Local genius Janelle Hessig busts out another awesome piece of work here for the beautiful and talented HUNX AND HIS PUNX. And bonus points if you recognize who the other “Good Kisser” is…

Check out this exhibit going on RIGHT NOW at the San Francisco Public Library:

Photo by Ruby Ray

Punk Passage
San Francisco First Wave Punk 1977-1981

San Francisco was the center of a vibrant and exciting punk scene in the late 1970s, rivaling Los Angeles and New York. In 1977, photographer Ruby Ray began documenting the punk scene in the city for the seminal punk magazine Search and Destroy. Punk Passage San Francisco First Wave Punk features 45 black and white photographic portraits and live music photographs of original punk innovators by the San Francisco-based photographer Ray in the Main Library, Jewett Gallery, Sept. 12-Dec. 6. Original punk rock ‘zines, flyers, posters and ephemera from 1977 to 1981 along with additional articles and ephemera from the Library’s Art, Music and Recreation Center Collection and from the Little Magazine Collection, Book Arts & Special Collections also will be on view, sharing the rich historical roots of punk rock from the center of the San Francisco artistic movement. The photographs represent some of San Francisco’s contribution to the international punk movement. The message is unabashed individualism, creativity, do-it-yourself activism and black humor. Bands such as The Avengers, the Dead Kennedys, the Dils, Crime, Sleepers, the Mutants and others are represented, placing them within the historic context as an important part of San Francisco’s counter-cultural history, as innovative for its time as the beat and hippie movements were.

Exhibition:
From September 12 through December 6, 2009
Main Library, Lower Level, Jewett Gallery

Related Display:
Punk Penelope
September 12 through December 6, 2009
Main Library, Lower Level, Library Café Exhibition Case

Film Screening of SF Punk (West Coast Premiere) by Target Video followed by audience Q & A with photographer Ruby Ray and video producer Joe Rees.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 6 p.m.
Main Library, Lower Level, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin Street (at Grove)

Queer Punk: Panel Discussion – Panel will discuss how being Queer influenced their music and share memories of playing in the San Francisco punk scene in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Panelists include KD Davis, bass player for Wilma and Impulse F, Debbie Hopkins, drummer for The Contractions and Jon Ginoli, founder of Pansy Division.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 7 p.m.
Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library, 1 José Sarria Court (at 16th St.)

In case you missed it in MRR #311, here’s…

A Visit with the Editor of Punk or, How a Fanzine Changed the World
by Aaron Cometbus

News passed down the punk pipeline: a print media-themed issue of MRR! What better opportunity to sit down with the pioneer of punk himself, John Holmstrom? I’d admired his work since I was a wee lad, and had a long list of questions I’d always been dying to ask. He was amenable to the idea, and agreed to meet me at a nearby diner—the same diner, in fact, that held the fateful conference where Henry joined Black Flag. Hopefully this meeting would have a happier outcome.

However, a party of Ukrainians sat down for a post-wedding celebration at the next table over just as we began to chat. As a result, my tape recording serves as a better record of their conversation than ours. And so, with what direct quotes I can salvage, the story will proceed in my own words.

Holmstrom came to New York City from Connecticut in 1972 to learn to draw comics. He enrolled at the School for Visual Arts, but was disappointed to find not a single cartooning class. Along with some other angry students, he went to the president of the school. “Sure, what cartoonists do you want?” the President asked. “Put a list together.”

And so they did—a fantasy list of comic legends. Topping the list was Will Eisner (the comic maverick who’d created the Spirit in 1940, and, famously, turned down publishing the first issue of Superman) and Harvey Kurtzman (the founder of the original Mad magazine). The administration surprised the students by hiring both.

