Getting drunk on cheap German wine and listening to the Sex Pistols and The Dead Kennedy's. The Dead Kennedy's are still my favourite band to this day : )

Mr. Rotten

I'm pretty sure this was the first photo I ever saw of Johnny Rotten. My friend Trixie came into homeroom and showed me a news article -- she'd clipped it to show me. Pretty sure I have the article plastered in a book somewhere. Around Dec '76 or Jan '77? I read the article, stared at the photo, then refused to give it back to her. Got told off by the teacher for wrestling over it. The rest of the school year was pretty much wasted on me.

She and I had already been hooked on old Who LP's -- and when the Ramones lp came out, we both went on an all-day mission to find our copies. Success!

So we were ready for The Pistols. There was an awesome newsagent in Evanston, IL who stocked PUNK. Seriously, the only one in town:

Wish I'd been the one to buy 'em. Read hers. :-(

I've checked my school diaries from '78-'81 and there are photos pasted in of The Clash on almost every other page for 2 years running. Wow. What an impression they made. I'm sure if I hadn't seen 'em live, I wouldn't have been so stuck on them for so long.

Funny, there aren't there any homework listings, but almost every show or gig I attended is marked in girlish handwriting. I love how many pictures I have of Blondie. And Mick Jones! I guess The Rose came out that year, huh?

Remember The Effigies? DV8? The Special Affect? Don't know why, but I had a habit of clipping the show ads from The Reader (Chicago) and pasting them in. At the time, it seemed like overkill, but now I'm glad I did it.

Thanks Dave for the trip down cloudy memory lane. Mel

WHAT WAS THE LONGEST BOGIE EVER PRODUCED ? YES , RIK FROM SCUMBAG U.?
 
Bry Nylon said:

I got the horn whilst playing with my Mayan Calender and it took them 3 hours to remove it up at the local hospital... I missed all the fireworks but someone left a Time Magazine with Sarah Palin on the front of it in the cubicles so it wasn't all bad... Previous to all of this I manageried to stretch a very long piece of snot all the way from last years door handle and droop it directly onto this years computer screen ... Dolly said it was probably a new world's record  being that it would in real terms most likely be classified as a year long snot ...did you know that 2012 is "The Year of the C*nts" ?

John Battles said:

I've got that Derek and Clive LP with the sick ass cover (As seen below.) . It's shameful that my countrymen will never know how funny Dudley Moore once was.

"OH , GAWD ! WHEN I SAW DUDLEY MOORE , LYING IN STATE. IT GAVE ME THE HORN !!"

"Gave me the 'orn. Worrabout Peter Cook , then ?"

"OH , GAWD ! ROGER FUCKIN' NELLIE , VOICED BY PETER COOK , GAVE ME THE FUCKIN'

 ' ORN !!!". 

 I REMEMBER ASKING PEOPLE AT SCHOOL WHAT THEY THOUGHT ABOUT ONE OF THE BEST DARK COMEDIES OF THE 80's , "NEIGHBORS" . WITHOUT FAIL , THEY'D SAY , "THAT WAS STOOPID ! "ARTHUR" WAS GREAT !!!".

BRY , I KEEP FORGETTING HIS NAME , OLD HEDGEHOG - FACE , WHO CALLED THE DOLLS "mock rock" on ogwt.
 
Bry Nylon said:

when we were kids we were diggin  & scuzzy 45's from jumble sales...later on learning of by heart all the rude bits from derek & clive LP's ...apals uncle worked at the DEcca pressing plant and we got given tons of promo 45's - mainly boring 'hit' crud like the stones and stuff... most of which we hung on a nail on an old willow tree and shot with a high power .22  air rifle ... other neighbours used to go see the who and stuff at the Bull & Bush in richmond [way before i was aware of it all ] andso later on...  they lent me a dansette and piles of obscuro LP & 45 crud for me to bop to in my bedroom ...Troggs and stuff like that ...  also got hand me down 60's trash reel to reels and LP's from my pals elder brothers when they all f'ked of to tibet in f'ked  old flower power painted bread van in '68 / 69 - Zappa / Iron Butterfly / Weird shit like that  [...he was youngest of 7 ] - when I was nine in 1972 I saw NY Dolls on late night TV [old grey whistle test] - an earth shattering experience [and mohicans layin' railway local tracks the same year... ]  but I still had to wait another whole 6 excrutiatingly boring years for the Wayne County & Electric Chairs, Stranglers, ME. Smith & The Fall to arrive on 45's...  

