Only music included is X and it would be nice if there had been other excerpts by each band but oh well.
If listening, stay till the very, very end! ;-)
one of the most intense, but best, books i have ever read. really wanting to find the audiobook after seeing the reviews here.
This book is a collection of short histories by the people who were there, along with some great photos from the time. Better still is the audio book, where each of the authors reads their own section - telling their story. Combining the two - awesome!
John Doe writes (and narrates) the majority of the chapters, and they do a nice job of covering history from early LA punk - from glam to hardcore. This sets the scene for the other authors - Dave Alvin, Charlotte Caffey, Exene Cervenka, Teresa Covarrubias, Pleasant Gehman, Jack Grisham, Robert Lopez (aka El Vez), Kristine McKenna, Chris Morris, Henry Rollins, Mike Watt, and Jane Wiedlin.
If you have *any* interest at all in this subject or this music, go get the book and the audiobook (probably both available at the library) and dig in!
John Doe writes (and narrates) the majority of the chapters, and they do a nice job of covering history from early LA punk - from glam to hardcore. This sets the scene for the other authors - Dave Alvin, Charlotte Caffey, Exene Cervenka, Teresa Covarrubias, Pleasant Gehman, Jack Grisham, Robert Lopez (aka El Vez), Kristine McKenna, Chris Morris, Henry Rollins, Mike Watt, and Jane Wiedlin.
If you have *any* interest at all in this subject or this music, go get the book and the audiobook (probably both available at the library) and dig in!
informative
reflective
fast-paced
This book was pretty good. It definitely suffered from a lack of editing. I get maintaining the tone and conversational vibe of each author’s voice but damn there were a lot of spelling mistakes, shorthand contractions, etc. that took away from the reading for me. This anthology is also hard to rate because some of these chapters were literally fundamentally changing what I thought music should be and what the punk scene is and others felt… just kinda name drop-y and boring and not especially well written and compelling. The good certainly outweighs the bad though and I really enjoyed reading this book
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Car accident, Alcohol
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
dark
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I listened to the audio of this title since all the participants read their sections. The book makes a good case for L.A. being as important a punk scene as London and NYC.
Since this one has multiple authors, the quality is fairly variable. Made me want to listen to the Go-Go's again.