Former Avail frontman Tim Barry is not just the latest punk-rock dude to turn folk

Like pretty much everyone else, Tim Barry doesn’t quite know what “folk-punk” means—and when he tries to explain it, he winds up laughing.
“I don’t know what the hell y’all are talking about,” Barry says. “You guys came up with that [...]

The Stitches: Punk or perish

No matter if it’s the politically-charged radical, the runaway or the kid who never fit in at school, there is always the same thread that draws people to punk rock: angst. The music that got its start as the nation was suffering from a Nixon hangover—a time where there was an [...]

Through the viewfinder with photographer ‘Shanty’ Cheryl Groff

PHOTO by ORTENZIO MORACA
It’s captured chaos: walls of arms akimbo, sweat evaporating into steam, colors smeared in the air like oils on a painter’s palette. This is life as viewed through the lens of “Shanty” Cheryl Groff, and if you ever dug deep enough to find your way [...]

Audacity get the last laugh

Too cute to be punk and too raw to be pop, Fullerton’s Audacity play the kind of music that could act as a soundtrack for crossing the threshold between youth and whatever comes right after that. Their music makes them seem frustrated but not angry; bored yet not apathetic. Turns out [...]

The Humpers reform (again!) for the greater good of punk rock ‘n’ roll

PHOTO by LISA JOHNSON
On Friday the Humpers will return to Alex’s Bar to remind all the tenderfeet in the audience that they are still the Eagle Scouts of rootsy punk rock. I caught up with founding member Scott “Deluxe” Drake as he babysat [...]

Waiting for the fall with Savage Republic

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY
Savage Republic came out of the tunnels in 1981, and if they had been from a city with a more established vocabulary, they would have been a no-wave band. But they were from Los Angeles—one of the proud outsider bands that took a push from punk [...]

Group grope with the Angry Samoans

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY
Saw Metal Mike Saunders once before an Angry Samoans set, hunched in front of the merch fence at Chain Reaction in about 2001 without anyone capable of discussing his fearsome Britney Spears predictions around: “Mark my words,” he’d written, “20 years from now ‘Hit Me Baby’ and [...]

Everything about the Stitches is true

The Stitches were almost called the Nubiles—names logged on a list singer Mike Lohrman kept at his now-shuttered Underdog Records in Laguna, in case he ever led a band—and that’s probably the most benign ‘almost’ the band ever experienced. The rest are rougher: almost made it big (Was Epitaph or [...]

Toys That Kill: More punk out of Pedro. $5. 21+.
ALEX’S BAR 2913 E Anaheim St, Long Beach 90804. 562.434.8292; alexsbar.com.
South Coast Chorale: Songs to “Make the Yule Tide Gay.” 5pm. $35.
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 241 Cedar Ave, Long Beach 90802. 562.743.1365.

The Masque: The anniversary show that still seems like it shouldn’t be: The Plugz, The Eyes, The Deadbeats and all those other LA punks that dissolved decades ago. Now that they’re back, let’s get rid of New York. 3pm. $18-20. All ages.
THE ECHO 1822 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles 90026. attheecho.com.
Spot Lit: Susan Hansell, editor of [...]