Punk Turns 30

Lux Interior of The Cramps, live at the Whisky A Go Go. Target Video's The Cramps Live At Napa Stage Hospital is one of the very best live music DVD products available anywhere.... I don't know if it will be part of this upcoming shindig..... but..... It is several months away - but save the date and mark your calendars! The Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA is installing an exhibit called "California Video" which will feature the work of well-known video makers from California, including Target. Target's going to be showing it's classic footage at the show which opens March 15 and runs through June 8, 2008. Target's principals kinda laugh when I call it the Factory (as in Andy Warhol's) of San Francisco punk rock - but in my estimation, the Target team of Joe Rees, Jackie Sharp and Jill Hoffman were on the leading edge with their punk rock artist collective.

Andria Lisle, the outrageously talented writer and Memphis native reports on Goner Fest 4 and local punk rock action in her Mojo blog that's available on Yahoo and the verdict is: YEAH... Memphis has a place at the punk rock table. Ever since Goner Fest became a regular event, the profile of the whole Goner culture has been lifted so mainstream eyes can see just how enduring this punk rock thing is. I'll say this every day - THANK YOU SEX PISTOLS for always mouthing off about everything you do! That they are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of their only studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks really elevates the game and brings new eyes to old skool punk rock. Shunning most recently the celebration of their induction into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, in 1978, the Pistols also shunned one of the largest and most populous cities in the USA - Los Angeles, playing their last US show in San Francisco instead. Of course, all the LA punks drove up to San Franc...

George Cabaniss & David Quinton from Stiv Bators Disconnected Band, 1979 The young man on the right who's giving us the finger is David Quinton, the Teenager from Toronto who ascended the drum throne vacated by the Dead Boys Johnny Blitz. In the first of a series of punk rock coincidences, Johnny Blitz lives in Canada. NOW. Stiv Bators was some kind of Good Will Ambassador to our northern neighbors. In 1978/79, he brought attention to Toronto's B Girls and helped them build anticipation for and eventually sell out the Whisky A Go Go...he had brought his then-girl friend, B Girl bass player Cynthia Ross with him everywhere he went, and her presence, personality and pop punk music made everyone take notice. Cynthia Ross And the B Girls didn't disappoint live audiences either. Xenia Fans appreciated the tip of their hats to American Girl Group and beach blanket movie culture. The B Girls wore that homage on their record sleeves. If you really stop and take a good ...

Mr Airplane Man are Margaret Garrett and Tara McManus. They haven't played as Mr Airplane Man for a while, but they are making a splashy return to the big stage at Goner Fest 4 in Memphis, TN. The festival party hoedown thrown by Goner Records starts NOW - Wednesday, September 26. They get bigger and badder with every go-round. Goner Fest hosted Punk Turns 30's Memphis photo show in 2005. They even immortalized me on the Goner Fest 2 DVD... This year, the Festival seems like its going to out-do the previous three. I can't be there because I have a punk rock fire blazing in California, but I'll be walking into the Goner Store in a month's time... In addition to Mr Airplane Man, Goner Fest is serving up the very best of the current garage and punk rock artists. Opening the festivities is Greg Cartwright. Here's Greg and Margaret from 2005. For those who don't know - Greg used to own a record store called Legba Records, located in the very spot as ...

On this date in history - September 25, in 1789, the U.S. Congress passed twelve amendments to the United States Constitution: the Congressional Apportionment Amendment, the Congressional Compensation Amendment, and the ten that are known as the Bill of Rights, and 168 years later, in 1957, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated through the use of United States Army troops. So, one thinks that between "all men are created equal" and this forced integration, that really... all men are not created equal and color is one of the many elements leading to such inequality. This argument is like beating a dead horse... but um... all that music that white people enjoy - rock n roll in all its permutations - well, the Black Man laid the foundation for it. No honest musician disputes it. How many people in the music game, punk and not punk, have lifted straight from Chuck Berry ? Keith Richards, the best of the best rock n rollers in execution and attitude went ...

