Dave Travis Biography

I was born in Hollywood in 1967 and spent my early years there.  I went to second grade with the daughters of Frank Zappa and Richard Pryor.  I played little league with the sons of Harrison Ford and Rick Nelson.  My dad was a cameraman who worked for NBC and CBS news as well as TV shows such as Chips and Fantasy Island. 

In 1980 my family moved to Pacific Palisades.  I was ostracized and alienated because I was a “Val” because I had moved from Hollywood.  Some early friends I met were Dave Jones and George Murillo.  On my first day of High School in 1982 I took the bus after school to the Whiskey were I saw X.  I had heard punk rock before but had never seen it.  That day chang

ed my life.  I started video taping punk bands in 1983 and now have an archive of over one thousand hours of footage.  I started playing in Permanent Trails with Dave Jones in 1984.  We played parties and the Cathay De Grande dollar punk Tuesdays. I did my first generator party at Skull Rock in the Santa Monica Mountains in 1984.  We did three more Skull Rock Festivals and then after that became a bust, I did generator jams at the ruins of the Nike Missile Silo on dirt Mulholland, and behind Neptune’s Net at the L.A./Ventura County line.  I met Mario Lalli and started to do generator shows with him in the Coachella and Yucca Valleys of the Low Desert.  Some bands that played the early generator shows were Black Flag, The Descendents, MDC, Lawndale, Across the River, Equidemius, DC3, Bulimia Banquet, and SWA.  I went on my first U.S. tour with Killroy in the summer of 1984.   In 1985 I shot the video Slip it in for Black Flag witch although rejected by MTV, was played on late night TV across the U.S. and Canada.

After I graduated High School in 1985 I went on the road with Redd Kross.  I then started going to USC where I studied Geography and Sound.  I also started doing sound and video engineering for my dad.  I started out on product videos and by the late 80’s was working with him for CBS doing shows such as the CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours. 

I met Dave Markey in 1984 and started working with him in 1985 and worked with his We Got Power Films until the mid 1990’s editing movies for him such as Lovedolls Superstar, 1991 The Year Punk Broke, which featured Nirvana and Sonic Youth; and the Kurt Cobain tribute for the MTV Music Awards.  I also worked for him as a Camera Operator on projects for Shonen Knife and Thurston Moore; and as an Assistant Director for the Muffs video “Lucky Guy”. 

In 1987 I video taped the experimental jazz band Halfway to Cleveland and met their leader Doc Williams.  Doc was a Korean War Vet and old time Venice Beatnik.  I started playing bass and guitar with Halfway to Cleveland in 1988 and played with them until Doc passed away in 1994.  Halfway To Cleveland recorded the album Movies for the Blind at Radio Tokyo in Venice and played numerous art galleries as well as the Venice Boardwalk, USC, and Al’s Bar.  It was through Halfway to Cleveland that I started to play Cello.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s I did a lot of work for Rick Van Santen for Celebrity Skin and Goldenvoice.  I took Celebrity Skin on their final U.S. tour in 1991 doing support for L.A. Guns and one show with Body Count.  Rick talked me into doing my final desert show in 1991 the Splattering of Tribes in Box Canyon near Mecca.

Jon Vogel and I produced two spoken word albums in the early 1990’s – Jack Brewer’s Rhythm or Suicide; and Cause a compilation of artists such as Pleasant Gehman, Debbie Patino, Exene Cervenka, and Rosie Flores.

In the mid 1990’s I worked as a video director, and video and sound editor for Van Duyne Engineering.  We worked on educational CD ROM’s like Jump Start Pre-School, Jump Start Kindergarten, Typing Tutor, and Perfect Resume. 

In 1993 I started Carnage Asada with Dave Jones, Pat Palma, George Murillo, and Jessie Engle.  Pat and Jessie left and Carnage Continued with Steve Reed, Dave Markey, Dez Cadena, and Dave Green.  Carnage played around one hundred shows around Los Angeles, Riverside, Kern and Orange Counties between 1993 and 2000.  Carnage reformed for a few shows and a recording as George Murillo’s Axis of Evil in 2003 and 2004.  Carnage Asada is now back and will start doing shows in the summer of 2008.

After the 1994 Northridge Earthquake damaged our garage in Hollywood, my sister Abby and I rebuilt it as a recording studio called Tarantula Ranch.  I recorded many bands there between 1994 and 1999 including Carnage Asada, Rodney and the Tube tops, Jack Brewer, the Questions, Ceramic Holiday, the Sort of Quartet, Abby Travis, the Punk Rock Vatos, Tapeworm, Beaver trap, and Hovercraft.

My final generator shows were producing the “Hollywood Stage” for the L.A. Marathon in 1994 and 1995; and with English Frank and Bill from Hully Gully at the Gower Devastation on the ruins of an apartment building in Hollywood that was destroyed by the 94 earthquake.

I joined WACO in 1997 and played Cello for them until 2003.  I recorded with them for a couple of CD’s and toured with them.  The highlight was the performance of “The Selfish Giant” a ballet that featured giant puppets.  Steve Gregoropoulos is a great-unrecognized composer and I learned so much playing for him.

In 1999 I got married and my daughter was born.  I went back to school at Cal. State L.A. and got a teaching credential for Social Studies.  In 2001 my son was born.

I taught United States History and World History at John Adams Middle School in South Central L.A. from 2001 until 2005.  It was quite a learning experience and I met a lot of interesting kids.

In 2005 a new high school opened up in South Central, which was later to be called Santee Learning Complex.  I transferred there the week before the school opened and taught there for the first two years of its existence.  In those two years I taught World History, United States History, Economics, United States Government, and Life Skills.  I also worked on the sound and lighting in the auditorium working with dignitaries such as Xavier Becerra, Fabian Nuñez, and Roy Romer and bands like Quetzal and Violencia Domestica as well as school performances. 

In 2007, I put together a non-linear editing studio and I have begun digitizing my video archive.  I also do video restoration, DVD Authoring, Video Editing, and Camera work. 

In 2008 I started editing a documentary “A History Lesson” which teaches about the Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Redd Kross, and Twisted Roots, in music and words. 

Also in 2008 Carnage Asada reformed and has been playing around the L.A. area with bands that have inspired us such as Mike Watt, Saccharine Trust, Fatso Jetson, Ollin, and the Gears. Carnage's 2008 highlight was playing two sets at the Jawbone Canyon Festival in the Mojave Desert.  In 2009 I started promoting shows in Highland Park as Club Carnage.

The video “A History Lesson” was completed at the end of 2009 and in 2010 is entering the marketing and distribution phase.

On September 25, 2010 A History Lesson Part 1 premiered at the Blue Star in Downtown Los Angeles.  It then enjoyed a monthlong residency at the Redwood also in Downtown Los Angeles, followed by a screening in Torrance, and its’ Japanese premiere at the We Jam Econo Festival.

You can read an interview of Dave Travis   in Pefect Sound Forever .

A History Lesson part 1: Punk Rock in Los Angeles in 1984 was picked up for distribution by Music Video Distributors.  It was released on DVD and is on sale in stores and online everywhere.  A History Lesson also expanded its screenings to Northern California, the Midwest, the East Coast, and Canada. 

In 2012 Dave Travis launches UHF.TV a punkrock video fanzine/channel. 

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