Punk Turns 30

There's some kind of co-mingling of the spinster tale from the Li'l Abner comic strip character Sadie Hawkins and the occasion of Leap Day/Leap Year and catching a man that creates the wacky tradition of the Sadie Hawkins Day Dance and the tradition that allows men to propose marriage to men on February 29 (marrying on that day is bad luck in the Greek culture... though one of my best pals married on that day in 2004 after 13 years of co-habiting and they are happier than ever. Tradition, superstition - go figure)... yes, its a mixed bag of culture, pop literature, tradition and superstition that verifies what my gender has known all along... if you want something, just GRAB IT! like it? buy it here! Pleasant Gehman, pictured above with Billy Idol and in the other shot with Belinda Carlisle, is one of those ladies, who from the get-go, always pursued what she wanted with a passion and fervor, whether it was being the first one in Los Angeles to meet & greet Billy Idol ...

You probably know this guy as James Wilsey from the band Silvertone that backed Chris Isaak. Well, he is that guy, but prior to creating the musical signature of the 90s with his mysterious, romantic twangy guitar work on 1989's "Wicked Game," Jimmy Wilsey was known to punk rockers around the world as the bass player for San Francisco's seminal punk rock band The Avengers. Wilsey has spent more years in the public eye on the guitar rather than bass, and many more years in the pop spotlight because of his contributions to Chris Isaak's body of work. That sultry guitar work - all Wilsey's - is a result of his non-punk rock influences such as Duane Eddy and Link Wray (though Wray's "Rumble" is pretty punk rock if you ask me). So, 30 years after proclaiming with the Avengers "We Are the One" and 18 years after showing the world how to play a "Wicked Game" with Chris Isaak, James Wilsey releases a solo album - an instrumental ...

Back in 2005, right after Hurricane Katrina had displaced him and thousands of other New Orleans residents, I met the infamous and celebrated 90s punk rock anti hero, King Louie. It was at Goner Fest 2. He was performing in his One Man Band mode and also with The Persuaders. He was also working on a recording project called Loose Diamonds. That's most of the band pictured above, Harlan T Bobo, Louie and Jack Oblivian. The other guitar player, Chad Booth had already left town before we took this picture in the soft rain that Hurricane Rita brought to Memphis, covering the vista with a soft fog but playing havoc with the lights and power. Last night at Louie Fest, I finally witnessed a performance of these rock n roll gems... Loose Diamonds. I'll have to share some video with you soon, because I shot some. But in the interim, in honor of Loose Diamonds and King Louie, enjoy these 2005 images of that inadvertent super group.

At this time in 1977, The Ramones were making their second appearance in Los Angeles proper, after having spent the previous several months conquering England and then their own motherland... setting or cementing punk rock trends. If 1976 was when punk rock started its preliminary campaign through pop culture, 1977 is when it made the media take notice, 1978 was when a broader audience adopted it and 1979 was when it hit the nadir... you know what its like when the mainstream starts to notice your little thing? How the people who looked upon your thing with disdain and all of a sudden, they were embracing it? Just like that phenomenon when songs you love start getting massive radio play and all of a sudden, you re-think what you're doing and why.. Yeah... that was happening, and there was a distinct shift in the attitude and execution of punk rock by those who birthed it. Of course, punk rock had to grow and shift with the changes. But there was indeed new life in 1979 with T...

Randy Kaye, my dear friend, would have been 50 today. Together with Pleasant, Randy was a founder of our youthful venture into the world of media... Lobotomy, The Brainless Magazine. The myriad and memorable road trips we made were based on our avid interest in Blondie, Mumps, The Cramps and other bands from New York, as well as our friends in Los Angeles who just happened to form bands that you've heard of... Joan Jett, The Go Gos, The Germs to name a few. Randy is the person on the far left of the frame, you can see the end of his nose - he's next to the body who is next to be-spectacled Brad Dunning... Joan Jett is on Billy Idol's right and Pleasant is on his left. Lorna Doom is in the frame, on the right, Darby is at her side, blocking most of her face from your view This photo reflects just a small slice of our life in punk rock's heyday. Randy's life is so much more than the fun times that we had in our teens and twenties.. Randy went on to the world of...

Back in my not-so-distant radio days, I was bombarded on a daily basis by new releases, all guaranteed to hearken back to the lo-fi and deliciously dirty sounding records of the 60s... lucky for me, I was involved in a current/retro radio program and received some of the best of the best retro/current records. Also... during that tenure, I had a few occasions to visit the legendary record producer, songwriter and Sire Records co-founder, and founder of The Orchard, the legendary Richard Gottehrer. Richard has had his hand in some of the most memorable and enduring records ever recorded in any era and in any genre. While my favorite records of his are by artists who were on the leading edge of NYC punk rock - Blondie and Richard Hell & the Voidoids, the Gottehrer Midas touch has also produced LA pop punk superstars, The Go Gos. Belinda Carlisle in pre-Go Go's days with pal Pleasant Gehman Before punk rock, Gottehrer produced records that now prove their mettle by standing...

