Punk Turns 30

That's Steve Hufstetter, the musical brains behind LA power pop icons, The Quick. This was a brilliant discovery of negatives that I thought might have been lost forever... anyway, I wanted to give you something new to look at. More about The Quick later... like I said, "quickly - The Quick." Enjoy

Rhino Records, the famed Westwood hole-in-the-wall storefront that begat the iconic catalog record label of the same name and defined the independent music store paradigm -- just celebrated on "Record Store Day"-- will be back for a very limited run from May 17 - 30. It's the pop-up store to end all pop-up stores, a reprise of a golden era when idiosyncratic customers and clerks sparked a musical revolution and catalyzed real-life debates that were more passionate than anything seen in High Fidelity. I bought my first Jam album - In the City - at Rhino at the urgent suggestion of the man who would become a lifelong friend, Gary Stewart. The Rhinos also fed my particular obsession with Eno, finding me obscura in addition to always having the latest imported releases. Thanks to Rhino, I am the proud owner of a limited edition lithograph of the cover art for Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy. I can't say enough great things about Rhino... from the records I was turne...

Stiv Bators, Amsterdam, Summer 1985 On May 5, 1984, the year that many people, for a variety of reasons, anticipated, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed something that I actually do not disagree with. Take note folks, this is a FIRST, and mostly likely the ONLY thing this particular dead president said or did that doesn't offend me. His proclamation reads: Photography, the prime visual recorder of human events, preserves memories, emotion, and sentiment for virtually all Americans. It is an established and growing art form which communicates the beauty and diversity of America as well as the vitality of its culture and its people. Iggy Pop, 1977 Photography has played an important role in our commercial and artistic lives and in the process of government through motion pictures, video cameras, and still shots. My camera "watching the detectives," as it were Photographs preserve the history of the Nation and the changing panorama of American landscape and culture. Visual...

It was 40 year ago today that four students at Ohio's Kent State University were gunned down by the National Guard who fired into a crowd of students who were merely exercising their First Amendment rights. Chrissie Hynde was there, as were Devo founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerry Casale. All students at Kent State, Chrissie was participating in the protest and Casale was standing near slain student Allison Krause at the time of the massacre. Chrissie talked about this incident at length in an interview that was part of a 5-hour documentary about the 1970s that I helped produce back in 1995 (and if it doesn't come up in your diligent youtube searches, I can at least recommend some reading about the historical tragedy here, at ohio.com. ) Kent State is but one of the several tragedies that have occurred throughout the course of human events when people seek to raise their voices in protest. Research these: Tlatelolco (La Plaza de las Tres Culturas at Tlatelolco, Mexico Ci...