 

Someone gave me a tape with Suicidal Tendencies on one side and The Exploited on the other.  It was all downhill from there.  I realized it was ok to be pissed off at what was going on around my.  I liked a lot of the hardcore stuff too (Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front...), but there was a lot of directionless violence and the straight-edge thing was crazy in Florida (late 80's).  The Damned, Motorhead, and The Cramps were and still are my favorite bands and that led me to explore the more rock-n-roll side of punk.  Those were good days and I miss going nuts in the pit and I miss all of the raw energy.

I thought you looked familiar! ;)

TeenFink said:

your mom got me into punk.

your mom got me into punk.

Junior High School, 9th Grade 1977: I was a huge Kiss, Led Zep, Ted Nuge fan. Was reading newspaper articles about some new cutting edge "punk" bands, and it got my curiousity. I bought Never Mind The Bollocks, but didn't get it at first, even tried to take it back to the record store and swap it for the new Styx album (thankfully they wouldn't let me do it). I finally got it on the 4th or 5th listen. Then during a big snowstorm in the Winter of '78, where we were off school for an entire week, I discovered college radio, while bored, turning the dial (back when radios had hose things). WCVT, Towson (then State) University had a punk/ new ave show, Friday evenings from 5:00-7:00. DJ Rod Misey played all the latest, Clash, Costello, Patti Smith, Damned, UK Subs, as well as the proto puk classics from Stooges, MC5, Dictators, Amboy Dukes, Velvet Undeground. I was getting "schooled" every Friday evening, and buying a whole new genre of records, trying to catch up. I wrote songs, formed the first all original music band to play at my high school's annual variety show. I'm still playing and enjoying this type of music today.

i was born  punk.Honest.So the first time i heard a punk song it was like a shock it was so new yet so familiar!!

Some of my metal friends, who were into punk, invited me to see Bikini Kill with Sleeping Body playing in someone's garage some time around 1989.  There was a zine library, a vegan potluck, a record distro, music trading plus a general vibe of friendship and support.  After that, I just got the idea that punks had it going on and metal heads were a bunch of immature tossers who couldn't get laid and tried to act tough when the reality was they were anything but.  When my metal friends were only good for landing in jail or dying young, it wasn't a hard choice to leave metal in the dust.

in 6th grade,in 86/87 a kid named alex moved here from yugoslavia...he had a blue hawk and a leather jacket with subhumans painted on the back....it was all a-ha and gene loves jezebel untill he showed up!

Incredible stuff John! Thanks for sharing these amazing tales : ).

John Carlucci said:

  I  grew up in NYC & witnessed the C.B.G.B's/ Max's Kansas City scene first hand. My band, (The Speedies) was on the circuit, though we did not start up till 79. We were a Max's band. After the Wayne County/Manitoba incident there was a division in the scene. The NY Punk scene morphed out of the dying "Glitter Rock" scene, as it was called then. (now people refer to it as Glam Rock, but that's not what we called it when it was happening)

 Saw the Stooges in 73, NY Dolls & The Dictators in 73, Ramones & Heartbreakers in 74. Somewhere around late 75, they started calling it "Punk Rock". The first place I saw the term was in the New York Daily News. They had a  color photo of HDM & Top Ten From the Dictators on the cover of the Sunday Entertainment section with the words "Punk Rock" on the photo in large letters.  We were all so excited to see our little scene starting to get noticed.This was nearly 2 years before any English Punk bands existed. Back then, things were not so compartmentalized into seperate genre's. Most of the  CBGB's/ Max's bands were into the 60's Garage bands like The Music Machine/Standells/Seeds/Sonics etc. Some of them covered 60's Garage songs (Dead Boys/ Hey Little Girl for example) At first the term around town was Sixties Punk. This was a way of describing it so it was not confused with the 70's scene which was now called Punk.

