Sunday, July 8, 2007

WHAT WE DO WAS SECRET


Photo: John Denny (Weirdos), Darby Crash (Germs) and Tomata du Plenty (Screamers) singing back-up vocals for Black Randy and the Metrosquad at the Masque, ca 1978. Original full size photo by Douglas Cavanaugh, can be found on Kristian Hoffman's site here.

The context in which the 77-78 era of California punk rock is experienced is everything. A lot of online sources get things a little skewed, some do a little research and get it right, and some "I was there" sites give interesting first-hand accounts.

One thing that needs to be remembered is, first and foremost, it was an full-on DIY phenomenon. People with little or no experience put out records and fanzines, and they were every bit as essential to the scenes as the bands were. There were no web pages, no MySpace, no Pro Tools, no mp3's or YouTube. Just scrappy kids that couldn't take the crap they were being fed any longer. Take DIY out of the equation, add thirty years and try not to choke on the words "punk's not dead."

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
The Skulls-Victims (What Records) [2]
5. Something I Learned Today

Compilations of Dangerhouse bands (and two Weirdos comps) are available at
Frontier Records.
Recommended reading: "We Got the Neutron Bomb" by Brendan Mullen and Mark Spitz

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tom G. said...

Sorry Rodrigo, no spam in the comment section.

Edwin said...

Lexicon Devil was released on Slash Records, dude, not Dangerhouse. I'm pretty sure it was the first thing Slash put out.

Tom G. said...

You are correct. I'd like to say I was just testing you, but I completely forgot (haven't had a copy in years). One demerit for laziness. Thanks, post is corrected.