Punkast

Join Jessica Schwartz in conversation with Pleasant Gehman and Theresa Kereakes, as they discuss their pivotal roles in the early LA punk scene and the importance of recognizing the LGBTQIA+ foundations of punk subculture and communicating such significance across generations. Known for their influential first-wave punk zine, Lobotomy, they have found continued success in a variety of endeavors --from podcasting to photography to writing books and reading tarot to playing music to hosting War Stories, which gives a space for other notable early LA punks to share their stories. Artist Bios: SEE Punkast Website! __________________________ Song clips and audio samples Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack - 'Sweet Transvestite' Black Randy & the Metrosquad - 'Trouble at the Cup' Siouxsie and the Banshees - 'Happy House'Summer of Sam - 'Hello From the Gutters'The Mumps - 'That Fatal Charm'Websites and Social Media Pleasant Gehman:http://princessfarhana.net/www.princessfarhana.comwww.pleasantgehman.comwww.thedivinationnation.comwww.facebook.com/pleasant.gehmanwww.facebook.com/princess.farhanawww.twitter.com/PrincessFarhanawww.twitter.com/PleasantGehman1www.instagram.com/princessofhollywoodTheresa Kereakes:Instagram. @punkturns30Web: punkturns30.comAnd a brief history of Lobotomy http://lobotomy-magazine.blogspot.com/An audio-synced transcript of this episode can be found on the Punkast website.__________________________This episode was produced and hosted by Jessica Schwartz. Bella Gerard edited the audio and transcript. Questions were furnished by a live audience of UCLA undergraduates in the Fall 2023 MSC IND 13 course.

Join Jessica Schwartz in conversation with Gary Leonard, acclaimed photographer of LA punk history and LA history more broadly as they discuss everything from being there to capture the nascent scene....and becoming part of LA punk history in the process...to having your work front and center in the Las Vegas Punk Rock Museum (among other notable locales and media). Artist Bio: Gary Leonard has spent the better part of the last 63 years photographing Los Angeles. His work has been featured in countless books, magazines, newspapers, and exhibitions. Published books of his photography include Make the Music Go Bang; Symphony in Steel: Walt Disney Concert Hall Goes Up; and Take My Picture Gary Leonard.Song clips and audio samples ‘Midnight’ - Venus and the Razorblades‘Red Eye #9’ - The Plugz‘Obviously Five Believers’ - Top Jimmy and the Rhythm PigsWebsites and Social Media Gary Leonard's website: https://takemypicture.com/IG: tmpgaryleonardThis episode was produced and hosted by Jessica Schwartz. Bella Gerard edited the audio and transcript*.  Questions were furnished by a live audience of UCLA undergraduates in the Spring 2023 MUSCLG 13 course. *Time-synced audio-transcript is available on the Punkast website episode page.

Join co-hosts Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird as they talk with Stephen Hill of Atomik Kangaroo about his longstanding involvement with punk, indigeneity, inclusivity, and his conceptual, performance-based practices around speaking your mind and improvisation.  Artist Bio: BIO: AtomiK:kangaroo“What is Atomik:kangaroo?”“Atomik:kangaroo found on recordings is finally here.”Has been actively performing and recording music since 2004. Its founder Stephen Hill has been involved in the PUNK ROCK scene since 1983. and performing in punk bands of one form or another until the creation of atomik:kangaroo, which has been his main focus to current date.Atomic Kangaroo in live performance art has gone at the stage for the last 19 years for the most part without a Setlist. 99.9% of the shows are completely improvised. In the moment pieces of performance art ;that are moving at a high generated level of playing, but with the ethics of punk rock. In attitude towards the performance stage that neither the Art nor the persons spectating are not separate in the moment when the music and performance are occurring. A platform for current event protest. A platform to show utter freedom in music. Keys or structure aren’t even discussed amongst the musicians. Most of the time the audience is completely unaware, that what they have seen is improvised ….This is giving away huge differentiation about what Atomik:Kangaroo is in comparison to bands that rely on this other concept of music entirely. However, at the same time the total construction of a set can happen within days, and then go be performed with the complexity of music ranging from Miles Davis to the Dead Kennedys. We are still asking ourselves that question who operate within the band itself “What is Atomik:kangaroo?”“Atomik:kangaroo found in performance is finally here!”__________________________Song clips and audio samples ‘Song for Lucy’ - BeefeaterLive Show at Old Town Pub, Pasadena - The Engine Room/Atomik Kangaroo‘There’s a Fire on the 13th Floor’ - Atomik KangarooWebsites and Social Media Atomik Kangaroo website: atomikkangaroo.comIG: atomik_kangarooAudio synced transcript available on the Punkast website: https://www.thepunkast.com/episodes/s2-e13-stephen-hill__________________________This episode was co-produced and co-hosted by Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird. The audio and transcript were edited by Bella Gerard.  Questions were furnished by a live audience of UCLA undergraduates in the Spring 2023 MUSCLG 13 course.

