I haven't got my copy of Gimme Something Better yet, so I can't say much about it except it sounds promising. But I would like to put in a plug for another book that came out a few years back, “Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984” by Simon Reynolds, which is the definitive book on a whole lot of interesting music that came up along side punk during those years (post-punk, early industrial, No Wave, and much else). In particular, there's a whole chapter on San Francisco post-punk – Tuxedomoon, Chrome, The Residents, and Factrix, as well as Flipper, which they also treat as post-punk. This was an under-appreciated scene that had as much influence on my later tastes as anything from the better known hardcore scene of the time, and it was good to see Reynolds giving it some recognition.