LA Times Festival of Books: Emerging from the Underground - Surviving Punk Rock

I went to the LA Times Festival of Books and, as always, sat in on a number of panel discussions: 8 to be exact. One of those 8 was listening to Keith Morris, Michelle Cruz Gonzales, Scott Crawford and John Joseph.

Here's a short bio via the LA Times website:

Keith Morris is a cofounding member of Black Flag, the most recognizable name in West Coast punk, and the Circle Jerks, which cemented his reputation at the forefront of hardcore vocalists . . . His memoir is entitled “My Damage: The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor.”

Michelle Cruz Gonzales writes memoir and fiction and is the author of "The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band.” In the 1990s, Gonzales played drums in and wrote lyrics for the groundbreaking all female punk band, Spitboy, that toured the US and overseas.

Scott Crawford has spent much of his life devoted to documenting independent culture . . . His 2015 debut feature-length documentary, “Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC” was critically-acclaimed, receiving accolades from the NY Times, The Washington Post, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Rolling Stone, MTV, and many more.

John Joseph is a punk rock singer from New York City, most famous for his work with the Cro-Mags in the 1980s. Joseph was raised in foster care and grew up on the streets of New York. He was lead singer for the Cro-Mags from 1984 until 1987, though he departed and rejoined the band sporadically, most recently returning briefly in the early to mid-1990s.

Here are my notes from the conversation, hopefully there aren't too many errors.

Keith Morris. When did he get into punk? He attended a picnic on a Sunday afternoon in Manhattan Beach. His band played in a band shell. His band was attacked with flying food, chicken wings, cantaloupe rinds, and half empty beer cans. The community didn't like them. They had lied to get on stage. They said they did jazz and Fleetwood Mac covers.

Where was his community? Hermosa Beach. People thought entertainment was hanging at the bar on a Friday night and playing Top 40. He grew up around surfers and skaters. He was lucky a few people were willing to hang out with him. He best memory was playing in a living room in Hawthorne for an 8th grade graduation.

Reaction to his book? He called out bands he managed. The bands later asked, "I thought we were friends." He was just telling a story about Hollywood. Why did he take swipes at some bands? Some bands he managed didn’t even bother to thank him before splitting for new management teams. He was even approached by a woman who said, “You were lucky you even got to go out with me."

Michelle Cruz Gonzales. When did she get into punk? At the 1983 Us Music Festival. She and her friends were The Clash fans. They drove to the Us Festival in a Fiat wagon. The starter was broken. There was no air conditioner. The tickets were on $20. When she got there she noticed all these cool kids. She felt so ridiculous. Her baptism into punk was seeing The Clash. The Clash mentioned East LA while on stage. She couldn’t believe it.

Where was her community? She soon moved to SF. She would go to shows at The Farm and Gilman. There were two different punk scenes: The Farm was scary punk, Gilman was punk rock, romper room. She was from a town of 700 and didn't care about the East Bay vs West Bay scenes.

Was there dangers in the West Coast punk scene like there were on the East Coast? In the 90's during Spitboy, the scene wasn't dangerous. Skin head girls were threatening, but this wasn't as violent as the East Coast. As a woman, there were other issues: being assaulted or raped. Back then, people would have to sleep in a van to prevent theft of equipment. Due to them being a female band, two would always need to sleep in the van. It was also difficult being the only woman of color in her band.

Scott Crawford. When did he get into punk? He discovered this stuff was happening in the back yards. He started to read magazines, listening to bands on the radio. He went to the record store one day and someone recommended that he start seeing the bands he was interested in. He was only 12. He found a way to a show. The night was chaos. Sights. Smells. People sniffing glue. It felt dangerous. What am I doing here, he asked? It was intoxicating. He began going to shows every weekend.

Where was his community? DC had its own set of punk rock rules. Not everyone was straight edge. They were all kids in high school. Being in a band was their after school project. It was such a small scene initially. There were a group of 20 people who kept reforming into new bands. “X” became the symbol for straight edge. The "X" came from SF, it was put on the hand of an under-21 patron to indicate that they weren't allowed to drink.

John Joseph. When did he get into punk? He spent 7 years in a foster home, having to deal with really painful stuff. It was a horrible situation. He ran away in 1977 to New York City. He found himself on the streets; hustling drugs, pills. He went to a club (Max’s), a place where the door guys tossed you down a stairwell. He went inside. He got f*cked up and went outside to throw up. A pal of his was inside, stealing things and got kicked out. Outside, his friend was getting beat up. His friend called out for help. Folks then turned on John and started to beat him up, because they now knew he was the friend of the thief. A month later he was tight with all of them. Soon, he started going to CBGB. A year later he was in jail.

Where was his community? In the 80's, he was in the military, stationed in Norfolk. Then he went AWOL and lived in the burnt out parts of New York City. New York City was dangerous in the 70's/80's. He got stabbed by Puerto Ricans. There were riots between DC and NY punk rockers in Times Square. You had to defend yourself on the streets of New York. Now punk rock has no revolution in the scene. It is normalized.

About his book? He was told that his book couldn't be about abuse, but what he did about it. He later confronted his foster family. He went to their home and gave them a piece of his mind.