Join co-hosts Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird as they talk with singer/songwriter Gitane Demone of the seminal deathrock band, Christian Death, to explore her wide-ranging repertoire and many issues, such as poverty, (international) touring, pregnancy, and motherhood in a deathrock band; jazz, minimalism, electronic music, experimental music, solo work, "inventing" Cabaret Noir with Rozz Williams, and collaborating with 'punk heroes' Rikk Agnew and Paul Roessler in the Gitane Demone Quartet. Artist Bio: Gitane began recording and performing in 1980, first emerging on the LA punk/new wave scene with band Pompeii 99 (80-83, lp Look At Yourself, 7”s Ignorance Is The Control, The Nothing Song), before moving into seminal deathrock band Christian Death as the keyboard player, backing vocalist (83-89) for which she is well-known by the goth and punk community, touring and recording a cache of lps and 12” singles. Living in London, UK, she also gave birth to a boy in 1984, and a girl in 1987. She left the band in 89, moved to Amsterdam, Holland, and began her solo work, collaborations with other artists, and delving into free jazz, writing, recording, and touring under her own name. She produced studio, live, and collaborative LPs and singles, until 96, returning to Los Angeles. There she continued her solo work, guesting as lyrical writer and vocalist on various recording projects, putting bands together for shows, and touring across the US and Europe.Gitane began writing on guitar, producing the band Crystelles (Attach and Detach lp 2008). In 2013 she formed Gitane Demone Quartet with punk illuminated Rikk Agnew, Paul Roessler, and with Deb Venom (Past The Sun, Substrata Strip lps), a band with an art punk avant-garde approach. Taking a hiatus with the band due to Covid, she collaborated on recording projects: Despair- an untraditional opera, and a symphonic conceptual album The New Young Kings Of Midnight with Paul Roessler, which will both be released in 2023. She is a visual artist showing occasionally in galleries and has released two prose poetry books, The Blood and Vexata Quaestio.__________________________ Song clips and audio samples ‘Love Me For My Mind’ - Pompeii 99‘Awake at the Wall’ - Christian Death‘Flowers’ - Rozz Williams and Gitane Demone‘Ring of Fire’ - Bad HabitsGitane Demone's Websites and Social Media Bandcamp: https://gitanedemone.bandcamp.com/Website: http://gitanedemone.net/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gitanegdq/__________________________This episode was co-produced and co-hosted by Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird. The audio and transcript were edited by Bella Gerard.  __________________________The audio-synced transcript of this episode is available on the Punkast website: https://www.thepunkast.com/episodes/s2-e12-gitane-demone

In this episode, Jessica Schwartz and co-host Dr. Runchao Liu (S2 E9) speak with Steven Kochones, the director of KCET's Artbound: Chinatown Punk Wars about his critical choices in portraying a crucial, yet relatively short, period of time in LA's punk history (and punk history more broadly). He also offers insight into sound design, musical placement, and editorial decisions that make the film a challenge to other histories of LA punk and demand that we contend with the taken-for-granted framings of the people and places that comprise its foundations.STEVEN KOCHONESDIRECTOR & PRODUCER BIOSteven Kochones is an award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He has directed and produced 20 documentaries including Country: Portraits of an American Sound, released on Netflix and other premium outlets, and Who Shot Rock & Roll, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Four of his films have been broadcast on the Emmy® winning KCET series Artbound, including Water: Our Thirsty World, made in cooperation with National Geographic. Kochones’ series of special venue films, commissioned by the Annenberg Space for Photography, include The War Photographers, which recounts the stories of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalists, and Frans Lanting: The Evolution of LIFE, which visualizes the evolution of life on Earth through the lens of the nature photographer. Kochones directed America’s Library, which explores historic milestones in the vaults of the Library of Congress and features never-before-seen treasures unearthed from its vast holdings. The filmmaker recently completed Chinatown Punk Wars, a documentary that tells the unlikely tale of two Chinese restaurants that became the epicenter of punk rock in late 1970s Los Angeles.Kochones’ films comprise a broad range of subjects including music, arts and culture, climate change, and history. His films have been screened at over 75 film festivals, winning 14 awards. In 2018, he was selected as a filmmaker envoy for the American Film Showcase, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America and founder of Arclight Productions, a creative studio producing non-fiction work and branded content. Steven's Websites and Social Media IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1729138/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skochonesX (Twitter): https://twitter.com/stevenkochonesArclight Productions Website: arclightprods.comChinatown Punk Wars: https://www.pbs.org/video/chinatown-punk-wars-xhb3rm/Chinatown Punk Wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKa3g_I78wYAudio-synced transcript available on the Punkast website: https://www.thepunkast.com/episodes/s2-e11-steven-kochonesThis episode was produced and hosted by Jessica Schwartz and was co-hosted by Runchao Liu. The audio and transcript were edited by Bella Gerard.  

