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Kids of the Black Hole: Punk Rock Postsuburban California
Los Angeles rock generally conjures memories of surf music, The Doors, or Laurel Canyon folkies. But punk? L.A.'s punk scene, while not as notorious as that of New York City, emerged full-throated in 1977 and boasted bands like The Germs, X, and Black Flag. This book explores how, in the land of the Beach Boys, punk rock took hold.
As a teenager, Dewar MacLeod witnessed fir...more
As a teenager, Dewar MacLeod witnessed fir...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
November 15th 2010
by University of Oklahoma Press
(first published November 1st 2010)
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I like how MacLeod combines personal anecdotes with cultural analysis and music history to tell the story of the rise of SoCal punk rock in the late 70's/early 80's. Like me, MacLeod was there, and when he digresses into a personal sidebar about watching a young beach punk in a punch out with the Damned's Dave Vanian at the Whiskey one night, I felt that maybe here, once and for all, was a writer who could both capture and explain the draw of our shared subculture. Alas, MacLeod drops the ball w...more
barely 3. a look at punk in LA from 1976-1981, with a mix of not too overpowering academic writing (it's just a hundred and so pages) and personal anecdotes and interviews with zine makers, record shop owners, some punks, and a tiny little bit with the bands. this isn't " kill me" Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk or "voidoids" by a long shot, but if you are interested in so cal punk and hardcore it probably should be read. some good pics of the germs and black flag and beginhe...more
Library Journal Review:
Appropriately titled for an Adolescents song that describes an apartment for homeless punks in Fullerton, CA, this book explores a pivotal moment in both youth and punk culture. A bricolage of political British punk, art school New York punk, and Hollywood, the Los Angeles punk scene famously produced the Germs, X, and the Dils. While he highlights the emergence of this new musical style, MacLeod (history, William Paterson Univ.) also dissects the cultural fragmentation ta...more
Appropriately titled for an Adolescents song that describes an apartment for homeless punks in Fullerton, CA, this book explores a pivotal moment in both youth and punk culture. A bricolage of political British punk, art school New York punk, and Hollywood, the Los Angeles punk scene famously produced the Germs, X, and the Dils. While he highlights the emergence of this new musical style, MacLeod (history, William Paterson Univ.) also dissects the cultural fragmentation ta...more
An insightful sociological study about Southern California's unique punk legacy that will likely drive those looking for little more than "war stories" up the wall with it's dry, scholarly tone. Could have benefited from some more anecdotes, although I must confess that the lack of such is in some ways refreshing, and makes for a nice riposte to the myth-making of something like Blush's "American Hardcore" or "Who Dropped the Neutron Bomb?" That said, combine all three of the aformentioned tomes...more
Read this for my R&R history class. Written by the professor. Interesting stuff, I would imagine it would be fascinating to anyone who was involved in the late 70s LA punk scene.
Great review by Grace Krilanovich in the LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS:
http://lareviewofbooks.org/post/84652...
http://lareviewofbooks.org/post/84652...
Not really what i expected, but i think that was a marketing thing more than anything else. It was mostly an academic book about post-suburban california, with some bonus punk rock thrown in. I was hoping it would be the other way around, and i found its punk scholarship frustratingly incomplete.
(Needs moar Mike Ness.)
(Needs moar Mike Ness.)
Read my review of this book on the literary website Newpages.com:
http://www.newpages.com/bookreviews/2...
http://www.newpages.com/bookreviews/2...
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