December 18–25, 1997

music|books

Make the Music Go Bang!

Edited by Don Snowden, St. Martin's Griffin, 180 p., $17.95

Post Punk Diary

by George Gimarc, St. Martin's Griffin, 374 p., $24.95

With the recent deluge of sentimental punk books attempting to capitalize on grunge musicians' search for their roots, it's best to know which histories are giving you the juicy details and which ones are just a load of bollocks.

Make the Music Go Bang! is like a punk rock yearbook of the L.A. scene in the early '80s. Several notable scenesters, including X's Exene Cervenkova, Los Lobos' Louis Perez and Billboard writer Chris Morris sound off about old clubs, cool shows and great bands. Unfortunately a lot of the references seem irrelevant if you weren't there in the first place. None of the writers are given enough space to go in depth so at best you get quick vignettes. Cervenkova recalls: "We were all poor, we were all relatively undiscovered and underappreciated by today's standards, we were all extremely powerful (even if that meant a particular, sensitive stupidity that led to jail), we were all young or young at heart, we were all flirting with death and laughing at life." Like this line, many of the rembrances hint at details that are never disclosed. However, Gary Leonard's photos capture the punk rock artists in their early years: the Go-Go's' Gina Schock and Jane Wiedlin in 1980, Laurence Fishburne working as a club doorman and Billy Zoom's 1981 wedding at the Whisky A Go-Go. These snapshots might not redeem the book's superficial text, but you might want to flip through Make the Music Go Bang! the next time you're at the bookstore.

Post Punk Diary isn't exactly a page turner, yet there's no arguing that it's an invaluable resource for anyone infatuated with the transitional period between punk and new wave. Author George Gimarc distills every day of alternative rock between 1980 and '82 into small paragraphs—kind of like a three-year, "This Day in Rock" calendar compiled into an oversized book. The record releases, radio and TV appearances, and snippy articles (from Melody Maker, New Musical Express [NME], Slash and others) are all summarized in a few sentences.

Here are a few excerpts from Nov. 27, 1980: "Adam & the Ants' new single is "Antmusic." On the cover of the single is Adam and the Ants frolicking around the deck of a big square rigged ship. Insiders say that Adam's stylish hussar's jacket is the very one worn by David Hemmings in the movie Charge of the Light Brigade… U2's show tonight at the Marquee is reviewed for the NME by Gavin Martin. 'Only a blind man and the dead could ignore the passion and charisma generated by singer Bono.'… The Skids' new single is 'Woman in Winter' and includes a twelve-page comic book story of The Skids in Pirate Gold."

There are plenty of slow days that amount to little more than a list of release dates, but you'll also find mentions of great cult bands that haven't been heard from in years like Philadelphia's Head Cheese (who later re-named themselves Book of Love). For those who lived through these years, Post Punk Diary is an intense stroll down memory lane, for those who didn't it's a textbook in alternative rock history. The book also includes a CD with snippets from Gimarc's radio show on which he interviewed Pete Shelley, The Damned, Paul Weller, Devo and many more.

-Neil Gladstone