It was not until the 80's revival that it started to be known as Garage Punk.  I moved to LA after The Speedies broke up & the first band I played with out West was Rik L Rik's band. His band F-Word put out the first Los Angeles "Punk" record. I joined the Fuzztones in 86. They had been already going for a few years. They started as a side project/cover band of Rudi & Deb who had a Power Pop Band called Tina Peel which used to open for The Speedies a lot at Max's & Hurrah's. Rudi looked me up when he moved to LA & asked me to join The Fuzztones. I obliged, mostly because he had a tour of Europe set up. From the start, I had my apprehension. I tried to steer him away from cover songs & 60's "costumes" in favor of  the less contrived approach of some of our peer groups that I admired, like The Miracle Workers, or The Lyres (who had the songs & the look, without appearing like they were wearing uniforms) We constantly butted heads. We signed to RCA in 87. That's when the shit really hit the fan & the resulting megalomania tore the band apart. The experience left me with a sour taste in my mouth for "Garage Rock" & I drifted into the LA Blues & Rockabilly scene, until The Hexxers found me in the mid 2000's and coaxed me back into Garage.  (photo below: SpeedieJohn Carlucci onstage @ C.B.G.B.'s in 1977

 I had a very keen sense of what punk was at a young age. I remember being 4 or 5, living in LA, and seeing groups of punk kids running around. I knew there was something 'different' about them, and something 'different' about me. I instantly identified with them. I knew I'd one day join their ranks.

 My parents took me to a sitar concert, and there was a punk girl sitting behind us. I was awestruck! I wanted this cool older girl to kidnap me so I could tag along on her punk rock adventures. But alas that didn't happen. She just gave me my first stick of gum, much to my moms dismay.

 I had an older cousin who wore tight clothes, teased her hair to high heaven, and hung Red Kross and Dead Kennedy's posters on her walls. The first (and only) time we met she dyed a chunk of my hair orange. Once again, mom was pissed. Mom redyed it so dad never knew.

 One day when riding the bus some punk kids were cussing up a storm. An elderly woman stood up and confronted them. She told them to watch their language around young children, then pointed at me. Meanwhile I thought to myself "Oh fuck you, you old hag!" haha

 Years passed and life happened. I was a product of violence, poverty, and abuse. My relationship with my mother was so bad that I often ran away for weeks at a time. We were living in Portland, OR then - the runaway capitol of America. I'd hang around the square or Burnside and meet random squatters and other street kids.

 I noticed a pink haired girl working a coffee stand near Powells Books one day. As I came closer I heard the loudest, angriest music blasting from her boombox. It was unlike anything I'd heard before. The vocalist was..... female. The whole band was. The pink haired girl told me they were called Babes in Toyland.

 I spared enough change to buy a copy of 'fontanelle' from Ozone, which I'd blast on my walkman day after day. Though not punk rock per se, Babes in Toyland opened the floodgates for me. Soon after I got into the Lunachicks, L7, and Area 51. When a goth girl approached me to ask what I was listening to, she recommended I check out Crass, and Maximum Rock & Roll magazine. I got into zines. Through zines I acquired pen pals, and though pen pals I acquired mix tapes. The ball kept rolling from there.

 At 14 I went to live with my dad in Seattle, and immersed myself in the local punk scene. I started silk screening patches and t shirts. I would get store credit from local record shops + mail order catalogs like Dr. Strange and Angry Young and Poor, and could afford obscure/expensive Brit punk records this way. My interest in 'collectors genres' had kickstarted. One thing lead to another, and here I am today.

One day when I was 10 or 11 I got these cds borrowed from my cousin.

