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.”

Listen to this podcast from KALW-FM in San Francisco, which includes members of Crime.

Listen to this bizarre hour-long podcast of a live broadcast from KQED’s Forum program,  with special guests Hank Rank from Crime, Jon Ginoli from Pansy Divison, Jello Biafra’s ex-wife, and some guy who saw Billy Idol perform to an audience of 12 people, among other callers. Bonus: host Scott Shafer insisted that the Knack were punk!

Here’s a much more informed KQED article about the book, written by Molly Samuel, who — wait a minute — also hosted the interview on KALW?

Listen to a half-hour interview with music, from the legendary KALX-FM on UC Berkeley campus.

“The stories by Richard the Roadie are so foul you can smell them through the book…There are quarrels never laid to rest and jokes that never get old (mostly of the drunken variety). Here, punk is smart, irreverent, idiotic, playful, earnest, political, selfish, violent, and always reinventing itself — which, of course, stands right in line with the region’s fascinating cultural history as a whole.”

Listen to this uncensored one-hour interview podcast with longtime Bay Area radio host Peter B. Collins: “We talk about the Sex Pistols, Ramones, Clash, Mutants, Flipper, DK’s, early Green Day and many many more plus an odd cameo from jazz sax giant Stan Getz.”

There’s a punk music store in Southern California whose theme is “Where it’s 1982 every day.” Therein lies a central irony of this rebellious music: At this late date, to love the music is to be steeped in nostalgia. In fact, 1982 is a bit late for a peak punk era; the Clash was basically kaput by then, and there’s precious little other “punk” sound from that era still being listened to today. — it goes on from there…

** If you’d like to contact the writer of this article directly, and express your thoughts, his name is Steve Heilig, and you can reach him at his day job, at 415/561-0850 x270, or heilig@sfms.org.

“Gimme Something Better” has it all: dead dogs, statutory rape, skinhead fights, the origins of the term “emo,” promoters accidentally taking acid in jail, M-80s, soup lines, people falling through skylights, people getting torched with flamethrowers, teenagers on meth squatting in empty beer vats, exhumed bodies, laundromats, Ford Pintos, murderers and millionaires…There are also some parts about bands.“

(5 stars) “A great oral history (a la PLEASE KILL ME) of Bay Area punk that goes far beyond the usual over-the-hill musicians gassing about how cool they used to be. More than stories of the music, here are stories of a scene that capture a time, a place, and an atmosphere…“

“I think I can still remember the smell…“