A HISTORY LESSON
part 1
It has been said that Los Angeles and San Francisco were the last major metropolitan cities in which punk music scenes developed and once it hit California, punk changed shapes numerous times, spread to every corner of the United States and became a permanent fixture in popular culture.
In 1984, a teenage Dave Travis decided to capture punk rock in Los Angeles on video tape, a fascination and hobby that he would continue until 1997, logging in hundreds of hours of Los Angeles area shows and interviews. In “A History Lesson Part 1, Travis presents live footage filmed in the spring of 1984 featuring the Meat Puppets, Minutemen, Twisted Roots and Redd Kross interspersed with interviews of members from each group which examines and puts a perspective on the early years of “psychedelic” punk rock in Los Angeles and Phoenix, AZ. Each song by each group is presented from start to finish.
The MEAT PUPPETS
The Meat Puppets started playing punk rock in their hometown of Phoenix, Arizona out of a feeling of alienation. After sharing a bill in Phoenix, Black Flag invited The Meat Puppets to play a show with them The Cuckoos Nest in Costa Mesa, CA. The group played their chaotic shamanistic psychedelic punk which messed with the minds of the hardcore punks in the audience who started a riot during their set. This prompted Greg Ginn of Black Flag to invite The Meat Puppets to record an album for SST. The group recorded “Meat Puppets 1” over a non-stop three day session while tripping on acid at Unicorn Studios in West Hollywood. A year later, the group returned to the studio and with a more structured and coherent approach for “Meat Puppets 2.” Three songs from that album were captured live on May 5, 1984 at Perkins Palace in Pasadena, CA. Melons Rising and Saturday Morning capture the bewitching feeling of “Meat Puppets 1,” while Lake of Fire captures the new direction they were moving towards with “Meat Puppets 2.”
Derrick Bostrom’s Meat Puppets Website
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-14171-meat-puppets.html
The MINUTEMEN
The Minutemen were the original punk band from San Pedro, California. Bassist Mike Watt, a childhood friend of guitarist D Boon says that Boon's mother taught him how to play bass. When the two first started playing together, they tried to cover rock songs, like American Woman and Black Dog. Then they saw a punk rock show one night in Hollywood and had the revelation that they could play their own music. Boon would write phrases on scraps of paper and Watt would put these to music. Watt would write songs with beginnings, middles, and ends. D. Boon would write songs with just verse and chorus. The songs were short, often less than a minute long. They would write solos into the songs so the other players could rest. Boon had a thing about ideas and principles; he and Watt would talk and argue about everything, even having to pull over at a library while driving between towns on tour to resolve a debate they were having about European History. They philosophized that their world was divided into two parts; Gigs and Flyers. Gigs were the shows. Flyers were everything else which would get people to the shows. Records, radio, videos; these were all flyers to the Minutemen. Six Minutemen songs are featured: A History Lesson Part 2 and Jesus and Tequila from Hollywood’s legendary Cathay De Grande and No 1. Hit Song, Martin’s Story, The Big Foist, and Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs were captured at The Olympic Auditorium.
Los Angeles Times Article About Mike Watt 8/29/10
Paul Roessler formed Twisted Roots in 1981 after the demise of the Screamers. The original lineup featured Paul’s sister Kira on bass and Pat Smear of the Germs on guitar. The singer was Maggie Ehrig, a high school friend of Kira. The band enjoyed instant success as a punk rock super-group followed by a period of chaos emerging with a new lineup featuring Dez Cadena of Redd Kross, Black Flag and The Misfits on guitar. This lineup would soon metamorphosize into DC3. Roessler was heavily influenced by Public Image Limited and took to heart Johnny Rotten’s philosophy that it was about musical anarchy not political anarchy. The songs Never Was, Mommy’s Always Busy in the Kitchen, and Love Your Friends were captured in May of 1984 at the Music Machine in West Los Angeles. Twisted Roots did a reunion at the Orange County premiere of A History Lesson on April 30, 2010.
REDD KROSS 
Redd Kross were teenagers from Hawthorne, CA who started playing shows with Black Flag while some of the members were still in Junior High School. Though they gigged with punk bands from the South Bay, they felt that they were outsiders because they were obsessed with pop culture and felt more of a connection with rock star persona than their punk rock peers. Three songs were filmed at the Pomona Valley Auditorium in June 1984: Janus, Jeanie, and George Harrison, Linda Blair, and Annette’s got the Hits. The band at the time consisted of two pairs of siblings: Jeff and Steve McDonald and Dave and Vicki Peterson of The Bangles temporarily replacing the freshly departed Dez Cadena before guitarist Robert Hecker joined the group. This was Peterson’s only show with the group.
Redd Kross LAIST Article by Elise Thompson
DAVE TRAVIS
Videographer Dave Travis grew up in Los Angeles where his dad worked as a cameraman for NBC and CBS news as well as TV shows such as “Chips” and “Fantasy Island.” When he was 15 his dad handed down to him an old video camera and he began shooting punk rock shows in Los Angeles. He eventually became a freelance video editor, working on projects such as Black Flag’s “Slip It In” video as director and editor, “1991 the Year Punk Broke” featuring Sonic Youth and Nirvana as editor, the Kurt Cobain memorial for the 94 MTV Music Awards as editor, and many more. Travis also ran a recording studio with his sister, bassist Abby Travis, called Tarantula Ranch and in the mid ‘80s helped pioneer the desert Generator Shows.
Travis captured punk bands on video in L.A. for 14 years until 1997 when he decided to put down his camera. In 2000 he became a teacher with stints at John Adams Middle School teaching World and U.S. History and Santee Education Complex, a High School in South Central, L.A. teaching History and Economics. After spending nearly a decade as a teacher, Travis re-united with his passion for video and began digitizing and restoring his old footage. “A History Lesson Part One” is the first fruit harvested from his archive.
