Punk Turns 30

The Dils The Dils just might be thrilled at one of today's headlines in the paper of record, The New York Times. Leaders in House Seek to Tax Rich for Health Plan." Click on the post title to be transported by the magic of the innerwebs to the New York Times to read all about it. With songs like Class War and I Hate the Rich, Chip and Tony Kinman as well as their San Francisco punk compadres The Avengers promulgated what seemed like a socialist agenda... but they were just forward-thinkers in my opinion. This manhole cover I photographed on the corner of Sunset and Fountain in the Silverlake section of Los Angeles really does say it all - City of Los Angeles, Made in Mexico... California's largest city, the second largest city in the USA, was built on the cheap, near slave labor of immigrants doing the kind of work US born citizens didn't want to do, and by so doing, you have the ages old story of the brown people building the palaces of gold for the white p...

Despite a panoply of holidays celebrated this first day of May, some religious, some political - I choose to recognize and celebrate the International Workers Day aspect of "May Day." The Dils, pictured above, were California punk rock's closest thing to old skool socialists in sentiment with songs like Class War and I Hate the Rich. The Avengers, another seminal punk rock band from San Francisco, and frequent co-headliner of shows with The Dils were just as political, proclaiming "We are not Fascists" ( we are the one ) and sang about The American in Me with a vigor and conviction that gave the perception of a unified youth culture. Meanwhile, over in England, Sham 69 did proclaim "If the kids are united, we will never be divided." Sham 69 in 2007, still going strong May Day cannot pass without a big tip of the hat to one Billy Bragg. (Sorry no photos. Why? dunno. Good question. I've seen him perform hundreds of times!) If anyone is sti...

Years before the birth of MTV, artist Joe Rees, together with Jill Hoffman and Jackie Sharp formed the organization Target Video and began taping and editing what would become some of the first conceptually and aesthetically driven music videos. Now, the venerable Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California includes the works of Target Video in the exhibition called CALIFORNIA VIDEO, which runs from March 15 through June 8, 2008. Visit the Getty online for more details. Just when the show at the Getty is set to come down, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) will present a special outdoor screening of Target Video's legendary club show Underground Forces, featuring rare footage of West Coast punk and New Wave bands; their East Coast, Canadian, and European counterparts; and a healthy sampling of the artists, groupies, punk rockers, and weirdos that populated California's underground scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Saturday, June 7, 2008 The Geffen Contemp...

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 ...

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...

I've been telling everyone for years now - and for the last THREE YEARS in public that, hey - PUNK ROCK IS 30! Thanks to the Sex Pistols, who are up to their old tricks leveraging everything appropriate at hand...the 30th anniversary of the release of Never Mind the Bollocks has the mass media taking notice. Suddenly the phrase punk turns 30 is EVERYWHERE!!! I couldn't have paid for better publicity. My friend from punk rock days, Jimmy Wilsey then of The Avengers, later a member of Chris Isaak & Silvertone , (Jimmy's was that guitar sound that defined the song "Wicked Game") and now a solo artist with an album coming out at the dawn of the new year took part recently in Spin Magazine's editorial nod of the head to 30 years of punk, and he's summed it all up in his blog on myspace. The 30th anniversary of the Sex Pistols only album release and of West Coast punk being featured finally in the mainstream is a sweet and long-awaited victory for t...

I read the newspaper, yes I do: paper of record, The New York Times. This is what caught my attention today: Bono, the lead singer of U2 and a self-proclaimed nonpartisan, has just made an intriguing hire to his operation: Matthew Dowd, a former top adviser to George W. Bush. You can read more about it in The NY Times and draw your own conclusions. It may all be spin, and Bono is really good at it... but if it is for real... then music (be it alternative, rock n roll, and punk rock and all the other genres) has the power... because of its role in projecting the appearance of a unified, galvanized common thought...by dint of having an avatar upon which to hang one's political hat. Brings me back to some of my favorite political punk rock spokes-voices: Sham 69, on tour now in the USA and The Dils seen here in their 1978 San Francisco glory and The Dils good friends and frequent gig partners, The Avengers. Punk Rock had its own fair share of political acts and inspirations. In...