 Bry , I only heard that this is the year of the Dragon. But , Dragons can be right c*nts , can't they....In fact , pretty much the only "Garage" band functioning tn Chicago from the late 70's to the late 80's was The C*nts. Nerver mentioned when the "Glory Days of Chicago Punk" is discussed (Niether is J. Henry Timmis IV , The ( Chicago) Misfits (Later The Victims ) , Beluga and The Human Ashtrays , The Lord of Lightning (Maximum Black Rock , not Punk , but plenty Lo - Fi / DIY.) . They made a point of doing an occasonal gig for some friends , and that was about it. I met the Drummer ,and gave him my number , saying please call if there's a gig. Never heard from him.   In the late 80's , there WAS Fang Beach (Straight up covers of "Nuggets " type songs.) , DIMENTIA 13 (BARRETT - INSPIRED HEAVY PSYCH - ROCK , BUT STILL KINDA POPPY. I sat in with them a lot.), and The Sindells , a little later (Feat. Eric Reidelberger , later in fuckin ' champion Mod Psychsters , Civilized Age , also Lava Sutra - spinoff , Fancy Trolls , as well as Mistletoe Beltbuckle , with Rudi Protrudi. They had a former Sonic Youth Drummer for a while , and , of course , "Joe Garage " , Bob Bucholz , later in The Havox.).....But , there was no "Garage Scene". You'd go and see The Cynics , Royal Nonesuch , or The Chesterfield Kings on a good night (Before they began flirting with Metal ) , and maybe meet 5 people who also "Got it'.

I've got that Derek and Clive LP with the sick ass cover (As seen below.) . It's shameful that my countrymen will never know how funny Dudley Moore once was.

"OH , GAWD ! WHEN I SAW DUDLEY MOORE , LYING IN STATE. IT GAVE ME THE HORN !!"

"Gave me the 'orn. Worrabout Peter Cook , then ?"

"OH , GAWD ! ROGER FUCKIN' NELLIE , VOICED BY PETER COOK , GAVE ME THE FUCKIN'

 ' ORN !!!". 

 I REMEMBER ASKING PEOPLE AT SCHOOL WHAT THEY THOUGHT ABOUT ONE OF THE BEST DARK COMEDIES OF THE 80's , "NEIGHBORS" . WITHOUT FAIL , THEY'D SAY , "THAT WAS STOOPID ! "ARTHUR" WAS GREAT !!!".

BRY , I KEEP FORGETTING HIS NAME , OLD HEDGEHOG - FACE , WHO CALLED THE DOLLS "mock rock" on ogwt.
 
Bry Nylon said:

when we were kids we were diggin  & scuzzy 45's from jumble sales...later on learning of by heart all the rude bits from derek & clive LP's ...apals uncle worked at the DEcca pressing plant and we got given tons of promo 45's - mainly boring 'hit' crud like the stones and stuff... most of which we hung on a nail on an old willow tree and shot with a high power .22  air rifle ... other neighbours used to go see the who and stuff at the Bull & Bush in richmond [way before i was aware of it all ] andso later on...  they lent me a dansette and piles of obscuro LP & 45 crud for me to bop to in my bedroom ...Troggs and stuff like that ...  also got hand me down 60's trash reel to reels and LP's from my pals elder brothers when they all f'ked of to tibet in f'ked  old flower power painted bread van in '68 / 69 - Zappa / Iron Butterfly / Weird shit like that  [...he was youngest of 7 ] - when I was nine in 1972 I saw NY Dolls on late night TV [old grey whistle test] - an earth shattering experience [and mohicans layin' railway local tracks the same year... ]  but I still had to wait another whole 6 excrutiatingly boring years for the Wayne County & Electric Chairs, Stranglers, ME. Smith & The Fall to arrive on 45's...  

 

I think there was a time that more people saw all this stuff as being part of a greater whole....I think , in the states , where Glam barely happened , most people called it "Glitter" instead. I NEVER HEARD IT CALLED ANYTHING ELSE IN THE 70'.....But , that meant , and still means , everyone from Elton John to Kiss and even Queen gets lumped in with it.

