Punk Turns 30

Bradly Field, original drummer for Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, photographed eating a burger at Duke's Teenage Jesus & the Jerks was the first band that Lydia Lunch formed and/or was in. Formed in 1977, they were one of the first so-called "no wave" bands - post punk before there was even a notion of post punk. I chalk it up to Lydia's innate sensibility for postmodernity and post-structuralism. She was just 16 and had nothing to lose. The band was loud, noisy, painful to listen to and they knew it - they called their music "aural terror." I was scared to meet Bradly Field, pictured above, when I did in 1978. He came to Los Angeles with Mumps when they made an extended visit to do some recordings, play some shows and hopefully secure a record deal. Bradly was a pussy cat compared to the urban legend of Teenage Jesus & the Jerks. Alas, Bradly has left the planet, but almost 30 years after the band's break-up, Lydia and Jim Sclavunos t...

This sweeping staircase, worthy of interiors for a Cecil B. DeMille movie, was actually the sweeping staircase inside the bungalow behind the Tropicana that Stiv Bators stayed in during one of his many Los Angeles sojourns. In the photo with him is record producer Thom Wilson, whose credits include: DOA, TSOL, and later Offspring, Bouncing Souls and many others...just let it be known that we broke him in! Thom recorded "Disconnected" for Stiv back in 1979. The Tropicana was the site and scene of many a fantastic punk rock photo opportunity - not just for me, but many other photographers from Los Angeles, and for those who came to LA for the photo opportunity. The Tropicana is a romantic memory to many people other than punk rockers and their friends. It is a taste of Old Los Angeles, and of a different time - a time when Los Angeles was the old film noir town of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain characters like Phillip Marlowe or Mildred Pierce. Now that it is gone, ...