All posts by lilmikesf

Memories of Miami Floridians of The American Basketball Association

The Floridians Logo

In the late 1960’s an alternative league to the established National Basketball Association started up called the American Basketball Association. Imported to South Florida from ill fated beginnings as the Minnesota Muskies, a struggling semi pro b-ball team was rebranded as The Miami Floridians to enliven offerings in a resort and retirement area where golf, and gambling on jai alai and horse racing were the preferred past times. The Miami Dolphins NFL team were the dominant champion level pro sports phenomena in town and there was seemingly little demand for basketball and ticket sales seemed to show this.

After two years playing with lousy lineups in ill suited venues like Dade Junior College, and an old aircraft hanger called Dinner Key Auditorium, the bleak experience and team’s stale image helped doom attendance. A new vision would be required at the dawning of the age of Aquarius to get the team off the ground.

old Dinner key Auditorium from a 1970 Miami News photo

Fortunately, a new owner had been bought in by 1970 named Ned Doyle, one of the original imaginative literal “Mad Men” of Madison Ave giants Doyle, Dane & Bernbach, who had overseen and help create memorable campaigns like Avis “We Try Harder”, he’d stuffed Wilt The Stilt into a Volkswagen beetle, and had made Sara Lee seem like a member of the family, so how hard could it be for him to sell sweaty men in shorts?

Floridians ABA Basketball
a Floridians trading card
Doyle arranged for more colorful uniforms, gave away youth tickets and brought in sponsors to help get the nascent team more notoriety

Doyle had done so well from the advertising business, that upon retirement, he invested a spare million bucks into the novel idea of launching his revamped version of a pro basketball team in Miami Florida. One of Doyle’s first attempts to bolster the floundering, but potentially successful, teams’ image was move the games to the more respectable and comfortable downtown seaside environs of the Miami Convention Center, where national political parties held conventions. He redesigned and added magenta, black and orange to the team color scheme on the uniforms, and created a new contemporary sans serif logo. Most importantly, aside from getting ‘ball girls’ in skimpy bikinis to attract eyeballs, Doyle tried to improve the product by investing in new talent. By bringing in some experienced ball players, Doyle saw every single member of the previous year’s roster either traded, sold or released, even local hero and crowd fave Al Cueto aka “the world’s tallest Cuban”. The Floridians bold advertising slogan that year was, ‘We didn’t fire the coach, we fired the team.’ The next year they fired the coach…

Ned Doyle's plans for the Floridians at time of purchase did not include failure
Ned Doyle’s ambitious and innovative ideas for the Floridians at time of purchase did not include failure

Despite putting new athletes on the court, there were still other obstacles to overcome… one strategy attempted was getting the whole state to embrace the team, so they soon scratched “Miami” from the name and went with the brash desperate idea of barnstorming the team around statewide to various smaller less media saturated towns like Jacksonville, Palm Beach, Key West and Tampa to truly earn the name Floridians.

Tampa Bay Times newspaper story about an October 1971 Floridians  game in St. Pete that was ill attended
Tampa Bay Times newspaper story about a 1971 Floridians game in St. Pete that seemed notable to local press only for how ill attended it was

Despite a winning record, and even making the playoffs, the team failed to win enough fans to break even. They still had some great fun in the front office creating what buzz they could, not only bringing in those beautiful body painted dancers in short shorts to entertain fans courtside, but put on stunts like alligator wrestlers on the court at half time, and tossing bagels and promotional pumpkin pies to fans, or giving away concession stand items like Ice Cream & free T-shirts or even Flying Dutchman record LPs out to attendees. One game featured Dolphins infamous All Pro placekicker Garo Yepremian attempting to kick a football through the basket ball hoop from a spot way behind the portable bleachers in the Convention hall…

According to Arthur Hundhausen‘s great RememberTheABA website: “Other Floridians promotions included these creative giveaways: live turkeys for Thanksgiving, 15 pounds of smoked fish (to one lucky fan!), 57 pounds of Irish potatoes (on “Irish Night,” also to one lucky fan), 53 pumpkin pies, vats of gefilte fish, kegs of beer” and those memorable red, white & blue ABA basketballs. My father was the PR director for the team and recalls many stunts and foibles while attempting to fill seats in a relatively sleepy jewish retiree community, back in the days when South Beach was mostly run down old deco vacation motels and across the causeway were some English as a second language Cuban enclaves like Little Havana.

