Netpunk April 2001

I should have known it was coming when the powers-that-be here at MRR told us that we could no longer have season tickets to the Giants.  It's been going downhill for some time now, but the selling off of the record collection is astounding.  However, Arwen told me that nobody ever listens to the records anymore since they got the high speed net connection and can get all kinds of mp3 files, so maybe it's better that the records get distributed out into the punk community.  Just remember that if it has green duct tape around the edges, you have a piece of the MRR collection on your hands.  It still makes me sad.

This month's column is nothing but eye candy.  I have nothing for you to read and nothing for you to listen to.  Instead, all of the sites that follow are photo zines and photo galleries, mostly related to punk rock.  Sorry, no porn sites for you.  I'm sure that you can find those on your own.

We'll start our gallery tour with a trip to Burning Flags Press, which is the home of Glen E. Friedman, photographer to the stars.  Before he started taking photos of Pearl Jam and Public Enemy, he was shooting the likes of Black Flag, Bad Brains, and DK, as well as taking photos of early 80's skateboard pros.  Many of these photos, as well as a lot of his newer work, is available at http://www.southern.com/BURNINGFLAGS/ .

Idle Time is a document of the Austin, TX punk scene of the early 80's.  There are some fantastic pictures here of legendary bands like the Dicks, Big Boys, The Offenders, and more.  Check it out at http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~edge/idle_time/ .

For another blast from the past, The Ray Stevenson photo gallery at http://www.photos.fsbusiness.co.uk/ features photos of the early UK punk scene with the usual cast of characters.  This site is all about selling these photos for hundreds of bucks, but there are quite a few small-ish photos of all of your 70's punk faves.  A lot of these you've seen in books and the like, but there were a few here that were new to me.

You'll find a handful of old photos at http://www.teleport.com/~phillip/concerts/ .  These are mostly from Portland, OR from the early 80's and include Bad Brains, X, Discharge, Wipers, and more.  Plus, you can play "Where's Jerry A", as he appears in the background of  a few of the photos.

You'll find punk photos from 1985 until the present at Trenthead (http://www.trenthead.com/).  You'll also find other interesting non-punk photos by Trent Nelson, as he is a photographer for the Salt Lake Tribune.  After you finish looking at photos of the old SLC punk scene, spend some time in the "Shows" section, and check out his non-punk photo exhibits accompanied by audio.  They are pretty cool.

Okay, so that's all of the "blast from the past" photos.   The rest of these sites are mostly new photos, though sometimes the bands may be moldy oldies.  First in line is the band photos page at Annoyances United Worldwide (http://www.annoyances.com/bandphotos/), where you'll find photos of all kinds of  (mostly) indie bands from the past seven or so years.  There are literally hundreds of pictures, but all are nicely alphabetized by band name.

Icki's Action Photozine deserves a mention as he has the photos from the print version of his zine, as well as new and extra photos that haven't been seen elsewhere.  Photos here include the Zodiac Killers, Andre the Giant, the Zero Boys and more.  You'll find all this and more at http://www.lipstickkillers.com/action/action.html .

Billy Caldwell's Photo Gallery (http://www.bcphotos.com/) seems to have a thing for women in rock, as you'll find a bunch of great pictures of the Lunachicks, Karen Black, Ani DiFranco, Mary Lou Lord, and other grrrl bands, as well as a handful of pictures of the US Bombs, The Unseen, L.E.S. Stitches, and the like.

Another good collection of photos is the Scottish site, A Small Punk Photozine.  Many of the bands are not Scottish, but are bigger name punk bands that have toured through the area.  Still, there are a lot of great pictures, and a lot more than you'd expect for "a small punk photozine".  Visit it -- http://www.angelfire.com/wi/smallpunk/ .

DC and Beyond has live photos from the DC and Maryland punk and hardcore scene of the past 5 years or so.  Anti-Flag, Blanks 77, The Casualties, 7 Seconds, and dozens of others are at http://xgufx.tripod.com/ .

To finish up this month, I found a couple of flyer and art archives for your view pleasure.  Punk and Art features a whole slew of drawings by various contributors.  A lot of it looks like stuff by bored teens sitting in class and not paying attention, but there is also some outstanding stuff here.  You'll also find a small photo section, and a couple of dozen flyers for various shows.  Punk and Art is at http://go.to/punkart .

Finally, This is Punk Rock at http://www.thisispunkrock.btinternet.co.uk/ has a picture sleeve gallery of a bunch of old and rare 7"s and a flyer gallery of old punk from all over the world.  I especially like checking out the old picture sleeves.  Give it a visit.

That's all the room I have this month.  You can e-mail me at netpunk@diehippiedie.com, or check out my columns online at http://www.diehippiedie.com/netpunk/ .  Until next time, I'm outta here.