Welcome to the first episode of a Punkast mini-series: "Free and Appropriate Education?: DIY Punks' Take on Disabilities Education Legislation." This past Monday, October 30th, 2023 marks the 33rd anniversary of the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act." Coincidentally, UCLA's Disability studies major was just announced, making it the first of UC and Cal states to offer such a program. So, in critical punk fashion, I want to interrogate the system in which I am implicated in order to understand where we've been and where we can go on the subject of punk, disability, and education.This Punkast mini-series will delve into conversations about specific disability legislation concerning education and punk's historical time frame, namely. The episodes will delve into the impact of public education-based disability legislation on the beginnings, growth, and developments in punk subculture. We'll be getting into historical aspects of past legislation and historically prominent actions that are relatively contemporaneous with DIY and commercial punk generational shifts. For example, the "Education for All Handicapped Children Act", the EHA, was signed into law in 1975, when punk subculture was in its nascency. Both this law and punk came about during the post-conformity age in the US that followed the long 1960s. In just two years later, in 1977, punk exploded....In 1990, the legislation was reauthorized as the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act," or IDEA, which promised to, quote, guarantee a free and appropriate education to all school-aged children, end quote. Just two years later, in 1992, the documentary "1991 The Year Punk Broke" was released, and just two years after that, Spin Magazine famously pictured Green Day on the cover with the caption "1994, the Year Punk Broke." The time period around the pivotal moment of the IDEA reauthorization (late 1980s and early 1990s) sees punk subculture as changing again in significant ways. But, how do these changes align with disability legislation and punks' experiences at school? I want to hear from YOU, so, please DM me on my IG or email me to share your ideas and/or story about punk, disability, and education. And, as, always, thanks for listening! ContactIG: punkastucla Email: punkastucla@gmail.comFeatured Songs Dead Kennedys, “Hyperactive Child”The Clash, “1977”Green Day, “Basket Case”The Alice Bag Band, “Survive”About This episode has been produced and hosted by Jessica Schwartz with research and editorial assistance from Daisy Stephens. Transcripts are available on the Punkast website and (we're working to get them) on Spotify.

In this special episode, Jessica Schwartz along with guest co-hosts, UCLA Librarians + Archivists Kelly Besser and Courtney Dean sit down to facilitate an intergenerational conversation among predominantly local (LA-based) punks–Tequila Mockingbird, FUPU (Fuck U Pay Us; Jasmine, Tianna, Urhuru), and mirrored fatality (mango + samar). Featured Songs mirrored fatality - “Utopia”Fuck U Pay Us - “Don't Touch My Hair”Tequila Mockingbird and The Blonde Moondust - “Disco Ranchero”mirrored fatality - “Invalidation”Fuck U Pay Us - “Spiritual Warfare”For further information on our featured guests, check out the following:Tequila Mockingbirdhttps://tequilatattoo.wixsite.com/lapunkmuseumFuck U Pay UsOur website - https://www.fuckupayus.com/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fuckupayus/?hl=enOur Go Fund Me - https://gofund.me/9376b97aGo Fund Me for Uhuru's Nephew - https://gofund.me/ecfcb8c3✧༺mirrored fatality ༓☾༄https://mirroredfatality.com/instagrambandcampfacebookyoutubeThis episode was hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz and features co-hosts Kelly Besser and Courtney Dean. It was edited by Erika Pesca.It was made, in part, with assistance from the HASoM Dean’s Opportunity Fund.