I guess more people called The Dolls "Glam", but it seems like anyone who wore glitter got called "Glitter" , well after the movement was over. It's interesting that The Dictators looked like regular guys , but , were (Deservedly) accepted as harbingers of Punk in New York. It does'nt seem like New York was nearly as hung up on fashion , at the time , as London ....
 I have a video of two Dead Boys shows at CBGB's. With the exception of the band , themselves , almost nobody looks like they got the memo about The Sex Pistols. It's wall to wall long hair , perms , beards , denim....It was about the music , that's all.

If you've ever seen Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam" (DON'T  , if you have'nt.), they shot some scenes at and around CBGB's. You'll see guys with big green GBH mohawks . In '77?       I asked my Sister - in - Law , who went to CB's , Max's , etc. , at the time , if she EVER saw as much as one mohawk by 77-78. She said it was possible that Richie Stotts had his first one going by then , but , it would have been a flat "Travis Bickle" job , and no one else would've been following suit , yet...

I used to promote Sylvain Sylvain's solo gigs in Chicago , before The Dolls reformed. He spoke very highly of you , John , and he also spoke of the division betwween CBGB's and Max's after The Manitoba/County incident. Maybe it was already brewing , I always heard you were a CBGB's band or you were a Max's band , though some bands got away with playing both venues.
 John Carlucci said:

  I  grew up in NYC & witnessed the C.B.G.B's/ Max's Kansas City scene first hand. My band, (The Speedies) was on the circuit, though we did not start up till 79. We were a Max's band. After the Wayne County/Manitoba incident there was a division in the scene. The NY Punk scene morphed out of the dying "Glitter Rock" scene, as it was called then. (now people refer to it as Glam Rock, but that's not what we called it when it was happening)

 Saw the Stooges in 73, NY Dolls & The Dictators in 73, Ramones & Heartbreakers in 74. Somewhere around late 75, they started calling it "Punk Rock". The first place I saw the term was in the New York Daily News. They had a  color photo of HDM & Top Ten From the Dictators on the cover of the Sunday Entertainment section with the words "Punk Rock" on the photo in large letters.  We were all so excited to see our little scene starting to get noticed.This was nearly 2 years before any English Punk bands existed. Back then, things were not so compartmentalized into seperate genre's. Most of the  CBGB's/ Max's bands were into the 60's Garage bands like The Music Machine/Standells/Seeds/Sonics etc. Some of them covered 60's Garage songs (Dead Boys/ Hey Little Girl for example) At first the term around town was Sixties Punk. This was a way of describing it so it was not confused with the 70's scene which was now called Punk.

It was not until the 80's revival that it started to be known as Garage Punk.  I moved to LA after The Speedies broke up & the first band I played with out West was Rik L Rik's band. His band F-Word put out the first Los Angeles "Punk" record. I joined the Fuzztones in 86. They had been already going for a few years. They started as a side project/cover band of Rudi & Deb who had a Power Pop Band called Tina Peel which used to open for The Speedies a lot at Max's & Hurrah's. Rudi looked me up when he moved to LA & asked me to join The Fuzztones. I obliged, mostly because he had a tour of Europe set up. From the start, I had my apprehension. I tried to steer him away from cover songs & 60's "costumes" in favor of  the less contrived approach of some of our peer groups that I admired, like The Miracle Workers, or The Lyres (who had the songs & the look, without appearing like they were wearing uniforms) We constantly butted heads. We signed to RCA in 87. That's when the shit really hit the fan & the resulting megalomania tore the band apart. The experience left me with a sour taste in my mouth for "Garage Rock" & I drifted into the LA Blues & Rockabilly scene, until The Hexxers found me in the mid 2000's and coaxed me back into Garage.  (photo below: SpeedieJohn Carlucci onstage @ C.B.G.B.'s in 1977

Love hearing everyone's stories of what got them into this "other' realm of music that was pretty much invisible to so many others.

@ Kopper - Radio! That's what was instrumental for me too. Now I guess it's Youtube & things like Pandora for the kids. Love the tape you digitized. I've only scanned through it, but it reminds me how much I miss good radio, and how important it was. Made me sad when the DJ referred to John Mayall as being old, mid forties (my age) to early fifties. I have several of my old tapes of stuff off the radio that I've slowly been digitizing too.