Travis also plays cello in the long-time Los Angeles punk / psychedelic / jazz band Carnage Asada. A full bio of Dave Travis is available here: Dave Travis Bio
Interview of Dave Travis in Perfect Sound Forever Interview of Dave Travis in Perfect Sound Forever
2010 Screenings
A HISTORY LESSON PART 1
WORLD PREMIERE
Saturday 9/25/10
Blue Star Cafe and Bar
2200 East 15th Street
Los Angeles, California 90021
18+ , kids ok w/ parent.
$7 / $12 w/ DVD
6PM: Beer and BBQ
7PM: Lawndale
8PM: A History Lesson Part 1
9PM: Saccharine Trust
10PM: The Crowd
11PM: The Controllers
12AM: A History Lesson Part 1
A HISTORY LESSON AT THE REDWOOD
Tuesday 10/5/10
Redwood Bar and Grill
316 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
21 and over
$5 / $10 w/ DVD
8PM: A History Lesson Part 1
9PM: Dos
10PM: Carnage Asada
11PM: Fatso Jetson
12PM: A History Lesson Part1
THE PROBE RECORD RELEASE PARTY
Tuesday 10/12/10
Redwood Bar and Grill
316 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
21 and over
$5 (includes Probe CD) /
$10 w/DVD
8PM: A History Lesson Part 1 9PM: The Amadans
10PM: The Probe
11PM: Carnage Asada
12PM: A History Lesson Part1
A CORNUCOPIA OF CARNAGE &
SYLVIA JUNCOSA’s BIRTHDAY PARTY
Tuesday 10/19/10
Redwood Bar and Grill
316 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
21 and over $5 / $10 w/ DVD
8PM: A History Lesson Part 1 9PM: Bikos
10:00 Carnage Asada
11:00 Sylvia Juncosa Group
11:30 Kat Arthur
12:00 A History Lesson Part 1
NORTHEAST L.A. INVADES DOWNTOWN
Tuesday 10/26/10
Redwood Bar and Grill
316 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
21 and over $5 / $10 w/ DVD
8PM: A History Lesson Part 1 9PM: Somos Mysteriosos
9:45: Million Kids
10:30PM: Carnage Asada
11:15PM: The Mormons
Midnight: Skull Controll
12:30 AM: A History Lesson Part1
JAPANESE PREMIERE !!
WE JAM ECONO FESTIVAL 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
SAPPORO SOUND CRUE
〒060-0041 札幌市
中央区大通東2丁目15-1-2
Sapporo, Hokkaido
ADV ¥3000 / DOOR ¥3500
with
SPARKPLUG MAGAZINE NIGHT #1
November 19, 2010
The Crest
1625 Cabrillo Avenue
Torrance, CA 90501
8 PM A HISTORY LESSON
9pm Scattergood
9:45 The Livingstons
10:30 Million Kids
11:15 Rikk Agnew’s Poop
12 AM Carnage Asada
REVIEWS
LOS ANGELES WEEKLY
Those who forget history are doomed to listen to Blink 182
History is written by the victors, which is why the story of punk these days seems to be more about perky, lightweight mainstream pap-punk groups like Blink-182 and Green Day instead of grimier, more authentic and stubbornly obscure underground bands like the Alley Cats and Rhino 39. There were precious few lipstick traces left behind by most of the early SoCal punks and post-punks, and yet the truth is out there for those who are willing to dig deep enough. Director Dave Travis' new film, A History Lesson, Part 1 (named for the classic Minutemen song), documents an exciting time in the local scene when insurrectionists like the Minutemen were restlessly expanding the definition of what punk music sounded like. Long before the widespread use of video cameras, Travis was filming iconic early-'80s musicians with a bulky old camera that was given to him by his television-industry dad. Luckily, the Westside native (and brother of caba-punk chanteuse Abby Travis) didn't mind slogging it out in the pit while capturing precious footage of crucial groups like Arizona thrash-country space cadets the Meat Puppets. Although the sound quality is often raw, A History Lesson has some great moments, including rare glimpses of glitter-pop brats Redd Kross (during the brief period when the Bangles' Vicki Peterson and her brother Dave Peterson were in the band) and Twisted Roots, whose chirpily sarcastic singer, Maggie Ehrig, was a welcome antidote to the era's increasingly conformist, macho hardcore thuggery. Tonight, Travis performs with his own band, the aptly named veteran noisemakers Carnage Asada, and launches an October residency with weekly screenings of the film.
By Falling James
BABY JEEPERS MAGAZINE
“The opening credits of musician/ film maker Dave Travis’ documentary, A History Lesson Part 1, appear over a moving performance by the Minutemen doing a song from their 1984 album Double Nickels on the Dime, entitles “History Lesson - Pr II”. The lyrics to that song have provided many authors with titles for their essays, articles and books about punk rock. It’s particularly fitting that Travis, a history teacher by profession, who has video taped punk rock shows in the Los Angeles scene for well over twenty years has chosen that as the title for what is obviously a very personal film. Divided into four sections, each dealing with one of the four subjects of the documentary, the Meat Puppets from Arizona, the Minutemen form San Pedro, Twisted Roots and Redd Kross from Hollywood, the film unfurls with interviews and recollections from members of each band, combined with extremely rare live footage, to tell the story of Los Angeles punk rock in the 80’s. Often during the interviews with the McDonald brothers, the Kirkwood brothers, Mike Watt and Paul Roessler, one of them will acknowledge being a fan of the other bands featured in the film, a theme which loosely ties everything together. The live performances contained on this DVD alone should be enticing to fans of these four bands. The Redd Kross footage, for example, features the band’s only performance with Vicki Peterson, who sat in with the band prior to Robert Hecker joining the group. The Meat Puppets footage is culled from a 1984 performance at Perkins Palace in Pasadena and features the band playing songs from Meat Pupppets I. For fans of 80’s punk and the SST era, this film should be a required course.”
Bob Cantu
THE NEW VULGATE
Dave was around most SST bands’ gigs in Los Angeles with his video camera. For posterity at gigs we had Naomi’s camera, my Aiwa portable, and Dave’s vidcam. Check out his footage of D. Boon in the trailer link -- we’re very lucky to see and hear that action today. Sure it should have been a professional three-man crew from MTV with 1” tape and synchronized 24-track mix. But it wasn’t. It was a kid named Dave.
