The Weirdos - "Destroy All Music" Compilation, Vinyl, 2007 (BOMP!)

 

In England, there were the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Here in Los Angeles, and in the 1970s Punk era, it was The Screamers and The Weirdos. There were many other bands in Southern California at the time, but those two were the ones that I found to be the most interesting. The Screamers were keyboard electronic orientated theater band. The Weirdos were rock n' roll but with a sense of absurdity. At least on stage, they were outlandish with their trashcan clothing style. On record, they are a powerful rock band. 

It's amusing now to think of Punk as being one type of music. It never was. One would think it's all "One...Two...Three, and Go," but the truth that there were a lot of subtle differences between all the groups. The Weirdos will be placed in the Punk Rock section of a music store, but they are also a classic hard rock band. It is always backed by a powerful drummer such as Nicky Beat and the wonderful Danny Benair of The Quick/The Three O'Clock fame. Their music had a slow built-up tension, and then one approaches the chorus as it builds and builds to a sense of ecstasy. Listening to it now reminds me a bit of Howard Devoto's Magazine. There are intelligence and a fair amount of humor in how they presented their music and visuals.  The other memebers of the band are Cliff Roman, Dix Denney, and his brother the vocalist John Denney. 

"Who? What? When? Where? Why?" the six-song EP that is part of the compilation is superb. "Happy People," "Big Shot," and "Idle Life, among the others, are classic rock. Not far off from Slade or the hard glam sound of the early 70s. An artifact from my past, but when I listen to this record now, it takes me to a very contemporary present. 

The One Album I Listened to in 2007: Scott Walker's "And Who Shall Go To The Ball? And What Shall Go To The Ball?

 

According to my detailed buying habits, in 2007 the only new music I purchased that year was Scott Walker's "And Who Shall Go To The Ball? And What Shall Go To The Ball?" Hardcore orchestration music for a Dance performed by CandoCo Dance Company. I think "Pola X" was the first all-instrumental score by Scott, but this album is a mixture of glitches and sometimes lush orchestration. In parts, it reminds me of Webern string quartets. Still, an intense listening experience. - Tosh Berman

TamTam Books’ Tosh Berman in New York City for "Wallace Berman Photographs"

WALLACE BERMAN: PHOTOGRAPHS LAUNCH AT SPOONBILL & SUGARTOWN

For your editorial consideration Contact: Molly Cain
212--627-1999 x203 mcain@dapinc.com

EVENT DATE: Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 7 pm

WHAT: The new book Wallace Berman: Photographs will be discussed by Wallace’s son Tosh Berman; film footage and outtakes from Wallace Berman's film "Aleph" will be screened. See details below.

WHERE: Spoonbill & Sugartown, Booksellers
Located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Bedford Avenue between North 4th and North 5th Streets

Admittance is free and open to the public. Wine will be served.

Tosh Berman, son of the artist and photographer Wallace Berman, will discuss the stories behind the photographs of his late father, recently published by D.A.P. and RoseGallery, in Wallace Berman: Photographs. Tosh Berman will also read excerpts from his own memoir, My Struggle, that reference the period during which these photographs were taken. Film footage and outtakes from Wallace Berman's film "Aleph", recently preserved by the Film Anthology in New York City, will be screened before and during the evening’s talks and readings.

ABOUT THE BOOK…

Wallace Berman: Photographs
Edited and introduction by Kristine McKenna and Lorraine Wild
Published by RoseGallery, Los Angeles

The quintessential visual artist of the Beat generation, Wallace Berman's influence has continued to radiate throughout the American art scene and in our popular culture since the 1950s. As an artist, Berman worked in relative obscurity up until his premature death, at the age of 50, in 1976. Since then, however, interest in his work, and recognition of its importance, have steadily increased. The subject of the recent—and highly lauded—traveling exhibition and accompanying catalogue, Semina Culture: Wallace Berman & His Circle, he was the central and binding figure in a diverse community of artists, poets, actors and musicians, and was revered for his wisdom as well as his achievements as an artist, publisher and filmmaker. However, until the 1999 discovery of an archive of his photographic negatives, very few people have known that Berman was also an extremely accomplished photographer. He documented the West Coast Beat culture of the 1950s, the first stirrings of the hippie culture that took root in the canyons of Southern California in the 60s and the diverse cast of characters who passed through his famously creative world with amazing intimacy and candor. Berman's photographs are gathered here for the first time ever.

Wallace Berman: Photographs, Published by RoseGallery, Los Angeles and D.A.P./ Distributed Art Publishers,
Distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., ISBN: 9781933045610, Price: $50.00

D.A.P. 155 6th Avenue, Fl. 2, New York City, 10013