Rating: 
Summary: Brats In Battalions
Review: A companion piece to its New York counterpart "Please Kill Me," "We've Got The Neutron Bomb" is comprised entirely of interviews with scenesters, groupies, hangers-on, wanna-be's, and, oh yeah, the musicians who were actually there in L.A. between roughly 1970 until 1981, when, as this tome opines, the whole scene imploded with the signing of The Go-Go's to I.R.S. and the birth of MTV. Of particular interest, to me anyway, is the theory that Jim Morrison was the original punk, tales of drunken and drug-induced debauchery involving Iggy & The Stooges and, later, Darby Crash, and how much influence and fairy dust Kim Fowley spread over the entire train wreck. Every bit as entertaining, and in some instances depressing, as the aforementioned "Please Kill Me," but a smoother read. Essential.
Rating: 
Summary: Give Me A Little Pain
Review: A wonderful companion piece to "Please Kill Me" (which documents the NYC punk scene)! This book uses interviews and anecdotes in the same way as "Please Kill Me" to give an oral history of LA punk by the people who were actually there. This book focuses as much on big names like X, the Germs and the Weirdos as it does on lesser known acts like Black Randy and the Metro Squad and the Screamers. Admittedly, a lot of stuff got left out or wasn't mentioned at all but a truly comprehensive overview of the LA punk rock scene would be a book about 12 times as big as this one. Or it could just be Brendan Mullen's (he owned the Masque) biased viewpoint. Still, I was just as interested in the Kim Fowley stories as I was with all the Gun Club stuff. Still, when a book relies on the oral recollections of other people you can sort've expect some half-truths and outright lies. Regardless, I highly recommend this for fans of the genre or for folks who are just getting interested in punk and would like to know more.
Rating:
Summary: Give Me A Little Pain
Review: A wonderful companion piece to "Please Kill Me" (which documents the NYC punk scene)! This book uses interviews and anecdotes in the same way as "Please Kill Me" to give an oral history of LA punk by the people who were actually there. This book focuses as much on big names like X, the Germs and the Weirdos as it does on lesser known acts like Black Randy and the Metro Squad and the Screamers. Admittedly, a lot of stuff got left out or wasn't mentioned at all but a truly comprehensive overview of the LA punk rock scene would be a book about 12 times as big as this one. Or it could just be Brendan Mullen's (he owned the Masque) biased viewpoint. Still, I was just as interested in the Kim Fowley stories as I was with all the Gun Club stuff. Still, when a book relies on the oral recollections of other people you can sort've expect some half-truths and outright lies. Regardless, I highly recommend this for fans of the genre or for folks who are just getting interested in punk and would like to know more.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid History of the LA Scene...
Review: As the publisher, along with my late sister Zandra, of the 70's fanzine "Generation X" (mentioned briefly in the book), I think that I am in a unique position to comment on "We got the Neutron Bomb." On the whole, I think that the book is a balanced representation of the scene as I remember it considering the vast number of original scene makers that are dead or missing in action. I have some minor quibbles with the book: The "testimonial" nature of the text (necessitating getting current interviews) promotes a few minor characters to center stage, and Alas, the scene was not as cohesively congealed as some of the interviewees would have us think; Left out of the book was the ruthless high school clique atmosphere of the times.....if you did not fit the right "profile" you were pretty much either excluded or tormented.....it was this viscous undercurrent that drove a lot of the original punks to use alcohol and drugs excessively I think..I liked the fact that the Weirdos got their due (they were always the greatest band on the scene in my opinion and should have been at least as commercially viable as X), and that Margot Olaverra of the Go-Go's was quoted at some length (She was robbed! She WAS the Go-Go's from the start.) Frankly I would have liked to hear even more from average "fans," some of the original 50 (yep, for at least a couple of years there...1976-78) there were literally 50 people including members of the bands that went to the concerts and parties, etc. I also wish that the book had more photos (there were literally thousands of photos taken during the period.) Without the fans, there would have been no LA punk scene. And I wish that the "Cast of Characters" from the back of the book had some updates on what the non-famous people are up to now. I suppose in the end that it would be difficult for any book to capture just how exciting the times were, and how they defined a generation that up until that moment in History had been eclipsed by the "Hippies" that came before it; Still, I think that "We got The Neutron Bomb"is a reasonable, if not exciting, attempt to tell the story by people (Brendan Mullen, et.al) who were there.