Joe Carducci
LAIST
We learned punk rock in Hollywood
The Punk Rock N’ Roll BBQ at the Blue Star Bar this Saturday boasts not just an amazing lineup, but it will also feature the world premiere of A History Lesson Pt. One. With exhilarating live footage and interviews with The Minutemen, Redd Kross, The Meat Puppets, and Twisted Roots, the film offers a unique glimpse into early ‘80’s Los Angeles “psychedelic” punk rock. (yes we know that the Meat Puppets are from Arizona)
Compiled from footage filmed in 1984 when he was just a teenager, filmmaker Dave Travis has assembled a truly remarkable and personal document of an often overlooked period in the evolution of punk rock. Divided into four sections, one for each band, the film is a very precious opportunity to see extremely rare live footage.
Unlike many rock docs, which have the maddening tendency to cut live performances short, or feature interviewees over the music, A History Lesson Pt. One promises that “each song by each group is presented from start to finish”.
Heath Biter
http://laist.com/2010/09/22/we_learned_punk_rock_in_hollywood.php
FLAVORPILL
FIREDOGLAKE
For Los Angeles punk rockers, the sprawl of the city and the swaths of freeways gave punks from all parts of the city–the Valley to the South Bay– opportunities to merge and mosh. When sixteen year old Dave Travis’ dad gave him a video camera, Dave began documenting the flourishing scene, and out of thousands of hours of footage comes A History Lesson Pt 1 which links four bands that helped shape modern American music.
SST Records was a pivot point for punk music, with a roster of acts and a flourishing touring network. In A History Lesson Pt 1, we meet four different acts associated with SST: The Meat Puppets, the Minutemen, Twisted Roots and Redd Kross. Live footage–including full length songs–is interspersed with interviews from the bands. The anarchistic roots of SST are clear in the story of the Meat Puppets–the band shared a bill with SST’s Black Flag in Phoenix and was invited to open for them in Costa Mesa, CA. The Meat Puppets’ country-tinged psychedelic punk jams caused a riot a the club; surf-soaked hard core fans just couldn’t wrap their heads around the jams. The musical anarchy appealed to Black Flag guitarist/SST founder Greg Ginn, who immediately signed the Meat Puppets to his label.
For Paul Roessler of Twisted Roots, it was always more about musical anarchy than political anarchy. The band featured Paul Roessler, singer Maggie Ehrig and Paul’s sister Kira. Kira moved on to bass with Black Flag and formed Dos with Mike Watt of the Minutemen and FIREHOSE. Twisted Roots’ lineup at various times included Dez Cadena who also played in Black Flag, the Misfits and Redd Kross, as well as former Germs guitarist Pat Smear, who eventually joined Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, furthering SoCal’s cross pollination, family ties and influence on modern music.
A History Lesson Pt 1’s footage is from 1984, the year the Minutemen’s seminal album Double Nickles on the Dime was recorded and released. Double Nickles is considered one the most important albums of the 1980s. Vocalist-guitarist D. Boon was killed in a van accident in late 1985, and A History Lesson Pt 1 provides us with some of the most inspiring compelling footage of this graceful musical and philosophical giant, while Mike Watt spiels tales of the band’s history.
The footage of Redd Kross includes Vicki Peterson before she joined the Bangles. Redd Kross were in many ways an anachronism to the SST aesthetic; the McDonald brothers–who formed the band while still in middle school– offer up that they were leery of joining the SST family because of what they perceived as a cultish mindset. More glitter-pop and younger than than other SST bands, Redd Kross were entranced with rock and roll glamor, Saturday morning cartoons and pop music. They appeared in Dave Markey’s films Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and Lovedolls Superstar and other mainstream films, including Grace of My Heart with Matt Dillon. Steve McDonald has played bass for Carole King, Beck, Sparks, White Strips and Tenacious D and his brother Jeff has produced several bands.
A History Lesson Pt 1 provides a look at a creative community of artists unified by a sense of outsider-ness and love of music who defied conventional societal norms and through their unique self-determination opened the floodgates and minds to new musical forms, inspiring not only bands, but artists, writers, and fans to do it–whatever “it” is– themselves.
Lisa Derrick
a discussion follows with Dave Travis, Mike Watt, Kira Roessler, and Dave Jones
you can see it at :
http://firedoglake.com/2010/10/11/fdl-movie-night-a-history-lesson-pt-1/
LAIST
Every Tuesday night during the month of October The Redwood Bar and Grill will be screening Dave Travis' A History Lesson Part 1 along with assorted live bands. If you are unable to make it to any live shows, the DVD will soon be available.
A History Lesson Part 1 is your standard interview-slash-live performance music film. That is about the only thing about this film that is standard. Each performance is uncut, allowing you to get into the groove without any annoying voice-overs or cut-aways.
The film focuses on four popular bands of 1984: the Meat Puppets, the Minutemen, Twisted Roots and Redd Kross. Interviews were conducted by Dave Travis, Dave Markey, and Dave Jones, who are all close friends of the subjects. It allows the interviewees to open up in a way that would be impossible with any other film crew. Their openess offers insight into tours, songwriting, recording, and the cult of SST.
It is amusing to hear Jeff McDonald of Redd Kross describe the Meat Puppets' music as "witchy", Paul Roessler of Twisted Roots comparing the '77 Hollywood scene to the '84 South bay scene, and the Meat Puppet's Curt Kirkwood's pronouncement that "There are punks who haven't been born yet who are way punk."
Perhaps the most fascinating element of the interviews is hearing the bands discuss the other bands. Although they discuss Black Flag™, live footage of the band is noticeably absent. Maybe it is locked away in the Disney™ vault. Anyone familiar with SST™ might assume that the reason behind this obvious omission is a certain person who famously guards Black Flag™ footage. For the sake of us all, Greg™, release the Black Flag™! Let it fly free for the greater good!
