Inspired by the books Please Kill Me and We Got the Neutron Bomb, Craig Ibarra began compiling the 70+ interviews that make up this self-declared oral history of San Pedro’s punk scene from 1977–1985. The book consists of these interviews, accounts from band members, photographers, show organizers, and people who were there during this formative time in punk’s history, held together by the trajectory of San Pedro’s The Reactionaries, later to become The Minutemen, as they developed their sound and gained notoriety beyond the local scene. Ibarra casts the South Bay as an art-punk experiment ahead of its time, many small towns going different directions that were mistakenly lumped together or oversimplified in the greater LA punk narrative. His book A Wailing of a Town aims to correct the record, telling the story of a small, innovative scene through the memories of the people who made it. If nothing else, Ibarra says it gives fans of The Minutemen something to contextualize the band’s sound, to see more about where they came from. Ibarra explains more of his intent and process in his interview with LA Record, and you can check out more about the book (and buy it) via END FWY Press.
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