EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY TO HATE
But of course! Alice Bag doesn’t need the Brits. Nor does she or any of the tens of thousands of punkin’ Angelenos need the French, the Dutch, the plot-hatching Corsicans or teenage millionaires from New York like Mr. Blondie to tell them how to behave.
EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY TO HATE
A HISTORY OF L.A. PUNK ROCK
Gene Sculatti
“For God’s sake, is that all you people in L.A. want to hear: aggressive lyrics and a raging guitar?!”
—Chris Stein
“Thriving on self-pity, racism, hippie-baiting, and abhorrence of sex and the cheesiest sort of nihilism, L.A. punk is the Scene That Will Not Die. ”
— Village Voice
“...A shallow imitation of British punk, a cheap fake.”
—New Musical Express
“We don’t need the English/tellin’ us what should be/We don’t need the English/their boring songs of anarchy/Say in’ our scene’s a fake/Their brains are all half baked”
—The Bags, “We Don’t Need The English”
But of course! Alice Bag doesn’t need the Brits. Nor does she or any of the tens of thousands of punkin’ Angelenos need the French, the Dutch, the plot-hatching Corsicans or teenage millionaires from New York like Mr. Blondie to tell them how to behave. Los Angeles doesn’t need approval or advice, whether it’s coming from a record biz on its bleeding knees or from rock crits coaxing their Selectrics into unspeakable acts in praise of Johnny Rotten’s latest hippie music.