So while Doyle eventually lost all his invested money on the venture, and folded the team a little over a year later, they have gone down in history if at least for some of the promotional stunts. Miami would not have another Pro Basketball team until 1988, when the NBA brought “The Heat“.

Click To Watch The Video Below For More Insights…

1970 Miami Floridian Ball Girls

When all was said and done in the spring of 1972, my Dad one day was on the phone trying to arrange a buyer for the team in Omaha, when he was told to pack up his desk as team promotional director, and literally had to help carry the heavy wooden beast of a desk to another office, that was up a flight of stairs. In a last ditch effort to recoup, The GM sold the office furniture to new tenants in the building. Turns out one of the long haired buyers in tattered denim was Jerry Rubin of the Yippies who were moving into the same office building to make a HQ for their upcoming protests of the 1972 Democratic Political Convention at the same Convention Center in town the team had just abandoned.

Column from Cocoa Beach Today newspaper by Jerry Green on why the Floridians never caught on

Thus ended The Floridians ABA Franchise…

I was so little back then that I barely have memories of the games, but can recall the warm weather, the empty arena seats and kinda faintly recall those ball girls in short shorts actually 🙂

Ruby Ray : Kalifornia Kool at Vesuvios

Ruby Ray discussing her work with friends & admirers at Vesuvio’s
pics from the Ruby Ray exhibit at Vesuvio's
Flipper as photographed by Ruby Ray

Last week I attended an art show by photographer Ruby Ray at Vesuvios in North Beach. Having recently collaborated with a Swedish publishing company to compile a new coffee table tome of her photos , called “Ruby Ray : Kalifornia Kool 1976-1982” I had expected perhaps some copies for sale alongside her works.

Alas, she herself had not lugged heavy boxes imported from Sweden of her visual documentation of sticky floored band sets in dark clubs, brash backstage parties, and the seminal spawning of the “Industrial Culture” movement that happened in San Francisco. Fortunately, a City Lights employee present assured me there was one last copy that was for sale next door, and I bought the last available volume from right behind the cash register, and demanded Ruby re-sign it again for me, even though it was already signed!

If you click the link below, you won’t have to pay Ferlinghetti‘s word temple tax of full retail price, as the imported book is actually much cheaper and easier to obtain through the mail, but then again, maybe you will feel guilty not dragging it off a shelf in a serene shop.

Kalifornia Kool by Ruby Ray
The UK Guardian ran a feature on Ruby’s book when it was released

Ruby Ray currently, as I write, still has a retrospective set of about two dozen prints framed and placed on panels in the already densely packed bar, but the stark striking faces and perfect poses caught in her classic black & white imagery always stands out despite distracting visual clutter & competition all around the room.

Ruby Ray’s punk photos on display at Vesuvio’s

There amongst the other paintings, flyers and tchotchkes that abound in the bar were photos that popped, featuring images from a truncated but 5 year period in SF from roughly 1977-1981. Many were moments preserved from inside or fairly near the Mabuhay Gardens nightclub, that capture in action bands like The Avengers, Crime, Devo, Flipper, Mutants, UXA, X and others that broke free of the bearded denim bro mold of the late 70’s schlock rock to bring to life a vital, energetic and angry new musical art form with its own merits and manifestos, that took music fans far from the middle of the arena rock road.

Hank Rank of Crime etc
Images from “Ruby Ray: Kalifornia Kool 1976-1982”
a review from ArtBook.com

A few years ago, I purchased the now out of print collection “From the Edge of the World” a smaller sized book of Ruby Ray’s photos that also came with a 16-song CD compilation including rare music by bands featured in the pages: These included The Offs, Darby Crash & The Germs,  The DilsThe AvengersCrime, Mutants, FactrixThe SleepersNegative Trend, The Screamers, Chrome, The Bags,  Noh MercyPink Section, The Zeros and percussionist Z’EV.  If you can find a copy, it is well worth a deep dive or at least perusal.

