Claude Bessy Reviews the Desperate Bicycles "The Medium Was Tedium" 45: "Back-up Vocals That Remind One of the Incredible String Band's Simplistic Moments"

"Right now the chaotic world of new single releases is the most exhilarating thing in the business": Kickboy Face at the tail end of 1977 even before the onslaught of great LOCAL singles to follow, and before he decided to sing (in public at least) with a little encouragement from this single no doubt.  One of those recent wowzer moments is when I was told that Ryan "Ryebread Rodeo" Richardson had made all issues of Slash available here for your own scholarly research with a small coin toss to Medecins Sans Frontieres. I sorta inadvertently donated to Ginn's cat rescue mission at the Hollywood Palladium so this was the least I could do. From the actual "Year One" Exene cover (Vol.1 No. 6) December 1977, Claude Bessy referencing the Incredible String Band in a review of the first Desperate Bicycles single was totally unexpected and dead on.  "Yet I like this record alot."

Exclusive DANGERHOUSE Recording Artists: Black Randy and His ELEGANT Metropolitan Squad, X, Alley Cats and the Deadbeats/Amanda Lear and the Pack 1977!

Better than Sparks' appearance in Rollercoaster but perhaps not as great as the Pack in a 1977 Amanda Lear exploito film, is Black Randy's appearance in The Fabulous Stains. That Pack lp from 1978 just sounds better and better every year. Who woulda guessed? Also, from the barn a great DANGERHOUSE exclusive ad:

Let's Head to the Rock Corporation

Can you believe this lineup from 1978 in VAN NUYS! Currently the location of a panel beater/body shop.  Like Van Nuys needed another one!  The Valley and punk. I remember a lot of shows at the Country Club and later at BeBop Records but that was the next era. So were the shows at Devonshire Downs and Godzillas.  Technically, I lived closer to the Rock Corporation (great name that one!) than Fiberglass, but it would have been close as to who could bike there first.  What was so great about first wave LA punk were all the weekend MATINEE shows!  The Whiskey had them as well.  What comes to mind when I think SFV punk hall of fame are the Dickies, Shock, FEAR, Bad Religion, RF7, Killroy, etc. What I don't think of when I think of Van Nuys are following folks heading there (intentionally): the Eyes, F-Word, Simpletones, Controllers, Plugz, X, Middle Class, Bags, Flesh Eaters, etc.  Did the Germs play the Rock Corporation? Claude Bessy in the valley, please. Can any readers share what the venue was actually like.

$2 Checks Payable to Chris Desjardins/Available September 21 (1978!) from Upsetter Records

Was 1978 the highwater  mark for punk singles in LA - lps are another story? Let's see - the street date for this EPIC release was September 21 (ad swiped from a barn copy of Slash September 1978 - Peter Tosh cover).  The following month, October 1978, Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" e.p. is released though recorded well before that.  What else came out in '78: the Weirdos double A side "We Got the Neutron Bomb"/"Solitary Confinement," the Bags "Survive," the Germs "Lexicon Devil," X "Adult Books"/ "We're Desperate," the Middle Class "Out of Vogue" and on and on . . . 

Battle of the Bands at the Santa Monica Civic, July 28, 1979/"I Shot the Sheriff"

When I see the list of bands, I have to wonder did this show actually happen? Unbelievable line-up for a battle of the bands - is this a Masque benefit? (Silver Chalice!!, the Plugz, "Jane and the Go-Go's," Wall of Voodoo, Flyboys, Fear, Simpletones, X, Controllers not to mention the no-namers who we need to hear like Highrize and Tyranny). Please write in if you were there. As my friend Miller likes to say, I need a scene report. Almost as good a line up as on Dukowski's t-shirt. From 10:00 am to midnight. Wow. The spelling is awesome!! Plugs!! All I can think of when I hear about a "battle of the bands" is Cotton Candy owning Rapid Fire in that mall on the revolving stage, and secretly hoping that the band that sounds a little like the Sylvers and the Jacksons "Enjoy Yourself" wins. If you ever see a copy of "Cotton Candy" that has original commercials and an ad for the Tom Snyder/Manson interview on the Tom Snyder Show, that is sourced from my original VHS tape and you're welcome. If only Clapton is his infinite wisdom had chosen to cover some of the Scratch produced Wailers' material instead of "I Shot the Sheriff" we may have had something more interesting from Rapid Fire, instead of watered-down Van Halen-isms. Now if only the full Scratch/Linda McCartney and Scratch/Robert Palmer sessions would see the light of day . . .

The Kings of LA circa 1981-82: Flesh Eaters, X, Gun Club, Minutemen/Non Plus Magazine

If I can figure out how to post these tapes I will. State of the art technology in the early 80's = cassette magazine. Based on the $.94 tag from Rhino, I must have grabbed these at one of the old Rhino parking lot sales. Chris D without a shirt by the side of the LA River as good as Jimbo posing without his shirt in Venice a decade plus earlier? Yes, it's a poet thing. JLP looking healthy and babyfaced. Did Black Flag feature on one of these Non Plus things?