Corey is (was) a Punk Rocker

A friend recently sent me a link to this auction item at Wright Auctions. It’s a flyer from 1979, designed for the hardcore LA punk band Black Flag. And what band is listed in the third spot for Thurs Oct. 25?

It’s The P-15s. My band at the time. Well gosh, that brings back a lot of memories. Unfortunately none of them involve this particular gig as I don’t remember playing on the same bill as Black Flag and Red Cross (who changed the spelling to Red Kross in 1984). Of course neither of them were influential rock acts at the time. We were all just having a good time—kids rocking out, writing and performing our songs at dozens of Los Angeles clubs.

There was no social media in 1979. One way bands could promote themselves was to make a bunch of cheap flyers announcing their gigs and distributing them wherever they could—record stores, coffee shops and the like. I’ll never forget on first arriving in LA, seeing flyers for The Knack stapled on every telephone pole along West Olympic Boulevard (or maybe it was West Pico). Shortly afterwards, “My Sharona” went to #1 on the pop charts. Every band in town started putting up flyers.

And this Black Flag flyer? It just sold at auction for $1,134. Wait. What? Do I have any old fliers in storage? Are they worth a thousand bucks?

Probably not. Most band’s flyers just listed the name of the band, with a crappy two-tone photo and some performance dates. Black Flag had Raymond Pettibon, guitarist Greg Ginn’s younger brother. He did the art for their flyers, as well as most of the art for SST Records. And now, forty-five years later, his flyers are collectible, punk rock artifacts. As Pettibon himself noted in a 1984 Los Angeles Times article:

“It’ll happen like it did in the ‘60s with the psychedelic posters. Once these kids start growing up and making money, it’ll be a way of recapturing their past. But at that point the art becomes dead. It’s just artifacts.”

I’m not paying a thousand bucks for one of these things but it’s cool to be a small part of a valued artifact. Historical proof of my punk rock credentials (although The P-15s were more power pop) and a reminder of a great adventure.

And what of Pippin’s, the dank little club where we played (they were all dank little clubs). Today it’s a yuppie wine bar called Bodega. The revolution moves on. As do we.