Flogging Molly: Logo #329

Designed by Flogging Molly in 1998 with the assistance of graphic design artist Brian Peterson. Founded at Molly Malone's pub on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles - and named by virtue of the fact that they played there so often and so loudly - the band celebrates their 20th anniversary next year. Singer Dave King got his start with the metal band Fastway (alongside members of Motörhead and UFO) and is married to Bridget Regan, the band's fiddler and tin whistler. I hope she tells people at cocktail parties that she plays tin whistle for a living.

Logo #213: Ill Will

Sheldon Parker from Ill Will: "In 1980, three surfers from El Segundo went to see a movie called "Rock 'n' Roll High School." After seeing the movie and watching The Ramones, we decided that we could do that just for fun. The Ramones inspired us to start jamming just because it looked like a fun thing to do. We started a band called The Haters. We called ourselves that because we hated just about everything that was popular at the time; we hated disco, condominiums, glam, and especially non-local surfers. We played Ramones songs and a few originals. The originals were mostly about surfing and girlfriends. We started playing house parties and people started thinking that maybe we were a band called "The Heaters" and also "The Gidget Haters." I knew we needed a new name, so I looked in a thesaurus I used for songwriting and under the word "hate" I found "ill will" - ding ding ding, we have a winner. We all liked the name, and I thought about the street signs that had the "do not do" red circle deal and decided the words ILL WILL should be covering the red, instead of the red covering what not to do - meaning Ill Will does not obey things that should not be done. We are currently jamming again with Derek Van Metere on drums and Lance Peterson (guitar), Brian Ramsay (bass) and myself. We will start gigging again at the end of spring."

Logo #205: Fear

Created by Fear singer Lee Ving in 1978. Someone pointed out recently that it's well on its way to becoming a swastika. I just thought it was two letter F's! Fear is Fear. Punk rock. Brendan Mullen of the Masque Club gives a great and illuminating interview with Lee and summary of Fear here in Swindle Magazine. Here's Fear live in 1980 at the Fleetwood in Los Angeles, making friends - and here's John Joseph from Cro-Mags talking about what happened when Fear played on "Saturday Night Live". In terms of directness and implicit threat in L.A. punk rock logos, possibly only Black Flag's icon is in the same cosmos. Punk rock logos are all about simplicity, namely: how many places can I stick this on and how often can I do it without getting caught?

Logo #201: Naked Aggression

Singer Kirsten Patches of Naked Aggression: "Cyrus Highsmith, the drummer from our first two 7" records, designed our band logo when he was 17 at West High School in Madison WI in 1992. We needed a band logo for our new punk band, and he came to band practice one day and showed it to us. We thought it was fucking brilliant; it's so simple yet powerfully striking. Most corporations would kill to have a logo that eye-catching. After a lot of discussion, we decided that it symbolized anger building up in a confined space until it explodes - a metaphor that can carry over to many aspects of our personal lives in politics. It also captures the punk spirit by alluding to familiar logos that punk culture embraces, such as the chaos symbol. I have the logo tattooed on my shoulder - it's so eye-catching that to this day, people in the check-out line at the supermarket ask me what it means. When we go play shows on tour, fans come up to me to show me their Naked Aggression tattoos. It's so cool!"

RIP Naked Aggresion guitarist Phillip "Phil" Suchomel (April 19, 1969 - April 25, 1998).

The Song of the Moment is "Clipper" by Autechre.

Logo #154: Circle Jerks

Drawn by Shawn Kerri for Circle Jerks in 1980. The opposite number to Raymond Pettibon - she was joyous and propulsive while he was saturnine and cynical - in terms of influence and effect on flyer art in the southern California punk microcosm, Kerri's life became a tragedy in the extreme. Her story serves to underscore the impression which one often unfortunately comes away with from Punk: beautiful and limitless promise dashed upon the rocks of misfortune because of the frailties of the individual adult human being.

Born Shawn Maureen Fitzgerald, Shawn Kerri as of a few years ago, "...has brain damage... alcoholic... covered in a weird scale-like skin disease..." and lives in Pacific Beach, a suburb of San Diego. When she began, she was doing things like this. She drew the flyer of the mohawked skull crawling out of the Germs circle - a situation that's come to pass (in a roundabout way) with the recent Germs revival and the film "What We Do Is Secret". More on her work is here. There is of course some question as to whether she's alive or not. The folks at Social Security say she's not dead - or, at least, either very punk or very alive. Take heart - if they can find Bodil, they can find Shawn, and no one ever thought they'd find Bodil.

