We Got The Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk

We Got The Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk
By Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen
Three Rivers Press, $13

We Got the Neutron Bomb is an admirable, if muddled, attempt to unravel the beautiful disaster that was the ’70s Los Angeles punk scene, home to influential first-generation bands Black Flag, X, the Germs and the Go-Go’s. Like its New York counterpart, Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s Please Kill Me, Neutron Bomb constructs a round-table oral history. But unlike its thorough predecessor, Neutron Bomb’s blend of original interviews, yellowing clips and enormous cast — the authors talk to everyone from Belinda Carlisle to Hellin Killer, a crash pad-dwelling punk hanger-on — makes for a sprawling mess of a book. Without any kind of contextualization, Spitz and Mullen’s sometimes fascinating glimpse into this creatively vibrant, desperately drunk underworld is reduced to not much more than a sea of characters’ names. And no discography to guide the musically curious? Unforgivable.
—Gabe Soria