Poly Styrene, AKA Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, died yesterday after a struggle with spinal and breast cancers. And I wish I shared in her spiritual Hare Krishna ethic. I wish I believed, as her website declares, that she had “won her battle on Monday evening to go to higher places,” because all I feel is the [...]

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The Girls played their wonderful fuzz-pop hooks while flash bulbs flickered and I yawned myself into a coma. I appreciate it if a band even manages to smile while playing live—something that shows they’re even enjoying the show themselves. Nope, sorry, we’re the Dum Dum Girls, and it’s best we stay as stoic as the vocals of the phenomenal Iggy Pop album from which we swiped our name. Sister Midnight is back, and she brings us girls in too-short dresses and black tights, and it was stupid. And I quit. Good night.

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Vedder put it best when he said “There are laws in this state against things like gay marriage, but there isn’t a law in California that says you can’t lose your shit at a rock ‘n’ roll concert.” On this night, he was correct.

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Walter Lure was with the Heartbreakers during everything that would later become history—L.A.M.F., the Anarchy tour with the Sex Pistols and Live At Max’s and whatever else it says in Please Kill Me, which he hasn’t read. He speaks now before performing at the Knitting Factory with his band the Waldos. This interview by Daniel Clodfelter.

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The Sonics weren’t pioneers so much as cavemen—the first humans to discover tools, fire and the absolute rudiments of chemistry. Their original ‘60s songs still sound wild and feral today, and their debut Here Are The Sonics! devours most of the million punk rock records that timidly followed it. This will be their first Los Angeles-area show ever. This interview by Dan Collins.

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