Punk Turns 30

I can't remember if it was 1977 or 1979 (although I'm leaning towards believing it was 79) when I saw Cheap Trick play on New Years Eve in Long Beach, CA. They opened for Kansas, and I went to the show with my sister and we left right after Cheap Trick finished playing. It took forever to get back home to the Sunset Strip, but once we were there, we were headed for a Rainbow Bar & Grill pizza. We saw Tom Waits crossing the street and he came over to our car, stuck in traffic, and knocked on the window and wished us a Happy New Year. THEE Tom Waits you wonder? Yes. Back in the late 70s punk rock days, Tom lived in a bungalow at the Tropicana and was friendly with all of us punk rockers, 'tis true. He came to parties at the Mumps bungalow across the way, and also to parties hosted by power poppers from NYC, Milk n Cookies. Three of the band members shared an apartment on nearby Larrabee Street. It was one big happy indie music community. New Years Eve in 1978 ...

Well, the economy is in the trash and was headed there even at this time last year - only the "powers that be" didn't see it when all of us in the trenches were already feeling the pinch. Still... Xmas is upon us and I have but one thing to say: Make it a punk rock Christmas:

Lance Loud June 26, 1951 - December 22, 2001 Seven years without the mercurial Mumps man and the world's first reality television star...

Lorna Doom, bass player for The Germs was Terri Ryan when we first met. Today, when I was perusing my statistics for this blog, I learned that the number one most searched term for the past few days was "Lorna Doom." She was Belinda Carlisle , nee Kurczeski's best gal pal from high school when we all first met. I graduated from high school before they did and was already living in Los Angeles... they came down on the weekends for some rock n roll and parking lot socials, and soon found an apartment on their own. Belinda with writer Don Waller Hollywood in the mid-to-late 70s was kind of wild and crazy. Los Angeles and all of her neighborhoods were destinations for people who wanted more out of life than their own hometowns could provide, whether that hometown was Podunkville, Middle of the USA, or simply a suburb of LA itself, which entailed a long sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Just like those masses, Belinda, Lorna and I migrated from the suburbs north of LA. We...

King Louie, born on this date Twas the week before Xmas and my pregnant next door neighbor has scheduled the birth of her son today. It is not at all unusual to induce labor, so please - no discussions about playing god... Keith Richards turns 65 today! Rolling Stones former business manager, Allen Klein is 77 today I am always impressed with the number of birthdays that occur the week before Xmas... for the expectant parents, the newborn is the best gift ever, plus everyone gets to be home to celebrate baby's first Xmas... for the doctors and hospital staff, it means they might be able to spend the day at home with their own families. Pictured here are three rock n rollers born on this date: the original punk rock Cajun King Louie, he of Royal Pendletons, Persuaders, Exploding Hearts, Loose Diamonds, Black Rose Band, and his own One-Man-Band fame; Keith Richards, who needs no introduction, and Mick Collins, whose time spent in the Gories helped lay the foundation for contem...

The part of the headline that is hinted at in the Intelligencer - Lancaster PA's daily paper (where a thumbnail photo of yours truly and the term "punk photos" make it ABOVE THE FOLD in an Amish country daily!!) "Automake..." is indeed a full reportage about the sad economic situation our country is in through the filter of Detroit's Big Three automobile manufacturers and their day on Capitol Hill with their hands out. Seems like the only ones who did not recognize all the sure-fire signs of a recession / depression were the politicians... those of us in the trenches have known it since it began a year ago. A year ago today, I was in Atlanta, Georgia, exhibiting the Unguarded Moments: Backstage and Beyond show at the Star Bar during their Toys for Tots event, with music by The Gore Gore Girls and The Burmese Crush . Despite the beginning the downward economic spiral, the event did record numbers, as did I. Hanging out at the Star Bar, December 2007 On t...

If in the 60s, Iggy & the Stooges and the MC5 out of Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan inadvertently upped the stakes of a new genre of music by inadvertently inventing punk rock -- they were building on the lo-fi underground kick-off by NYC's Velvet Underground - and it was NYC that became the Mecca and ground zero of that budding movement. The downtown streets were fertile ground for creative people who could do not much more than make their art. The New York Dolls were the segue between glam and punk... and Television, Patti Smith and Richard Hell were the bridge between poetry and music. Most importantly for the history of NYC's underground music scene and birth of NYC's punk rock destination of choice: CBGB, we must tip our collective hat to Television's Tom Verlaine. He is the man who convinced CBGB owner Hilly Kristal to turn that old man Bowery bar into the club that ruled the punk rock roost for over 30 years. Today is Tom Verlaine's birthday...

Another octogenarian cult figure whose accomplishments were more than appreciated and perpetuated by scores of punk rock chicks, Bettie Page died Thursday (December 11) in Los Angeles. Back in the day, I remember photographing so many of my friends in Bettie Page poses... so many punk rock girls wore Bettie Page bangs and embraced the campy fetish wardrobe and general vibe of That Bettie Page THING - a forward-thinking, liberated, open-minded sex-kitten. Viva her influence. Rest in peace, Miss Bettie... my old boss, Elmer Valentine will be thanking you for kick-starting that women's sexual liberation that made it possible for him to have go go girls dancing in cages in his nightclub... The nice girl from Nashville was a force in the culture and morality wars of the cold war era and set the stage for the sexual revolution of the 60s... her obit in the NYTimes is merely a starting point for learning about her unique, long life. Without Bettie Page, Pleasant and I would never hav...

Today, December 10, 2008, please fight the hate with love and call in gay on this Day Without A Gay -- actually, its International Human Rights Day and I can't think of a better human right than to be precisely who you are, nothing more and nothing less, being left alone to be yourself without the threat of harassment or harm. Pictured above is Lance Loud of power pop punk band Mumps. Lance was the eldest child of Bill and Patricia Loud of the Loud Family of Santa Barbara, California... they were on television's first reality show... on PBS - An American Family was non-fiction television (it wasn't called reality TV in 1971) at its earliest and finest. Many cultural critics and scholars agree that the unique high point of the series was that Lance came out to his mom on national tv. That's what I consider setting a brave example. Kristian Hoffman and Lance Loud Lance's band Mumps was comprised of men both gay and straight. You could say they offered somet...

Elmer Valentine , the man who gave me my first show-biz job at his nightclub, the legendary Whisky A Go Go, has died. He died last Wednesday, in his sleep. Although he was indeed an octogenarian, Elmer's health had been on a downturn over the last few years, and he passed away at the age of 85. The Whisky A Go Go launched many careers during its 4+ decades as a venue, but none more brilliant than the very bands associated with the Sunset Strip scene of the 60s: The Byrds, Doors, Love, Buffalo Springfield, and Johnny Rivers - American musicians that put LA on the map. The British bands we all love played their debut shows on the Whisky stage: The Kinks, The Who, and The Jam, one of my favorite punk rock bands in the mold of the Kinks and The Who. More than music, though, Elmer Valentine gave the USA the "go go" dancer! an homage to all things "go go" in 2004 - The Underground Garage Go Go dancers A Chicago vice cop, Elmer Valentine did what all cops do w...