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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 morality, no guilt.” —Kim Fowley
“The Runaways were rebels, all of us were. And a lot of people looked up to us. It helped a lot of kids who had very mediocre, uneventful, unhappy lives. It gave them something to hold on to.” —Cherie Currie
“The objective was to create something for our own personal satisfaction, because everything in our youthful and limited opinion sucked, and we knew better.” —John Doe
“The Masque was like Heaven and Hell all rolled into one. It was a bomb shelter, a basement. It was so amazing, such a dive ... but it was our dive.” —Hellin Killer
“At least fifty punks were living at the Canterbury. You’d walk into the courtyard and there’d be a dozen different punk songs all playing at the same time. It was an incredible environment.” —Belinda Carlisle
Assembled from exhaustive interviews, We Got the Neutron Bomb tells the authentically gritty stories of bands like the Runaways, the Germs, X, the Screamers, Black Flag, and the Circle Jerks—their rise, their fall, and their undeniable influence on the rock ’n’ roll of today.
| Acknowledgments | ||
| Introduction: Let's Get Rid of New York | ||
| Prologue: The Boy Looked at Jimbo | ||
| Ch. 1 | "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man": Rodney's English Disco and the Glitter Rock Deca-Dance (1971-75) | |
| Ch. 2 | Trouble at the Riot House: L. A. Glitter's Downward Spiral (1974-75) | |
| Ch. 3 | Back Door Man and the New Order (1974-75) | |
| Ch. 4 | "Young Americans" (1975-76) | |
| Ch. 5 | Queens of Noise: The Rise of the Runaways (1975-76) | |
| Ch. 6 | Radio Free Hollywood (1976-77) | |
| Ch. 7 | Forming: The Screameers, the Weirdos, the Zeros, and the Germs Kick-Start the Scene (1976-77) | |
| Ch. 8 | So This Is War, Eh? Slash Magazine, Flipside, Lobotomy, and the L.A. Punk Zines (1977) | |
| Ch. 9 | "Punish or Be Damned": The Rise of the Screamers (1977) | |
| Ch. 10 | Getting Devo-ed (1977) | |
| Ch. 11 | "Landlord, Landlord, Landlord, Clean Up the Mess": The Birth of X (1977) | |
| Ch. 12 | Pass the Dust, I Think I'm Bowie: A Few Words About Black Randy (1977-78) | |
| Ch. 13 | Welcome to Liverpool '77: Punksploitation, the Indie Boom and the Incredible Singing Dickies (1977) | |
| Ch. 14 | The Masque and the Plunger Pit (1977) | |
| Ch. 15 | "I'm Darby Crash": In and Out of Control (1977-78) | |
| Ch. 16 | Talkin' 'Bout the Hillside Strangler (1978) | |
| Ch. 17 | Misfits and Cheerleaders: The Go-Go's Go Punk (1978) | |
| Ch. 18 | "Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Cheated?": The Sex Pistols in California (1978) | |
| Ch. 19 | Trashin' and Bashin' (1978) | |
| Ch. 20 | The Canterbury Tales (1978-79) | |
| Ch. 21 | Mutations: Power Pop, New Wave, Art Punk, Psychobilly, and the Seeds of Hardcore Split the Scene (1979) | |
| Ch. 22 | Rockabilly Cats at Disgraceland (1979) | |
| Ch. 23 | "I Totally Hate Cops to the Max" (1979) | |
| Ch. 24 | This Is Hardcore (1979) | |
| Ch. 25 | Strung Out (1979) | |
| Ch. 26 | GI (Germs Incognito) (1979) | |
| Ch. 27 | Population One: The Fall of the Screamers (1979) | |
| Ch. 28 | Vicious Circles and Face Plants: Orange County Ultraviolence and the Skate Punk Boom (1979-80) | |
| Ch. 29 | "We Got the Beat": The Go-Go's Hit the U.K. and Return as Pop Stars (1980) | |
| Ch. 30 | Los Angeles (1980) | |
| Ch. 31 | "Preaching the Blues": The Roots Revival (1980) | |
| Ch. 32 | The Vex: Los Lobos and the East L. A. Scene (1980) | |
| Ch. 33 | Fire of Love (1980) | |
| Ch. 34 | "Amoeba": The Adolescents, Social Distortion, Agent Orange - Fullerton's Pop Hardcore (1980) | |
| Ch. 35 | The Decline of Western Civilization (1980) | |
| Ch. 36 | "I Want Out Now" (1980) | |
| Ch. 37 | "This Town Is Our Town": X Sells Out the Greek, the Go-Go's Hit Number One, and MTV (1981) | |
| Epilogue: No Apologies (1981-2001) | ||
| Source Notes | ||
| Cast of Characters |
Overview
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 morality, no guilt.” —Kim Fowley
“The Runaways were rebels, all of us were. And a lot of people looked up to us. It helped a lot of kids who had very mediocre, uneventful, unhappy lives. It gave them something to hold on to.” —Cherie Currie
“The objective was to create something for our own personal satisfaction, because...