substitute

I've never been a fan of Vice magazine, but these photosets of early 80s L.A. hardcore are great. They totally capture that scene.

Can't wait for the book!

http://punkturns30.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-this-day-in-1979-elks-lodge-riot-in.html

That's a good starting point. St. Patrick's Day, 1979: An all ages show at the Elks Club in Los Angeles degenerates into a police riot. The cops just invaded and beat the hell out of everyone. There are photos on a few of the linked sites of various injured punks.

As others have said, that was the end of innocence. It was war between the LAPD and punks after that.

This all happened when I was just finishing junior high school in Orange County, so I didn't have the opportunity to be attacked by the LAPD until my freshman year of college when I was in a crowd at the Street Scene and they charged us with horses, medieval style.

I got a myspace friend request from a band called "Hey Stroker" ( http://www.myspace.com/heystrokeroc ). Here's what they have to say about themselves:

Hey everyone you probably haven't heard of us yet but we're Hey Stroker a melodic, punk-rock from Mission Viejo, CA in Orange County. Some people say we're sort of like the Beach Boys playing intriguing pop-punk. We combine screaming guitar leads with punchy bass lines, pounding drum beats, and the well-crafted lyrical and vocal arrangements. Everyone says we sound like Blink 182 but, we don't. We have a high-octane, radio-friendly sound that's all our own so whoever says we are a Blink 182 rip-off, FUCK YOU! Activities we enjoy include partying, drinking beer, and surfing thats why most of our music is about chiks, beer, surfing, ex-girlfriends(aka hos), or various parts of the human body mainly pussy, tits, and ass.

Okay. Guys? Punk rock may or may not be melodic, but it's not radio-friendly, nor is it about "chiks, beer, surfing..." etc. Punk rock lyrics are sometimes about beer and sex, or surfing, but that's not the point. Punk rock is liberation. When I say "liberation," I mean liberation from stupid money-grubbing capitalism, consumer culture, war, educational credentialism, smooth nice music, bourgeois sensibilities, bigotry, oppressive politics, official anything, corporate media, TV, suburban self-satisfied smugness, and unthinking racial and gender assumptions. Punk rock is D.I.Y. instead of buying or copying shit. Punk Rock is about being polite to the cop and flipping off the mayor, because the mayor is the problem and the cop is just a worker. Punk rock is about communicating everything above with hard, rough, unrefined and uneducated noise and having a fucking great time doing it and sharing it with everyone else.

In sum, punk rock is about liberation from you. Dump your privilege and your expensive guitars, stop imitating, and start over. You're still young and you have a chance at the real thing.

Punk rock saved my life. Don't shit all over it for five bucks when you don't even know what it is.

both via the American Punk 78-91 archive at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/punkarchive/

Saw Tom today, for the first time in more than 20 years. I went to high school with him and I think saw him once after that. In the meantime he's had a few careers and is currently fully employed saving the world. This is a damned good thing in that the world is in need of saving and Tom is both smart and on the side of the angels.

I tried to explain some of the more recent features of our locale including Mortgage Bro 'n' Ho Culture, the Vanguard Nice Christian Kid Death Star Attack, and the deadly affluenza of drugs and alcohol among the Kids These Days. Not sure if I was sufficiently descriptive.

I went away with the happy feeling of having reconnected, some good stories from both of us, and a sticker that says COALITION CONVOY / STAY BACK 50 METERS / DEADLY FORCE IS AUTHORIZED in English and Arabic. I think that is going to go on the laptop. I'll leave the rest of the storytelling to him, if he chooses to tell the stories.

On the way over there I was listening to Indie 103 (which I'm liking more and more) and it was Steve Jones' show. It was a crazy reunion show at that because Jonesy had John Lydon on the show and they were bullshitting and laughing about the Sex Pistols days. Best quote was from Lydon: "And we were very confused, as one ought to be."

Anyway they wrapped up the show as I was driving from the shrink's office to meet Tom at Kéan. Just as I drove past my alma mater, all decorated with happy cheerleader girls doing the splits, the radio spat out "God Save the Queen" and I realized that this was something like my 25th anniversary of driving past that high school blasting that song on my car radio.

As Tom said, "that still works."

At the Elks Lodge police riot, at which L.A.P.D. stormtroopers launched a violent and unprovoked surprise attack upon an actually placid punk rock audience...Barb flattened 10 L.A.P.D. officers simultaneously with an uprooted 'No Parking' sign. They had hurt her sister. She got arrested. In court, when the judge asked to see the 'weapon' used to assault the police officers, this 12 foot long 'No Parking' sign was carried in, as the judge gazed at skinny alone blond Barbara and formed a mental picture of the 10 officers eating dirt. Do you have to ask if this girl can sing?

more at Alice Bag and her blog, Diary of a Bad Housewife.

http://anamericanpunkinsuburbia.blogspot.com/

Has video from New Wave Theatre and some rare punk crap, So Cal stuff mostly. Nice.

7inchpunk posted some ancient Big Boys material today, both sides of a fanzine-released 7". go get it here!

Dave Markey of We Got Power Films has posted the entirety of the We Got Power: Party or Go Home album ripped from the 1983 vinyl.

It's Southern California and Southwest punk: Minutemen, Big Boys, 7 Seconds, JFA, Sin 34 etc. Music to skate & destroy by.

This set of music perfectly captures the hardcore punk scene the year I graduated high school.