My So-Called Punk: Green Day, Fall Out Boy, The Distillers, Bad Religion---How Neo-Punk Stage-Dived into the Mainstream (Paperback)

~ (Author) "In 2005, Green Day won the Grammy award for "Best Rock Album" for their 2004 release American Idiot..." (more)
Key Phrases: punk porn, mall punk, punk police, Green Day, Brody Dalle, Simple Plan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this energetic survey of current trends in punk rock, journalist and music critic Diehl (Notorious C.O.P.) delivers a knowledgeable and sympathetic overview of the current "neo-punk" bands that achieved success with "the pop music mainstream in the mid-1990s," from big names such as the Offspring and Rancid to lesser-known artists such as Brody Dalle. He nails the key musical reason for the megapopularity of neo-punk band Green Day: while they "trafficked in three-chord minimalism, unlike many of their punk peers, they maintained a keen sense for imbuing those three chords with classic pop song structure and melody." But as a fan of punk music since its heyday in 1977, Diehl is also able to explain the various "vital subsets of the already subcultural punk experience." He keenly reports on how the age-old conflict between authenticity and commercial success has become a key issue in all parts of the neo-punk scene, from resolutely "indie" labels like Epitaph and Dischord to the popular Vans Warped Tour's "blending of the mainstream and the underground." Diehl convincingly argues that "[e]ven in its most crass, commercial state, Punk, Inc. offers more integrity and authenticity than anything comparable on the pure pop side." (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Diehl limns the bands who nominally carry forward the colors of the Sex Pistols, Clash, and Ramones in highly readable fashion. Just as every rebellious generation rediscovers Rimbaud, so does every revolutionary pop-music genre eventually deliquesce into slushy mainstream commercial success. According to Diehl, just such success has altered what punk means and how it's expressed. A punker himself in the seventies, Diehl fondly recalls when Patti Smith "reinvented the androgynous cock-rock sex symbol epitomized by Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison in her own persona . . . that reeked of Rimbaud." Punk rock was never homogeneous--what did Sex Pistols and Talking Heads share?--and since it became profitable, he says, it's even harder to define. Diehl finds value and even remnants of proto-punk's DIY ethos in today's punk bands, be they modern-day thrashers or hypersensitive emo practitioners. An essential part of the story of an ongoing movement, Diehl's book provokes lots of interesting questions. So what if he doesn't have all the answers? Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (April 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312337817
• ISBN-13: 978-0312337810
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #625,255 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good info, lots of factual and editing errors, April 19, 2007

By	K. S (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This is by all means a good book. If you were introduced to punk rock through Green Day and Offspring and seen punk rock explode into the mainstream then by all means read this book. I was about 12 when Dookie came out and it changed my life. Through it I got introduced to punk rock and that shaped my high school years and even now, as a working professional, punk rock is a love of mine. It introduced me to politics and encouraged the life I lead today. With that being said, this book has a few errors in it that just baffle me. First of all, its poorly edited. That may be "punk rock" but as an avid reader when Brett Guerewitz is refered to as Brad Guerewitz a few times it gets annoying. There are a few factual errors that I have caught as well. While quoting an interview from Chuck from Simple Plan he talks about his love for the song "American Jesus" by Bad Religion. He then goes on to say he didnt even know that Eddie Veddar sang on the song. Eddie Veddar was featured on Recipe for Hate, but it was on the song "Watch it Die," not American Jesus." While true the author didnt say this I feel if you are going to write a book that covers punk rock comprehesively you should be able to catch these factual errors and point them out. The book is also poorly organized. It seems to jump from era to era without a logical reasoning. The author actually quotes interviews more than once. Its really strange. Again, these might seem like little things, but for a book to be taken seriously I feel at the very least it should be edited properly. Its also obvious that the author has some sort of love, or friendship of some kind with Brody Dalle because she is focussed in on the book way too much. She is given way too much credit! While I am a fan of the Distillers, to say she rejuvinated the punk scene is insane! She didnt really put too much of a dent in it to be honest. Sure she has a cult following but the Distillers didnt really set the underground on fire. I dont want to criticize too much because I do feel this is a good book. The subject matter is covered by a guy who obviously knows his stuff and is genuinely trying to find answers to some of punk rock's most perplexing questions. So overall, I would recommend this book but be mindful that its a poorly edited book with a few errors here and there. But if you grew up like me, from Green Day to Bad Religion to becoming the biggest Clash fan in the world...by all means check this book out.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Things I learned reading this book, June 26, 2007

By	Steve Roby (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews

1. Brody Dalle, who took her last name from Louis Dalle, director of Pretty Baby, is really cool.

2. If you only interviewed eight people for a book, go ahead and repeat what they say a few times. Only people who read the whole book will notice.

3. Brody Dalle. Wow. Great singer, totally hot, really important band. She's Australian, you know. Took her surname from Louis Dalle, the guy who directed Pretty Baby.

4. If you're into leftist politics as a neo-punk, that's cool. If you're a conservative Christian neo-punk but not a racist, that's cool. If you're not into politics, that's cool, too. It's all punk and meaningful. Punk is so political whether it is or isn't. And that's... okay. Because it's punk.

5. Suicide Girls. Naked punk girls. *They* think Brody Dalle (did you know she took her name from the film director Louis Dalle?) is really hot. And they're hot punk girls so they should know. In fact, Suicide Girls, a porn website, deserves a whole chapter in this book, because they're so punk. And feminist. Except the ones who aren't. And that's cool. Because they're so darn punk.

What I didn't learn... well, I'm 44 years old. I remember being in a fair sized city high school with maybe a dozen or two other kids who liked punk rock, and then moving to a small town where only two of us in a high school with 1200 kids liked punk (or even knew what it was). I've watched as the kind of kids who hated punk then have spawned the new generation of mall punks who like idiotic bubblegum punk, even though there's still great punk rock being made today. I kind of hoped this book might explain how that happened. I was mistaken.

Oh, and the writing style drove me nuts. Not just the repetition, and the "I must be able to work Brody Dalle into this chapter somehow" singlemindedness, and the way people who were quoted every second page were always identified as (for example) "Agent M of Tsunami Bomb" -- yeah, I remember, okay? -- but the way it reads like a nonfiction magazine article from Rolling Stone for Twelve-Year-Olds. Right down to the end of the book, which ends:

"Meet the new punk.

"Chances are it looks a lot like... *you.*"

Isn't that special?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of time, January 23, 2008

By	Brian Donelly "Brian D" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book started off promising but then disintegrated into an entire book about how great the Disitllers, Brody Dalle, Suicide girls and Green Day are. This was one of the most one sided pieces of "jounralism" I've ever read. His view of punk rock is so small minded it's just sad. I wouldn't even recommend this book for kindling.