The violence. The drugs. The death. From Black Flag and Social Distortion to Bad Religion and The Offspring, this is the story of 20 years of LA punk.

On the long, straight drive from Los Angeles airport, down a curving freeway, past oil wells and gas stations, diners and office supply stores, onto the long, straight road that is La Cienega Boulevard, you'll eventually see Hollywood. It rises before you on hills that appear as if — like large towns renamed as cities — they might one day fikp to be known as mountains. Hills that are razored — north to south, east to west — with addresses that are almost as famous as the borough they're found in; Sunset Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, Melrose Avenue. With Beverly Hills and Venice Beach to the west Hollywood, for the people, who live there, is a sun-drenched conurbation of hotels, dinars, bars, restaurants, nightclubs, venues, cinemas and convenience stores. It has fame and it has obscurity, wealth and poverty, smug contentment and arcing desperation.

And yes, of course, it has history.

The story you're about to read would simply be just that — history, nostalgia — were it not for the fact that the music, people and bands scattered over the next few pages somehow held a sway that has managed to resonate not only into the present but, surely, into the future as well. It's the story of Los Angelean punk rock; a community that provided the numbers, the passion and the longevity to take a noise that was first heard in New York City from the Ramones, then articulated in London with incandescent fury by Johnny Rotten, and shape it into an identity that was not only its own, but to keep that identity alive and growing to the point where Los Angeles, more than any other city, is the most vital location for punk rock music. For both good and ill. It has the best bands, the best history, the best stories, the strongest cast of characters, the worst violence, the shocking lows, the hardest drugs and, in the great tradition of Hollywood itself, the best and happiest ending.

Success.

This is the story of LA punk. And this is how it went down.