Visual Vitriol hosts 2012 Winter Party in Houston!
To kick-start 2012 and chase away the winter blues, Visual Vitriol author David Ensminger is hosting a South Punk explosion, with bands zooming in from San Antonio (Say Revenge!), Dallas (Here Holy Spain), Missouri (Molotov Latte), and New Orleans (Opposable Thumbs and Sparrowhawk), who will be sharing the stage with zealous locals like the Biscuit Bombs (featuring guest members from Really Red, Anarchitex, London Girl, and more), No Love Less (half of the Mydolls), Busy Kids, The Drafted, Vivian Pikkles, Jealous Creatures, and maybe others! The Friday night proceeds will benefit the legacy of Esme Barrera, our ally in Austin, who was killed recently. One extinguished light dims us all. We will not forget her: walk together, rock together, and defend the night together! No justice, no peace. The events will likely start at 7:00 and cost approx $10.00! Super Happy Funland, 3801 Polk Street Houston, TX 77003-4837, 713 – 880-2100.
Punk in the Academy: Emails to a Journalist, Reconstructed
author David Ensminger, 1989, Machesney Park, IL
Leon Neyfakh, a vivid writer for the Boston Globe, recently tracked me down to discuss “punkademia” and the irony of studying a slippery group of rebellious people who often distrust academic aims, institutions, and language. I was deeply intrigued by the concept, and I think he navigated the issues wisely, starting out with his own perspective and experience discovering a punk rock graduate student in his midst during his keen school years. In the piece, which can be read here, he highlights new and old punk academic texts and speaks to a few key people working to explore the complex discourse and cultural history of punk, like the eminent writer Alex Ogg. Below, I am offering up meaningful portions of my emails with Neyfakh, for I think my own blurbs warrant further context. I offer no complaints. He dealt with my insight in a quite balanced and fair form.
For those Visual Vitriol readers who might also wonder about the topic too, I simply wanted to add clarity and depth. In the pursuit of transparency and a sense of immediacy, I tried to present my text below in a format akin to the actual email transcripts. Also, this does not employ straight argumentative aims – my logic is circular, de-centered, and conversational. This is the ‘way of the blog.’
There’s Gonna Be a Blackout in the Academy Tonight!
One-Night Only Visual Vitriol sponsored Photography Event at Domy Books in Houston Nov. 11th!
Visual Vitriol and the Center for Punk Arts is proud to sponsor a photography show that will be projected on a large screen in the outdoor covered patio of Domy Books in Houston, Texas starting at 7:30 pm. Featured work by Ben DeSoto will highlight his documentation of punk in Austin and Houston during the 1980s and early 1990s, including avid shots of Suicidal Tendencies, the Swans, Big Boys, Butthole Surfers, Circle Jerks, and many more. David Ensminger will present a decade of Montrose street life documentation, focusing on contested spaces and street art, homemade signs, urban landscapes, and the ever-mutating skin of the neighborhood. The flash art event is free, open to the public, and each photographer will be on-hand to discuss the work. Ensminger’s continuously updated catalog can be viewed on-line here, plus his folklore blog featuring similar material can be found here.
Big Boys in Austin, 1980, by Ben DeSoto
Space is not a neutral and passive geometry. Space is produced and reproduced and this represents a site of struggle.
Montrose, Houston, TX Oct. 2011
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 1991
The Second Skin of Cities: David Ensminger
Graffiti, stencils, stickers, and flyers invoke often-unseen communities creating public spectacles that distress and fray official boundaries of civic space. Each art site becomes a micro-world, a confluence of personal meaning and identity that occurs in the fissures of the local terrain. The pieces become nomadic signs negotiating their own legitimacy while juxtaposed next to nearby domestic, commercial, and municipal space. As such, they subvert the semiotic signs of civil society — street signs, bus depots, railways, utility boxes, and housing. Inundated with vernacular street art, the sites mutate, displaying a rough vernacular environment, like a spontaneous democracy misbehaving. The contested space – the skin of the city, a topography tingling with meanings and counter-meanings — is an ever-changing recombination of signs and captures the algorithms mapping each generation. Each piece of street art becomes ideological shorthand. For my full-length article on the topic published in Popmatters during Spring 2011 , click here.
Montrose, 2005
Visual Vitriol in Baytown, TX at Lee College!
The Lee College Art Association, Instructor Jen Herzberg, and myself just installed a Visual Vitriol poster show at the Cyber Cafe student lounge on Lee College campus in Baytown, TX, celebrating women in punk! The exhibition will adorn the walls of the cafe seating area until the last Thursday of October, so stop by and check it out, and post more ‘lady-punk’ flyers! The advert promo flyer was designed by my student Mickey Holiday, who used a photo I snapped of Mel Hell from Zipperneck, local Houston legends!
The curatorial crew!
Visual Vitriol in New Orleans Oct. 8th!