The one criticism I hear about History Lesson is the bootleg quality of the music. The thing is, that's often what it really sounded like. Especially at the Cathay, where the sound man would just wander off. That's why SST bands took their own sound guys on tour. And camcorders hadn't even been invented yet. Dave Travis jerry-rigged a home VCR through a battery belt.
It is amazing he got the footage he did, considering he was a high school kid standing in the pit with the rest of us. That's part of what makes this movie special. People say "You had to be there." This film gives you the next best thing. You are able to get the feel of standing with the throng, worshiping at D. Boon's guitar pedals.
When D. Boon, who was incredibly nimble for his size, breaks into one of his trademark dances during "The Big Foist" it is pure magic. At that moment in the film, I realized I don't care that I was constantly in trouble for breaking curfew and missing classes because I was there. And thanks to A History Lesson Part 1 now you can be there too.
Elise Thompson
Dave Travis
interview by Abraham Gibson
Dave Travis started documenting the live punk scene in L.A. at the tender age of 16. Since then he's amassed a video archive of over 1000 hours of live performances covering the years 1984 to 1997. He is considered by some in the scene to be the "Ken Burns of Punk."
He started his career working with underground filmmaker Dave Markey, and assisted him on his films Desperate Teenage Lovedolls, Lovedolls Superstar and 1991:The Year Punk Broke. He also helped to put together MTV's video tribute to Kurt Cobain when he passed away in 1994.
He recently began to digitize his aging videotapes and put together the first of what we hope is many is a series of films. A History Lesson Part One Features interviews and live footage from 1984 of Meat Puppets, Minutemen, Twisted Roots, and Redd Kross.
PSF: Let's talk a little bit about where you grew up, and how you grew up.
DT: OK, I was born in 1967 in Hollywood and my dad was a news cameraman. So, he was filming, during the 1960's - he did three years filming the Vietnam war, and he also filmed the India/Pakistan war, which was a war, one of the wars between India & Pakistan - the one in 1965. Then in the 1970's, he was still working on the news, he filmed stuff like the Wounded Knee uprising in the Dakotas, and then he also started working for National Geographic. Then in the mid seventies, the news switched from shooting on 16mm film to shooting on 3/4 inch video, so he at first he wanted to stay shooting film because that's what he knew, so then he moved to working as a camera operator on TV shows like Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, Love Boat, Hardy Boys and stuff like that. To make the transition, he got a little one tube video camera that he practiced with and as he got good with it, he got a more professional camera and then starting shooting the news on video again in the late seventies and into the eighties, covering the Iran hostage crisis, the turmoil in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and stuff like that. He was working out of the El Salvador bureau of CBS News, and then out of the Mexico City bureau. Once he got the newer and better video camera. he gave me the older one, and that's what I hooked up to a home VHS recorder, and that's what I started shooting bands on.
PSF: So you had some sort of battery pack hooked up?
DT: Yeah, I had a lighting battery pack. It was a belt with a bunch of batteries around it, rechargeable batteries, that was used for running lights for doing the news that had enough power that I could use it to run the VCR & the camera so I put that around me like a belt and put the VCR in a backpack and then ran the camera off that.
PSF: Michael Azerrad mentions in his book -Our Band Could Be Your Life- comparing the L.A. scene to the D.C. scene, that in D.C., a lot of those kids had parents that worked in Government and that gave them their political/activist bent. They were products of their environment. In L.A., a lot of kids had parents involved in the film & in your case, the television industry, and they were also a product of their environment so you saw a lot of people from that scene like Henry Rollins, Chris D., John Doe & Maggie Ehrig from Twisted Roots with film aspirations.
DT: But Rollins was from D.C. though.
PSF: Yeah but once he came to Los Angeles, he embraced it and became a product of Hollywood. So as far as growing up there, do you feel like Hollywood affects everybody in L.A. in a certain way, particularly the musicians?
DT: Well the big industries at that time, you had the film & music industries, and the defense industry, and aerospace were the main industries in L.A., but a lot of people came from the movie/TV/music industry and yeah I think it had an effect. The reason why I was shooting stuff was because my dad was shooting stuff and I had the access to the equipment. The guy who did some of the interviews with me in my film, Dave Jones, his dad was a UCLA professor, so I think that helped influence him in wanting to do research as well. There were a lot of people that had some film or music industry in their family and that was the influence- like the Haden family for example.
PSF: Do you think there were some people that got into music and used it as a stepping stone to get into the film industry?
DT: Not as much, I think they probably wanted to just do music for the sake of doing music, but people starting doing films, like Dave Markey who didn't have any family in the film industry but he was doing the films as kind of an extension of doing the band, something you could just do yourself. But there's always the hope that you can get some kind of job and make money at it later, but it wasn't looked at as much as a career path as just something to do, I think. They do have the background information from having that in their family if they do though.
PSF: What did your dad say about what you'd decided to film?
DT: At first, he was happy for me to be filming anything. I was doing kind of like home movies with my friends first and then starting shooting bands and that had a documentary or news feel. You know, for him, it was the more I practiced, the better I got. So the subject matter wasn't as important, it was just that I was actually shooting to become a better photographer. He was encouraging me, once I started shooting stuff, he got a VHS editing system that both he used and I used, but that was part of his main impetus was to help me learn the editing. He was initially pretty encouraging on it. We did the "Slip It In" video, we edited that at my house, and he was really happy about that. He didn't really have a problem with punk rock that much at that time, he would film stuff with like the moral majority against Ozzy Osbourne, so he'd be filming interviews with Jerry Falwell & interviews with Ozzy Osbourne, so he knew which one was really more scary. Not that Ozzy was super punk but just that, there was a whole anti-punk thing but my parents didn't really buy into that so much.
PSF: I'm sure that being involved with the media, you could probably see through a lot of the tricks
DT: Yeah.
PSF: You've mentioned that your first exposure to live punk. Was catching the bus to an X show after school. What was it that impressed you so much about that show, and about that band?
