Craig White
I got called a poser by an older kid for wearing a Baja surf hoodie I got on vacation when I was in the 6th grade. I didn’t even know what poser meant, but it…
Mark Bishop
The first records I remember are Millie Small’s 1964 hit “My Boy Lollipop” and Paul Revere and the Raiders’ “Just Like Me” (from a collection called “The Best of ‘66”). They were castoffs from my…
Kitzee Ramona
I was a teenager in Huntington Beach California in the mid 1970’’s and so happy when I heard Rodney on The Roq for the first time! I didn’t like most of the music my friends…
Edward “EJ” Giles
I was 15 years old, and living in Long Island City, Queens with my parents, and “Punk Rock” was breaking in the US. There was a television news highlight on “punk” and I thought it…
Bob Lee
I remember getting really into Patti Smith in summer of 78, friends of my mom had Radio Ethiopia, and I’d get real into playing it. My first experience with punk up close was the band…
Jeffrey Vallance
Punk Scene and Solid Eye Punk Scene From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, there was a unique relationship between the art world and the punk rock scene in Los Angeles. I hung out…
Darby Crash – watercolor and gouache on hot press paper, 2022, 9″x11″. (based on a photo by Jenny Lens)
Jim Ruland
When I was 15 my mom took me and my younger brother to see the Ramones at the Wax Museum. It wasn’t just my first punk rock show, but the first rock concert I attended.…
“Lemmy” – Watercolor and ink on cold press paper. 2022
John
When I was a young tween/teen, I thought punk rock sucked. I saw the Ramones on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert when I was 13 and thought all the songs sounded the same, plus the guitarist…
John Colle Rogers
Back in 1984 I was a metalhead in North Dakota, a musical wasteland in many ways where we were tasked with finding alternatives on our own if we wanted to stray from the clutches of…
Lawson Desrochers (aka Lawson Jealous)
Like everyone, I had heard about the Sex Pistols and the Clash, even dug some of their tunes early on, but punk truly came to my world in 1981 via the older kids in Santa…
Joe Mendelson
My overwhelming passion for rock music began in 3rd grade, although I have a very distinct memory of being completely mesmerized by The Who’s I can see for miles that I heard on my sister’s…
Tim Tracy
My PUNK STORY: My Punk story starts way, way before PUNK. My dad (or DA, as we say with our family voice in Ireland) introduced me to “HardCore” Dixieland via record albums when I was…
Jennifer Schwartz
This first time I heard the two words, “punk rock,” was around 1977. My mom, brother and I had just moved to Beverly Hills. That place sucks. Anyway, one day, a girl from my 8th…
Robert Hecker
I grew up in Hermosa Beach, California, and there was definitely a something-in-the-water thing going on in our sleepy little beach town. There was a decommissioned church that I knew as the arts & crafts…
ChrisO’
My story began when I came back from living on Oahu the summer of 1979. On the North Shore where I had lived since 1976, I was sheltered from all the music that was happening…
Deathany
I guess it’s all Jeremy Freeze’s fault. He was my little brother’s best friend who lived down the street. He came over after school one day with a mixed tape of Dead Kennedys, Black Flag,…
Kip-Xool
“TURN THAT BLOODY RACKET DOWN!! HOW CAN YOU CALL THAT MUSIC??!” Perhaps not the best psychological approach to curb a teenager’s new-found calling, but it also signalled a sense that I was in the right…
Stephanie Silk
I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, in the suburbs of Los Angeles. I went to Catholic school for 14 years. I had a pretty standard but boring start to things. I loved going…
M.J. Stevens
In the late 60’s, at age 13, I was already getting preoccupied with music and art. I found a copy of Indian War Whoop by the Holy Modal Rounders in the bargain bin of a…
Aaron Leatherbarrow
I was 14. I found a cassette tape called Pokinatcha by MXPX in a Christian book store in Cincinnati, OH. I found hope that day. I was constantly oppressed by religion, right wings, and suburbia.…
Muslim Delgado
I was born in Upstate NY. I lived there until I was 14. Growing up I heard all kinds of music at a young age. From the music my mom and sisters dad and their…
Ziggy/Linda D
My Punk Rock story is not always a ‘pretty one’. It is a miracle I am alive. I was homeless on the street at 14, very out of my mind, traumatized, mentally ill, drugged up,…
Brenda Perlin (Valley Girl)
Being different from my peers made me seem difficult and troubled. Family members talked about me when I wasn’t around, and I overheard them talking about me when I was around. It was obvious that…
Nancy Barile
I grew up in the 1970s, and when I turned 15, I experienced live music for the first time when my boyfriend, who was 18, took me to see Rod Stewart and Faces. WOW! What…