Thanks to those of you living in the Gulf Coast and deep South that swung by the Bywater neighborhood in New Orleans on Oct. 8th to see the one-night ‘flash art’ Visual Vitriol poster show at Trouser House, co-sponsored by Osa of the No More Fiction collective. Nervous Juvenile and Sparrowhawk rocked the crowd nearly into the midnight hour, and due to the local art walk and nearby galleries (and beer and sidewalk eats) , tons of people swept through the space. We were able to chat with folks that immigrated from Texas, Oregon, Wisconsin, the Carolinas, Virginia, and other disparate locales to the Big Easy. The distinctly southern city is throbbing and thriving right now, and we appreciate all the efforts of people to celebrate and preserve traditions, local community activism, and touring shows like Vitriol. You can read the blurb for the exhibit in the Times-Picayune here, and my interview in the NOLA Defender here. Please scan the photos below to enjoy the works we highlighted in the antique home.
Trouser House
Visual Vitriol Exhibit at Rough Trade East!
Visual Vitriol would like to thank Paul and Gram Cooper for co-curating a Visual Vitriol show at Rough Trade East in London, which will be on display through the end of August! The works are culled both from the collection of David Ensminger, author of the book Visual Vitriol, and the efforts of local contributors as well. A small essay on such punk street art is posted to explain some of the content, which tends to focus on the contributions of people of color, women, and gays and lesbians in punk rock, though those bands are interspersed throughout the whole wall and not relegated to certain sections. These posters will be donated to the local community after the show closes, so you can email leftofthedialmag@hotmail.com for further information. Visual Vitriol hopes to venture to your town next!
Visual Vitriol Kicks 2011 Summer Tour! Austin July 16th!
This Is Art: Play Your Part! Thank you Austin and Domy Books!
Domy Books in Austin, TX hosted a Visual Vitriol release party, where I was joined by fanzine editor John Slate (Control Rat X), Jeff Smith from the Hickoids, and Bob Weber from Really Red. The audience also featured a member of the Negroes and other historic locals as well!
From left to right: Russell Etchen, Domy manager, Lee Daniel, filmmaker, and John Slate, archivist, historian, and fanzine editor
Bob Weber of Really Red at Domy Books Austin gallery
Visual Vitriol’s paperback copy image was just released by the University of Mississippi Press. Slated for July 1 release, and currently available as a pre-order here, author David Ensminger has set-up three upcoming events to highlight, celebrate, and preserve punk posters arts as well as stimulate discussions about the book’s topics, including the roles of people of color, gays and lesbians, and women in punk history. Currently, panel discussions and/or art shows are coordinated in Austin, Houston, and London, with further art actions being planned in Dallas and elsewhere. If you would like to co-host an event, which could include hundreds of flyers, a punk film, and perhaps a panel discussion in your city (plus some copies of the book!), please contact Ensminger at leftofthedialmag@hotmail.com. In the meantime, review the details for the current events below!
See the interview and overview in the Houston Press art blog !
See the interview in the Houston Free Press !
Really Red drummer Bob Weber at Domy Books Houston for the Visual Vitriol book release July 8th with David and Julie Ensminger
Get autographs from local punk luminaries, though I'll be happy to sign ones too!
Zipperneck roars and thunders for the July 8th late-night book party at Rudyards, by David Ensminger
August in London!
Visual Vitriol will be co-curating (with local fanzine maker and DJ Paul Cooper) a show for the entire month at Rough Trade, the infamous label and record shop, in the East Side annex.
Be sure to check out our archive: www.europunk.wordpress.com
See the relevant info here.
Punk Rock Folklore: The Words of Women Part III, an Interview with Elizabeth Elmore of Sarge!
Sarge at Fitzgeralds in Houston, TX by David Ensminger
Interview with Elizabeth Elmore of the Reputation and Sarge
by David Ensminger, originally published in Left of the Dial
Do you think people would prefer that you be less blunt?
Probably depends on whom you ask! I don’t know if I’m that blunt in person in the sense of lacking tact or anything. But I do say what I think, and I’ll challenge someone on what they say or how they behave if I need to. I’m not aggressive, but I can be assertive if it seems necessary. In the law world, it’s seen as a good quality, and the gender thing doesn’t come into play but in the rock world. It probably rubs some men the wrong way because they’re not always used to it. I think it antagonizes them sometimes.
The mix and match, cut and paste, alter-ego musical sensibilities of Elvis Costello seem almost a perfect fit for your growing and expanding musical persona. What led you to covering the song?
It’s sort of strange. I actually discovered the song a long time ago through the movie Georgia where Jennifer Jason Leigh sings the song. I figured out that it was an Elvis Costello song and immediately got the original. I fell in love with it and mentioned once to Chad Romanski (Sarge’s drummer) that I wanted to cover it some day. He said that if I ever did it, I had to let him play drums. Around that same time, I was hanging out at Jay Bennett from Wilco’s loft and mentioned that I loved the song. He said that if I ever recorded it, I had to let him do it, and I made him agree to play piano at the same time. Anyway, four years later we were getting ready to record this CD and I decided I’d like to put it on there. I was trying to figure out how to sucker Chad into playing on the CD anyway, so I convinced him that since he’d have to come into the studio anyway, he might as well do the entire record. Then I called Jay and held him to his promise to record and play it and suckered him into co-producing a few other songs as well!
