Fun! Great variety of oral histories. ( )

Very uneven. I wanted to hear more about x. Instead its a collection of essays from various la punk folks. Pretty good at times, but not the definitive memoir I was hoping for. ( )

Some really great detail (from Chris D., Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlen, Dave Alvin) and then some vague memories but nothing very specific from others.
Did give me a look into the scene and I learned quite a bit, but I could use an even more detailed history. ( )

Here's the thing about the audiobook. I can make an argument for it being a crucial document of one of the most interesting scenes ever to exist; nearly everybody involved in the first wave was, in the words of Dave Alvin, over-literate, even as many were musically underwhelming. And having everybody read their own chapters adds an immediacy that is fundamental to the appeal. As writers discuss each other indirectly, or give different impressions of the legendary (sad) musicians who died like Crash Darby, hearing their own voices lowers defenses and makes one less judgmental about their, um, bad decisions.

But, man, it would help to have chapters identified in some way other than a quick name at the beginning. If one is not married to the scene, it is not necessarily easy to remember that Dave Alvin was in "The Blasters" until he mentions it, and at that point, one has already missed a lot of context. That neither Amazon, nor Audible, nor Wikipedia list who narrated what chapter makes it extremely difficult to follow the entire arc of the scene, much less wean any sort of narrative from it. Which that last is probably a point, but one is not supposed to come to that conclusion simply by confusion.

Last note: some of these writers are really good. As mentioned above, Alvin called them over-literate, but that doesn't always mean people can write. About 2/3 of these chapters are fantastically written. Funny, dry, and always a bit sad not because of nostalgia, but because of what has been lost in order to get to this point. ( )

For those interested in the primordial soup of Los Angeles proto-punk which stewed for four or five years before breaking up and coalescing into splinters that then took roots and grew in separate directions - this is a good read. Revealing first person essays from those that were there at the beginning and participated. Excellent in that it gives some clarity to the interrelations of people and mentions of long gone but important locations. A good starter to wet anyone's appetite interested in the history of the topic and making notes to research further. ( )