DT: Just the musical confidence was really amazing. DJ Bonebrake blew me away as a drummer. The whole band was really tight, a super tight band, and before that I'd only seen bands playing parties and stuff, and that wasn't as impressive. X was a really tight band, the music was really good, the energy was really good, it was the first time I really saw people slamming around. Up to that point, I was really into just like, stoner music. Ray Manzarek played keyboards for them on 'Soul Kitchen' at that show too, and the Doors were one of my favorite bands at that time, so that was a really added bonus. The vibe of it too, I wasn't really sure what it was going to be like and then I got in there and I felt at home.
PSF: So you did the Black Flag 'Slip It In' video- How did you get that job?
DT: That was with Chuck Dukowski, Jordan Schwartz, & Dave Markey. Dukowski asked us if we wanted to do a video. Black Flag wanted to do a video. Chuck was one of the people running SST, and Jordan was working there, and they asked Dave & I to work on it. We filmed the exterior. First, we did a little commercial which we filmed in my high school physics class and then we made a video where we filmed the exteriors after school at my high school. The interiors were shot - Greg Ginn & Raymond Pettibon's dad was a professor at Harbor College, in L.A. in the harbor area, so we used his classroom for the interiors. We just kind of winged it and edited it together and then we submitted to MTV for their show 'The Cutting Edge'- that was supposed to be their cutting edge thing but they wouldn't play it there. It ended up getting played on a late night video show that ABC had in L.A.. They also played it in Vancouver and a few other places. The general idea was just winging it and then editing it.
PSF: What are some of your more vivid memories of the shoot?
DT: The scene where they're all running down the stairs, it was just some of my friends. We were all running down there and then the school security came and kicked us all out.
PSF: Can you talk a little about Dave Markey and getting involved with We Got Power films?
DT: He was from Santa Monica, which was like the next little town over, and he was in a band called Sin 34, but then I met him maybe after I'd been taping for about a year. He made a movie that was originally called Desperate Teenage Runaways that became Desperate Teenage Lovedolls. They were doing a benefit show for that movie that Redd Kross was playing, so I went to see that, and met him and started hanging out and working with him, helping him out. You know he'd get enough money just to buy another reel of film or for processing the film and whatever he could afford to shoot, he'd shoot and then we'd have to raise some more money to do more. The next one was Lovedolls Superstar - he was doing that when I was in 12th grade, I helped him out there doing some assistant camera, extra work, & just helping out. I also helped him edit that one too, on my VHS editing system. After that I kept on working with him off and on. I helped him with 1991:The Year Punk Broke, which he shot in Europe on Super 8. By that time, I had a hybrid 3/4 beta cam system so we edited there. I also worked for him doing Shonen Knife takes off, where I was one of the camera operators. After 1991:The Year Punk Broke, I didn't work too much with him. He played in Carnage Asada with me from about 1995-1999 also.
PSF: So all the footage in your film is from May & June of 1984?
DT: All the live footage is, the interviews are from 1995 & 1996. I did some of that with Dave Markey too. They did a Germs tribute album and, some of the interviews were originally shot for the press kit on that. Bill Bartell was the guy behind Gasatanka Records, and he had me & Dave Markey film a bunch of interviews of people relating to the Germs. Gastanka had teamed up with Grass records, the way me & Dave were cutting it it was more about the content, the history of the Germs & why it was important. However, Grass records was more interested in celebrities than they were in information so they told us to send them the original footage and then it just got canned. Brendan Mullen used some of those interviews for his book, and some of it made it's way into History Lesson Part One. The other interviews were for a book that Dave Jones was doing on the history of L.A. punk that he's still working on, but we were doing interviews as far back as like 1994.
PSF: And the Meat Puppets & Redd Kross interviews are more recent?
DT: Yeah, we did the Jeff McDonald & Meat Puppets interview last year. The Meat puppets were doing a bunch of press and they let Dave Markey & I interview them at the same time.. Dave & I had been watching them that whole time, whereas a lot of people that they were giving interviews that day didn't really know their story as well
PSF: As far as the live footage goes, why did you decide to focus on 1984?
DT: When I started to digitize my footage, I started from the oldest first since that was the stuff that was going to deteriorate first and that was the lowest quality so I wanted to work my way up. I had about 30 bands digitized by the time I got to mid 1984 and I thought I should start trying to cut it together to see how to process worked in terms of getting it all cut together. I did the editing in the 21st century non-linear style and all so mainly to see how it worked sometime to try and get things released. So I just started with the earliest stuff I had first as kind of an experiment. One of my concepts, I don't know if I'll do it, is to do a 'History lesson' for each year, 1984 up to 1997 probably. I wanted to do one first just to see how it goes.
PSF: Not all the bands were on SST but they were all involved. Can you talk about the influence and clout that SST had in Los Angeles at that time?
DT: Well, the two bands that were on SST were Minutemen & Meat Puppets, and the two bands that weren't were Twisted Roots & Redd Kross. The Twisted Roots weren't on SST but that lineup of Twisted Roots turned into DC3, who were on SST-Dez Cadena, Paul Roessler, & Kurt Markham on drums. The earlier lineup on Twisted Roots had Kira Roessler of Black Flag, Pat Smear who released two solo records on SST, and Emil who drummed for Black Flag. Kurt Markham also played in Overkill who released a single and an album on SST. Redd Kross wasn't on SST but they were really integrated into the whole South Bay scene. Redd Kross and another band, Nip Drivers were always playing with those bands, and parties and various venues, they just weren't a part of the label. Nip Drivers were on SST sister label New Alliance Records- that was a label that was run by D.Boon & Mike Watt.
PSF: And SST released the Soundtrack records for Markey's Lovedoll films, so SST released some Redd Kross music on the label, just not any official releases.
DT: Redd Kross used to practice at the (Black Flag owned) church, I think. They played their first shows with Black Flag. Their first show was playing someone's junior high graduation party- that was Redd Kross & Black Flag. Redd Kross also played the infamous Polliwog Park show with Black Flag, with was one of the first Black Flag riots where people started throwing stuff at them. Redd Kross was the opening band, so they were always pretty strongly connected.
