A website based solely on Alice Bag would be cool enough, and of course alicebag.com serves up plenty of biographical goodies on Alice and her legendary band, The Bags… But it’s really worth making your way to her website for the section called Women in LA Punk for interviews with the likes of Black Flag’s Kira Roessler, fanzine writer Jade Zebest, and all around scenester Pleasant Gehman.

Ariel Awesome writes:
“LET THE WOMEN SPEAK!” Short and sweet interviews that offer a glimpse into the past and present of the women who shaped punk in LA. Most punxploitation books love to serve up photos of these ladies as fashion plates, and give a short one line on what bands they were in, or who they hung around with. Here, Alice asks them a few key questions to give us a better sense of each lady as a whole person, what part they played in those seminal years of punk in LA, and what they are up to now. There are amazing photos, sure, but better than that, the voices of these amazing women coming through to tell a little bit of the story of how they shaped punk, and how punk shaped them.

Exene and Pleasant Gehman take a cold shower at the Slash loft party for Devo, July 22, 1977. (photo by Jenny Lens)

What was the role of women in the early punk scene?

As effortlessly equal as that of men….the strongest, smartest, most independent women I’ve ever known were punk girls, but it wasn’t ever stated or harped on, it was just a fact of life. Maybe that’s why everyone felt like such misfits in the non-punk world…

The really inspiring thing here is that, despite the obvious “good old days” vibe of the site, it’s not coming from washed-up old dudes who want want you to know how cool they once were. These women, for the most part, still have their ideals intact, and are still creative and active in whatever they’ve moved onto. For them, punk was more of a foundation than a springboard.

Thank you Alice!

Tigran, a kind reader from the former USSR sent in this rad selection of Soviet-era punk rock for your listening pleasure. Tigran writes, “It contains great ’80s Soviet punk bands that were really innovative and talented. They created a unique sound not even heard of in western punk at that time.” Take that, Mykel Board!

He also sent these great pics! Here’s the download. Playlist at the end of the post — насладитесь!

[Update from Tigran & Facebook readers: A few bands here are actually post-Soviet — Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Chimera and Nyurnberg are from the '90s. Thanks nerds!]

Grazhdanskaya Oborona (1984)

Adolf Gitler, 1986 (not a Nazi band)

Putti (1983)

Soviet mixtape playlist:

1. mi sjadem na tanki / ADOLF GITLER
2. rejgan provokator / AVTOMATICHESKIE UDOVLETVORITELI
3. rukoyatka / CHIMERA
4. serij golub / ZVUKI MU
5. totalitarizm / GRAZHDANSKAYA OBORONA
6. vintovka eto prazdnik / GRAZHDANSKAYA OBORONA
7. budushego net / INSTRUKCIJA PO VIZHIVANIJU
8. opredeljonnije / MATROSSKAJA TISHINA
9. deklosirovannim elementam / YANKA
10. epidemija sili / NJURNBERG
11. na blazhennom ostrove kommunizma / KOMMUNIZM
12. novobranci / ARMIJA VLASOVA
13. tretij reih / ADOLF GITLER
14. trezvost / BRIGADNIJ PODRJAD
15. zagovor / GRAZHDANSKAYA OBORONA
16. zoopark / POSEV
17. davaj vojnu / PIZHEVIJE OTHODI
18. radiodiversija / AUKCION

Three slightly date photos from Nick Goode!

Carbonas at Rob's House, Atlanta, GA, 29 April 2007 (photo by Nick Goode)

Socialcide at Flint St, Raleigh, NC, 13 May 2007 (photo by Nick Goode)

Wasted Time at BCHQ, Durham, NC, 1 Sept 2007 (photo by Nick Goode)

Wanna submit a photo for the MRR Photo Blog?

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. Three to five photos is plenty. We will be exercising a little quality control here…not everything sent in will be posted. Please size your photos so they are 500 pixels (72 dpi) at the longest side.

There are a lot of awesome photographers out there shooting shows…and there are a lot of unseen archives of old shows. Show us what you’ve got!

We’d love to mix it up with some old photos. Dig into your archives and send some of those lost gems.

East Bay drunk-punk documentarian and perennial MRR photo contributor Larry Wolfley is having a reception for his exhibit, “Loud and Fast: 15 years of Punk Rock Performances,” this Saturday at the Photolab Gallery at 2235 Fifth Street in Berkeley. The party lasts from 6 to 8pm, or until the cops come shut it down. You can see the exhibit through June 5th at that location.

Unknown punx at Burnt Ramen, Richmond, CA, 2005 (photo by Larry Wolfley)

Here what the official web page has to say about it:

“Pure energy is one of my constant themes, I think. To me, it means life, action, being alive.”

The present exhibit is a selection of some of Larry Wolfley’s best and most well-known band shots from the past 15 years. These images, captured on the fly, document the energy and controlled chaos which are always part of the shows, and exhibit the performance art elements which are central to punk rock. The focus may be on the band as a whole or individuals members, on the audience or the interaction of band and audience, or on the celebrations by certain fans.

