Category Archives: Punk Rock Heros

Mike Watt’s Day After 9/11 Show

 

Included below are Mike Watt’s unedited blog comments about the journey up from San Pedro heading towards Northern California that day and a clip of him performing a Lou Reed cover with Tom Watson and Jerry Trebotic at Old Ironsides in Sacramento

 

“We make good time and pull in front of the (Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco) just before six. there’s a sign in the window saying the show’s cancelled. this has happened before but for different reasons. I started a fIREHOSE tour in the fall of 1989 w/the first gig here at the i-beam and this huge earthquake hit. The whole city was blacked out ‘cept for this huge fire in the marina part. We, in fact, drove over the epicenter of the quake in Watsonville while it happened (for some reason we went the san jose route, us-152 instead of just I-5 up to I-580 – maybe cuz it was the world series where there was two bay area teams, the giants and athletics, one of the games was going on that day) and didn’t even feel it cuz of the winding road! the phone and power lines were sure wagging between the telephone poles though! we thought it was weird no wind was buffeting the boat – like “what’s moving those?”! man, have I been so stupid on tour sometimes, looking back. probably will continue that tradition despite my intentions. 

   oh well, we’ll try to make this gig up at the end of tour, after Tempe. I dig playing this town but understand about having to roll w/the blows. Tomorrow, we’ll start the tour in Sacramento.

The next morning I gotta get the shirts that were supposed to be waiting for me at the club last night. Kenny’s got the tv on and it’s an endless loop of yesterday’s hell w/his commentary. He points out significant stuff. It doesn’t lift the heaviness off of my heart though. I call jimbo in nyc and he’s ok, thank good. emails from thurston and lee too – great. After that, we’re off to “brother in-laws #2 on divisadero for the best ribs I’ve ever had. I dig this pad. we get another happening parking place, whoa! down the street used to be the african orthodox church of saint john coltrane but it’s gone now. 

we head east out of town over the bay bridge towards sacramento, where we play tonight. it’s actually the first gig of the tour now. we blow by the right turn-off and have to loop – the first one of the tour. we make it eventually to the pad for tonight’s show, _old ironsides_, right by the capitol. yet another perfect place to park – lucky number three. it’s a real old pad, from at least the 30s. the soundman, larry, is a nice cat. the boss, brian, comes by after soundcheck and it’s good to see him. he’s an old friend. then it’s time to konk – I am emotionally frayed to the bare wire. my first konk this tour in the boat. I shave right before – I’m shaving this tour, by the way. just want to.

   I’m out for like three hours and miss my friends, _bargain music_ open. damn. so good to see them cats. I produced their first record. they’re from long beach, near pedro. good folks – josh, jeff, phil and new man zippy. I miss _hella_ too – tom and jer said they were great – a two-piece from this town. I was just so beat though and want to play my best. sorry to all of you.

   jer rouses me right before it’s our time and I head for the stage from the boat. I’m wearing these dark sun glasses when I play in respect for all the loss of the nightmare from yesterday morning. we start the gig and I’m just crying a river, I can’t help it – the feelings are so overwhelming on me. I don’t say much, I want the music to speak. I know I’m tiny but I just want to up the love and balance all the hate that’s going down now. like john coltrane said, “my goal is to uplift people.” maybe it’s because I feel so inferior and it would be so easy to pick-up on some self-righteous revenge tip – even if it might seem justified – I know it would be just an overcompensation for those small feelings I have of myself. I can let that win out. I can’t let the bitterness worms burrow their way into the holes of my heart. I must keep them flushed w/warm blood of love feelings and not let my heart grow hard and leathery. such a small feeling I have of myself. I want my little bass to talk for me and nurture some kind of goodness.

   my guys play great. I blow bunches of clams, damn I gotta get it togther. I try to focus but my eyes are so welled-up w/crying. thank god for the glasses. this would surely not inspire anyone. the last thing I want is pity. I want to put out the feeling of hope and possibility. this all might sound funny coming from an old punk rocker but this is the place where life has brought me. all fortythree years add up to this. I’m a mess but at least I have for this moment the little bass in my hand and the spirit of john coltrane to learn from. like that song he has called “alabama” about those four little girls getting bombed in that church in the 60s. such a man – a real man. and those eyes, so much love in those eyes… tom and jer and help buoy me w/their playing. I get more composed and join together w/them. we have good flow, one song into the other like one big piece. the folks have us back for more and then that’s it – the first gig of the tour done. I’m just glad I made it though it – this was really tough. sometimes I feel I’m a reed blowing in the wind, a hostage of the wind and unable to find my center. I don’t have that much confidence these days, I feel quite fragile. I’ve been praying much, analyzing everything about myself. this really underlines doubts about myself and thank god I have the momentum of the years behind me to keep me rolling. I don’t feel very strong now.