Most of my friends from back then got into punk through skating and people they met at the skate spots and parks. I was never a skater. I owe my "awakening" as you can call it to two people. Rodney Bingenheimer and Lisa Guerrero. Lisa was my girlfriend for a few key months there in 1980. She was 18 and I was jailbait, 14. (I now understand why my mom hated her) She was into "new" music I guess you could say, not really punk, but not full on "New Wave" as we would have probably called others. She turned me onto alot of stuff like the Clash, 999, Go-Go's, Selector, Specials, Modettes, others I forget. She didn't get to much into the current stuff I was finding on my own, Black Flag, Germs, DOA etc etc. She would go see the likes of the Ramones and Holly and the Italians and go to the dance clubs here in LA like the Odessy, Casa Blanca etc. as opposed to the small clubs. Rodney Bingenheimer as most know, was and still is a DJ here in Los Angeles. His show on KROQ ran from 8pm to midnight Saturday and Sunday back then. As the Angry Samoans said "4 hours of Phil Spectre rock". But in reality it was much more than that. Rodney was playing everything from the Ronettes to the latest Black Flag demo. In fact much of the music he was playing was unreleased. Bands would send him stuff or hand deliver it to him at the station and he would play it. And of course he would have most anybody who was anybody come through and do an interview with him. The Surfaries and Ventures, would drop in, as would Wendy O, Keith Morris of the Circle jerks or Levi Dexter.

I should also mention fanzines too. They were instrumental in finding out about bands and records (and often cassete releases) that were out there. Flipside was the bible for me. The last issue of Slash was still on the stands when I started discovering punk, but it was Flipside that seemed more immediate for my era of punk. You could find out about the latest Fullerton or Huntington Beach bands that hadn't recorded anything yet, or learn where to send away for the Heart Attack 7" in New York or the Fix 7" in Michigan. It was also through Flipside that I started trading tapes and records with people from across the country and overseas too, who opened my ears to many bands I had missed up to that point like the Eater and the Rezillos to name a few. Although it should also be noted that Zed records was an hour's bicycle ride away, and me and my friends discovered many new bands by perusing the inventory there.

As I said I was young, so living in the suburbs of LA made it hard to get out to proper gigs. I'd maybe sneak out to a show once a month, (and then spend a few weeks in trouble from mom). I was halfway between the Vex in east LA and the Cuckoo's nest in southern Orange County. But there was also an active party circuit in the suburbs for the newer bands. We saw Social Distortion, TSOL, the Vandals, Adolescents, Channel 3 and many more in living rooms and backyards all across the suburbs.

As far as 60's punk, outside of what I'd heard on Rodney and KRLA like the Seeds, Music Machine etc, I was somewhat oblivious, until one of my older punk friends turned me onto a cassette of what was most likely the Nuggets comp. It was an eye opener, but outside of some of the Paisley Underground type bands, I didn't really dig a whole lot deeper till much later. I was still chasing the diminishing returns of punk leftovers in thelate 80's into the early 90's when an old friend who worked for Flipside and then later a new friend who had a lo-fi noisy garage band opened my eyes to what I was missing like everything on Estrus, Sympathy etc etc.. I found it exciting because for me, it was back to the clubs and one off venues as opposed to the more established bigger places that I seemed to be going to a lot of shows at. It was now all about the Mummies, Gories, Lazy Cowgirls, Devil Dogs etc etc.

