The punker band Detox came into my focus today. Also, someone asked on Facebook if punk rock is dead. I think of punk as a genre of music, as a standard, like Jazz. It keeps playing on. For me it is about one song to the next. That is what I based My Punk@lullaby Journals on. Punk is all about a song, an experience, and friends. So, I guess if all the punk standards die, and all experiences of punk, and all your punk family of friends die… then it is dead. Or you die it is dead.

If you play what you like to hear it is not dead. One can go anywhere to experience punk. Music blaring though your headphones, at a show, or at a big festival. (I shudder at the thought) That is just my preference. Punk music is like playing back memories or experiences that I have had. Punkers. I think we all live at our own standard of punk whether it be past, present, or creatively in the future… I tend to jump around to… hanging at one place more than others. I don’t consider myself a punk, but I have had my share of the 10% punk experience. There is a continuity of that kind of experience in my life.

My favorite standard of punk are two bands. Detox and [Charged] GBH! The Bass & guitar of Steve and Tony and of Ross and Jock are the best. Anytime I hear a song by either band their sounds make me happy to be alive. All those wild confused good feelings come back of belonging to a family of punks over time and space. I just feel fucking great…. thank you…. that bass guitar sound punk standard …. The best of the best…. Good, glorious and makes me feel GREAT!

That is all have to say today….

TAPE TEN

Flipside Cartoon Issue form The Punk Museum

KFJC 89.7 FM TAPE NUMBER TEN THE 10% EXPERIENCE…A KISS IN THE WIND

Sharing these tapes for free is like sharing an old jazz tune or inspiration experience. It has its place in the continuity of the punk rock experience of 1984. This is what I should have told the young woman who liked to come to this pub on punk rock DJ nights. She enjoyed listening to 30-year-old music. The thirty-year-old magazine she referred to documented the 10 % punk rock experience!

Once upon a time at the local pub a woman in her twenties looked over at me. She was talking to a friend and I heard her say,

“I don’t know what the big deal is? That magazine came out over thirty years ago?”

She then looked over at me again. I looked back at her. I raised my shoulders and rolled my eyes as if to say,

“I know what ya mean.”

This pub is considered a music pub. The founder Patrick Fairley was in the 60′s band Marmalade. Here a long line of DJs who just happened to play 1980s punk rock. Punk rock is a unique genre and like jazz we all rejoice in the awesome sound of its originators. Going to the pub is kind of like going to church. The sociology of religion states that 80% of people going to church do so for social reasons. Only 10% go to have a religious experience. A pub is the same way. When ya add some great music and beer this is the place to be to do the 80% thing or the 10 % thing…or both.

As the spirituals gave birth to the Blues and then Jazz; so, does it inspire the music we listen to today? I don’t go to church anymore but I do go to pubs and for me it is a 10% experience. In the 1700s pubs often held meetings under the convert of drunks but, it was the beginning of revolution. It was about individuals who came together; who opposed the Church of England and their government. They sang their pub songs or hymns around the fireplace, and hidden in these songs were the lyrics and tunes that inspired the people.

Punk rock can be like going to church and it can be an 80% social thing. To me it has always been about the 10% punk rock experience. It is inspirational, thrilling and has the ability to awaken one to wild possibilities of hope and creativity as any good ‘old Jazz song does.

A dollop for your reading pleasure from 1984 fans. Taken from the letter section of Flipside Fanzine Lee Issue # 44, 1984. We published 7 issues in 1984. This tape is dedicated to all the Los Angeles Glitter Scene women who became the foundation of an early punk rock scene…and to Pat Fear for his Flipside theme song.