LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized alternative weekly in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas. It is currently owned by Voice Media Group, owner of “alternative weeklies” Village Voice, LA Weekly, Denver Westword, Phoenix New Times, Houston Press, Dallas Observer, Riverfront Times, Miami New Times, Minneapolis City Pages, Broward New Times, and OC Weekly. It is distributed every Thursday. (More from Wikipedia)
Joan Jett then placed an ad in L.A. Weekly saying that she was “looking for three good men” (a play on the advertising campaign of the U. S. Marine Corps at the time). John Doe of X sat in on bass guitar during the audition sections; and he mentioned Gary Ryan, a bassist that he knew who was crashing on his couch at the time. Ryan was a long-time fan of the Runaways and was picked after Joan Jett recognized him. Gary Ryan in turn recommended guitarist Eric Ambel; they had both been playing with a local punk rock artist named Rik L. Rik. Rounding out the band was drummer Danny “Furious” O’Brien, who was in the San Francisco punk band the Avengers, whose frontwoman was Penelope Houston. Joan Jett’s band was named the Blackhearts after the name of her record company Blackheart Records, and not the other way around.
(November 2013)
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By the end of the 1970’s, Mick Farren had moved to New York and began writing for the Village Voice. I was taking a mailorder subscription to the iconoclastic weekly in the early 1980’s and saw several of his articles. The first one that I remember mused on why the British had such bad dental hygiene and featured a “quiz” showing photos of rotten teeth that could be matched to a list of the English celebrities that had them. He later moved to Los Angeles and began writing for the LA Weekly.
(March 2014/1)
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On May 29, 2011, at a Rhino Records pop-up store in San Diego, the Crawdaddys showed up unexpectedly with a reunion concert that included former members Ron Silva, Peter Miesner, and Keith Fisher. After noting the surprise at the Crawdaddys being there at all, the L.A. Weekly report on the concert continued: “Another surprise was how hot and vital the band sounded, even after being dormant for so many years. You could certainly hear where latter-day ’60s revivalists like the Hives got their ideas, as singer-guitarist Ron Silva snarled his way through a set of Crawdaddys originals and vintage covers of primal rock classics like ‘Oh Baby Doll’, ‘Slow Down’ and ‘Let the Good Times Roll’. The group were at their best on Rolling Stones-style blues rockers like ‘Bald Headed Woman’, but they also deftly pulled off poppier tunes like the Knickerbockers’ Beatles sound-alike ‘Lies’ and a yearning, affecting version of the Velvet Underground’s bittersweet ‘There She Goes [Again]’.”
(January 2015/2)