Studying under Eisner and Kurtzman was Holmstrom’s first entry into the worlds of comics and publishing. Their lessons, and their belief in him, greatly affected the course of his life. Even after he could no longer afford the steep SVA tuition and was forced to drop out, Holmstrom continued on as their apprentice, literally as well as figuratively: both Eisner and Kurtzman hired him as personal assistant. The work was part-time and paid only minimum wage, but that was all he needed to scrape by. More importantly, it gave the young artist an opportunity to hone his own skills…

Read the rest of this entry »

Bruce brought over a bunch of pasteboards for old MRR Radio fliers, and this was on the back of one of them. Looks like this was what was being considered as a name for the Not So Quiet on the Western Front comp: May I Have the Next Thrash? Because this was on the back of another board, it’s cut off in the middle of the band names…

I went to see the Raincoats play a couple days ago. My old band played their first reunion show in 1993, when the first LP was reissued on corporate overlord Geffen for some reason (otherwise known as Kurt Cobain). Sixteen years later their first LP has just been reissued again by Kill Rock Stars this time, I believe it’s vinyl only. Anyway, they played this weird post-punk revival show with Viv Albertine from the Slits, and she joined them for this song. I always go to reunion shows with a heavy heart, you know, do you really wanna see a bunch of middle aged people reliving the past? It’s like a theater performance sometimes, like Civil War enactment displays, where both the audience and band are playing the part… Anyway, the Raincoats were refreshingly shaky and charming, reminding me of why I loved that first LP so, and this song exemplified some weird alchemy for me at least…

Francis Harold & the Holograms @ the Knockout, San Francisco, CA (photo by icki)

Starting NOW, every Monday we’re going to be posting a photo or two here on the MRR Blog. This ties in nicely with the upcoming photo issue we’re working hard on getting together (see below). Expect to get a sneak peek at some of the photos people have sent in for that…as well as killer classic pictures and more recent shitz.

If you shoot shows and have photos you want to submit for the MRR Blog, send them to: markmurrmann {at} gmail(.)com. Be sure to put “MRR Photo Blog” in the subject. Include your name, the band, where and when it was shot. Just send your best photos – edit tightly*. We will be exercising a little quality control here…not everything sent in will be posted. But judging just from the contributions that have poured in for the photo issue, there are a lot of awesome photographers out there shooting shows…and there are a lot of unseen archives of old shows.

Stay tuned!

*And thanks, but no, we do not want to wade through your website or Flickr account to pick our favorites.

Insect Warfare @ Skill Wizard, London (photo by Tom Medwell)

This is it! Last call to get your photos in for the MRR Photo Issue. We’ve gotten tons of great pictures, from all over the world. If you’ve been slacking, now is the time to get ‘em in. Here’s what you need to know to contribute:

• Send up to 10 pictures. We accept digital files and prints.
• If you send prints and want them back, PLEASE PROVIDE a SASE!!! Otherwise prints will not be returned. Prints should be no larger than 8×10. Send all prints to MRR, ATTN: Photo Issue.
• Digital files should be 10” at the longest side, at 300dpi. Please only send JPGs or TIFFs. You can email the files to Mark Murrmann at the email address below. You may also send a CD/DVD of images to MRR, ATTN: Photo Issue.
• All photos should be in black & white. If you submit color photos, we will convert them to black & white.
• Bands in the photos should fall within MRR’s area of coverage (punk/garage/hardcore/diy, no major labels, etc).
• Please provide as much caption information as you can with the photos. At the very least we need: the name of the band (or who is in the photo), when it was taken, where (city, state, country) and who took it. Include this information in the IPTC (File Info) fields of the photos, in the email, or on a separate piece of paper/word document.

Make sure to include an email address at which you can be contacted, and a street address so we can send a copy of the magazine to you, if your photos are included.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask. Know someone you think would make for a good interview subject for the photo issue? Get in touch!

Email your photos to: markmurrmann {at} gmail(.)com

Hot off the presses, it’s the November issue of Maximum Rocknroll! This issue features interviews with Spanish distort-punkers DESTINO FINAL, the similarly noisily minded WARNING/WARNING from France, and Mexican punk deconstructionists RATAS DEL VATICANOS. There’s an interview with hardcore legend and CRO MAG, John Joseph and one with the classic genre defining Brazilian hardcore masters RATOS DE PORÃO. Austin, Texas, garage punks HEX DISPENSERS drop us a line, EXPLODE INTO COLORS continue with their post-SLITS/ESG girl-punk experimentation, and we have an Eastern European tour diary from Polish bands ANTIDOTUM and CZOSNEK. The fun doesn’t end there — we’re also covering Canadian hardcore band DISCO ASSAULT, and Chile’s female fronted straightedge hardcore punks FUERA DE LINEA. All of this and the usual columns, news, film and book reviews, plus the most extensive music review section in punk rock!

Go to our BACK ISSUES page to order this issue.