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6th out of 135 books
—
41 voters
We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk
Taking us back to late ’70s and early ’80s Hollywood—pre-crack, pre-AIDS, pre-Reagan—We Got the Neutron Bomb re-creates word for word the rage, intensity, and anarchic glory of the Los Angeles punk scene, straight from the mouths of the scenesters, zinesters, groupies, filmmakers, and musicians who were there.
“California was wide-open sex—no condoms, no birth control, no m...more
“California was wide-open sex—no condoms, no birth control, no m...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
November 13th 2001
by Three Rivers Press
(first published January 1st 2001)
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This list emerges when I play California punk rock word association:
Black Flag
SST records
X
Flipper
The Dead Kennedys
Some other bands
The Decline of Western Civilization
The Minutemen
I don't mean to be all name-droppy. I've learned my musical knowledge, of which I'm pathetically and unreasonably proud, is incomplete to the point of embarrassment. I was too young (yay!) for most of the classic punk years and have spent decades hearing grandma and granpa scenesters five or six years older than...more
Black Flag
SST records
X
Flipper
The Dead Kennedys
Some other bands
The Decline of Western Civilization
The Minutemen
I don't mean to be all name-droppy. I've learned my musical knowledge, of which I'm pathetically and unreasonably proud, is incomplete to the point of embarrassment. I was too young (yay!) for most of the classic punk years and have spent decades hearing grandma and granpa scenesters five or six years older than...more
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One of three great oral histories of punk I've read. This one focuses on the L.A. scene, which is usually downplayed, if not completely disregarded altogether in punk histories. Overall, it supports the broad characterization of the NYC scene as artsy/intellectual (Patti Smith/Television), the London scene as political (The Clash), and the L.A. scene as fun (The Weirdos).
The really interesting thing about this book is that it reveals how the L.A. punk scene emerged from the glam (or “glitter”)...more
The really interesting thing about this book is that it reveals how the L.A. punk scene emerged from the glam (or “glitter”)...more
The subtitle of this book is, The Untold Story of LA Punk. It is an oral history of the LA punk movement in the 70's and 80's--a parallel to the NY book Please Kill Me.
If you have seen the movie, The Mayor Sunset Strip, about Rodney Bingenheimer you will be familiar with some of the main characters at the beginning of the movement--Bingenheimer and Kim Fowley.
I think after reading this I should finally try and see The Decline of Western Civilization.
If you have seen the movie, The Mayor Sunset Strip, about Rodney Bingenheimer you will be familiar with some of the main characters at the beginning of the movement--Bingenheimer and Kim Fowley.
I think after reading this I should finally try and see The Decline of Western Civilization.
This book gave a decent history of LA punk via an oral history route, interviewing musicians and scene-people, including the good (Rodney Bingenheimer) and the ugly (Kim Fowley). It started with a nice history of mid-70s glam venues, the development of Rodney's radio show, and the history of The Runaways. It went on to cover all the usual suspects (Germs; X; The Screamers; Black Flag), and give a good history of The Go-gos, moving on to the ugliness of Orange County/ Huntington Beach macho hardc...more
We Got The Neutron Bomb is a great oral history of the early L.A. punk scene. It’s kind of the L.A. vrersion of Please Kill Me. It’s just as entertaining, too. Crazy stories abound and you get to read about all the killer bands. People from X, The Blasters, The Flesh Eaters, Black Randy & The Metrosquad, The Germs, The Screamers, The Weirdos, etc. weigh in with their memories of the times. There is a photo at the beginning of each chapter, which means there aren't a lot of photos. For that r...more
We’ve Got The Neutron Bomb was written in 2001 by journalists Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen. (Mullen -- the proprietor of early L.A. punk venue The Masque -- pervades, perhaps justifiably, popular literature on the history of California punk. No, seriously. He is everywhere). The book is essentially a compilation of interview snippets, many of which are original and some of which have been pulled from earlier interviews. The interviewees consist of the usual cast of L.A. punk characters, includi...more
Yet another reminder that those on the front lines were mostly a bunch of strung out lunkheads. Like a less comprehensive/important addendum to "Please Kill Me," this oral history covers much of the same ground (Iggy was an embarrassment, Bowie was a carpetbagger) along with descriptions of LA's major players like The Runaways, X, the Go-Gos and the Germs (Black Flag, listed on the cover, aren't mentioned until 200+ pages). This book can be boiled down to the following few pointless tidbits: som...more
A companion piece to its New York counterpart "Please Kill Me," "We've Got The Neutron Bomb" is comprised entirely of interviews with scenesters, groupies, hangers-on, wanna-be's, and, oh yeah, the musicians who were actually there in L.A. between roughly 1970 until 1981, when, as this tome opines, the whole scene imploded with the signing of The Go-Go's to I.R.S. and the birth of MTV. Of particular interest, to me anyway, is the theory that Jim Morrison was the original punk, tales of drunken a...more
I've long been a fan of the NYC punk scene of the 1970s. It had a literate, yet fun, aspect to it, and frankly, there were a lot of great 'pop' songs that came out of that scene. The oral history book, Please Kill Me, is one of my favorites.
