Rating: 
Summary: "Punk Rock Changed My Life"
Review: I remember when "Please Kill Me" came out that I was bummed there wasn't a book like that about the L.A. scene, now the wait is over and I got the book I had been waiting for. Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen definantly delivered the goods and then some with "We Got The Neutron Bomb", for anyone who ever wondered about the L.A. scene this book will seem like a blessing. I love the documentary type style it's written in, makes you feel like your right there talking to the people and listening to their stories. Some people might not care for this book but they just don't "get it". So everyone please do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book asap.
Rating:
Summary: Let's get rid of New York!
Review: I think it's a really good read, I really enjoyed it. I've read almost all books on the West Coast punk/hardcore scene, from "Hardcore California" to "Make the Music Go Bang...".
This book draws a rough but complete enough picture of
what went on. I especially liked that most interviewees were pretty open and their stories had a personal feeling and not a waxed, "glorious LA-punk scene" ambience.
Some of the other reviews posted here state that the book does not contain enough information on the hardcore movement. This might be true, but this is a book on LA punk, not LA hardcore. LA hardcore came out of punk and I do think that this is something that the reader of "Neutron Bomb" can clearly understand. Appreciate this book for what it is and not for what you think it should be.
"We Got the Neutron Bomb" serves both a historical and literary purpose very well and truly fills a gap for those who want to know more about the greatest punk scene ever.
Rating: 
Summary: A Solid Foundation
Review: I'm as surprised as you are--a book about LA Punk that doesn't s**k! After the scrapbook "Forming" and the sub-Tiger Beat "Make the Music Go Bang", here's an actual narrative about how all that crazy noise and art erupted from our Western Rim. Well, not a narrative really; it's modeled on Legs McNeil's "Please Kill Me", and consequently has no thesis or point of view--just a bunch of quotes from scenesters. And, as in PKM, many of the interviewees contradict each other, call the others liars, and basically pile on personal abuse, ancient diatribes, etc. So, as you may expect, the "authors" serve up tons of gossip, sex, drugs, violence, and almost nothing about music. Which (music) was the only reason anyone ever cared about these strung-out mutants, right? I mean, would you want to read a book about your neighbors in that slum right after college who used to shoot speed and have screaming fights and nod off in your begonia patch, if they didn't happen to be underground musicians? No, the music is what made you curious. So there's nothing about music, ok. You do get a lot of background on these artists, how they met, what their influences were, what seemed to drive them...well, too much background, really. Quick, without thinking: what was LA's most vital contribution to modern music? Ah no my friend, not art-damaged Farfisa cabaret bop, I'm talking h-a-r-d-c-o-r-e. Do you know how much of this book is devoted to hardcore? About a quarter. And most of that is material on bands like X, Fear and the Germs, which some would consider too corny and/or slow to qualify as HC, but...it wasn't their fault! No one from Black Flag would give them an interview! And hey, the whole hardcore thing has been played out in so many books already, right? So we get tons of material on such obscure, underground artists as the Doors, the Stooges, David Bowie, and their glammy fan clubs, stuff that goes on a bit long, maybe, but other LA Punk books ignored this whole scene, so just see it as thoroughness. Iggy Pop, Kim Foley, Michael Des Barres, the Berlin Brats, Tomata du Plenty, Rodney Bingenheimer, Chuck E. Starr and, er, Brendan Mullen...if you want to know about their hang-outs and parties and the drugs and people they did, here's your source! And to be fair, the sass and transvestitism of these party kids helped set a kind of devil-may-care stage for what followed. After page after page of this very non-punk stuff you hit paydirt: lots of great stuff on the Screamers, the Weirdos, Black Randy, the Bags, and other bands you don't hear much about these days. This stuff goes on for pretty long too, including more than I ever wanted to know about the myriad personal quirks of each member of the Runaways, etc., but there must be a lot of people out there who are interested in such things or they wouldn't be in the book, right? This section deals with a lot of music I hadn't heard, and after reading thousands of words on these bands I still have no clue what they sounded like, but that's what records are for, not books. Next we hear the whole Germs story (riveting!), a lot of acrimonious sniping between members of the Darby Crash and X posses, some teasers about the Dickies and Middle Class, and finally a couple of slim chapters on LA's most potent export: the warp-speed thrash of Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Adolescents, TSOL, etc. There isn't much new material here, since Greg Ginn and company were typically uncooperative, but Keith Morris gets to run his mouth as much as he wants. And sandwiched between the hardcore chapters (oddly breaking the flow, some might say) are token offerings on the city's Chicano punk and rockabilly and roots revivals. The book trails off with mildly gossipy synopses of the Go-Gos' success and LA Rock's glam-metal twilight. So, a convenient sourcebook that ensures no one will have to write about the highjinks of the LA glitter crowd again, and draws a nice outline for the definitive history of LA Punk, should anyone care to write it. The mere fact that Mullen and Spitz found all these people and managed to interview them points the way for a writer to take over.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent and enjoyable
Review: It's funny that the reviewer from boston would be the one to criticize this book based on whether L.A. was equal to New York in punk. Why is it funny? Two reasons. One, there is no competition here and this book does not have to "prove" that anybody is equal to anybody. Two, because the Boston punk scene, which I grew up with in 80-86, is notorious for being stupid hypocritical lunkheads who refused to let anyone else into the scene because they felt threatened. "We got the Neutron Bomb" is a great read with many quotes from key players who tell what they saw as they saw it. The book has no mandate to qualify and quantify the worth of L.A. punk, instead it tells a story about a time and place that was very interesting and ultimately influential on the rest of america. It is absolutely worthwhile reading if you have any interest in the history of punk. The way the writers constructed a narrative out of nothing but quotes is very well done. Almost as well done as "Edie, American Girl" by Jean Stein and George Plimpton.
