Punk Turns 30

The Alley Cats from LA's South Bay put out this fantastic single on Dangerhouse, "Nothing Means Nothing Anymore" b/w "Give Me A Little Pain." Live, those songs killed. Everything this band did was just top notch, and I think they were loved by all - the Hollywood punk rockers, the South Bay kids, the Orange County kids... what was there not to like about band founders Randy Stodola and Dianne Chai ? They were the nicest people, played the greatest music, fit in on any bill, and always gave 110% When I was first taking Punk Turns 30 photos on tour in the Fall of 2005, there was a guy in Tallahassee, FLA who asked me about the Alley Cats, and he showed me this fantastic scrap book he made of all the clippings he could find. Its just one sign of the staying power of this short-lived band. Another great nod is that one of my favorite contemporary rock n roll bands, River City Tanlines from Memphis, TN (the birthplace of rock n roll) perform "Nothing ...

What happens when you take some Orange County refugees, let them flee to San Francisco to study art and live out their rock n roll dreams? You get The Avengers. They weren't San Francisco's first punk band, but they were, to me, the most Punk of the early San Francisco bands playing punk rock. There was Crime, and there were The Nuns, but there was no band like the Avengers. The 70s was a crazy mix of things, morphing from hippies, to glam/glitter to punk all pretty fast (in cultural terms) while the general populous was infected by the disease du decade ...narcissism. I think everyone everywhere concedes that the 70s were the "Me Generation" and every faction of culture reflected it. It was the 70s thing... me me me (and George Harrison saw it coming in the late 60s... excuse me while I wax Jean-Francois Lyotard / postmodern on you...but I do believe that " I Me Mine" opened the floodgates for the torrent of musical micronarratives that follo...

The combination of X and Dangerhouse Records equals a priceless punk rock memento. “Adult Books” backed with “We’re Desperate” and a cool picture sleeve photographed and conceived by the late Jules Bates was made even sweeter by the nifty handwritten lyrics. That John Doe … what a poetic songwriter! Everything about this relic brings back rich memories of the golden age of punk rock. If you lived in Los Angeles, you’d smile to yourself listening to “Adult Books” and its reference to Screamer, Tomata duPlenty. If your fancy was indeed adult books, the name-checking of pulp potboiler Valley of the Dolls author Jackie Susann was another smile-inducing moment. “We’re Desperate” was to LA punk as “God Save the Queen” was to London punk…a snapshot of a situation all-too-personally-familiar among its intended audience. Me, I got punk’d early on by the combination of Patti Smith, John Cale, Television and their own poetic references to punk poets of another century. When X formed i...