   I sling shirts and these righteous posters rr made for me from a raymond pettibon drawing. by the way, he just had a big show in london where he showed the movie we made this july on jim morrison, “red tide rising: venice or mars.” I was so embarrassed to do that but I would do anything for raymond, I love him so. he’s taught me and inspired me in so many ways – what remarkable luck and fortune to have him in my life. yas says hi and gives me some salsa from an uncle’s “secret recipe.” thank you! one thing that’s kind of creepy is some cat harassing my while I’m slinging – he’s says he’s doing it from love by it’s a total torment trip. he’s had a bunch of beers and keeps telling me he’s coming from love but damn, it’s getting too much. I think this is a reaction to consumer culture in a weird way. it’s not like it’s even conscious to him, I think. any of us. it’s reacting w/out thinking – a perfect target for marketing. I feel bad about this. I would think I would be the last person someone would want to gush on. I feel more like a trippy uncle. one cat, an older guy who has me sign his blue oyster cult record wants me to write “death to afghanistan” but I say no and instead write “love to afghanistan.” he says it’s ok. I think he knows what I mean.

   I say bye to brian and the bargain guys – we’ll see them again in lawrence. concepcion, an old friend from pedro invites to stay w/her and husband mario. they live here now. she goes back to the minutemen days and knew d. boon. it’s great hearing her talk about her adventures back then w/him in them. I am so beat and want to just be out, just like that. on the deck, by the couch, I stake my claim. after the sunlamp-like lights are extinguished, sleepytown comes quick to end this first gig night of tour.

 

Check out Lil’ Mike’s Randomly Revelating History Tour of San Francisco Sites On Google Maps

Flogging Molly Selfish Man in Solana Beach CA April 2000

I shot this live video clip at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach CA in what I believed was September 2000, but have now confirmed through newspaper archive searches the show was earlier that year on April 7th.

 

local newspaper advertisement for San Diego area gigs by Flogging Molly, The Uninvited, Femi Kuti, King Sunny Ade in April 2000
Belly Up ad for that week in spring 2000

These were the days when the relatively new band fronted by former FastWay singer Dave King were still touring on their own self released debut live album, Alive Behind the Green Door, recorded at their old stomping grounds Molly Malone’s on Fairfax in LA. The Flogging Molly debut studio album Swagger came about after hooking up with the Side-One Dummy label around this time and they were invited to tour with Kevin Lyman’s Warped Tour later that summer.

 

 

They’ve since gone on to have a huge career, selling out venues around the world, playing major festivals, securing corporate sponsorship funds from the likes of Jack Daniels & Bushmills whiskey, Orrick law firm and Death Wish Coffee, and even having their own branded  Salty Dog Cruise themed cruise weeks.  Salty Dog Cruises are annual cruise ship traveling circuses curated by Flogging Molly that cost attendees thousands to attend on giant cruise ships from the Port of Miami Florida on into the Caribbean, down to Belize and back  joined by their fave bands performing sets including Rancid, Slackers, Stiff Little Fingers, Vandals etc. It all seems pretty amazing to me since they used to play free shows weekly in LA in the months before this gig where I shot them in Solana Beach where admission was just $10 at the time.

Flogging Molly at Belly Up Tavern April 7th 2000
Flogging Molly at Belly Up Tavern April 7th 2000

Foreigner Faux Spike’s Double Vision Halloween Tribute

Below is a video link to The Re-Volts caught live in action disgracing themselves doing a stunningly sick seventies throwback recreation as DOUBLE VISION at the Bad_Acid_Presents  Hallorager VIII at San Francisco’s storied Bottom of the Hill on 10-30-2021 …

They perform two Foreigner Facsimile songs in this quickly edited clip, two corporate cock rock classics: Long Long Way From Home and Cold As Ice ( which was a top ten hit back in summer of ’77).

The posse comin’ at us is led by Spike Slawson, who has taken to heart (vest and wig) the role of Lou Grammatico in his Halloween DOUBLE VISION Foreigner Tribute. Here is backed by pedigreed punk pals including co-founding Dwarves member HEWHOCANNOTBENAMED on keys,  local ne’er do ‘ell and jocular jerk of all horns Jamin Barton , Jack Dalrymple on guitar, Colin Delaney on skins, and Paul Oxborrow in the role of late great OG bassist Ed Gagliardi .

 

A ghastly time was had by all at the Bad Acid Presents Glitter Wizard/Blue Öyster Cult~Re-Volts/Foreigner~Rockers/Thin Lizzy~ Whateverglades/Blondie fest.

