Smash!

October 1, 2018
Kerrang! writer Winwood offers an energetic history of the punk revolution of the 1990s, inspired by bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, and X. The year 1994 was when California punk bands, including the Offspring and Green Day, blasted onto the Billboard charts. Unlike their early punk idols, these bands experienced financial success. Winwood lays out the steady bricklaying done by indie labels such as Epitaph and Lookout that produced the adrenalized sound of bands such as Bad Religion, whose 1988 album Suffer (15 songs in 26 minutes) is credited here with revitalizing a then-moribund punk movement. Though Winwood’s enthusiasm sometimes outstrips his writing—clumsy lines such as “Of all the Southern California punk bands... it is X that are the best” are not uncommon—his deep knowledge and thick dossier of interviews with these three-chord revolutionaries more than compensate. This is a ripping fun music history and strongly reasoned argument for the place of oft-derided 1990s Cali punk in the annals of pop music.

October 15, 2018

Through a series of interviews, Winwood (Birth School Metallica Death) documents the 1990s, the decade in which punk rock emerged from basements in California to the Billboard charts. Though the meteoric rise of Green Day and the Offspring comprise the majority of the book, the two record labels that launched their careers form the core of the story: Lookout! Records and Epitaph Records, based out of Laytonville, CA, and Los Angeles, respectively, and founded in the 1980s. They collectively released albums by NOFX, Pennywise, Bad Religion, the Offspring, and Green Day. The author thoughtfully maps the transformation of the punk rock ethos for both the record labels and the bands as they experienced an unprecedented wave of commercial success. VERDICT Often maligned as the decade when punk sold out, the 1990s, Winwood reminds us, were also a time of growth and appreciation for punk rock music worldwide. Fans of punk and music in general will enjoy this work.--Joshua Finnell, Colgate Univ., Hamilton, NY

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2018
Straightforward account of the improbably profitable second coming of punk rock.British music journalist Winwood (co-author: Into the Black: The Inside Story of Metallica (1991-2014), 2014, etc.) writes with authoritative enthusiasm about the 1990s rise of bands like Green Day and the Offspring and their broader relationship to the always-contentious question, "what is punk?" He argues that since their success, "anyone forming a punk band did so with the knowledge that in doing so it was possible to become suddenly wealthy." Setting up this improbable cultural watershed, the author briefly covers the initial blast of 1970s and '80s punk, when powerful bands like Black Flag and the Germs had momentum cut short by police hostility, drug abuse, and changing underground rock trends. So, when bands like Los Angeles' initially mediocre NOFX and the Bay Area's beloved Operation Ivy (which morphed into Rancid) and juvenile upstarts Green Day formed, they had little expectation of mainstream success despite the signing explosion following Nirvana's breakthrough in 1991. As NOFX's Fat Mike recalls of those lean days, "It was fine because we didn't know any different and no one bitched about it." Still, the hardy pre-internet infrastructure of small labels, regional fanzines, and college radio meant that bands could tour and release records, improving their chops beneath the mainstream radar. This was epitomized by Bad Religion co-founder Brett Gurewitz's Epitaph Records, eventually hugely influential but run on a shoestring during the years when, as band mate Greg Graffin recalls, "the punk scene was completely dismantled." All this had started to change when Green Day's commercial breakthrough, "Dookie," catapulted them into the mainstream, bringing mass attention to the reconstituted punk genre. Winwood captures the halcyon days that followed, which included huge tours, Epitaph's lucrative prominence, and Green Day's later triumph with "American Idiot." Focusing on the personalities behind these epochal bands, the author stays more on the surface than other recent assessments, but his knowing humor will appeal to younger fans and those who were there.A savvy reminiscence of the era when punk finally paid its debt to society.

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