PSF: So what was it about SST that drew people to the label, why do you think they had so much clout in the city?
DT: I don't think they had that much clout, they just had good bands. L.A. was a big enough city where they had several different punk scenes. A lot of the other scenes were focused more on violence & thuggery. There was another whole big scene Suicidal Tendencies and bands like Circle One. SST was more psychedelic too. They weren't so generic sounding, each band sounded different, and they didn't throw away the influence of the '70's bands that they used to listen to. Whereas some of the other bands tried to convince you that this was the "new music" and we're not listening to the old music. You'd go see Black Flag and they'd be playing ZZ Top over the P.A. before they hit stage. They did have the clout of SST being the label of Black Flag, that did have a serious amount of clout in L.A. in the '80's.
PSF: Joe Carducci, talking about the Meat Puppets has said that they were the only band that everyone at SST could agree on. What appealed to you about the Meat Puppets?
DT: They were really psychedelic. I liked Grateful Dead, I liked CCR, and bands like that, and they were like an acid eaters punk band, I guess. That was what was appealing. It was kind of outside music. Black Flag was pretty psychedelic too in their own way, but more like a Black Sabbath meets the Doors. Whereas the Meat Puppets was more like Grateful Dead meets Captain Beefheart, or something.
PSF: Do you think they were held to a different standard because they were from out of town?
DT: Not really, not to me and the people I hung out with. There were always bands coming from out of town and either you loved them or you hated them. D.O.A. was from out of town, or Bad Brains. The different standard was that more people would come out to see a band from out of town, because the chance to see them didn't come up as often. Meat Puppets played more often than a lot of out of town bands since they lived so close to L.A. in Phoenix. If Bad Brains or someone came to town you'd go because you didn't know when they'd be back. Meat Puppets & Husker Du were the early SST bands from out of town. Meat Puppets were a lot more related to the L.A. scene because they played a lot more often.
PSF: Minutemen are also featured in the film and the film takes its name from one of their songs. Can you talk about how important they were to the L.A. scene and what made them different from Black Flag?
DT: I think they were super important to the L.A. scene. They weren't as big as Black Flag but for the people that saw them, I mean just talking to the people that have seen my movie, a lot of them had a really emotional reaction watching D. Boon again. Minutemen were really down to earth people- they were easy to talk to, they weren't trying to be different than you. The music was really intense, you know the power trio. They were a band that was constantly playing. They'd be playing gigs almost every week anywhere they could. D. Boon had a spiritual quality to him, almost like a Bob Marley type aura around him. They were a really intense band to watch live, certain people really got into it, and for other people, it just passed them by.
PSF: People talk about how things really changed in the SST/L.A. scene when D. Boon died.
DT: Yeah, that really did change things. He wasn't the main guy behind SST, that was Greg & Chuck and people like that but he had this presence and once that presence was gone, it did change things. The punk scene as it grew drew more and more violent people, not really the SST scene but the some of the other bands who played the same venues. So if you went to a bigger show, there was a greater chance of there being a violent incident, and bully type people, that got kind of irritating. Part of the SST thing that was good is that they kept it going at smaller venues like the Anti Club where you could see the SST bands without having to deal with that kind of bullshit.
PSF: Twisted Roots are another band that appears in the film, and they're probably the least known of all the bands that you feature in A History Lesson Part One.
DT: Yeah, there WAS a period of time after Dez left Black Flag before he started DC3. He didn't start of DC3 right away, after he left Black Flag. He was actually playing in Redd Kross. Redd Kross early on had Dez playing guitar. I think Ron Reyes might have been in Redd Kross at one time. After playing guitar in Redd Kross, he was briefly in Twisted Roots and that kind of became the DC3, and the original bass player of DC3 was Kira but she got plucked up by Black Flag so they got Ceasar Viscarra, who used to play in the Stains.
PSF: Do you think Twisted Roots would have been more popular and had more success if that had their records released by SST?
DT: Yeah, but you know, when they first came out they were pretty popular, like Paul says in the movie, it was a combination of the Screamers & The Germs and people expected big things from them. That was 1981. As time went on, the Screamers especially became really obscure because they didn't have any records out. The Germs had the GI record out on Slash. People like me that were too young to see the Germs, but almost everybody had that record and knew them because of it. It was a legendary band that everyone knew about, and then Slash eventually got swallowed up by Warner Brothers, and everyone REALLY had that record. Whereas Twisted Roots was on Irridesence Records, so there wasn't that much promotion or distribution I don't think. Those SST bands toured a lot, I don't think Twisted Roots really played that much outside of L.A., except for maybe like San Francisco or something..
PSF: So would you consider Twisted Roots to be one of the great, lost L.A. bands?
DT: I don't know, it was just interesting to document. There's so many bands that people remember but got lost for one reason or another whether they didn't record much, or the records didn't sell, or they didn't tour very much. It was an interesting band and it was a band from that time that was forgotten, that should be remembered. I don't really think they made as big an impact on the scene as Minutemen. Paul & Dez both, what they did before & after Twisted Roots had a big impact, and was really important
PSF: The last band featured in the movie was Redd Kross, and these guys were friends of yours that you toured with 1985 & 1987. They had involvement with the label but were never on it. In the film, Jeff McDonald says that SST was a cult. Would you agree with that? What do you think he meant by that?
DT: At the time, a lot of people working there, were living there too. So it was their whole life. So there was a strong core of SST people. Redd Kross didn't want to be a part of that. Besides, playing with the punk bands, Redd Kross was also playing gigs with bands like Poison. Redd Kross were trying more to "make it" as a successful rock star band. Although, they weren't really changing their sound or anything- they were evolving but they weren't really selling out of anything, they wanted to be like Kiss or Alice Cooper. A lot of the SST bands didn't really have rock star fantasies- they knew they were playing a sort of obscure music, that only a small amount of people were going to listen to. Success would be great for them, but if it didn't happen, oh well. Redd Kross wanted to appeal to a larger audience.
