If this kind of music biography/memoir was food I’d never go hungry. (I read a lot of ’em.) JOHN DOE and TOM DeSAVIA’s More Fun in the New World is the second of their pair of books on the Los Angeles punk scene of the late ’70s/early ’80s, and it’s full of the kind of anecdotes that at once astound and beg-to-be-believed that made their first book so good.
Credited to Doe, DeSavia “and Friends,” More Fun contains chapters by scenesters as varied as Doe and Billy Zoom (both of the awesome band, X), Henry Rollins (Black Flag and solo), Mike Ness (Social Distortion) and Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey (The Go-Go’s). All of these folks’ stories – as well as many more in the book – are worth reading and definitely highlight just what a wild and wonderful world was L.A. punk. Then there are chapters by non-musicians like actors and filmmakers Tim Robbins, W.T. Morgan and Allison Anders, and even people influenced by the scene like graphic artist Shepard Fairey and skateboarder Tony Hawk. You may ask, “What do these people have to do with L.A. punk?” and really, no one can blame you. I wondered the same thing upon picking up the book. Doe & DeSavia’s first book, Under the Big Black Sun (2016), featured a number of the same musicians but none of the “influenced-bys” that appear here in volume two. 
I guess they’re here to lend legitimacy to how influential the scene was but I really don’t think they’re necessary. That’s not to say they aren’t interesting – they are – but L.A.’s punk scene was populated by so many notable bands and characters that are still listened to and talked about that the scene’s legitimacy shouldn’t be in question. That, actually, may be why we do hear from musicians who weren’t exactly punk but who did contribute to the breadth of the scene (such as Fishbone and The Long Ryders).
Ultimately I think More Fun in the New World would have benefited from the stories of more of the town’s punk rockers. There’s no word from any of the Weirdos, The Dickies, Phast Phreddie & Thee Precisions, Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs, The Screamers, or the Germs, or any of the lesser-known bands that populated all those gigs at the Masque, Madame Wong’s, Club Lingerie or any of the other dives that gave the scene places to happen. It is nice to hear some of the narrators update (in More Fun) what they were doing a few years earlier (as they detailed in Big Black Sun), so it’s not catastrophic that some of the characters make encore appearances here. It’s still a fantastic and quick read so it ought to satisfy your punk rock nutritional needs during this live music blackout. — Marsh Gooch
3/5 (DaCapo Press, 2019)
NuDisc 