Smash! Green Day, the Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and the ’90s Punk Explosion

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. (Nov.)