From the Edge of the World: California Punk 1977 1981 Superior Viaduct Book Cover
Out of Print Book/CD “From the Edge of the World: California Punk 1977to 1981” by Ruby Ray edition put out by Superior Viaduct

Back when it mattered, Ruby was right there with a lens, seemingly always pointed in the right direction as the purveyors of the late 70’s scene spouted their first songs/rants, played pranks, or sprawled out in chemically induced hazes. She helped make Vale‘s Search & Destroy publication such a vital document at the time, and her work stands the test of time. The cover showing a passed out Sid Vicious certainly tells a story, as do most of the other images inside her latest book.

Oddly, now 40 years on, Ray’s punk portraits and surreal snapshots of cultural icons like William S Burroughs, Jello Biafra or Exene Cervenka take on a frozen in time historical significance, with an impact that belies their lively off hand and youthful impromptu actuellement.

She’s a feisty and interesting lady and I enjoy her provocative conversation as well as seeing her artistic work, and encourage all with the ability, get out and do the same!

Viva La Ruby Ray!

Ruby’s photos are viewable at Vesuvio’s daily til 2am at 255 Columbus Ave until Feb 28th 2020

The Myth Of Democratic Party Purity Tests: Grifters Who Never Fail To Fail

I was challenged by a joking friend of mine yesterday to contain my most recent political rant to a bumper sticker, and to be honest I couldn’t. I had to immediately “podblast” it…

I felt disbelief and incredulous head shaking, that fermented into pent up rage after the botched Iowa Caucus results were released/not released in the first week of February 2020. Either the Democrats were sabotaging themselves to hide results that did not behoove party bigwigs and monied mainstream interests, or they just botched it outright.

Either way it was not a good look… and it still isn’t 4 days later

Iowa Caucus results still not released after nearly a week
excerpt of embrassing story about Democratic Party's handling of the Iowa Caucus  tally
a news story from TheWeek.com on party preparedness

Sadly, this just the sort of thing I’ve come to expect from the loyal opposition, the party of “we’ll get it right next time” who never miss an opportunity to show disorganization, incompetence and wacky weakness instead of strategic strengths.

if the Democrat Party had an official  cologne I imagine it would be called "Incompetence by DNC "
“Incompetence by DNC” the official party fragrance

Iowa and DNC delegate shenanigans remind me of how ill prepared, corrupt, sneaky, non-transparent and awkward they often are when given authority… and for them to proclaim themselves the purity testers of our common political landscape is farcical at best.

Democrat success stories I see lately, are few, like slowly turning over the streets of my beloved San Francisco into an expensive everflowing fountain of sh/t, tents & needles, positioned in front of shuttered small biz storefronts. So many of the predatory dope dealers plying their trade openly entered our country illegally, yet enjoy being harbored by our “sanctuary city”. This was a well-intentioned Democrat construct, a policy that not only assists the poor and down trodden, but also enables those contributing nothing but misery and gang violence, whose only goal in the USA is working for cartels extracting dolar bills froma n ever expanding pool of lowly street addicts. Democrats apparently call this all a grand experiment in social services and tolerance. Would you like a gov’t supplied free needle to go with that festering abscess and fentanyl addiction? No problema, just don’t ask for rehab or an exemption from our plastic straw ban.

Outside the obvious unsightliness, and law enforcement expenses that this public health crisis entails, this achievement in compassion and poverty pimping only costs us $1 billion a year in “services” out of our meager $12.3 Billion city budget. The city budget is an astronomical sum that goes up every year, with literally billions more sucked outta taxpapayers over the last decade, yet with little new to show for it. Our small businesses shutter at shocking rates, while millions of taxpayer funded syringes line sidewalks & clog gutters, while rampant evictions and horrific homelessness are at crisis levels .

San Francisco is run entirely by a backstabbing power hungry Democrat cabal, who have manifested a behemoth city budget that dwarfs that of many larger cities with double our population and land mass. This city blows through literally $33,698,630.86 in expenses on an average day and employs 6 people per city block on the taxpaper teat. I can only wonder where and what they are doing, when despite the seeming surplus of staff, literally no one is around to hinder the eyeball peeling atrocities committed on those same blocks daily.

