Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk

Like most catchall categories in music, punk isn’t just one thing. It’s an amalgam of styles and genres that come in as many flavors as there are colors in the Crayola box. Under the Big Black Sun takes you by the hand and tosses you into the pit to pogo with the ever-evolving immersive world of L.A. punk.

Told by those who lived it, those who sparked it, those who thrived there, and those who suffered there, Under the Big Black Sun is as personal a history as you’re bound to find, exploring the evolution of punk in all its forms. From punk as rebellion to punk as violence, punk as rockabilly and punk as pop and punk as progressive, this is a front row seat to the joy and mayhem.

But it’s more than a celebration or a paean, it’s a hard look at the L.A. punk scene, drugs and death included with the violent rise of hardcore, the marginalized Latino artists in the East L.A. scene, the friendships forged and mistakes made.

With voices like Jane Wiedlin, Henry Rollins, John Doe, and Exene Cervenka, among many others, this is punk brought to life, ugly and beautiful and vibrant and mean all at once.