Rating:
Summary: Spotty but informative
Review: As there are already many reviews for this book here, I don't want to repeat what others have written (though glossing over the hardcore scene is a BIG MINUS, as HC is what put LA on the punk rock map). However I wanted to add that the obvious inspiration of this book (and unfortunately what it will be compared to) is PLEASE KILL ME by Legs McNeill and some other fellow. Because I read PKM first, I was rather disappointed with NEUTRON BOMB. PKM has many more interviews, is much more exhaustive in its scope, and has better narrative flow than NB which for me was rather choppy and incomplete. While you get lots of meaty chapters in the beginning, the last third is made up of very short chapters which are not very substantial. For example, why speculate on the roots-revival scene at all, if all you can dredge up sre 2-3 pages on the Blasters and Gun Club? Surely two bands don't create a 'scene' and there were definitely more bands like them out there. Also there's a short Devo chapter thrown into the middle of the book which also begs the question "Does this really warrant a separate chapter?" This is what for me made this book very choppy and uneven. While I was heavily immersed in reading PKM and couldn't put it down, NEUTRON BOMB was more of a good toilet read. Negatives aside, anyone interested in the 'glory days' of punk should scarf this up. There's tons of info on the Screamers, Germs and X which is what I liked most about this book. [In my opinion] a better editing job on it would have made it more cohesive.
Rating:
Summary: Great History of the late 70's/early 80's L.A. Punk Scene
Review: Fantastic read, lots of interesting memories from various players within and on the margins of the L.A. punk scene. I found it particularly interesting, since I'm from the same generation as many of the people interviewed for this book, although, growing up in New England I was oblivious of most of the up and coming L.A. punk or new wave bands at the time, save for The Runaways, X and the Go-Go's. Some, who were more familiar with the L.A. music at that time, may quibble over the amount of focus on different punk-related genres, but for someone like myself, who's not familiar with the scene, this book is a great overview. I had a hard time putting it down.
Rating:
Summary: The Stars! The Bars! And those Oh So Loud Guitars!
Review: I anticipated this Book greatly before it's Release, I was Not disappointed at all. Such a Great scene, The Masque, Disgraceland, The Canterbury. Plungers Pit... So much Great music, The Germs, X The Screamers... Great Stars Excene, Darby, Tomata, Black Randy... Great People working from the ground up to build a world for themselves. Needed after the seemingly rejection by the rest of american society. The thought, today, of being able to create, not only a longlasting musical legacy, but an actually original lifestyle is simply amazing. One that was on the edge. One that was not without it's casualties. It's all here, the story, of a Pre-MTV Musical World!
Rating:
Summary: The Scene that Was
Review: I decided to get this instead of the over-sensationalized Darby Crash biography "Lexicon Devil". Probably a better investment for those who liked the music (as opposed to the personalities) this book served as a simple interesting, yet gossipy account of the Birth of L.A. Punk and Hardcore. Interesting family tree discussions of LA's growth from Jim Morrison to Iggy Pop to the Runaways to the actual scene. Later chapters go in depth with X, Screamers, and the Germs.
There seemed to be some missing pieces of data, missing players, and way too much silly bravado (although, in some places it was actually hilarious to read, like Kim Fowley's back-biting descriptions of his then-peers). The highlights of this were the chapters devoted to bands and scenes outside of Hollywood, and it would have made for a more rounded book if they weren't spending chapters disparaging the more violent aspects of the Orange County scene.
Rating:
Summary: The Scene that Was
Review: I decided to get this instead of the over-sensationalized Darby Crash biography "Lexicon Devil". Probably a better investment for those who liked the music (as opposed to the personalities) this book served as a simple interesting, yet gossipy account of the Birth of L.A. Punk and Hardcore. Interesting family tree discussions of LA's growth from Jim Morrison to Iggy Pop to the Runaways to the actual scene. Later chapters go in depth with X, Screamers, and the Germs.
There seemed to be some missing pieces of data, missing players, and way too much silly bravado (although, in some places it was actually hilarious to read, like Kim Fowley's back-biting descriptions of his then-peers). The highlights of this were the chapters devoted to bands and scenes outside of Hollywood, and it would have made for a more rounded book if they weren't spending chapters disparaging the more violent aspects of the Orange County scene.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting....
Review: I had mixed feelings about this book. On one hand it was interesting and I learned something about the LA Punk scene in the 1970's on the other hand I wanted more. It seemed to just skim the surface and some of the subjects in the book really were/are interesting enough to devote an entire book to. I wish it was more in depth.
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