“There are people who are truly songwriters and then there are people who whatever the best work that they do is a product of where they are in their life and what their experiences in a short, condensed period of time have been. I get worried that what Sarge had going for it was a product of me being at that crazy age where everything is exciting and interesting and new…”`As you now settle in with the Reputation, have these anxieties about the songwriting process been assuaged, or do you worry that you, like Paul Westerberg, will be much less interesting as an “adult” than as a young frantic songwriter?
Well, I suppose the Westerberg thing is a matter of opinion. I’m not that familiar with his new stuff, so I don’t want to implicitly agree with your statement by ignoring it. But yes, I did worry about it with Sarge and I guess I continue to worry about it. Whether it’s true or not? I could say, “that remains to be seen,” or “that’s for other people to decide because I don’t have a clue.” I suppose it’s combination of both. Anyway, to answer your question, no, my anxieties about writing songs haven’t lessened, and I sorta doubt they ever will.
Please View Our Extended Family of Punk Visual History Sites
This web page is but one unique site that folklorist David Ensminger maintains pertaining to the visual heritage and history of punk flyers, handbills, and posters. Please visit the links below to thousands of images from 30 years of the underground renegade ‘museum of the streets.’ I am currently planning sites on NYC, Florida, United Kingdom, and Europe during the next few months, in anticipation of my book Visual Vitriol, due out from the University of Mississippi on July 1st (Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generations) People interested in contributing to the websites, or keen on hosting a flyer event some place in his or her city during the summer 2011, feel free to contact me at leftofthedialmag@hotmail.com
For some heavy duty NYC flyers, go here:
http://nypunkandhardcore.wordpress.com
For deep south Florida punk, go to:
http://floridapunk.wordpress.com
To see the intersections between politics and punk, go here:
http://punkandpolitics.wordpress.com/
For Oregon punk, go here:
http://oregonpunk.wordpress.com/
To venture across the ocean and see European flyers, go here:
In the meantime, to explore Austin’s rich legacy, go here:
http://austinpunk.wordpress.com
Agent Orange Never Turns Grey! An Interview with Mike Palm!
Agent Orange at Fitzgeralds in Houston, TX Jan. 2010 by David Ensminger
By David Ensminger
For another current interview and photos of Agent Orange by David Ensminger see here:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2011/01/last_night_agent_orange_at_fit.php
As a member of a bridge band, like Social Distortion and the Adolescents, that spanned both the first punk wave and emerging hardcore, how did you see the scene or genre change?
The hardcore era took over pretty quick, and once again I think it was mostly due to the press. You can trace this all the way back, well I don’t know about New York, maybe they were a little bit ignored, but by the time the whole thing was picked up by the English press, God, everybody knows what they did with that. In the States, especially in L.A., one of the big things right off-the-bat was, I don’t know how people remember this, but there was a LA Times article where they coined the term “slamdance.” In the same article, they said we were a band “banned forever,” along with other bands as well. The article said all these bands had been blacklisted from all the clubs. I don’t think a blacklist really existed until they printed that article. It was like, “It’s well known that all these bands are banned…” So, for me, I felt like, I don’t care. If they don’t want us, I don’t want to go there anyhow. We’ll find some place to play. I just had a “never give up” attitude, really, no matter what happened like that. I just figured that Agent Orange would find some way somehow to keep playing. I always looked long term at things. Yeah, maybe we’re banned this month, but we’ll just get out of L.A. How about that? That’s a novel concept (laughs).
Steve Soto stresses that media coverage ended up bringing in a thuggish mentality because the “violence” was highlighted by the press. All the people that were psychotic or had violent tendencies started showing up.
I think that was inevitable anyway. Yeah, advertise it as such, who’s going to show up with a flowerpot on their head? They are going to show up with a leather jacket and a switchblade. That’s what everybody thought it was. If you didn’t know, you certainly weren’t going to come unprepared. This whole false picture that the press painted, a lot of kids followed it. You still see it in out of the way places. I hate to use any place as an example, especially now, because it took a lot of years, but basically everyone is pretty well clued in who needs to know. There was a time when we would fly to… I am going to use Alaska as an example, even though it’s not a great example. There’s probably other places. Out of the way places where you fly in and some kid would meet you at the airport with an orange Mohawk. He just cut it that morning because he made damn sure he was going to fit in, no matter what. Agent Orange is coming and it’s going to be punk as hell. Then they took one look at us and they’re like, “Oh man. These guys look so tame” (laughs). Cause it’s not all visual. That’s not what it is all about. Plus, some people think they really need to … Well, punk rock is a visual thing as well. It’s just funny (laughs).
Agent Orange at Fitzgeralds in Houston, TX Jan. 2010 by David Ensminger
In early Flipside, you describe the rivalries between Huntington Beach and places like Riverside.
