Review: Smash!: Green Day, the Offspring, Rancid, NoFX, and the ’90s Punk Explosion

Smash!: Green Day, the Offspring, Rancid, NoFX, and the ’90s Punk Explosion
Ian Winwood
Da Capo Press
Amazon

I got into punk rock in the early ’90s, thanks to Bad Religion and Rancid; when I saw a book about this period of punk, it instantly got pushed to the top of the “To Read” pile. The time period here was my high school years, so these bands have a soft spot in my heart.

Winwood does a good job documenting the rise to fame for bands like Green Day and the Offspring, while mixing in other bands at the time. Unfortunately, Rancid, NoFX, Pennywise, and Social Distortion are more footnotes in the story then main players. And while I get that Green Day and the Offspring were huge and the other bands not so much, they all have interesting stories that could have been expanded upon.

There are moments when the writing was a little irksome. Winwood will reference himself as the author (rather than saying “I”) and it comes off as awkward and self-important to the story. Many writers have done a better job stating they hung out with the band without stating they hung out with the band.

I also wished the book would have been marketed as a San Francisco punk book; all of the bands in the book were from around the Bay area. Reading a title that talks about the Punk Explosion of the ’90s, I was expecting to hear about multiple areas of the country; no mention of the East Coast or bands coming out of other areas of California.

That said, I did enjoy the book. Winwood had access to all of the bands, noting the different time periods where he met with them while a journalist covering the bands as they ascended the charts. He humanizes these rock stars and gives insight into the life they were thrust into. You see what happens when you instantly become famous and the issues it has, the problems with drugs and alcohol, and when the scene declares that you have sold out.

Other then the self-references, Winwood is a good writer; it would have been pretty easy for it to sound like he was talking down to the reader because he hung out with these bands, but it never came off that way. The book flowed well and I didn’t want to put it down at times. It also gave good insight into what goes on in the background – the pressing of records, moving them, etc.

If you are a fan of Green Day, this book if for you. If you like Bad Religion, the Offspring, or other Bay Area ’90s punk bands, you’ll probably enjoy the book. If you are expecting an oral history of ’90s punk as a whole, you might be disappointed.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.