Exene Cervenka, the director of photography and co-writer on Modi Frank’s 1986 silent western Bad Day, is making the film available on her website to help raise money for Gulf Coast residents.

Shot at a secret location near Chatsworth, California, the short film features an inspired cast of irregulars playing the residents of a small town on a bad day. Call it what you will: a cow-punk time capsule, a mock-Western, a guerrilla film forerunner – or just plain proof of a time when everyone didn’t take themselves so seriously.

“Bad Day” has a cool cast that includes, John Doe (X), Dave Alvin (Blasters), Kevin Costner, Michael Blake and Chris Desjardin (The Flesheaters).

A portion of the proceeds from “Bad Day” are going to the Gulf Coast aid organization the Committee for Plaquemines Recovery that helps the people affected in the Gulf region.

Now available for the first time as a digital download Viewers will be able to “pay” whatever they choose for the download.  Please view at www.baddaymovie.com
 

 
Director Joe Rees’s Target Video operation captured some of the rawest and most iconic performers of the early San Francisco and Los Angeles punk scenes, going as far back as 1977, including such legendary events as the next to last Throbbing Gristle concert, the Cramps playing for a group of patients at an insane asylum and ultra rare footage of The Screamers, a seminal L.A. synth punk band who sadly released no records. Not to mention, the Dead Kennedys, who were anti-music video and anti-MTV, hence the lack of footage of their early years. Luckily, Rees and his cameras captured it all for posterity.

Tonight at Cinefamily/The Silent Movie Theater in Hollywood there will be a special Target Video night with Rees and his comrades playing VJ with two hours of clips of So Cal groups like TSOL, Black Flag and Nervous Gender, plus a set of songs from the era spun by guest DJ Michael Stock from Part Time Punks.

Cinefamily,  611 N Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, 90036 / 323-655-2510

Video: The Mau-Maus performing “War Baby.” This is the probably the only known early footage of the band, shot by Target Video.

 
Who Killed Nancy opens today In New York City. The film makes a strong case that Sid Vicious did not kill Nancy Spungen. Read about it at the Daily Mail.

 
Because putting together the Phew/Aunt Sally post made me think of them and because I need a unicorn chaser after that cheesy thing I posted just now (ironically from the same time period as this), Here’s The Fall, live in Leeds, doing one of the best odes to speed that I know of, aside from this one or (duh!) this one. I drunk a jar of coffee and then I took some of these !

 
Alternate version after the jump…

Photo Credit: Glen E. Friedman
 

Photo Credit: Glen E. Friedman
 

Photo Credit: Glen E. Friedman
 
Here’s a really wonderful interview with one of my favorite photographers and artists, Glen E. Friedman. Do yourself a favor and watch the video. From State Magazine:

It was then that I found that the most beautiful, gripping color photographs were taken by just a single photographer, a very young teenager, by the name of Glen E. Friedman. Glen would go on to take these skills he learnt as a kid and apply them to his other great love in life, music. What you’re about to hear is an interview I did with Glen, who describes for you, some of his favourite shots from the last four decades. It’s a journey which has taken Glen from the mosh-pits of American punk-rock with bands like Black Flag and Fugazi to the suburban streets with hip-hop where Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Run DMC, LL Cool J, A Tribe Called Quest and Ice-T all became subjects in front of Glen’s lens. So, less talk, more action; press play. After all, they say a picture is worth a thousand…well, you know…

 
Interview with Glen E. Friedman in pictures & audio

 
The Devil went down to King’s Road where he found a redheaded boy named Johnny and the Devil said to Johnny, “I am the Devil, dance with me.” And Johnny stared at the Devil and screeched, “I am an Antichrist!” And before the Devil knew what hit him, Johnny destroyed him!

 
Phew is the name of the Japanese punk chanteuse who first came came to notoriety as singer in the band Aunt Sally. These tracks from her 1981 self-titled LP are most notable, however for her backing band: Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit of Can and always brilliant producer Conny Plank. This is some wonderfully austere stuff from a period in which our man Holger could virtually do no wrong. And what a prescient sound this is. Any number of current backward looking bands would give their eye teeth for the vibe and drum/synth groove made by this unlikely combination of middle aged German gents and adorable art-waif.

 
More Phew after the jump…

 
Nothing like a good banning to warm an old gay punk’s heart—especially in the internet age. Looks like Australia’s classification of Toronto-based filmmaker Bruce LaBruce’s latest bit of hardcore underground gay gore, L.A. Zombie as pornography has prevented it from being screened at the Melbourne Film Festival. According to Melbourne talk-radio station 3AW, LaBruce couldn’t be happier:

‘‘My first thought was ‘Eureka!’… I’ll never understand how censors don’t see that the more they try to suppress a film, the more people will want to see it. It gives me a profile I didn’t have yesterday.’’

Virtually all of LaBruce’s films—from the skinhead-fetishizing No Skin off My Ass from 1991 through to the political-porno-zombie flick Otto; or Up With Dead People—have managed to shock and scandalize straights and gays alike with their violence and satirical stereotyping. It’s good to know there are some areas in the Western world that aren’t immune.
 

LA Zombie trailer
Uploaded by blankytwo.

 
Attention people of Earth and Southern California!

This Thursday marks the opening of How We Roll, a six-month exhibition on African-America’s contribution to surfing, skateboarding and rollerskating culture at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles.

Starting with the history of black surfing from the 17th and 18th century in Polynesia and Africa and on into the US, the exhibit rolls through the African-American surf-skateboard-rollerskate continuum featuring photos by Glen E. Friedman, Grant Brittain, Jim Goodrich, Lance Dawes, Atiba Jefferson, Neftalie and more. Spotlights include the legacy of pioneering black female pro skateboarder Stephanie Person and the way that skateboarding has cross-pollinated with black music formats like Afropunk, hip-hop, jazz and reggae.

Get a preview of what the exhibit looks like here.

Here’s a piece of the black skateboarding story on the East Coast from Jeremiah Alexis via Current TV
 

 
Bonus clip after the jump: a tribute to the irrepressible black skater & actor Harold Hunter, R.I.P.
 

 
A little late night listening inspired by Marc’s post. I felt the need to present one of the best recorded pieces by Yes, the much-maligned yet utterly wonderful UK prog band: The nine and a half minute epic (what else?) Sound Chaser from 1974’s Relayer LP. The by turns angular, noisy (check all the subtle micro-synth bits scurrying across the stereo field) and lovely classically structured song reflects a band emboldened by their huge fame to stretch out and attempt something decidedly outside of pop music. Also our man of the day, Steve Howe is a total demon here. Wild and unpredictable, with a nasty, almost Link Wray-esque tone. This is not your bog standard hippy-prog rock. Once again, please excuse/ignore the goofy visuals in the fan vid below.