Kids of the Black Hole: Punk Rock in Postsuburban California by Dewar MacLeod Published by University of Oklahoma Press 240 pages, 2010
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Punk Rock Memories Reviewed by Lincoln Cho
MacLeod, an associate professor of history at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, was part of the early punk scene he writes about in Kids of the Black Hole. Both scholar and survivor are perfectly represented here, with MacLeod writing from the trenches with the advantage of 30 years of distance. The very beginning of Chapter One sets the tone:
While the Los Angeles punk scene never enjoyed the notoriety of those of London and New York and historically has always been overshadowed by the surf music movement, MacLeod points out that there was more going on in L.A. in the late 1970s than a lot of people realized. He describes his own first encounter with the form with a sort of delighted poetry. He was 15; young enough that his friend had to drive:
MacLeod introduces the “stars” that emerged -- The Germs, X, Black Flag and others -- but also the mood the city at the time and what it created:
Kids of the Black Hole is a fantastic portrait of a story seldom told. | November 2010
Lincoln Cho is a freelance writer and contributing editor to Blue Coupe magazine. |