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Punk
Flyers from 1977 Los Angeles
Essay by artist, Mark Vallen
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Click
the thumbnails for the full picture
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The
Los Angeles punk rock movement of the
late 1970's and early 1980's created its own unique
form of visual communication, the likes of which haven't
been seen since. Flyers presenting angry nihilistic
images began to be posted on LA's telephone poles
in 1977. Strange names leapt off those broadsheets...
BAGS, WEIRDOS, GERMS, SCREAMERS.
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LA's punk rock underground was
promoting itself with the only means available
to it... the hand made xeroxed flyer. The established
corporate media barely acknowledged punk (except to
belittle it), and so it was necessary for punk to
create its own media. Anger, sarcasm, and a
dark sense of humor pervaded punk's aesthetics...
and those elements combined with the easy accessibility
of xerox technology made for some explosive visual
messages. Punks took great delight in poking a finger
in society's eye, and so the flyers extolling the
movement were often morbidly funny, bizarre, dadaist,
highly political and mocking.
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There
were at times so many flyers distributed that one
couldn't see a bare lamppost anywhere in Hollywood,
and those sometimes crude flyers helped build a tiny
scene into a mass movement. The
sampling of flyers presented here come from my own
collection, and I attended all of the concerts they
announced. I offer these images in order to illustrate
how vitally important images can be in building social
movements.
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This
compilation from Rhino Records presents some of LA's finest
'77 punk bands, Alley Kats, Black Randy & the Metro
Squad, X. Also includes tracks from the Dils, and the Avengers...
two really important bands from San Francisco.
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And
speaking of 1977 LA. This soundtrack album contains searing
live numbers from X, Catholic Discipline, Fear, Black Flag,
Circle Jerks, and Alice Bag!
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