D is the grade I’d give Democrats in San Francisco, who have no viable opposition party to blame, taking hundreds of days on average for approval on the simplest public projects, convening endless “task forces” that issue unread reports months and years later, while billions in tax money get shoveled around, much of it divied up to fave “non-profits” who are lauded with back patting “official” city proclamations. Meanwhile, almost no affordable housing gets built, waitlists add thousands of names, despite legal mandates and a massive backlog of demand for new housing is ignored by a political class busying shaking each other down for favors.

The crowning achievements of our Democrats regionally in the Bay Area are things like billions upon billions squandered on botched bridges, and bus terminals with bogus bullet trains & fatally flawed subway cars that take decades to barely go blocks with basements to nowhere. Contractors are apparently the most important constituents, at least as far FBI investigators have discovered over the years.

What so-called “Democrats” even stand for is a giant questionmark, as their 2020 Presidential primaries begin, the curious addition of billionaire Mike Bloomberg buying his way into the process is a strikingly bleak example of how the “Democrat Party” apparently knows no real ideological bounds. A poll released in February of 2020 found that “Likely Democrat Voters” found Bloomberg to rank higher than Biden or Bernie when asked “which candidate best represents the party”

Many apparently pine for the rose colored glasses of the good ol’ days when Bill Clinton got into the White House, but most forget that was when Newt’s GOP arose to capture dominance of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1946 ushering in the neo-con era and the deep divisions that have set this country down the raggedy red rebel Republican road we’re on today.

So back then, to prove their meritorious money policy mettle, the Democrats of the 1990’s, led by guys like Bill & Biden, fought hard to bring us the AEI’s NAFTA, and the repeal the 1933 Glass-Steagall bank reform financial rules in 1999, which within ten years crashed our economy and made everyone dirt under a derivatives trader’s fingernail in a mutant mega-bank’s claws …

Bill Clinton takes a bite of the NAFTA apple

Eventually Bill was almost ousted for some unethical shenanigans, but Democrats circled around, called his victim a vixen and scorned the GOP, and soon we had Baby Bush to contend with for two terms. So were The Democrats the #RESISTANCE then? Maybe the resistance to common sense.

Don’t forget that Democrats “patriotically” patronized us in 2002 and marched us all like the pied pipers in lock step with Bush & Cheney to usher in the $2 trillion bloody botch job of the Iraq war (that is everyone except Oakland’s Congresswoman Barbara Lee ).

It is indeed mysterious to them, how by the date of Trump’s inauguration the donkeys had managed to have the lowest number of elected officials sitting in office in 100 years…

They are now shocked as people largely ignore their intentionally limited, ridiculously rushed and inconsequentially inadequate “managed” impeachment attempt. It is 4th down on the wrong end of the field and they are still hoping for a penalty call on a replay review after the last time out? There impeachment seemed designed to fail…and Pelosi admits she never was behind it from the start.

Oh, Democrats with their high ideals and folksy Joe Biden as their chosen “frontrunner”, a semi senile ol ‘ cooter who never met a racist predatory red lining lender or a war he didn’t like, a skeezy bad toucher who ignored his drug addled son until he was holding dual shady gigs in foreign countries that are making Trump jealous…

How are the Democrats able to throw shade on Republicans while they bring us equally unvettable ethically challenged and federally charged & convicted piece of sh/t Congressional jokes?

I’m taking their party’s puke worthy politicians like Anthony Weiner, Laura Richardson, William J Jefferson, Frank Ballance, Chaka Fattah, and Corrine Brown, not to mention Katie “Who Me Too?” Hill who was barely in Congress long enough to be ousted?

It takes some gall and nerve to put other politicians through public purity tests when your politicians include such icons of filth as the 82 Democrats reprimanded for misconduct in Congress just this century, that’s 25% of the total misconduct reprimands in over 200 years committed by elected Democrats within just 20 years! By my rough estimates there have been 127 Democrat politicians actually convicted of crimes while in state or federal office this century, including 18 in the state of Pennsylvania in just the past 5 years alone.

