Punks Amongst Us

"On its best days, punk is very ugly and simultaneously very beautiful."

Nora is introduced to Pretty & Strong Sims, sisters who created the punk band False Flag. In anticipation of an evening at the Fab Mabuhey in SF, in which Katrina Zanotto runs, Edwin Heaven, False Flag, Katrina and Nora talk about the band, DIY shows, Heaven's memoir and the release of Prairie Prince's (The Tubes, Todd Rundgren, et al) debut album and more. This talk takes place a week before Nora moderates the panel at the Mab with all of the above characters.

photo by Katrina Zanotto

In this case, Edwin Heaven is not a place, it is a person. San Francisco author, ad man, ad hoc provocateur, manager to The Nuns, screenwriter and I can't even remember all the other eyebrow raising antics. Join Nora for a breakdown of 50 years with Heaven and his release of his memoir, The Night I Got David Bowie Laid, Sorta.

Nora is joined by friend and comedy writer, Jim Valley, whose credits include #GoldenGirls, #ArrestedDevelopment and so much in between. They talk not only about his standup career, his beginnings in Hollywood as an actor, but also the fun he and Nora have had together over 40 years, including going to Broadway musicals and walking out of My Fair Lady!

Stephane von Stephane joins Nora on this episode. In this case, not only is Stephane a punk amongst us but she was a punk amongst them. While writing and doing graphics for Search & Destroy, she knew The Avengers, The Nuns, Blondie AND she was at Winterland the night The Sex Pistols played their last show AND she had her arm around Sid! So much to talk about!

Noetic Pause, runner ups at 2024 Battle Of The Bands. Nora talks to the band ahead of the 2025 Battle in Napa, CA where they will have competed against 20 other bands. Even high schoolers have an origin story! Young and talented - the future looks bright!

Two highly regarded punks from the original LA scene have come together to perform as their alter egos Juanita & Juan with a Loud Lounge act. They put out a record - Jungle Cruise! and are doing a mini tour to support. They are both published authors having written autobiographies that entertain and paint two different but adjacent splattered pictures of coming-of-age in the Hollywood burgeoning punk era. They are rough & tumble, but both have soft souls and great humor.

Jack Boulware and Alan Black join Nora and dissect a lot about DIY punk from the Pistols to the Dead Kennedy's to Amyl & The Sniffers. Anchored by Jack's book, Gimme Something Better, the three cover art school brats, Collectives, stories about creating literary festivals in Sf, Clem Burke's favorite dive bar in Sf and SO MUCH MORE!

Faith was always into music. When in college, she worked at KCMU FM in Seattle, which eventually lead her to Sub Pop, Capitol Records, Electra - Los Angeles, New York and now Napa where she took the then available call letters KCMU and started her own little radio station. She bought a building and opened a Bar/Restaurant/Record Store right there in downtown Napa called Folklore! Give it a listen!

#napa #radio #musicbiz #recordstoreday #badbosses #greatbosses #capitolrecords #electrarecords #virginrecords #foofighters #afghanwhigs #shannonandtheclams

Tommy called into my radio show to promote some upcoming shows on the west coast. Not hyperbole to say that I am a huge fan of not only his original band, The Replacements, but of him as a bass player, a perseverer and a goofball. That last talent is still apparent at age 58.