In 1977, on February 16 and 17 (and possibly longer... I can't remember, although Flipside Fanzine, which gets its gig info from old newspaper ads says it was thru the 20th), The Ramones headlined the Whisky a Go Go. It was their sophomore visit to Los Angeles, returning to sunny LA during the coldest month of the year (February - in their native NY)... it was like Beatlemania - the screaming, excited fans... the now-familiar non-stop no-nonsense ploughing through a set with just Dee Dee yelling 1, 2, 3, 4 in between songs. Yeah... Ramones... good times 1977... nothing more needs to be said... except... today, it's all pictures of Joey. Stay tuned for more Ramones as the days go by.

Playboy, February 1981, cover and page 226 - which includes my photo of Stiv! Playboy Magazine is copyright Playboy Enterprises, Inc. Although the pictures were taken in the Summer of 1980, it wasn't until February 1981 that they started showing up in the press... Playboy was the first publication - and scored an exclusive - to pick up on the sexy backstage photos of Stiv Bators and Sabel Starr fooling around for the camera. I was thrilled beyond belief when Playboy's photo editor sent me a contract for the use of the photo. It ended up on Page 226 of the magazine - on the leading page of their "Grapevine" section - their photo/gossip pages near the end of the magazine. Because... everybody READS Playboy for their witty writing, don't they? I'd get a whole new set of eyes looking at my photography. Stiv always brought me good luck with our photo opportunities, to be sure. I've been showing this color picture of Stiv and Sabel for some time... its ...

If you want to own one of these.... visit my auction on eBay!

A couple days ago, we were transported to 1977... the debut of Blondie at the Whisky a Go Go in the first of a several date stand that saw them headline (with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers opening) and then support The Ramones. A year later on these same dates, Orange County's F Word was playing several dates at the Whisky, making their mark. Pictured above are two seminal punk rock front men, both sadly no longer with us. Rik L Rik of F Word is joined on stage by Darby Crash. One of the more interesting bits of trivia about F Word and what they did for the local scene was their support of bands like The Germs and that they covered Germs songs in their own set! For my money, however... F Word originals like Do the Nihil and Hillside Strangler captured the feel and issues of the times in which we lived, and did it perfectly. A little history: February 9 - 11, 1978 F Word and The Quick were at the Whisky and from February 16-19, 1978, F Word were on a bill with the S...

Thank you King Louie and Dustin of the Black Rose Band for setting this all up, especially while you're finishing your record and doing shows! What a KILLER LINE UP! Don't miss a single day! This all starts in 10 days from today. That makes today February 10 - and I always like to give a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to my life-long friend Gary Stewart, who has impeccable taste in music, is a good friend and who turned me on to: Elvis Costello, The Jam, Wild Man Fischer and introduced me to the guy who sold me all my cool Eno collectible stuff when it was affordable to collect. You rule in so many ways, there's not enough internet to express it on!

In 1977, from February 9 - 12, Blondie headlined at the Whisky A Go Go. For me and my closest friends, Pleasant, Randy and Kid Congo, this was a momentous event. Blondie's music touched a chord in us and seeing them, meeting them and befriending them changed our lives considerably. For us, I guess you could say that Debbie Harry 's face, like Helen of Troy's, was the one that launched a thousand ships... Blondie's embrace of the Girl Group phenomenon combined the right balance of kitsch, camp and in all seriousness - great pop songs with staying power. There was something for everyone to latch on to. The eponymous debut record boasted the production wizardry of one Richard Gottehrer, who had previously brought the world such pop gems as "My Boyfriend's Back" by girl group The Angels and "I Want Candy" by the Strangeloves (his own group with co-writing/producing partners, Bob Feldman and Jerry Goldstein). Such an auspicious debut could...

Don't let this deal slip away...

Unless you have your head buried deeply under the sand, there's no way you missed that the New York Giants are the Super Bowl victors. On Super Tuesday / Mardi Gras and the eve of Chinese Lunar New Year (which actually begins today), there was a Victory Parade complete with ticker tape and all the fanfare in the Canyon of Heroes in Manhattan's downtown financial district... quite a LOT of whoop-di-doo for a single day... Today, as she was describing the mood downtown when she got out of the subway yesterday, my friend and NY trip hostess with the mostest, Jahna Rain, singer/musician for The Demands and also for Mr Badger observed that it was a pretty cool thing and quite an accomplishment for the openly gay and fantastic singer, performer and songwriter, Freddie Mercury of Queen that his song "We Are The Champions" became the de facto victory song for every major sporting event... and is sung by sports fans the world over, including the ones who are raging homop...