D is the first letter of the name of the party of national elected embarrassments like Rod Blagojevich , Alcee Hastings, Barbara Rose Collins, The Calderon bros, Fabian Nunes, Don Perata and Rod Wright in the California Assembly, or Hayward’s own corrupt feverish lying big ticket item shoplifter Mary Hayashi, who was an Assembly seat holder actually married to a sitting Democrat judge.

Democrat donors include all the usual suspects and socialites, and literally the largest dark money groups in nation. The people seeking favors from Democrats run the gamut of individual cesspool dwellers like that meth & dead male prostitute lovin’ Ed Buck, or a top Democrat donor named Charlie Kushner who ended up in prison (yeah that dudes’ daddy) or even the Chinese Govt who got caught funneling nearly a million into Democrat Pres campaigns.

Jeffrey Epstein guest lists of politicians are filled with Democratic icons, such as that parties’ fave sons including an ex-Governor who ran for President, a revered ex-Senator and a certain ex-President who all took those jaunty junkets to private islands with Prince Andrew and Alan “I kept my underwear on” Dershowitz

… Don’t even peel the onion and look at their judicial branch embarrassments and regional reprobates like our own class of political punks here in SF like Federal inmates Leland Yee, Ed Jew, and Keith Jackson, a local schoolboard hustler. Who can forget Carole “I plead insanity” Migden or our latest embarrassment in SF, the recently indicted DPW director and pocket fattener Mohammed Nuru who had close ties to the last FOUR SF mayors, even though they’ll now pretend not to know him.

But hey, how dare I say the Democrats are not the #Resistance right? If i believed in God, I’d ask the deity to help us, but let’s be honest, if anyone upstairs cared, we wouldn’t be here.

Mike Patton, Laurie Anderson and Rubin Kodheli vs Qi Jiguang at SF Jazz

Got the unique opportunity to attend a performance by SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Laurie Anderson featuring mischief maker Mike Patton and cellist Rubin Kodheli at SF Jazz last night.

Laurie Anderson & Mike Patton at SF Jazz
creative collaborators from L – R are Rubin Kodheli on Cello, Mike Patton on vocals, percussion and electronic treatments, Laurie Anderson on vocals, violin & electronic loops

Focused around the text from “Quanjing Jieyao Pian,” Mike Patton and Laurie Anderson combined creative sonic forces to interpret the final chapter of Jixiao Xinshu – the famous military manual written in the 16th century by Ming dynasty general and Chinese national hero Qi Jiguang. Translating to “The Fist Canon and the Essentials of Nimbleness,” the text delves into ideas about unarmed combat exercises as physical training, and is the first known written document of martial arts instruction. Laurie told the audience that her late husband Lou Reed was an avid practitioner of Tai Chi and had been working on a book about these concepts shortly before he died. Having inherited Lou’s martial arts writings (as well as weapons) caused Anderson to delve deeper into the text, which she found oddly poetic despite its more pragmatic nature. The performance also featured cellist Rubin Kodheli who helped build the musical pieces into dramatic and foreboding crescendos that captivated a sold out crowd at SF Jazz Center on Fell St in San Francisco.

Mike Patton on the mic while Laurie Anderson plays violin at SF Jazz under the drawing of Lou Reed and his exploding heart

Here’s an excerpt of the performance I recorded like a dirty creepy bootlegger from a mic hidden inside a coat in the audience (just like ReRun did on that episode of What’s Happening when he went to see the Doobies with Roger). This audio is the tail end of the set feat. Laurie Anderson with Mike Patton and Rubin Kodheli 1 25 2020 at SF Jazz

Laurie Anderson & Mike Patton – QUANJING JIEYAO PIAN at SFJazz (excerpt) by lilmikesf

Some of the introductory text from the performance seen below…

Laurie Anderson's notes from the show
Mike Patton's "Rig" of electronic vocal effects and apparent gamelan
Laurie Anderson's stage set up including keyboards, tablet controllers and Apple laptop
Laurie Anderson describes her experience studying VIPASSANA meditation at a Thai Buddhist meditation monastery in Western Massachusetts in the 1970's, when she was trying to learn to focus her thoughts like a beam.