PSF: They had a sort of glamorous rock star image but it seemed to be mostly tongue in cheek.
DT: It was, but Kiss was tongue in cheek too. Most of the SST bands didn't care about fashion or pay attention to what they were wearing. Redd Kross certainly did care about what they were wearing.
PSF: The footage of Redd Kross also features the one time appearance of future Bangle (and Jeff McDonald's girlfriend at the time) Vicki Peterson.
DT: That what Jeff says in the interview, is that they didn't even really jam together when they were going out, that was the one show they did after Dez left and before they brought in Robert Hecker. For just playing one show, you can't tell by the footage that she hadn't been playing with them. It's amazing that they're so tight being as it's a one off for her. They probably didn't rehearse all that much with Vicki before they played that show.
PSF: Originally you intended to include several other bands, and you couldn't get the rights cleared. What exactly were their objections to appearing in the film?
DT: The ones that objected at all, either they didn't want to be in documentaries, or one of the members got upset by what another member said in an interview got all mad and didn't want to participate. A lot of it though, was various members of bands refusing to communicate, so I don't even know why they didn't want to do it. I couldn't wait forever, I was trying to clear the bands for eight months and after that point, I couldn't really wait any longer. I got the Hollywood veto, where they won't say no but they won't say anything.
PSF: So was that the case with Black Flag & October Faction? Did Ginn respond at all?
DT: I went and talked to him when he played in Long Beach recently, and he was friendly and seemed like he might do it and said to send him the DVD. I sent him the DVD and kept on emailing him and never got any response. I would have liked to include Black Flag, but I don't know how to get through to him. The other people would at least say no - like Mike Muir & Paul Cutler- and I'd say OK and just move on, and I wouldn't have to keep on worrying about it. The Flag segment ran about a half hour and was actually the best part of the film. It mainly dealt with the Kira phase of Black Flag. If I can't get it cleared I can't get it released.
PSF: So you've had a residency at the Redwood Bar in L.A., featuring live bands and screenings of the film each night as well. Wow's that been going?
DT: It's been going really well. Last night, I thought it was going to cave since it was raining really hard but a lot of people showed up. It's a good combination- the movie with the bands. Originally, I tried to show it in the theaters but there was a hesitancy to have live bands in the theaters. Approaching the clubs was no problem, since I'd played with Carnage Asada there, there's usually no hesitance about including the movie. They leave me to be responsible for the technical end of things. They want people drinking because that's how they're making their money and they're having bands anyway. The Redwood already had a screen hooked up to show basketball games and other sporting events. So far, the residency has been going really good, the bands are really good and it's a nice vibe combining the two, kind of like a little vaudeville thing. It's continuous entertainment from 8PM to 2AM. Each night of the residency has a special event too, like the Probe's CD release, or Sylvia Juncosa's birthday party. We've had a lot of SST related bands involved like Dos, Sylvia Juncosa, Saccharine Trust, & Fatso Jetson.
PSF: What sort of lasting influence do you see L.A. punk having today?
DT: It inspired a lot bands all around the world. It's something you have to listen for like tracing blues roots, or seeing the influence Chess Records had on the Stones.
“A great endeavor” - Kira Roessler - Black Flag
“Best D Boon footage I have seen” - Jack Brewer - Saccharine Trust
“The Ken Burns of Punk - Chris Gonzalez - Artichoke
To set up a screening contact:
Press Contact: To set up interviews, request promo copies, discuss promotional opportunities, or for more info...
CONTACT: Clint Weiler
MVD Entertainment Group
p: 800-888-0486 x115
For sales to retailers - see our distributor
MVD
http://mvdb2b.com/s/HistoryLessonPart1PunkRockInLosAngelesIn1984/H1001
To purchase individual copies
go to retailers such as Amoeba (Los Angeles,San Francisco, Berkeley) Dimples (Sacramento), Zia (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson), Newberry Comics (Boston), Fingerprints (Long Beach), Headline Records (Los Angeles)Angelo’s (Denver), Moonlight Graham (Orange, CA), Exclusive Company (Oshkosh, WI), Gallery of Sound (Scranton, PA) or ask your local record/video store.
or check out these online sources
See of Sound
http://www.seeofsound.com/p.php?s=H1001
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For General Information contact
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Wednesday 3/9/2011
Ninth Street Independent Film Center
Magic Bus Movie Night
145 9th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
7PM Bake Sale and Beer
8PM A History Lesson Part 1 Screening
9PM Q&A w/ Director Dave Travis
All Ages, $5 (Benefits save KUSF)
Benefit screening to help raise funds and awareness to help save KUSF. KUSF is a community radio station at the University of San Francisco. It has been sold to Classical Public Radio/KUSC in a dubious deal that involves swapping frequencies so that Clear Channel station KUFX in San Jose can be simulcast in San Francisco. . The people of the San Francisco bay area don’t want this change. So they are fighting to SAVE KUSF.
http://magicbusmovienight.blogspot.com/
Saturday 2/26/2011
SUNKEN CITY WAREHOUSE
447 W. 6th Street
(Enter through 7th St. Alley)
San Pedro, CA 90731
$5, All Ages
END FWY Presents
A HISTORY LESSON PART 1 ... 8pm
CARNAGE ASADA ... 9:30pm
MIKE WATT + THE SECONDMEN ...10:20pm
HOT NEW MEXICANS ... 11:30pm
TOYS THAT KILL ... 12:15am
http://www.waterunderthebridgerecords.com
http://sunkencityskateshop.com/
Sunday 2/20/2011
Indio Performing Arts Center
45-175 Fargo Street
Indio, California
All Ages, $10
Music and Film Festival
2 Movies in the Theatre
A History Lesson Part 1
Test Site
8 Bands on 2 Stages
WAXY
HALF ASTRO
TRIBE-O
Auto Modown
ONE 11
ELECTRIC CHILDREN
LOS MUMBLERZ
PENNEY UNNIVERSITY
http://www.indioperformingartscenter.org/shows/
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Lincoln Hall
2424 N Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago rockers Nathaniel Braddock, Paul Kelvington and Colby Starck have combined forces to bring you Econoline - a loving remembrance of the best punk/rock/jazz/funk band EVER, San Pedro's Minutemen!