 

 

Heartbreakin’ Hero Walter Lure Leaves Us All …

Sad news came down the punk rock pipe yet again lasterday when I got word that Walter Lure, the affable sartorial sidekick to Johnny Thunders onstage antics for many years had succumbed to liver & lung cancer at age 71.

Walter Lure photo by John DeMasi
Walter Lure aka Waldo

R.I.P. Walter Lure aka Waldo

Numerous musicians & fans took to social media to pay tribute to a guy who remained far from a household name to most casual rock music fans, played key roles in some seminal punk rock records, was there when it all went down, often in flames and had recently toured and performed with a long list of rebel rock heroes and mutual admirers.

I got a few chances to shoot video of Walter playing over the past few years, and he was a true old school rock n roll showman, and the ramshackle style made for gigs that were always a blast. I’ve included a few clips from some of Walter Lure’s last gigs in San Francisco on this page as a he salute to his bravado and role in providing us all with such great rock n roll memories over the decades.

Walter Lure was in NYC in the mid 70’s when he left his gig as guitarist for largely unheralded rock band The Demons, whose lead singer was a drug dealer to local musicians including the New York Dolls, to join up with Johnny Thunder’s post Dolls disastour outfit The Heartbreakers. Lure was already a fan of Thunders, who’d he watched at the Mercer Arts Center as they threw away the rock rule book, and eschewed the currently in vogue prog & hippie folk ditherings for a more animalistic vital 50’s influenced street rock sound. The charismatic & chaotic Thunders “could get a round of applause simply from messing with his own hair,” Lure writes in his recently published memoir “To Hell And Back”, and Walter, a banker’s son, who’d attended Fordham U and enjoyed classic literature, was eventually asked to join the rough housing unit known as The Heartbreakers in 1975 and quickly tried to fit in. ” I played my last show with The Demons on a Friday night at CBGB during a 1975 July 4th festival to about 20 people at 2 am and my first Heartbreakers show the next night to a jam packed house of probably 500 people with lines around the block. ” He let Dee Dee Ramone cut his fashionably long 70’s locks off, and then had to get on the same drug wavelength as his bandmates , writes Lure “like an idiot I said: yeah, I’ll try it.  Within six months or a year became as fucked up as they were.” In addition to a dope habit, he established a role in the band as a sidekick and musical foil to the notoriously unreliable and drug addled singer/guitarist.

#WalterLure

The sole survivor of the classic #JohnnyThundersAndTheHeartbreakers era has left the building #RIPWalterLure Got to see Waldo a few times, and it was always a blast… Here he is performing an old #Contours classic #DoYouLoveMe with his 2017 #LAMF touring band featuring #GlenMatlock (@glenmatlock1) , #DannyRay (@explodingsax) , #MikeNess (@mikeness) and the mighty Clem Burke on drums ( @cbdproject )

In 1976, at the invitation of former NY Dolls manager Malcolm Mclaren, The Heartbreakers traveled to England for the potentially promising, but very soon to be The ill fated, Anarchy in the UK tour, with the infamous Sex Pistols headlining, as well as The Damned & The Clash as support. The New Yorkers had barely cleared customs at Heathrow when it became apparent the tour was going to be sabotaged by mountains of bad press, public out cry, boycotts and bans by local gov’t councils . This tumult arose as a result of the aftermath of the Pistols appearing on the live BBC Bill Grundy TV talk show and mischievously uttering some four letter expletives in the direction of the lovably lecherous lout of a host and all heck broke loose. Recounted Walter to interviewer Joe Whyte in 2017 “Malcolm picked us up at the airport in a limo and he was really nervous and muttering to himself. He mentioned something about the band cursing on a TV show, but we had no idea. The next day we woke up and every newspaper had nothing else on the front pages but the hideous outrage that some punks cursed on national TV. We couldn’t understand it at all. “

The Heartbreakers played what UK shows they could, and as they’d a bit of a reputation in the UK, unlike NYC where they just had debts and detractors, they stayed in London with their raging queen of a manager Leee Black Childers, hoping to score a lucrative or at least livable UK record deal.

 “Leee Black Childers had kept some cash in reserve for a few spare meals and transport needs. Luckily the Clash’s roadie, Sebastian Conran offered to put us up for “a few days” at his parents flat in Belgravia. They were out of town – they being the founders of Conran’s department stores. The flat had around 5 floors and about 8 bedrooms and was beautiful. I knew Sebastian was nervous that we’d destroy the place but we were actually fairly well behaved didn’t wreck anything. I guess we didn’t have enough cash to get lots of drugs and booze and start vomiting over everything. The Clash members would stop by with friends during this time sometimes bringing food and booze. I know Johnny sold his Gretsch White Falcon guitar to Joe Strummer while we were there. “

Remaining in London throughout most of 1977 working on their debut album, they went from place to place, even crashing at a famous punk dominatrix residence, where they’d hang out getting high, while she tortured her clients in the back. Said Walter to Louder Than War in 2017 “Someone said they saw David Frost coming out one afternoon looking all red faced after having gone through a session with her. Quite the scene at the time. . . “

Upon getting a record deal offer Walter said he “finally quit my day job as a chemist with the Food and Drug Administration in New York and embarked on my new career as a drug addled punk rocker! It doesn’t get much stranger than that.”