Laurie spoke of her experiences on a VipASSana meditation retreat where she hoped to learn to focus her mind like a beam, but instead really learned about pain. Surreptitious clip by ROBLEYE

pic by Robley Evans

Richie Ramone Live in Las Vegas – Smash You / I Just Want To Have Something To Do

Here’s veteran rocker Richie Ramone, backed by his touring band featuring throttle down Aussie six string meister Ronnie Simmons on guitar, Clare Misstake on Bass and ex-Feederz drummer Ben Reagan. This clip of classic Ramones’ tunes was recorded live at The Dive Bar in Las Vegas. The band were pumpin’ up the volume, but with vocals at the mercy of an atrociously lame PA, but what would ya expect at a place called the Dive Bar? I shot this clip on the first night of their 2016 US Tour that eventually took this band across the US via dozens of energetic shows in some 26 states, and then onto the EU, South America, and Asia.

Richie Ramone on vocals, Clare Misstake on Bass, Ben Wah on Drums, Ronnie Simmons on Guitar
Live at The Dive Bar in Las Vegas

Richie Ramone (aka Richard Reinhardt) joined the Ramones in the early 80’s when Marky was demoted due to an alcohol related reliability problem at the time. Through some of their most extensive touring runs, best selling albums, and highest charting singles, Richie infused new energy into the group, and was the fabled NYC band’s backbeat for hundreds of gigs. Richie played on, and even co-wrote some of their best known songs of the 1980’s including “Somebody Put Something In My Drink” and the single “Smash You” (seen in this clip). After a well documented falling out with Johnny and the band, essentially over not receiving a split from the band merch (especially t-shirt’s that bore his name and photo), he quit in a huff in the late 80’s.

Reinhardt recently resumed his indentity as Richie Ramone to keep his former band’s fabled four on the floor 1-2-3-4-Go sound alive, and give a new generation a chance to experience a full throttle rock show like the Ramones once delivered night after night.

Richie Ramone Entitled LP

His album “Entitled” dropped in 2013, and “Cellophane” arrived in the fall of 2O16 featuring all new tunes from Richie with the same ol’ bad attitude the Ramones were known for… I own both and ain’t afraid to spin ’em, even if the neighbors disapprove.

Richie Ramone Autographed White Vinyl "Entitled" LP

Flat Five Find Love Live

A groovy Free Design cover performed by super talented Bloodshot Records recording artists The Flat Five from Chicago Illinois. This cover song was recorded Jan 18th 2017 on the final show of the band’s first ever Pacific Coast Tour in San Francisco.

The Chicago based quintet of Kelly Hogan, Nora O’Connor, Scott Ligon, Casey McDonough, and drummer Alex Hall were surreptitiously recorded for posterity (but Nora kept spotting the lil’ cameras everywhere, cuz she’s still pretty observant for a road weary mamacita). For more info on the Flat Five and to obtain their debut album visit their website http://www.theflatfivechicago.com

If ya dig it, please consider donating a $1 to keep my channel alive & kicking http://paypal.me/lilmikesf …

😀 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣x 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙒𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜! 🚩

Video graciously hosted for free by LBRY.TV where unfettered free speech & courageous uncensored and non-corporate content can still circulate on the internet

A Tribute To Crime: Feel The Beat with CrimeWave

Jon Bastian and Henry S. Rosenthal collaborated in editing 16mm film shot by alt auteur Larry Larson, cans that were finally cracked opened and unearthed from storage purgatory after 40+ years to show what Rosenthal’s seminal San Francisco punk band Crime was like at its peak. They used 21st century restoration technology to master a DVD with a 5.1 soundtrack and recently premiered the vintage punk footage as “San Francisco’s First and Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Movie: Crime 1978” before a sold out crowd at San Francisco’s hundred and ten year old Victoria Theater. The visceral verite’ concert film embeds the viewer into the seedy 70’s porno theater and strip club littered streets of North Beach, and then through the doors of the dimly lit Mabuhay Gardens, replete with sneering cajoling from the club’s infamous master of ceremonies Dirk Dirksen.

As part of the festivities for the long awaited DVD release party, the show also showcased an unexpected surprise, a Crime tribute band from Los Angeles called CrimeWave.

