In case you didn't know, Pleasant Gehman and I are in the midst of putting together the compendium of Lobotomy, the fanzine she created with Randy Kaye in the glory days of 1970s punk rock.  We worked on Lobotomy with the future Kid Congo Powers and the fabulous Brad Dunning, among other Los Angeles punk rock forebears.

Our sporadic appearances or disappearances from the blog-o-sphere means that we've got our noses to the grindstone.

Join Me Next Weekend, March 5 in Los Angeles

Here's a photo of me, taken in April 1978 in San Francisco, CA.  It was another of the now-notorious Lobotomy road trips.

Pleasant, Randy Detroit, Kid Congo, Nancy and I piled into my little Honda and drove to San Francisco from Los Angeles, as we did for any show we wanted to see.  With so many of us traveling, it was more cost effective to drive, plus there was that four hours of crazy conversation and radio roulette to enjoy on the way.

This particular road trip was to see Blondie play at the Greek Theatre on campus at UC Berkeley.  We didn't know it at the time, but the record they were working on, Parallel Lines (which was released five months later), would break them through to levels of international fame that none of us ever considered.

If you're in Southern California, come see Pleasant and me at the Lethal Amounts Gallery for our show (Teenage) Lobotomy: Fanzine Art & Photos from the 1970s LA Punk Scene

Sarturday March 5th 2016
Lethal Amounts Gallery
1226 west 7th st
DTLA 90017

I promise it will be a great party with stunning, authentic bits of pop culture history dripping from the walls.

(Teenage) Lobotomy - Show in Los Angeles on March 5!!

What are you doing on Saturday March 5?

I suggest going to Lethal Amounts Gallery located at 1226 West 7th St, DTLA 90017

Pleasant and I are showing & telling all things LOBOTOMY! Lethal Amounts is hosting us, and here's what they have to say:

“Lobotomy: The Brainless Magazine” was founded in Hollywood, during spring 1978 by Pleasant Gehman. The Xeroxed fanzine became notorious in the Hollywood punk scene from it’s very first issue, when Kim Fowley threatened to sue 18-year-old Pleasant over the sarcastic comments she wrote about him.

Chief photographer Theresa Kereakes -also a teenager- took countless onstage and backstage photos of The Cramps, The Ramones, Blondie, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Billy Idol, Joan Jett, and The Germs, Go-Go’s and many more and for Lobotomy. Nearly four decades later, they’ve become some of the most-recognized and iconic images of the early punk scene.

“Lobotomy” was known for it’s irreverent “Mad Magazine” sense of humor, the salacious gossip column “Dirty Dishes” which featured blow-by-blow accounts of gigs at the legendary Masque and debauched parties, as well as the candid, outrageous- and usually drunken- interviews with everyone from The Damned, The Clash, The Cramps, X, The Mumps, The Go-Go’s, director David Lynch and numerous others.

This show features prints of Theresa’s incredible photographs and Pleasant’s original “Lobotomy” paste-ups in all their carelessly typed, hand-written, Elmer’s- Glue -collage glory.

Saturday March 5, 2016

Lethal Amounts Gallery

1226 west 7th st

DTLA 90017

2014 Recommended Reading

So, this morning, I received this email from Amazon.  Awfully nice of them, this is a great read by a clever writer.  Funny thing, however - the photo on the cover of the book is mine!  Dear readers, you do know this image of Lorna Doom from the Germs in their first rehearsal in Pat Smear's mom's West Los Angeles garage.

A year or two ago or so (I have no concept whatsoever of time anymore, sad to say), I was asked by the publisher of Chick Bassist if I would license this image and I was thrilled.

Since the book was published, I've gifted it to friends; I've also found its author Ross Lockhart and we now follow each other on Twitter, and I follow his blog and we are mutual fans.

This leads me to recommend some more reading for you all - I'm sure that like me, you still like BOOKS that you can hold in your hand and put on your shelves, just like you prefer vinyl albums to CDs and those horrid compressed MP3s... the way it should be.

Go buy some books, why don't ya?

1978 Happens Again in East Nashville - November 15 & 16

I will be showing some photos taken in 1978 at this fun weekend at Nashville's Family Wash.
You should come and check it out.