While his bandmates used their spare time pursuing pints in the London pubs, or nodded out waiting for the man and calls from management, Lure took in musicals on the West End, and read Sartre. He came across a used English school girl tie, and incorporated it into his look, and adopted the Bowler as his headwear. They played many gigs with Siouxsie & The Banshees, and after the Heartbreakers one & only album was released and quickly bombed commercially they “officially” broke up, but soon began doing “reunion” gigs as early as 1978.

Living in New York in the early 1980’s, Lure was openly bisexual, had his drug habit, occasional “reunion” gigs with the ever impossible Johnny Thunders, and own band affairs to tend to with groups like The Heroes, The Blessed, The Hurricanes, The Waldos, but he still needed a job to pay bills. His father stepped in to get him work on Wall St. and Lure would suit up daily, and often cop dope on his lunch break at a brokerage firm, doing millions of dollars in trades while managing a debilitating drug regimen, and by night head to gigs and change out of his day job outfit backstage, in his book says he finally managed to clean up by the late 1980’s. Lure told interviewer Jeffrey Wengrofsky that after finally putting the needle down after Memorial Day 1988 “I was in charge of a settlement operation of 125 people, making four hundred grand a year.  I had thought that music was complex, but this was like a world unto its own. It gets so complex with private equity. All through the ‘90s, I would work during the day in suits and change into my rock clothes at night – beat up pieces of shit from the other side of my closet.  Sometimes, people from my job would come down to the gig, and there I’d be, on stage, singing “Too Much Junkie Business.” It would blow their minds.  I lived a double life. I’d play once a month at The Continental with The Waldos.”

His former Heartbreakers bandmates attempted one last reunion in the early 1990’s, and Lure was achingly aghast at his old bandmates chronic condition, and could see the grim future for Jerry Nolan & Johnny Thunders barreling down hard. Writes Lure in his autobiography “Musically, they belonged together, and when they passed away, both in the span of nine months, they were buried within fifty yards of one another. Together again.”

Lure eventually was reunited with his long lost son Damien in the early 2000’s, and while the kid quietly told friends he didn’t really appreciate Walter’s simplistic “Nursery Rhyme” style songs, at least the two had a chance to bond and reacquaint after years of separation. Just a few weeks months before he died, Walter’s autobiography emerged in both hardback and paperback editions from Backbeat Press. Walter Lure Autobiography

Entitled “To Hell And Back: My Life in Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers, in the Words of the Last Man Standing” the tale mostly delves into the sordid stories, tawdry shenanigans, that make up the trials and tribulations of being an on/off again bandmate to the legendary Johnny Thunders for umpteen years. Walter spends much of the story detailing the “Too Much Junkie Business” they were known for until the men parted. An Epilogue and Discography are provided for those that care to follow the tale past the Heartbreakers saga. Said reviewer Jim Spaeth on Amazon of the self penned tome “I couldn’t put this book down. Non-stop excitement, craziness, drama as the weirdest cast of characters rampage through the pages. I love inside stories of the music biz; this book recounts the birth and death of punk from the inside out. Walter also tells the very human and personal stories of his bandmates as they struggle with the music industry, the music press, the fans, each other, but mostly with themselves. You root for them to make it, then you root for them to just stay alive. Most didn’t; Walter lived to tell the tale. Don’t miss it!”

 

 

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

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

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).


Me First & The Gimme Gimmes vs Paul Simon’s Explicit Schoolyard Fingering Song

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are led by incomparable show biz aficionado Spike Slawson, backed by an all-star punk cred band, in this instance featuring CJ Ramone on bass, Scott Shiflett on lead guitar, Fat Wreck special teams superhero Dave Raun on the drums, joined by fellow Lagwagon member and solo singer/songwriter Joey Cape on rhythm guitar.

This excerpt of them mauling a Paul Simon fave was shot live at Slim’s amidst three sold out 2019 San Francisco Christmas shows. See what you missed as Spike cajoles the horde and leads the band through a tightly wound, heroic 90 minute set of rock classics. Be sure to click to expand the video, and kick up the video volume if it’s muted in the streaming embed below!