LA based Crime tribute band CrimeWave featuring  Frank “G” Fix, Charlie Strike,Matt Rank & John the Ripper
the LA based Crime tribute band CrimeWave

Comprised of pedigreed criminally minded punkers of the 21st Century, including vets of such acts as Richmond Sluts, Egrets on Ergot, Cheap Tissue, and even the revamped Dils , they did a helluva job recreating the caustic attitude laden approach of Crime for hundreds of lazy cinephiles sitting on their lazy asses in theater seats. Not bad for guys that weren’t even born when this badly bent band they arduously ape still strutted the earth.

According to Jon Bastian who edited the Crime 1978 documentary and booked the event, these are the 3 tunes I edited from their set that come from deep within the scattershot back catalog of San Francisco’s seminal ’77 era punk act Crime.

1:00 ) Feel The Beat

2:20) Frustration

4:30) Crimewave

Members of the refurbished corpse of CrimeWave include Frank “G” Fix, Matt Rank, Charlie Strike, John the Ripper aka mad man Johnny T Tyree. Guerilla video shot at the sold out “Cops Vs. Aliens: Evening of Rock ’n’ Roll Film ” held November 14, 2019 in San Francisco before hundreds of underground music fans

DVD and DBL 7" Deal

To order a copy of the Crime 1978 DVD with 5.1 soundtrack mix on a ltd edition DBL 7″ you can visit the Superior Viaduct website

Walking With The Beast With Kid Congo Powers & Greg Dale

Greg Dale singing

Greg Dale joins Kid Congo Powers for a live version of a song from the Gun Club’s seminal Las Vegas Story album.

Recorded live at “Sorrow Knows: Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club” , a tribute show held on Kid Congo’s birthday March 29th 2015 in San Francisco. This song features Greg Dale on vocals, joined by special guest Kid Congo Powers on guitar, with a band also consisting of Jozef Becker on skins, Jeff Klukowski on Bass plus even Mo Guitars by E-Wreck Mo-Fat and Douglas Arthur Hilsinger.

Old Firm Casuals – Hell’s A Lot Better

Bassist Casey Watson sings lead vocal on “Hell’s A Lot Better”, the lead off track from the Old Firm Casuals’ 2017 EP release “Wartime Rock ‘n’ Roll“. Shot Dec 27th 2019 at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland, here’s their closing track that night.

The Old Firm Casuals are an American street punk band formed in 2010 as a sequel to Lars Frederiksen’s previous Rancid side project band known as Lars Frederiksen and The Bastards. Other members of his Old Firm Casuals unit include Paul Rivas (drums) and Gabriel Gabriloff (lead, rhythm guitar vocals).


Tom Heyman & Deirdre White – “You Scumbags, You Maggots”

The annual Gibbsmo Xmess Craptacular wouldn’t be complete without the classic “Fairytale Of New York” as delivered by our husband & wife team of Tom & Deidre singing Shane MacGowan’s holiday classic, recently voted the all time fave Christmas song in the UK.

Tom dedicates this version to his friend, the late great Bay Area rock musician Roy Loney, who passed away, just a week prior to this concert.

The UK Guardian has compiled several perspectives including Pogue’s lyricist Shane MacGowan, and multi instrumentalist band member and musical composer James Fearnley’s accounts as to how the song came arduously together and was piecemeal edited through trial and error into an eventual musical masterpiece, well over the course of a year or two, at this link here

My band got to open for the Pogues at The Fillmore in December 1987 when the ramshackle folk/punk troubadours released this storied tune, and have been amazed to watch from the sidelines, as it slowly grew in acclaim, and into far wider public acceptance. It is hard to imagine that it would eventually beat out established family friendly platinum offerings associated with Irving Berlin, Gene Autry & even Paul McCartney. Ironically, the year that The Pogues released their brilliant LP “If I Should Fall From Grace With God” and it’s Christmas single “Fairytale Of New York“, the Pet Shop Boys actually topped the December single charts in the UK, with their sappy 70’s disco cover of Elvis Presley tested MOR fave “You Were Always On My Mind“.

Video shot by @LilMikeSF via 4 cameras at the Make Out Room in San Francisco with some bonus mid song audience angle footage added from Gary Hobish’s iPhone footage borrowed from a Craptacular synopsis post to his Facebook page …all the more the merrier Xmas y’all!