  I  grew up in NYC & witnessed the C.B.G.B's/ Max's Kansas City scene first hand. My band, (The Speedies) was on the circuit, though we did not start up till 79. We were a Max's band. After the Wayne County/Manitoba incident there was a division in the scene. The NY Punk scene morphed out of the dying "Glitter Rock" scene, as it was called then. (now people refer to it as Glam Rock, but that's not what we called it when it was happening)

 Saw the Stooges in 73, NY Dolls & The Dictators in 73, Ramones & Heartbreakers in 74. Somewhere around late 75, they started calling it "Punk Rock". The first place I saw the term was in the New York Daily News. They had a  color photo of HDM & Top Ten From the Dictators on the cover of the Sunday Entertainment section with the words "Punk Rock" on the photo in large letters.  We were all so excited to see our little scene starting to get noticed.This was nearly 2 years before any English Punk bands existed. Back then, things were not so compartmentalized into seperate genre's. Most of the  CBGB's/ Max's bands were into the 60's Garage bands like The Music Machine/Standells/Seeds/Sonics etc. Some of them covered 60's Garage songs (Dead Boys/ Hey Little Girl for example) At first the term around town was Sixties Punk. This was a way of describing it so it was not confused with the 70's scene which was now called Punk.

It was not until the 80's revival that it started to be known as Garage Punk.  I moved to LA after The Speedies broke up & the first band I played with out West was Rik L Rik's band. His band F-Word put out the first Los Angeles "Punk" record. I joined the Fuzztones in 86. They had been already going for a few years. They started as a side project/cover band of Rudi & Deb who had a Power Pop Band called Tina Peel which used to open for The Speedies a lot at Max's & Hurrah's. Rudi looked me up when he moved to LA & asked me to join The Fuzztones. I obliged, mostly because he had a tour of Europe set up. From the start, I had my apprehension. I tried to steer him away from cover songs & 60's "costumes" in favor of  the less contrived approach of some of our peer groups that I admired, like The Miracle Workers, or The Lyres (who had the songs & the look, without appearing like they were wearing uniforms) We constantly butted heads. We signed to RCA in 87. That's when the shit really hit the fan & the resulting megalomania tore the band apart. The experience left me with a sour taste in my mouth for "Garage Rock" & I drifted into the LA Blues & Rockabilly scene, until The Hexxers found me in the mid 2000's and coaxed me back into Garage.  (photo below: SpeedieJohn Carlucci onstage @ C.B.G.B.'s in 1977

Well, I'd been a metal head for about a half year, and one of my friends had been trying to get me into punk, from the second the first Led Zeppelin CD graced my ears. I forgot about it until I realized how awesome Megadeth's cover of Anarchy in the U.K. was. I ended up seeking the original. It was pure audio pleasure. I texted my friend, and she gave me a bunch of recommendations. I was immediately hooked, I now like everything from pure hardcore, like Black Flag, to some Pop- Punk, like The Offspring.

Kopper , good question. You brought up much to consider , here , concerning the topic of when did you /I / they decide to be zorch , Daddy - O , GO PUNK !!!

For me , love came in spurts....You know , I first read about Punk Rock in that Summer '77 Time magazine feature. I did'nt know what to make of it , tho ' I got a chuckle out of Dave Vanian and Captain Sensibles obvious "Taking the piss" attire and attitude. They called him Dave "Transyl " Vanian in the article , Never saw him referred to as that , again. I was only 12 going on 13 , I did'nt get it . Still , I was intrigued , I thought the clothes and hairstyles were hilarious , because I was putting down something I did'nt understand. There were some great Punk exploitation mags at the time , as well as decent coverage in Creem , Hit Parader  , (Sometimes) Rolling Stone and especially ROCK SCENE (www.rockscene.com   DO IT , NOW ! )....So , all that got me interested , but , you have to remember ,  the music itself was NOT being played on the radio or even in record stores that carried in sparingly ...George Gimarc's vastly influential "Rock'n'Roll Alternative"show on KZEW Radio in Dallas did'nt debut til '79 or early '80 , I think.   I was very curious when I heard The Sex Pistols would be playing in Dallas in January , '78. Tickets were only $3.50 !  I even asked my folks if I could go. tHEY SAID , HELLLLLL , NO ! I WAS'NT EVEN AWARE , THO' , THAT MY BROTHER HAD SEEN THE RAMONES IN FT. WORTH (WITH SUPPORT BY THE RUNAWAYS , SANS CHERIE.) , SEVERAL MONTHS EARLIER.  I did'nt actively seek it out , after that , for two years. There was ONE kid in my Jr. High School , a transplant from England , who was a dyed in the wool Punk Rock fan . But , this was after The Sex Pistols split up , Sid and Nancy died , etc.  People were starting to say "Punk is Dead" , but , it would'nt be the party line for a long time.

