Review: LEXICON DEVIL: THE FAST TIMES AND SHORT LIFE OF DARBY CRASH AND THE GERMS
SLUGmag
LEXICON DEVIL: THE FAST TIMES AND SHORT LIFE OF DARBY CRASH AND THE GERMS
BRENDAN MULLEN, DON BOLLES AND ADAM PARFREY
Feral House
Street: 04.15.02
Darby Crash walked a fine line between lunacy and lucidity, idiocy and genius, sociopath and scared little boy. Before anyone could find out who he really was, he intentionally overdosed on heroin and left this world in 1980. This book serves as a remembrance of a man who was an icon for the L.A. punk movement at a time when there was no such thing as a future but there was such a thing as The Germs, who infected a cult following in the slums of Hollywood. Brendan Mullen (founder of The Masque), Don Bolles (former Germs drummer) and Adam Parfey blend a series of quotes and stories from the people who were there–including John Doe, Belinda Carlisle and Joan Jett, to name a few–into a perfectly executed documentation of the L.A. punk scene. And in case you were wondering, Lexicon Devil paints a far more spirited, interesting, well-written and ultimately, more dangerous scene than New York’s punk scene in Please Kill Me. Darby Crash and The Germs are long gone, but the Circle One spirit lives on with this publication. “I’m Darby Crash. I’m a social blast.” Damn straight. -Shane Farver