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January 23, 2010

Punk 'Zine Archive

suburbanrelapse.jpg As you may have noticed, I haven't been terribly inspired to post much lately. Seems like there's less and less fresh and interesting content out there on the Internets these days. An awful lot of good bloggers appear to have abandoned their sites in favor of tweeting, which I, quite frankly, have no interest in following (or doing).

However, I still stumble across the occasional gem, and the Punk Zine Archive weblog is a 24-carat lump of Cubic Zirconium mounted on an Iron Pyrite safety pin. It's just what it says it is, a huge collection of scanned punk 'zines from the Seventies and Eighties. Fascinating and addictive, you can easily waste a couple of hours here drooling over the fab guerilla artwork, amateur gig photography, and sophmoric, yet enthusiastic writing. I was both happy and sad to be reminded of a brief period in which a lot of people actually gave a shit about music, and wanted it to be something more than just the platform for vapid, Paula Abdul-blessed, cookie-cutter nitwits it's become today.

[Link: The Punk Zine Archive]

September 6, 2009

What We Do Is Secret

vlcsnap-2009-09-06-14h20m24s247.jpg Well, I survived my first week back on the job, and decided to relax this weekend by watching "What We Do Is Secret", director Rodger Grossman's biopic of legendary L.A. punk band, The Germs. Since I was present at a couple of their early gigs, most notably, the June '77 show at the Whisky where lead singer Bobby Pyn (AKA: Darby Crash) doused the audience with salad oil and peanut butter, I thought it might be fun to see how badly Hollywood had mangled their story. I wasn't disappointed.

Shane West's performance as Darby Crash was completely inadequate. Except for the scenes where he's onstage, he comes off as flat, whiny, boring, and something of an amateur fascist. Bijou Phillips as bassist Lorna Doom is even worse, phoning in a totally one-dimensional performance, bereft of any of Lorna's goofy charm. Rick Gonzalez does a fairly decent job portraying happy-go-lucky guitarist, Pat Smear. Of special bad-acting note, look for Ray (Darth Maul) Park in a wig playing Masque owner, Brendan Mullen, with a brogue so indecipherable, it has to be subtitled.
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Apart from the generally poor performances, my biggest beef with the film was the way it plays fast and loose with the facts. For example, in one early scene, the band is shown standing in line at the Whisky, heckling Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian of The Damned , who're being interviewed by Claude Bessy (AKA Kickboy Face) of Slash Magazine. When Bessy urges them to go across the street and perform at Open Mic night at the Orpheum, Sensible and Vanian follow them into the club to watch their very first show.

There are numerous problems with this scene, not least of which is the fact that The Damned never played the Whisky in '77, their first L.A. gigs were at the Starwood in April of 1977 and are the stuff of local legend. Secondly, I have never heard anyone outside of this film, claim that The Damned were in attendance at The Germs first live gig. The movie's screenplay is based in part on Brendan Mullen's Germs biography, Lexicon Devil, so I'd be interested to know if the book makes this claim as well.

All in all, I'd have to say that this film was a major disappointment for an old punk like me who was actually there when a lot of this stuff went down. This was the Dawson's Creek version of The Germs story, totally lacking the sense most of us had of being present at the birth of something new and dangerous that was going to radically change the stale musical scene of Los Angeles forever.

October 9, 2008

The Great Rock and Roll British Butter Swindle


Many thanks to the Cartoonist for alerting me to this bizarre commercial, currently running in the UK, which features that eternally-spotty, punk übermensch, John Lydon, pimping himself for Country Life Butter.

If this was 1977, I'd probably be crying "sellout!" and rioting outside the Whisky, or something. Nowadays, I just laugh and reach for the English muffins.

Mmm....butter....[drool]

[Link: John Lydon Butter Commercial]

July 3, 2008

1st Rule Is: The Laws of Germany


2nd Rule Is: Be Nice to Mommy
3rd Rule Is: Don't Talk to Commies
4th Rule Is: Eat Kosher Salami
5th Rule Is: Post Animated Ramones Vids to MeFi

March 19, 2008

Pretty in Punk

punkhowto01.jpg Jass420punk presents the classic 1977 guide to New Wave couture, How to Look Punk, created by illustrious fashion maven, Marliz, in conjunction with L.A. punk in-crowders, Jenny Lens, Helen Killer, and Pleasant Puss. It's chockablock with helpful fashion tips that show you how to use chains, wrist-wraps, neck thongs, and garbage bags to look "punk pretty"...just like your favorite punk-rock superstars, including the loverly Alice "Douche" Bag, and the dreamy Bobby Pyn!

It also helpfully explains exactly how to "pogo":

"...the Pogo is a highly energized dance form, a theatrical and emotional reflection of today's society. Frenzied movements tell a story of confrontations and frustration....The Pogo is composed of an alternation of moving and holding stances, freestyle, move and hold, move and hold, and on and on."

Whew. All these years I thought it was just jumping up and down in one place. Who knew that it was such an art form?

[Link: How to Look Punk]

February 3, 2008

Bagshot

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[Link: Alice Bag's L.A. Punk Rock 1976-1981 Flickr Set]

October 14, 2007

The Cartoonist Talks to Wire

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The Cartoonist scoops Wire's new EP: Read and Burn 03. Hear his podcast interview with Colin Newman and clips of the new songs. It's great stuff. Nobody does that slow, droning burn like Wire does.

[Link: Read and Burn 03: an Interview With Colin Newman]

October 9, 2007

Ramones+Ventures=Ramonetures

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"The Ramonetures are the brainchild of Phantom Surfers guitar genius Mel Bergman. On this, their debut album, the band takes on the task of reinventing 16 classic Ramones tunes - in a style that would have done the Ventures proud!"

[Link: Ramonetures]

October 3, 2007

Broken Bottles and Ashes

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Acclaimed British-Indian author, Indra Sinha, talks to Flipside Magazine co-founder, L.A. punk in-crowder, and outsider artist, X-8, about his life, music, and artistic aesthetic. X-8 was one of my best friends through most of high-school, and it always amazes me how little I really knew about him back then. His vision isn't for everyone, but you've gotta admire him for the way that he tackles his demons head-on [Link].

July 14, 2007

X-8's 30-Years of fLiPSiDE Tribute

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My pal X-8 put together this nifty little tribute page to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of fLiPSiDE magazine. It includes a couple of sites that I've already linked to like Michele's essential fLiPSiDE Memorial page, and my own personal history of fLiPSiDE and scan of Issue Number 1, along with a bunch of interviews with LA punks, the Germs, Weirdos, and the Screamers. There's also a brilliant live clip of the Weirdos kicking ass on Solitary Confinement from a 1986 fLiPSiDE video. Be sure to check out some of the other great Weirdos clips uploaded to YouTube while you're there. For my money, they were hands-down the best band to come out of LA punk.

[Link: fLiPSiDE 30 YEAR TRIBUTE]

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