I was still listening to The Beatles , The Stones , The Who , stuff like that (Which made me enough of a pariah at my school .)....But , I found a very intriguing article in an old "Story of Pop " magazine ('72 , as I recall. Maybe '73.) called "Punk Rock : The History of The Scuz Bands".... I was shocked , "There was Punk Rock back in the 60's ?". The article (Which I wish I had , today.) covered bands that had hit records - Sam The Sham and The Pharoahs , Count V , Blues Magoos , The Seeds , Electric Prunes , and other Bizarro World obscurities like The Chocolate Watchband , Magic Mushrooms , Red Crayola and The Familiar Ugly......

Another new world had opened up to me ,and at least , SOME of it , I could still hear on the radio. I was already aware that The MC5 ,Slade , The New York Dolls and early Alice Cooper , to name a few , were considered Proto - Punk , but , I found myself quickly taking to whatever mid - 60's Punk I could get my ears around....By 1980 , my Brother had started a Punk band (Punk was dead , but it would'nt lie down.) , and he was bringing home records by more new bands than I could even  keep up with , but , when I finally heard it , I GOT it. George Gimarc's show was kicking up a storm , and anything 5 years old or less was considered contemporary. When I finally heard The Pistols and The Clash's first albums , I thought , "This is what all the fuss was about ? This is just good Rock'n'Roll!".). I saw "Rock'n'Roll High School" when it came out.I have to admit , I did'nt get it with  The Ramones , at the time. I was'nt used to hearing someone singing under the beat like that. Of course , I became a huge fan , later. I was hooked , now , but , not just on Punk , as you noted , there was , of course , New Wave  , Neo - Psych and Garage , Rockabilly Revival , Post Punk , and more.I liked Two Tone /Ska and the new Mod bands (Well , not THAT new.) , but I got off a lot of that stuff (Tho' I still like The Jam , and came this close to seeing them in '82 , but , they broke up before a Dallas booking was confirmed....).

WHEN HARDCORE MOVED IN , I LIKED SOME OF IT. DID'NT LIKE THE VIOLENCE TOO MUCH. STILL DON'T. DID'NT GET IT WITH THE SKATEBOARDS , EITHER. I'D PUT MINE AWAY , FOR GOOD ,   AROUND THE TIME I FIRST READ ABOUT PUNK ROCK. OK , IF THAT MEANS I HAVE TO TURN IN MY PUNK ROCK CREDENTIALS (Whatever they are.) , fine , so be it. But , I could always find other things to listen to. The mid to late 80's just were'nt a shitstorm of cool bands , like in the very early 80's. I ACTUALLY BECAME A BIGGER FAN OF THE 70'S pUNK STUFF , LATER , AS MUCH OF IT WAS STILL HARD TO FIND FOR YEARS , BUT I WAS, BY THEN , A BIGGER FAN OF ROCKABILLY AND GARAGE PUNK. I DID'NT HAVE IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO UNDERGROUND RECORD STORES ,  AND "VINTAGE" CLOTHING STORES , OR EVEN THRIFT STORES , UNTIL I WAS IN COLLEGE. But , to me , it was'nt about dressing "Punk". If I could have afforded a leather jacket at the time , I could have passed for "Punk" , but , most people I met who were still into Punk were cool , and dug my clothes. I put my own outfits together , it was'nt like them , or anybody.   I could have dressed lame and saved myself  a lot of grief , but , it's a crazy thing , last I'd checked , this was America.

I have a blog post about this very subject! Click here. Although that just covers me getting into punk & new wave in the early '80s, not any of the garage-type stuff, which I didn't really get into seriously until the early '90s, after my obsession with hardcore punk & post-punk noise throughout most of the '80s.