Logo #87: The Screamers

A face as iconic as any minted for Roman coins, this image was drawn for the Los Angeles synth-punk unit by Gary Panter in late '77 or early 1978. Panter would later design everything the sets on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" to the playroom in the Paramount Hotel in New York City. Various pundits have pegged Lisa Simpson on "The Simpsons" as the logical extension of this mascot's aesthetic. Various pundits have a lot of free time on their hands. Conversely, there may be more than one set of pundits active at any time. The Screamers, led by mascot model Tomata du Plenty (born David Xavier Harrigan, May 28, 1948 – August 21, 2000) were one of the most influential bands that never released any records. Plenty of bootlegs out there, though - oddly, however, their original plan to release records as VHS tapes instead of vinyl has now come to fruition with the advent of YouTube. Tracks like "122 Hours of Fear", "Eva Braun" and "I'm Going Steady With Twiggy" now appear in the proper aspect in which the band originally intended. Royalties notwithstanding! Screamers synth mangler Paul Roessler is big brother to Black Flag bassist Kira Roessler. Presumably there's a lost L.A. punk band called The Moaners out there someplace.

Some interesting birthdays today.

"Johnny" William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005)
William "Sonny" Criss (October 23, 1927 - November 19, 1977)
Harald Grosskopf (Ash Ra Tempel; October 23, 1949)
"Baby" Jane Holzer (Warhol superstar; October 23, 1940)
Tristan Honsinger (October 23, 1949)
Misty Martinez (To Live and Shave in L.A.; October 23, 1977)
Milton Marx (Gummo; October 23, 1892 - April 21, 1977)
Pierre Moerlen (Gong; October 23, 1952 - May 3, 2005)
Graeme Revell (SPK; October 23, 1955)
Ned Rorem (October 23, 1923)
Jordan G. Wood (Deathwish; October 23, 1969 - June 7, 1994)

Logo #84: 45 Grave

Designed by poet and esoteric mystic Stanislas de Guaita for his 1897 book La Clef de la Magie Noire, the Baphomet Sigil was appropriated by 45 Grave drummer Don Bolles in 1980. Bolles: "That was designed by St. Bartholomew, in 1377. Not actually, but it's been around for a while; more recently, it was popularized in the late '60s by Anton LaVey's Church of Satan, and was on the cover of the official "Satanic Mass" LP that featured LaVey and came out in 1968. The background of that cover was red, the pentagram / goat head black and white. In 1980, I appropriated it for the 45 Grave 7" "Black Cross" / "Wax". While we were waiting for that to come back from the printer Venom put it on the cover of one of their albums. Then ours came out. Then Plasmatics and Mötley Crüe used pentagrams on their next LPs. Then all Hell broke loose with the thing..." Here they are on "New Wave Theater" (hosted by the late Peter Ivers, September 20, 1946 - March 3, 1983), performing "Black Cross."

Anton Szandor LaVey (April 11, 1930 – October 29, 1997), while endlessly stylish in life, left an estate drowning in disarray. Records show that the settlement dividing his personal property went as follows: to High Priestess Blanche Barton, a Rasputin chair, bed of nails and vintage gramophone; to daughter Zeena Schreck, a vampire boy painting, devil-horn cap and one-third of LaVey's cremated remains; and to daughter Karla LaVey, a skull from ritual chamber, "Satin Doll" pinball machine, a coffin and an examination table. Amongst others, no doubt. There was also a garage sale open to the general public not long after his passing.

Presumably, some lucky devil got the best stuff early.

Logo #83: Christian Death

Christian Death has a new album out, their latest since the band formed in 1979 - which, depending on what one considers to be a Christian Death album, could be 30 records or 100. Gitane DeMone: "Valor (Kand) designed that logo around '87, possibly '88, whilst living in London. I remember him making that design." One of the simplest, most evocative and direct of all possible rock band logos, it appeared prominently on the inner sleeve of the "Sex & Drugs & Jesus Christ" LP. Christian Death front man Rozz Williams (born Roger Alan Painter, November 6, 1963 – April 1, 1998) formerly had led the band Daucus Karota, the Latin term for carrots.

In other news, my review of Stephen Colbert's book "I Am America (And So Can You!)" finally published in last Saturday's Los Angeles Times. I never thought I'd have to differentiate, to an editor of a major national newspaper, the clones of Bruce Lee.

Logo #80: The Dickies

Dickies guitarist Stan Lee reveals, "A girl named Lori McAdams did that for us in '77 or '78. Very early on. Awesome logo, isn't it? Like the Monkees' guitar logo or the Milwaukee Brewers catcher's mitt, it's great as well." A friend of the band, McAdams was one of legions of friends who have, since the twilight of pop, been drafted into service crafting the public image of a band based on whether or not they could draw a straight line. Or, in this case of Holism lying limp, wouldn't. The Dickies use to have a keyboard player in Chuck Wagon (born Robert Elliott Davis, August 11, 1956 - June 6, 1981) until his untimely suicide, reportedly spurred by a messy break-up. They haven't used keyboards since. Somewhat relatedly, the day before he died, five men in Los Angeles were announced by the CDC to have a rare disease that would ultimately become known as AIDS.

In some respects, maybe Chuck was the lucky one.