In this episode, Jessica Schwartz talks with Dr. Runchao Liu about the LA Chinatown Punk Scene, sensationalist media interventions, and the often blurry line between appreciation and appropriation. We also discuss questions about her work on "badness" with respect to punks and Asians, countering the problematic stereotype of the model minority, and how punk has been part of the violence it often derides, which opens possibilities for divesting from such violence with thoughtful representations, collaborations, and inclusivity. Towards the end of the episode, Dr. Liu shares some of their inspirations and ideas for a more just future. All this and more...Check it out! Here's her/their bio: Dr. Runchao Liu is a media and cultural studies scholar with a research focus on sound-mediated cultural practices for ways they intersect with social justice, cultural identity, and creative activism. Liu’s publications address such topics as the intersectional and transnational cultural politics of aural racialization, Asian American popular music, musical orientalism, ethnic rock music, and critical pedagogies of popular music. Before joining the University of Denver, Liu taught various media theory and production courses at the University of Wyoming and the University of Minnesota and was a postdoctoral academic fellow at the Center for Black, Brown, and Queer Studies and a visiting scholar of the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University. You may find her/their academic writing in Cinéma & Cie: International Film Studies Journal, Critical Asian Studies, M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture and edited collections Critical Race Media Literacy (Routledge), The Cultural Politics of Femvertising (Palgrave Macmillan), Sound Affects (Bloomsbury), and The Handbook of Music and Art (Bloomsbury).Song clips & audio samples Avril Lavigne - ‘Losing Grip’Paramore - ‘That’s What You Get’Blondie - ‘Heart of Glass’Mitski - ‘Why Didn’t You Stop Me?’No Party For Cao Dong - ‘缸’The Linda Lindas - ‘Racist, Sexist Boy’Bands recommended by Dr. Liu:No Party for Cao DongHedgehog social media link: https://twitter.com/runchaoliuAnd, a message from Dr. Liu: If anyone wants to make recommendations to the Asian American rock music archive that I’m creating, I’d love to hear from them. Email: runchao.liu@du.eduImages:Episode art features photos of buildings that once housed Madame Wong's and Hong Kong Café. Photos taken by/courtesy of Runchao Liu. This episode was hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz. It was edited by Bella Gerard. 

In this episode, Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird talk with Mat Gleason of Coagula Art Journal and Al's Bar about 'punk literacy,' critical 'evisceration,' astrology, and managing one of the best-known punk spaces of early LA punk.Here's his bio: Mat Gleason is best known for founding and publishing Coagula Art Journal, a critical slam of the pretensions and personalities of the art world. He published the print edition from 1992 thru 2012. His Gallery, Coagula Curatorial was a leading independent art space in L.A.'s Chinatown 2012-2019. Born in Fullerton in 1964 he was transformed by punk in 1979 and started a public access television show MEDIA BLITZ with his brother Joe and high school friend Gary Tate, who later changed his name to Gary Blitz after his time on the show. Many leading L.A. punk bands would tape at Media Blitz and Flipside Magazine's Al and Hud were regular record reviewers on the show. Mat got sober in 1993 and went on to many successes through his writing and publishing, including film and television appearances. Through it all he maintained a connection to those suburban punk roots in his aesthetic and his commitment to an evolving sense of insisting on delivering his truth, free of any commitment to the illusion of a punk orthodoxy. He lives near Downtown Los Angeles.Song clips & audio samples ‘The Grand Illusion’ - Styx‘God Save the Queen’ - Sex Pistols‘Kids of the Black Hole’ - Adolescents‘Jazz Police’ - Leonard Cohen‘Five Fuckin’ Minutes’ - The Starvin’ Band‘Paper Imitation’ - Popdefectcheck out: https://coagulacuratorial.com/Images:1976: Mat and his brother Joe Gleason, Christmas Day 19761990: Mat and writer Mary Ann Swissler drinking with Charles Bukowski in San Pedro. Polaroid by Linda Bukowski.2012: Mat and artist Roland Reiss at the Brewery Artwalk Open Studios in Los Angeles.2019: Mat and his wife, artist Leigh Salgado.other: Al's Bar graffitied walls & Coagula Art Journal logoThis episode was hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird.  It was edited by Bella Gerard.