When it comes to L.A. punk, I've never given it much thought. The very idea immediately conjures Bad Religion, Black Flag, etc. Stuff that I'm not all that into.
My buddy Slim loaned me this book though, and I was really delighted to find out what a kind of i...more
When it comes to L.A. punk, I've never given it much thought. The very idea immediately conjures Bad Religion, Black Flag, etc. Stuff that I'm not all that into.
My buddy Slim loaned me this book though, and I was really delighted to find out what a kind of i...more
I liked the book and thought the timeline of events covered was good, but a few things bugged me:
1. I wanted more photos and flyers.
2. Was it that hard to identify people when they were first quoted? I had to keep flipping back to the sort of cast list in the back. Super irritating.
3. Brendan Mullen's (RIP) quotes were way too rock critic-y and flowery. I think they may have been lifted from his LA Weekly work, but the guy was there. Couldn't he have just talked about it like a normal human bein...more
1. I wanted more photos and flyers.
2. Was it that hard to identify people when they were first quoted? I had to keep flipping back to the sort of cast list in the back. Super irritating.
3. Brendan Mullen's (RIP) quotes were way too rock critic-y and flowery. I think they may have been lifted from his LA Weekly work, but the guy was there. Couldn't he have just talked about it like a normal human bein...more
Before they were the Go Go's, Belinda Carlisle et al were wild little punkettes (and some of them were drug addicts!). That's one of the interesting tidbits that you'll pick up from reading this very interesting account of the early LA punk scene. I was never much into LA punk so for me this book was a fount of fascinating new knowledge.
The only criticism that I have of the book is it's really just a collection of quotes, organized into chapters. I prefer more of a "in the author's own words" st...more
The only criticism that I have of the book is it's really just a collection of quotes, organized into chapters. I prefer more of a "in the author's own words" st...more
As an oral history, this could have been meatier. It's chopped up into small, focused chapters of a few pages each. For such a diverse and interesting scene, this book could definitely have been longer. But I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. The early LA punk scene was more open to women and queers than other punk scenes, and for better or worse it kinda arose in a vacuum unto itself. And then hardcore came around and white dudes from Orange County decided that they would vent their...more
Even though I'm using "Boston Not LA" as my Goodreads icon/avatar/profile pic/whatever, I've never really had any particular dislike for the LA punk scene. I'm nice like that.
I'm glad this book exists, and the authors have a point that the LA scene doesn't get the accolades that the NYC or London scenes have traditionally received. Unfortunately after reading the book I've come to the conclusion that even given the diminished expectations LA didn't have anywhere as interesting a scene as NYC, a...more
I'm glad this book exists, and the authors have a point that the LA scene doesn't get the accolades that the NYC or London scenes have traditionally received. Unfortunately after reading the book I've come to the conclusion that even given the diminished expectations LA didn't have anywhere as interesting a scene as NYC, a...more
Really entertaining and thought provoking, funny and sad. Punks in their own words, decades after the scene's peak. My only complaint is that this book's target audience is clearly only people already 'in the know.' I'm sure I missed a lot of references, and there were gaps in the narrative left to be filled by the reader's own previous understanding of the subject, or simply left unfilled. But it put an incredibly important phenomenon, one the continues today despite the mass-commercialization...more
Apr 03, 2012
Ed Wagemann
added it
Why Everything You Think You Know About Punk Is Completely Wrong:
http://generation-add.blogspot.com/20...
http://generation-add.blogspot.com/20...