F-Word's Rik L. Rik and Germ Darby Crash on stage at the Whisky a Go Go What does "Summer of Hate" mean to you? Its punk rock's answer to the "Summer of Love," which 1967 was referred to by its own hippie generation. In response to the chart-busting Summer of Love anthem, "San Francisco (Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)" punk rock had its own Summer of Hate anthems. They didn't actually coincide with the season, but they captured the essence of all the elements that made the phrase "Summer of Hate" somewhat accurate. F Word was the first of the 1977 punk rockers in California to release a full length album (1978's Like it Or Not ). Two original songs, "Do the Nihil" and "Hillside Strangler" were ferocious and punishing examples of this new music, each of them, summing up the disparate elements of brutality that was free-floating in this generation that succeeded the Summer of Love. "We we can can do do ...

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...

Up front and center for the Avengers: Penelope Houston. They embodied the best of all punk rock, those Avengers – releasing records on the cool LA punk label, Dangerhouse, they were also an important part of the scene in their hometown, San Francisco. 1978 Avengers play the People's Temple in San Francisco Like other San Francisco punks, they expressed way more politics than other American punk bands. The Dils come to mind, although the Kinman Brothers have called many Western cities “home.” Dils at the People's Temple, same show with the Avengers San Francisco was also home of the Dead Kennedys, whose name alone reflected their irreverent attitude for the politics of the day and then there was front man Jello Biafra’s campaign to become Mayor of the City by the Bay in the middle of punk rock’s reign. Penelope sang with conviction anthems like “We Are the One,” and “The American in Me.” At times, she wore the requisite punk haircut – blonde and spiky – and she loo...

Over the past couple of years, since Punk Turns 30 went online, I've received so many comments and compliments about this photo of the beautiful Penelope Houston of the Avengers at KROQ with Rodney Bingenheimer. Here are some more photos from that day Before heading out to the station, Pleasant and I hang with Avengers Jimmy Wilsey and Danny Furious, and Rory Johnston, a friend of ours who had many cool band gigs, the coolest of which was as a road manager for the Sex Pistols. He also worked with Blondie. Jimmy Wilsey, bass player for the Avengers, who went on to play with Chris Isaak as part of the Silvertone band. In this shot, the man closest to Danny Furious the Avengers drummer, over to the right side of the frame, is Billy Bishop, (wearing glasses) an all-around cool guy in the LA Punk Scene. You'll hear more about him soon here, I'm sure. Rodney on the ROQ gave not only Pleasant, me and by extension, Lobotomy many breaks in what turned out to be our ca...

Here they are in their heyday - San Francisco, 1977/78 - The Avengers whipping a crowd into a fury. This weekend, the Avengers treat New York to their brand of California punk rock and then take off for Europe. You can find their tour dates on their website or on their myspace page. Who's in the 2007 Avengers? Here's who was kicking it in 2005 Penelope Houston, vox (original Avenger) Greg Ingraham, guitar (original Avenger) Joel Reader, bass and vox (The Plus Ones, MTX, and scAvengers) Luis Illades, drums (The Plus Ones, Pansy Division) Regardless of who's playing with her, there are few front people more riveting than Penelope Houston. Want to see and hear the real thing? Check their tour dates, check em out.

Some people think that backstage is where its at, and they try whatever clever lines they've got out on the security guys to gain entry. Sometimes, there is a party going on, and you'd want to be there. Other times, its just like this picture.... hazy and drunk, with people sticking together in their own little groups just like it was anywhere else. Most of the time, I've just seen guys changing guitar strings and waiting to go on stage, just like these Avengers boys are doing. Of course, sometimes, the Mayor of the Sunset Strip could show up at your gig, and so could your favorite recording artist, who then turns around and asks you to sing back up on the record she's working on right now... The B Girls surround Rodney Bingenmheiner, Debbie Harry and Nigel Harrison from Blondie, and Sabel Starr Finally, its always great when friends from back home pop by to say hello. If you're a London punk, that friend from home could be a Sex Pistol... Paul Cook and Viv Albe...