Join Econoline as they present the entire Double Nickels on the Dime album LIVE with a cast of guest vocalists, including:
Nels Cline * Bobby Conn * Jim Cooper * Trevor & Lisa deBrauw * Matt Focht * Josh Fox * Rebecca Flores * Kevin J. Frank * Tim Kinsella * Damon Locks * Miss Mia & Ratso * Jeanine O'Toole * Mike Renaud * Jay Ryan * Stephen Sowley * Azita Youseffi
PLUS a performance by Girls Rock! Chicago alum Ruadhan Ward and screening of History Lesson, pt. 1. by acclaimed Los Angeles filmmaker and punk historian Dave Travis!
ALL AGES / $12 advance / $5 under 18
All proceeds benefit Girls Rock! Chicago summer camps and programs. Girls Rock! Chicago is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to fostering girls’ creative expression, positive self-esteem and community awareness through rock music. Through our music education programs for girls ages 8-16, we are committed to educating girls about the musical, technical, and creative aspects involved in musicianship, because we believe that young girls are rarely encouraged to explore self-expressive creative outlets and are less likely to be given access to musical and technical instruction or equipment. We believe that rock music can be a crucial tool in allowing young women to respond to preconceived notions of what they can do and what they can become.
For more information about Girls Rock! Chicago: www.girlsrockchicago.org
http://www.lincolnhallchicago.com/Shows/02-20-2011+Double+Nickels+on+the+Dime
Saturday 2/5/2011
The Old Princeton Landing
460 Capistrano Road
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
http://theoldprincetonlanding.com/
with Carnage Asada
Saturday January 21
Sparkplug Magazine Night #3
SPARKPLUG MAGAZINE continues the fun with NIght #3 at Juanita's, the EAST LA INVASION!!
2676 Pasadena Avenue, Lincoln Heights, CA 90031
Saturday, JANuary 21st - 8pm
$6
A HISTORY LESSON at 8pm, then....
perfomances by:
9pm - SOMOS MYSTERIOSOS
9:45 - STANDARD AND POOR
10:30 - LA BESTIA
11:15 - MILLION KIDS
12 - OUR BAND SUCKS
It's also the CD release party for LA BESTIA!!
This is at the new Juanita's Location in Lincoln Heights. Great place with cheap beers, and food all night!!
http://www.sparkplugmagazine.com
Thursday 1/13/2011
Healthy Homes Collaborative
2601 Pasadena Avenue Suite G
Lincoln Heights, California 90031
www.healthyhomescollaborative.org
All Ages
Free event to bring attention to Healthy Homes Collaborative and their struggle to eliminate health threats such as lead from homes and the community.
5 PM Social Hour honoring HHC executive director Linda Kite on her birthday.
6 PM Screening A History Lesson Part 1
2011 Screenings
Canadian Premiere!
La Centre Psychotronique de Montreal
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Blue Sunshine Film Center
3660 Boul. St-Laurent 3rd floor.
Montreal, Quebec H2X QV4
7:45 Doors
8:00 Screening
18 and over.
Orange County Premiere
Saturday, April 30, 2011 Moonlight Graham
401 W. Chapman Ave.
Orange, CA 92866
714-639-0084
http://www.moonlightgraham.net
All Ages! Free!
7PM: Screening
8PM: Gary Jacoby’s Modern Puppetry
8:30 TWISTED ROOTS
First time in decades!!
Maggie Ehrig - Vocals
Paul Roessler (Screamers, DC3,Deadbeats) - Keyboard
Pat Smear (Germs, Nirvana, Foo Fighters) - Guitar
Kira Roessler (Black Flag, Dos) - Bass
Gary Jacoby (Celebrity Skin) - Drums
They will perform a 4 song mini set.
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT!!
SPARKPLUG MAGAZINE HAPPY HOUR #1
july 16th saturday
4-10pm
FREE ENTRY!!!!
4:30 - A HISTORY LESSON
6:00 - SPERO
7:00 - BLACK BEVERLY HEELS
8:00 - MILLION KIDS
9:00 - BRAINSPOON
$3 any beer till 8pm
$1 tacos,
Silverlake Lounge
(323) 663-9636
2906 Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
21 and over
The Basilica
Hudson, New York
Wednesday July 6
East Coast Premiere!
w/ Dez Cadena’s Broke Down Bitches
110 Front Street Hudson NY 12534
518.822.1050 http://basilicahudson.com/
All ages
New York City Premiere
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Screening at 9PM
Duff’s Brooklyn
168 Marcy Ave
Williamsburg ,Brooklyn, NY 11211
duffsbrooklyn.com
free, 21 and over
Sunday July 10
Brighton Bar
121 Brighton Ave
Long Branch, New Jersey 07740
18 and over, $7
8 PM A History Lesson
9:30 Senium
10;30 Dez Cadena’s Broke Down Bitches
Buy it online at
Buy it In Stores at
Amoeba (Los Angeles,San Francisco, Berkeley) Dimples (Sacramento), Zia (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson), Newberry Comics (Boston), Fingerprints (Long Beach), Headline Records (Los Angeles)Angelo’s (Denver), Moonlight Graham (Orange, CA), Exclusive Company (Oshkosh, WI), Gallery of Sound (Scranton, PA) or ask your local record/video store.
For sales to retailers
see our distributor MVD
To set up a screening contact:
Press Contact: To set up interviews, request promo copies, discuss promotional opportunities, or for more info...
CONTACT: Clint Weiler
MVD Entertainment Group
p: 800-888-0486 x115
For General Information contact
For Video Services contact
To sign up for our mailing list:
A History Lesson Part 1 IMDB Page
A History Lesson facebook page
Check out the latest Los Angeles Punk Rock Video Project from Dave Travis UHF.TV featuring videos from the Los Angeles Punk scene from the 1980s to the 2010s at WWW.UHF.TV
