Description
Taking us back to late ’70s and early ’80s Hollywood—pre-crack, pre-AIDS, pre-Reagan—We Got the Neutron Bomb re-creates word for word the rage, intensity, and anarchic glory of the Los Angeles punk scene, straight from the mouths of the scenesters, zinesters, groupies, filmmakers, and musicians who were there.
“California was wide-open sex—no condoms, no birth control, no morality, no guilt.” —Kim Fowley
“The Runaways were rebels, all of us were. And a lot of people looked up to us. It helped a lot of kids who had very mediocre, uneventful, unhappy lives. It gave them something to hold on to.” —Cherie Currie
“The objective was to create something for our own personal satisfaction, because everything in our youthful and limited opinion sucked, and we knew better.” —John Doe
“The Masque was like Heaven and Hell all rolled into one. It was a bomb shelter, a basement. It was so amazing, such a dive ... but it was our dive.” —Hellin Killer
“At least fifty punks were living at the Canterbury. You’d walk into the courtyard and there’d be a dozen different punk songs all playing at the same time. It was an incredible environment.” —Belinda Carlisle
Assembled from exhaustive interviews, We Got the Neutron Bomb tells the authentically gritty stories of bands like the Runaways, the Germs, X, the Screamers, Black Flag, and the Circle Jerks—their rise, their fall, and their undeniable influence on the rock ’n’ roll of today.
About the Author
Marc Spitz was a former senior writer atSpinmagazine. His work has also appeared inThe New York Times, Maxim, Blender, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Nylonand theNew York Post. Spitz is the co-author (with Brendan Mullen) of the 2001 LA punk oral historyWe Got The Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk. He has authored two novels,How Soon is Never(2003) andToo Much, Too Late(2006), as well asNobody Likes You: Inside the Turbulent Life, Times, and Music of Green Day. His biography of David Bowie, entitledGod and Manwas released in the Fall of 2009.Several of his plays, includingRetail Sluts(1998),The Rise And Fall of the Farewell Drugs(1998),...Worry, Baby(1999),I Wanna Be Adored(1999),Shyness is Nice(2001),Gravity Always Wins(2003),The Name of This Play is Talking Heads(2005), andYour Face Is A Mess(2007) have been produced in New York City. 'His holiday short "Marshmallow World" was produced at The Brick Theatre in Brooklyn in December of 2007.Shyness is Nicewas revived by the Alliance Repertory Theatre company in Los Angeles in 2003, andThe Name of this Play is Talking Headswas produced in the summer of 2006 on Nantucket. A new play,4, a one-act comedy will be produced in the spring of 2009.Spitz has spoken at Columbia University (on playwrighting) and DePaul University (on journalism), and appeared as a "talking head" on MTV, VH1, MSNBC.
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