i bought this becuase i was so bored one day with nothing to do. i guess i was waiting around for someone. so i went to rhino records and bought this a few days before christmas.
i never knew a whole lot about the l.a. punk scene or even punk music for that matter and i felt that it has been calling me all my life. so i purchased it, sat down at my work and began to read it.
to my surprise it was a very interesting book and and a pretty easy read. i learned things like how jim morrison is the godf...more
i never knew a whole lot about the l.a. punk scene or even punk music for that matter and i felt that it has been calling me all my life. so i purchased it, sat down at my work and began to read it.
to my surprise it was a very interesting book and and a pretty easy read. i learned things like how jim morrison is the godf...more
I was late to the punk scene in L.A. as I was just a kid, but I obsessively scanned the L.A. weekly and desperately wanted to hit Madame Wong's, Raji's and Rodney's. The bouncers were all smart enough to keep me out. Having said that, I was on the periphery as a fascinated little punk hanger-on. We Got the Neutron Bomb makes me feel a little bit closer to the middle. Loved it.
Has alot of exclusive LA punkers that you'd expect to find in a Pizzeria these days and/or a bar.
Goes as far as the Quote: "Thrash Bash" of LA covering alot of the obscurity of the Dils, deeply into the Germs story, X's deal, briefly on Black Flag, Fear, Circle Jerks, Weirdos...
Gives you a chunk of sand with specks of information into the LA world...
Goes as far as the Quote: "Thrash Bash" of LA covering alot of the obscurity of the Dils, deeply into the Germs story, X's deal, briefly on Black Flag, Fear, Circle Jerks, Weirdos...
Gives you a chunk of sand with specks of information into the LA world...
The best book on the LA punk era, gives you the specific quality and the players in that small but seminal scene. this was invaluable to me as I worked on my novel Paint It Black. RIP Brendan Mullen, the co-author of the book and promoter and ringmaster of the Masque, the playpen Omphalos of the punk world in Los Angeles.
There was some good stuff in here, but I was left feeling pretty frustrated and disappointed by most of it. I felt like it was just scratching the surface of what was going on, and found it very disjointed. It's no "Please Kill Me," I'll say that.
I read this in one weekend despite not knowing (or liking) L.A. punk very much. What struck me the most was the obvious difference between people who embraced punk as a means of artistic expression--people who'd been rejected or marginalized elsewhere--and the people who were just in it for the scene or to make trouble--Belinda Carlisle (imo) and the later hardcore fistfighters. To me, it came down to being an outsider because that's who you are versus being an outsider because you perceive it a...more
Morrison, the Godfather of Punk?
The Go-gos Punk?
The Runaways Punk?
Maybe its just my East Coast up bringing... but it is a good read.
The Go-gos Punk?
The Runaways Punk?
Maybe its just my East Coast up bringing... but it is a good read.
Quite appropriately, I read this over a period of about 100-150 work poops. Just a couple of pages at a time, so as not to tempt the hemorrhoidal fates. I probably could've read it in a day, otherwise. I enjoyed its brevity, as it really made it feel like the insular scene that it was. It provides insight, without being bogged down in minutiae. You can read any one of now dozens of books on any of the bands herein, if you really need to find out more, but for my purposes, and so as not to attrac...more
Here is why I am a nerd: I like to read books about stuff that I am not that into. Which is half true I guess. There are a few bands that this oral history encompasses that I love, my favorite being X. They are one of the bands that I loved in high school and can go back and listen to without being mortified. They transcend all the periods of my life and that is not something a lot of bands are capable of doing. I don't really know what to say other than if you like even one band (Black Flag, th...more
Jul 29, 2009
addie s.
added it
the la version of "please kill me". you gotta read this and "lexicon devil" if you haven't!
Its been a long time since I read this one, but I remember enjoying it at the time.
An oral history of the 70s Los Angeles punk music scene. Well done.
Jan 30, 2009
Jason Diamond
added it
I liked this more than Please Kill Me.
a fantastic look at l.a. hardcore.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I wanted it never to end. I realized right away that much of the interviews in this book are also contained within "Lexicon Devil" by the same author. I thought that was kind of a poor move on the part of the author. I give this book one-star less than perfect only because I feel like it should have been much longer. I imagine almost every person interviewed could have a good book written about them. that guy Black Randy could probably have several volumes writte...more
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