The images are captured on black and white film and printed on silver gelatin paper.

The artist says: “My work tends to be sharp and focused, whereas a lot of punk photography uses slow sync and blurred action effects. My artistic choice is based on the idea that if we’re using the artificial effect of black and white, then we might as well see all the details. The downside is that the flash washes out all the ambient light and even stage lights that we normally are aware of, and aware of in color. So there is nothing real about what I’m doing. It’s graphic, arrangements in space. “

Punk rock is a way of life, and these images bear witness to the vitality, democracy and continuing evolution on the form.

Straight outta Brookings, South Dakota — that punk rock mecca — comes a modestly presented yet invaluable treasure trove of punk history. It’s called Operation Phoenix Records and what you’ll find there is an amazing selection of classic zines available as PDF downloads in their entirety. These include most issues of Flipside from #1(!) thru #58, every issue of 10 Things Jesus Wants You To Know, almost every HeartattaCk, Suburban Relapse, Suburban Punk, Suburban Voice… the list goes on. Oh, and did we mention you can download everything from the first few years of Maximumrocknroll??

Operation Phoenix archives: the hard copies

Operation Phoenix is run by Adam Miller, an aficionado of early punk who writes, “I first got into punk when I was a teenager during the 90′s, but it was older stuff like the Stooges, Ramones, Black Flag, Germs, Circle Jerks — all of the usual suspects.

“The inspiration for the zine part of the site was due to the difficulty I had finding old zines to read. During the late 90′s, I contacted one of the zine libraries in the US to see if they would mail me zines if I’d cover postage and send them a deposit until I returned the zines. They said no. I understood the reason, but I thought an online site would fix that problem for a lot of people.”

Originally conceived as an online store (hence the name including the word “Records”), the site soon found its niche as a zine and flyer archive, with an online punk discography that Adam hopes to further develop. The zine archive is definitely the star of of show here though. I’ve been downloading zines from this site for months and still don’t have everything I want. And Adam says there are around 250 more zines he is still preparing to upload to the site.

Does this sound like a lot of work for one dude?

“The site absolutely takes a lot of work, but when I think of all the time that went into publishing all of these zines, it puts everything in perspective.”

Don’t miss the decades of perspective to be found at Operation Phoenix. Adam can be contacted thru the site. As a bonus, here are his recommendations for more punk archives.

Break My Face
Flex!
Kill From The Heart
45 Revolutions
Collector Scum

Happy treasure hunting!

This month’s issue of MRR features an interview with Freak (formerly Fred) of Beefeater. A fascinating look back at his time in the harDCore scene, which touches on his experiences as a black punk. We were sent a few of these flyers and they somehow disappeared, missing publication, so I thought I would post ‘em here…

(click images to enlarge)

The Scavengers @ AK-79 Reunion, Auckland, New Zealand, 22 Nov 2008 (photo by Sarah Crews)

Decline of the Reptiles, Empire Hotel, Annandale, Sydney, 7 March 2009 (photo by Sarah Crews)

X, Empire Hotel, Annandale, Sydney, 7 March 2009 (photo by Sarah Crews)

Eddy Current Suppression Ring at Mojos, Fremantle, WA, 31 January 2009 (photo by Sarah Crews)

Wanna submit a photo for the MRR Photo Blog?

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. Three to five photos is plenty. We will be exercising a little quality control here…not everything sent in will be posted. Please size your photos so they are 500 pixels (72 dpi) at the longest side.

There are a lot of awesome photographers out there shooting shows…and there are a lot of unseen archives of old shows. Show us what you’ve got!

We’d love to mix it up with some old photos. Dig into your archives and send some of those lost gems.

We’ve got a few kick-ass “Blog of the Week” posts in the works for you all, but while waiting for those to ripen I had to find something good to offer you this week… It’s nearly impossible to just google search for good punk shit these days, since a million lame poser piece of shit websites likes to call themselves “DIY”, “underground”, etc. So it was pretty lucky, I think, that a search for “punk out of print diy” popped this bad puppy to the top of the list.

It’s the DIY Irish Hardcore Punk Archive, and the name says it all. It’s an excellent, growing selection of great Irish punk from past to present. Unlike many other music download sites, this one actually makes a point not to post currently in-print music, so you can surf and download with a clean conscience. I was stoked to find music available from some of my old favorites like CIUNAS and NOT OUR WORLD. And I discovered an awesome new favorite in a 2009 demo by FAG ENABLERZ (I know, I couldn’t resist clicking that name to see what it was)…

Always a country for hilarious band names, why not check out DR. SHITFACE or PINK TURDS IN SPACE? Yes, they’re both great! And there’s even a zine section, which yours truly can hardly wait to dive into. Excellent site!