Written against the backdrop of the first rush of Punk Rock in Los Angeles and Hollywood, this narrative steps into the West Coast Punk rock scene of 1976-1982, a fervent creative period in experimentation in rock music and concept. Unfortunately weakly documented as it occurred, it has now become massively influential commercial style mined for its content as the years pass. Here in SUB-HOLLYWOOD are the first West Coast Punk rock bands of the era. The venues, drug addiction, teen sex, violence, disease, crazy parties, death, stage dives and other descriptions are observed directly from the hot summer night streets and alleys of Hollywood. Early West Coast Punk rock bands struggled to recreate the primitive percussive hoodoo mojo rhythms that energized popular music from the 1950s era American Rock-a-Billy and Black Rhythm & Blues to garage rock (like 'Hey Joe' by The Leaves, soon to be covered by Jimi Hendrix) and the early Clash. Black leather metal studded street fashions and spiked haircuts on teens dismayed confused parents. Long before Prozac, Paxil, and Wellbutrin were used to chemically lobotomize the population, California teenagers and young adults turned to BLACK FLAG, X, GERMS, FLIPPER, SOCIAL DISTORTION, RAMONES, and the CIRCLE JERKS to moderate their social anxieties and alleviate family conflicts.

Sub-Hollywood is printed on glossy cardboard stock, high quality bond paper, and bound by the quality flexibound method. The cover drawing is by Gary Panter (currently a major featured artist in the Masters of American Comics Exhibition on view at MOCA, a multi Emmy Award winner for Design Pee Wee's Playhouse, and the creator of Jimbo Comics published by Matt Groening in the 1980s.)  A Raymond Pettibon (now having a one-man exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York) drawing appears opposite the title page. The back jacket has a review by Mikal Gilmore (ROLLING STONE magazine thirty year Contributing Editor; SHOT IN THE HEART, author. Winner of National Book Critics Circle Award Los Angeles Times-Best Biography). The author of Sub-Hollywood -Bruce Caen, is a first time novelist who was throughout the 1980's the publisher of a counter culture magazine. An artist and photographer, Bruce Caen studied fine art in London and Los Angeles. Each issue of   Sub-Hollywood is individually signed by the author.

FICTION NOVEL

325 pages HIGH QUALITY BOND

FLEXIBOUND HIGH GLOSS CARDBOARD COVER, PERFECT BOUND

ISBN # 0-9771571-0-5