Rating:
Summary: SOMEONE Has To Tell The Truth About The Punks
Review: Many people wonder about the punk scene, and create strange ideas of it in their heads. Punks are often stereotyped of always singing about death, and accused of being devil worshippers. Punks are just people who look different, and shouldn't be insulted for doing so. In the book, "We Got The Neutron Bomb" by Mark Spitz and Brendan Mullen, the LA Punk Scene is depicted quite truthfully. It tells about the good, the bad, the humorous, and the completely unpredictable.
The book is told in a genius format where you get the feeling of sitting in a big room full of legends on squishy couchesas they tell you the story of how they came about. How punk in LA came about to them, and how they met eachother.
Filled with stories of the past, like the time David Bowie first danced to Elvis at "Rodney's E Club" where the newest sounds of England glam rock could be heard or about the time Bobby Pyn (Darby Crash) of The Germs dipped the mic in peanut butter the first time they played at Orpheum. These stories are told first hand so that the reader gets the feeling of really being there, amidst all the emotion, but more importantly, amidst all the good times they had.
My favorite person in the book was Exene Cervenka, the lead singer of the punk band "X". She was an intelligent and self confident woman. She was tough, and she could really brush petty little things off, and i really admire that.
"DAVID ALLEN: Exene was a good gal and I hated that Billy badmouthed her behind her back. Once he called her a sack of potatoes. She heard about it and wore a potato sack next time the played." (pg.99)
In conclusion, We Got The Neutron Bomb is the best, most meaningful book I have ever read, and would suggest reading it to anyone who has questions about punk, or better yet, thinks they know everything about it.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Overrated By Some...
Review: One thing that really comes through is that the people who put this "book" together are clearly jealous of the NYC punk scene, and the resultant book "Please Kill Me". They have reason to be: "Please Kill Me" is better edited and much more thorough...There are some great bands in here including X, the Runaways, Black Flag and Social Distortion, but their stories are glossed over, and told haphazardly--with a lot of the facts left out...That might've been (sort of) okay, but the book just isn't very entertaining. And, frankly, I felt ripped off....If the L.A. scene was indeed the equal of the NYC scene, this isn't the book that proves it.
Rating:
Summary: LA PUNK Now has its own coffee table history
Review: Superb.
A primary source history of the most forgotten enclave of post rock n roll, namely 1970 to 1980 Los Angeles.
Its all here:
Darby Crash/Jeffrey Lee/Canterbury/Masque/Rodney Disco...
It had to be done, and I guess Brendan Mullen was the 'patent holder'..............
Rating:
Summary: Shrug
Review: The "authors" seemed more interested in proving/preserving their street cred than presenting real information. They publish excerpts from a bunch of interviews and don't add any history, timeline, or additional material that would be useful to a person who wasn't there. Very few photographs. The gossipy scene stories are fun in a juicy way, but I bought this book wanting to know more about the actual musicians, how and why they wrote and played their music. I adore X in particular and really wanted to know more about bands I've only heard the names of before. This book is mostly about groupies, parties, the dives where people lived, and creepy managers--which isn't horrible, but isn't fabulous either.
Rating:
Summary: Ah, the glory days
Review: The fact that the authors titled the book based on a fairly obscure punk song by a one-"hit" group gave me faith that they knew what they were talking about. And they do. The L.A. punk scene was a lot of fun (as long as you were able to avoid such hazards as heroin, suicide, and impoverishment). They were great bands, they were interesting people, there were terrific places to go to. Sad to say to the Boston reviewer, it was as insular as any other place (which was always punk's problem: "We're outcasts/Leave us alone/Why isn't anyone paying attention to us?). This is the best book on a punk movement since Carolyn Coon's "1988," which mysteriously disappeared a few years ago, and if you have it, I'd like it back.
Rating:
Summary: The Darby Crash Story
Review: This book tries very very hard to be as comprehensive as Legs McNeill's outstanding "Please Kill Me". It even features an endorsement from Legs on it's cover. Unfortunately for all concerned, despite the title being ripped off of a Wierdo's song, the book is really nothing more than the Germs story or "Darby Crash died for your sins". There are so many bands and so many varying types of music that were considered "punk" in the period from 77-82 that Brendan Mullen's focus on just the bands that today would be considered hard core is difficult to understand. Mullen BOOKED most of those bands at clubs ranging from Madame Wong's to Cathay De Grande, yet not a single mention is made of the various different groups & venues. To someone who wasn't there in LA during this period, "We Got the Neutron Bomb" makes it seem like the entire music scene consisted of the Masque & the clubs on the Strip, & the only bands that played were X, the Germs, & the GoGo's. This isn't true. LA's music scene from the late 70's thru the mid 80's was one of the most exciting; certainly it gave other vaunted scenes in London & NY a run for their money. You'd never know it from reading this book. Rockabilly & it's harder edged brother psychobilly (Jimmy & the Mustangs/ Levi Dexter)? Hardly a mention. The more 60's influenced bands such as the Plimsouls & the Twisters? Never existed according to "We Got the Neutron Bomb". An extremely avante gard club space run by a dedicated artist that gave gigs to bands such as the violin/cello punk trio the Hesitations? Nope, never was such a place, implies "We Got the Neutron Bomb". If you just haven't heard enough Darby Crash stories, if the fact that no one EVER liked Belinda Carlisle is fascinating to you, buy this book. If you'd like an actual, factual, overview to the LA scene that spawned some incredible music, unfortunately that book is yet to be written.
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