by billy eye I get really pissed off at people that try to pass themselves off as real artists. I don't try to pass myself off as a real journalist! One recent Friday afternoon, New York "rocker" Wendy O. Williams, mohawked lead singer of The Plasmatics, did a record store signing at Licorice Pizza on Sunset. In case you don't know, The Plasmatics are famous more for their stage antics than their questionable skills as musicians. When you attend one of The Plasmatic's shows you get equal helpings of chainsaws attacking guitars and televisions, Cadillacs being demolished by sledgehammers and explosives, and the tasteless antics and vocal strainings of a former stripper strutting what's left of her stuff across the stage and into your disbelieving face. At the Licorice Pizza appearance, Wendy O. Williams took her brand of performance art to a new level. "Wendy O was signing autographs and she starts yelling about what kind of dicks she likes" said Plasmatics fan and my pal Jim Phillips. "She was getting really graphic, so some guy jumped on the table and started dancing, pulled his pants off and stripped down to his underwear.
"That wasn't enough for Wendy.
She wanted to see it all, and when the guy pulled down his shorts, she
pulled up her top and started fondling herself". This girl must feel
right at home on Sunset Boulevard. Here's a picture from the incident
in case you think I'm making all of this up.
Flipper's,
the 'roller boogie palace' (on
the corner of Santa Monica and La Cienega) owned
by Cher and her glittering super-friends like Olivia
Newton John has been booking more and more new music bands in an attempt
to move out of the seventies.
So far, most of the acts
are lame pop-ish rock bands, the skinny tie, striped pants genre. Some
punk shows are planned for the future, we'll see what happens. It remains
to be seen whether people will want to see their favorite bands in such
a heavily mirror-balled atmosphere.
Local
metal rockers Nikki Sixx and Vince Neil paraded into Data-boy the other
day and asked me to do a poster for their upcoming Starwood gig.
Yes it's true, out of the
ashes of Judy Zee's favorite heavy metal band London,
they have created Motley Crue.
These
guys are serious about what they are doing, about every detail. They
really make a sight walking down Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood,
dressed in scarves, high heels, leather and black spandex, Nikki with
jet black hair and Vince with wild bleached blond.
The look is Kiss
meets Bowie and it works.
They
operate in their own world, oblivious to the drive-by stares of johns
cruising the male hustlers on the street.
Yet they obviously invite
the attention, as this is their normal walking around attire.
LEFT:
Data-Boy publisher Saul Suffron's I'll see you guys next week
when you pick up the posters - but remember, if you want to write a
check, Fat Shirley has to approve it.
And
now, as you sit on a bar stool somewhere with your elbows soaking in
beer wishing you were somewhere other than where you are right now,
here is Judy Zee to whisk you away to another world.
What
sounds like Shandi, acts like Manakin, dances like Devo, sings like
Blondie and writes like Oingo-Boing? Live Nude Girl. They've
got the beat and are go-go-go with the techno-funk punk. Nude theatrics,
patent pending, with plastic and rubber toys- from 3' scissors to multi
colored nuts and bolts and colored cardboard shapes spreading themselves
across the stage.
Lead
singer, Lissa Mehndelson is wearing a red DNA structure design on her
long T-shirt. She's short with cropped dark brown hair, and is cute,
reminding on of the central female character in the film "La Strada".
The bassist, Rich Star, played a maple necked Fender fretless precision
bass. The synthesist, played an Arp Quadra and Mini-Korg with an MXR
sticker on it. He was energetic, with his instruments bubbling lke a
scientist's factory - It's a party with Live Nude Girl!
A
plutonium circus, we were at the DNA exhibit- featuring the staccato
lead guitar Andrew and, as usual, the Wong's West regular girls were
a go-going in the corner. The rest of the audience response was WWS
(Wong's West Sedate), the band was alive but the crowd was rather dead.
You
can rest assured that Live Nude Girl do display bona-fide new
wave, semi-sophistico punk in motion, a musical expression of the old
style without the noisy violence associated with this type of music.
UPDATE: Wendy O'Williams committed suicide in 1998. Motley Crew sold millions of LPs and cassettes and launched a successful reunion tour in 2005. I don't know what happened to Fat Shirley, but Data-Boy magazine (Saul Suffron was the publisher) ceased publication sometime in the late-eighties. Data-Boy closed their West Hollywood storefront printing company on Santa Monica Boulevard in 1994 after more than 20 years in business, much of that time as the leading gay advertising agency, magazine publisher and local printer. |
1980's
Los Angeles
These original Data-Boy Music columns have been collected in a book with LOTS of new material and photos - it's the story of Data-Boy magazine and the LA Punk / Post-Punk scene. The story presented is a lot more complete!
Everything you're looking for is here: Las Vegas Legends
Obscure 70s music & more!
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Get it here! SAVE MONEY |
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