Broken Chords

by Nick Razer

Jesse Fallon is twelve years old, skinny as a stray dog, wearing a Black Flag t-shirt three days straight because it's the only clean thing he owns. His brother Shane walks him home from school every day, because being white in Nickerson Gardens doesn't make you special — it makes you a target. In the concrete maze of South Central LA, where their junkie parents can barely function, Jesse and Shane have only each other. But when Jesse discovers the punk scene exploding across Los Angeles, he finds something more than music — he finds a reason to survive. From the burning streets of Watts to the legendary clubs of Hollywood, a brutal, tender coming-of-age story about brotherhood, survival, and the power of punk rock to save a life.