Coming only mere months in May 1980 before the desultory Damage #7 issue that we discussed here, the bloom is most certainly not yet off of the punk rock rose in Damage #6. In fact, this issue’s one of this San Francisco tabloid’s very finest, easily in league with Slash and NY Rocker issues that were being published concurrently. Sure, it’s all filtered through a San Francisco sensibility, and despite being a proud taxpaying, child-rearing resident of said city for 34 years now, I still gag on so much of the “punk politics” and arty pretensions of SF during the 70s and especially the 80s – hell, even now – which are often just a real hectoring bummer in the midst of such a plethora of so much countercultural flowering. 

But not in Damage #6, really! I mean, there was a police bust at Target Video downstairs from Damage HQ during a party for Japanese group The Plastics, and editor Brad Lapin is none too pleased in his editorial. Damage then gives it full coverage in a big article and even a comic. I swear man, I hate cops to the max. There’s also a brief supplement for NART magazine, all political art and very San Francisco. Caitlin Hines, who wrote better at age 19 or 20 than I ever have at any age, savages promoter and record label impresario Howie Klein for something he said about her in issue #5. I have this issue, but am too lazy to go read it now. Hines says, “I have always been most fair in my dealings with him, never once alluding to his age, girth, infamous past exploits in Nepal, balding dome or rather unsightly general appearance”. She was fantastic. I interviewed her ex-partner Peter Urban about her in Dynamite Hemorrhage #8 if you wanna read it. 

Jane Cantillon interviews and writes about John Cale (I think it’s actually Jane Hamsher, who was a contributing editor at Damage). “When I told Cale I was writing this for Damage, he said defensively, ‘I’m not new wave!’”. There’s also a tongue-in-cheek short interview with the “pretty” and “pert and perky pop fave” Lydia Lunch, who’s just released Queen of Siam. Even then people were making deliberate fun of her horribly over-the-top persona! Speaking of similar circles, there’s an overview of performance art in San Francisco. I guess Karen Finley plied her trade for a while in SF? I did not know that. And we also have an introduction to “local electronic music”: Non, Factrix, Minimal Man and The Scientists. This was the wild sound of young San Francisco in 1980, along with Flipper, who get a rave review for their contribution to the SF Underground comp.  

I was also pretty impressed with the San Francisco scene report. It talks about artpunk quartet The Bob, whom they call “…the best thing out of Oakland since ‘You are now leaving Oakland’ signs”. The LA scene report right next to that says that Patricia Morrison has left The Bags (true) and that the band has renamed themselves Plan 9 (wow, if true!). And then a chunk of reviews, most of which are by rockin’ Jeff Bale, very soon to be a star player in the Maximum RocknRoll world. 

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the interview with The Mutants, whose Sue Mutant, one of their three singers, graces the cover. They’re not a band I’ve ever really cottoned to much, and most folks who were there will tell ya to steer clear of the records – live is where they were at. A couple of months ago The Roxie Theater here in San Francisco had a night of Napa State Mental Hospital rock & roll, by which I mean they played the entire June 1978 performance of The Cramps there; along with The Mutants’ entire heretofore-unseen performance, and then Jason Willis’ and Mike Plante’s excellent short documentary on the day. I swear the audience felt like it was comprised of San Francisco’s first 200 punks, all the Mab and Deaf Club denizens of the day, and they dutifully hooted and hollered whenever their friends turned up on camera. Then a couple of Mutants came out and did a little Q&A before V. Vale came up on stage and hijacked the proceedings and we left to go get a beer. Good times.