Litquake and Porchlight collaborate tonight -- Monday, October 12th, 2009, 8 p.m., at Broadway Studios, 435 Broadway, San Francisco -- to bring you true tales of punk-rock anarchy excess. This is a launch for the new book Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day, compiled by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor.
Gabe Meline writes, “Gimme Something Better has it all: dead dogs, statutory rape, skinhead fights, the origins of the term 'emo,' promoters accidentally taking acid in jail, M-80s, soup lines, people falling through skylights, people getting torched with flamethrowers, teenagers on meth squatting in empty beer vats, exhumed bodies, laundromats, Ford Pintos, murderers and millionaires.”
“There are also some parts about bands.”
Here is a sample quote from Jesse Michaels -- “Upon reflection I regret in any way popularizing fucking with people's yards. Some things aren't meant to go beyond the handful of idiots who do them.” Words to live by.
Featured in the event will be Penelope Houston, Lynn Breedlove, Oran Canfield, John Geek, Chicken John, Jesse Luscious, Kareim McKnight, Hank Rank, Rozz Rezabek, Bucky Sinister, Anna Joy Springer, and Johnny Strike. Weather predictions for tonight are for 40 m.p.h winds and heavy rain, so please plan accordingly.
Great event. Lots of fun crazy stories as you'd expect. Don't know about the music, (I'm not talking about Penelope Houston on the night, just historically). There was a significant portion of the audience proudly laying claim to being in the worst band in history. Punk was always about the life or the moment or whatever anyway, not the music. As soon as you started thinking about the music even slightly it inevitably became post punk.
I guess there is a moment when you have to clear your mind of everything and go for it. Maybe that's the moment you start to write the first line of your first story or something and in most cases that doesn't come up with anything resembling genius. (Except for the Ramones that is.)
Thanks for these thoughts John. Some more reporting on the event here:
http://www.examiner.com/x-24149-SF-Literary-Culture-Examiner~y2009m10d13-Guide-to-day-5-of-Litquake