I am proud to announce the publication of this book because there are 3 Punk Turns 30 photos inside! The folks at Harry N. Abrams did a beautiful job of putting the hard work of all the photographers and of the author, Holly George Warren together in a compact, substantial piece of coffee-table quality art book. A must! Makes a great gift! Here's the blurb from Amazon.com (who I am sure would want you to buy it from them, so let me leave you with this link to its page on Amazon ) Book Description Thirty-plus years ago a dark rumble of noise gurgled up from the Lower East Side of New York City, made its way across the Atlantic to Great Britain, zigzagged back over the pond to the West Coast, and exploded. Its name — Punk. In Punk 365, the most provocative photography documenting the performances, the looks, and the attitude has been gathered together, revealing reverberations that continue to shake up the status quo. Here we see it all: Pre-punk pioneers, the Stooges, the New Y...

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'd like to thank the Sex Pistols for once again being newsworthy and timely. They are reuniting for a concert to mark the 30th anniversary of their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks. All four original members - John Lydon, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock - will play a one-off concert at London's Brixton Academy on November 8. I'd like to thank them for doing this show right smack dab at the start of my photo tour. It all just adds up to remind the world that punk rock has been around for 30 years! I saw the Pistols 2003 reunion at Jones Beach Amphitheatre in NY, courtesy of Glen Matlock, who still looks youthful and plays masterfully those songs he helped to craft a lifetime ago. Paul Cook is strong and steady as ever too. In fact, as a band, they have perfected a show-craft that will not disappoint... unlike the way they knew they did in San Francisco at Winterland in 1978, when they played an abbreviated set to a mixed up crowd of both fans and detractor...

Lou Reed, one of the forefathers of punk rock and a great native, chronicler and resident of New York takes his work ethic, vision and HIS PHOTOGRAPHS on the road! yeah - I read it today on Yahoo - so I will just let the Reuters-filed story speak for itself... punctuated by my photos of Lou and of NY. Rocker Lou Reed turns focus to photography By Robert Gibbons, Wed Sep 19, 2:18 PM ET Lou Reed has long been lauded for his critically acclaimed musical portrait of New York. Now the rock star has turned his attention to his favorite city once again, this time as a photographer. Reed's album "New York" is considered by many to be among his finest works, but now he is charting the changing nature of the city in photographs. Best known for "Walk on the Wild Side" and "Sweet Jane," Reed is co-curating a Manhattan show featuring photos by musicians and prepping to take his own touring "New York" photo exhibit show to Amsterdam next month. "I...

On this date (September 19), Gram Parsons was found dead in a hotel room in Joshua Tree, California. No - Gram Parsons did not make punk rock records, but he was one of the most outrageous guys in his genre... and he was one of the architects of the country-rock genre as a member of The Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers. His was the ethos that punk rock built upon... and let's not forget that punk faves like John Doe and Peter Case have been rocking the folk thing concurrently with their punk thing... so let's have a moment or two of praise for Gram.

I'm getting ready to spend the day in the darkroom... sorry there was no new post for Monday...but I think when you see the results, you will be pleased... Shout out to New York People: Go see Sham 69 at Klub Europa, TUESDAY NIGHT Shout out to Los Angeles friends: Muddy Spear is in the city! RIGHT NOW. Roll out the red carpet!

Most days I think that apart from Eddie Baranek, I am the only person I know who LOVES The Jam and everything each of them has done since. But I'm happy to say that I am wrong! While reading the Goner Board, as I do all day long whilst my computer processes things, or my scanner is doing its thing, I read this post about a live Jam show download-able in its entirety at the Sailor Jerry blog. So I went there and downloaded all the tunes. I highly recommend you do too! I was also most impressed by the vintage in-concert photo of the band and the depth and breadth of the blog itself. I guess its time to take the plunge and get that mobile phone web access so I can read stuff like this while traversing this great big country by train, which I'm getting ready to do in just a few weeks. I don't know what else to say about the Jam that I haven't already said! But here is a recap: One ) They are a Power trio - all a band needs to be, really. Two) They draw from Exemplary...