This chronicle of the original L.A. punk scene consists of essays by legendary figures in the scene such as Keith Morris, Exene Cervenka, Claude Bessy, Brendan Mullen, and so on, as well as lots of black and white pictures.
Many books about punk have too broad a scope and in their attempt to chronicle everything manage to gloss over most of the interesting, more obscure bands in favor of what you already knew anyway. This book at least focuses on one particular scene in one particular place and time, but I seem to remember that most of it consists of reminiscences of too much partying and drugs (in fact, that's all I remember about the book).
The layout is also kind of boring and amateurish, but there are still some great photos contained within--for instance, this Germs fan in neckbrace, and protests outside the Starwood (which has made for great punk flier imagery by yours truly).
Come to think of it, I've also used this image of Darby Crash schmoozing with the son of Ozzie and Harriet star David Nelson on a flier as well. And while still photography does not quite capture the Minutemen's live performance (from what I've seen on film), it's still cool to see.
Darby wheatpasting PiL posters, Paul Reubens hanging out with the punks--pretty good stuff all around.So in short, I'd say the book is worth reading but not exactly a classic work, or even a classic book on punk (if such a thing exists).
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