Jello Biafra remembers being barely 21 and running for mayor of San
Francisco against Dianne Feinstein, whom he calls “a mean, hateful
witch who didn’t even bother to hide her contempt for the
disadvantaged.” Billie Joe Armstrong remembers former fans wearing
“Kill Green Day” T-shirts after his band signed with a major label:
“There was almost a socialist aspect to it.” Hundreds more scenesters
recount memories of music, mosh pits, and even murder in Gimme
Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless
History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day, an oral
history compiled by former SF Weekly columnists Jack
Boulware and Silke Tudor.
The East Bay figures prominently in this vibrant volume, from
Berkeley’s Barrington Hall to Green Day’s Pinole birthplace to West
Oakland squats known as the Ashtray and Maxi Pad. Along with
bandmembers and other famous figures such as longtime KPFA DJ Tim
Yohannan, we meet lesser yet still-fascinating celebrities such as the
“Durant Mob Rules” clan: mean teen girls whose demesne was Berkeley’s
Silverball Gardens pinball hall: “With skateboards as weapons you don’t
have to be a strong, tough bitch to knock someone out. You just have to
fuckin’ swing,” remembers one of them, who is now an
architectural-design consultant.
Other interviewees are now motivational speakers, parents,
professors, and emergency-room nurses. Ex-Crimpshrine member Aaron
Cometbus is developing wind-turbine energy in Wyoming. This is a
history book. But it’s also a gossip column and a where-are-they-now.
“It surprised me that so many people who had this punk era in their
personal history went on to work in careers where they try to do some
public good,” Boulware says. “It goes completely against what everyone
thinks about punk rockers, that they’re all nihilists or begging on the
street.”
Tracking down interviewees meant “starting with people we knew and
then fanning back up the delta for more.” The coauthors created a
MySpace page to lure interviewees, using early-21st-century DIY to
locate pioneers of late-20th-century DIY. The oral-history format
— “their words, not ours” — was a must, Boulware
asserts: “The only way to write about certain things is to keep
your own frickin’ voice out of it.”
Some of the interviewees, such as Mabuhay Gardens impresario Dirk
Dirksen, died before the book went to press. Others suffered from
crippling addictions or are ill. Punk was a hard lifestyle, Boulware
affirms, “and it does take its toll. You’re gonna pick up some
scars.”
Some who survived will appear with the authors at 924 Gilman
(924 Gilman St., Berkeley) on Saturday, Oct. 17. Copresented by Pegasus
Books, the event features performances by Social Unrest, Frank Portman,
Schlong, Druglords of the Avenues, and Classics of Love with Jesse
Michaels. 7:30 p.m., free. PegasusBookstore.com
