10th September 2010

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Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk From Dead Kennedys to Green Day

For the past week, I’ve been without internet. So, I’ve been reading Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor’s Gimme Something Better, an oral history of Bay Area punk. I’ll admit I didn’t know that much about these bands before starting this book, aside from the ones everyone knows, like Dead Kennedys, Rancid, Green Day, and a few of the lesser-knowns, like Flipper, MDC, and Operation Ivy, but it was still a pretty enveloping read. The Bay Area always seems to have its own thing going on, and in punk rock, it really seemed to have turned into something quite strange, and it usually made for a good story. So, while I may not really be that interested in AFI per se, I still found myself pretty excited to read on. Most people probably have a bit of a warped perception of what Bay Area punk is or was, and I’ll admit I did and probably still do. Gimme Something Better does a pretty fine job of processing and conveying a huge amount of information about this scene, though it still clocks in at just under 500 pages. But, when those pages consist mainly of stories of skinhead fights, people peeing where they shouldn’t pee, and this, it becomes an easy read. Become a nerd like me. Read it. At the very least, go find Not So Quiet on the Western Front, the Alternative Tentacles compilation documenting all sorts of nasty tracks from the early Bay Area punk movement, and give it a listen. It’ll make you want to start your own Gilman (yeah Flywheel!).

Tagged: gimme something betterjack boulwaresilke tudordead kennedyspansy divisionrancidgreen dayflippermdcoperation ivynazi punks fuck off