Recently I’ve come to learn that Pleasant Gehman and Theresa Kereakes, two of the prime movers behind LA’s first-wave punk fanzine Lobotomy, are on a bit of an irregular set-the-record and define-the-terms circuit of college conferences and speaking events devoted to punk rock music. This has generated no shortage of surging interest in their 70s fanzine, and they’ve even got limited-run reprints of the mag happening now if you’re lucky enough to show up. There’s even been some talk of a book-length collection of the full Lobotomy run, which is something that Fanzine Hemorrhage lustily supports.
Anyway, last time we checked in with this fanzine it was April 1978 and we were discussing Lobotomy #5. Now it’s May 1978 and Lobotomy #6 is out, and as you know, a lot can happen in thirty days when you’re on punk time in Los Angeles that year. Pleasant’s opening gossip column – again, prefiguring her “L.A.-De-Da” column I’d read every week in the LA Weekly during the late 80s – catches the scene up with all the latest news, like Johnny Blitz’s stabbing, Charlotte Caffey quitting The Eyes, and the fact that Sable Starr is all growed up and now going to college. Many, many gratuitous droppings are made of the name “Billy Idol” by a woman who was calling herself “Mrs. William Idol” only one issue before.
Pleasant is also wisely ringing the alarm for the heretofore underestimated Germs and their Lexicon Devil/Circle One/No God 45: “for anyone who dismissed the germs as crap—WAKE UP! This is one hot record. They not only play at the speed of light, they do it well….it may burn right through your turntable”. Scarlett Fever pushes all my born-too-late jealousy buttons in her review of a 5/1/78 Dils / Alleycats / Consumers / X show at The Whiskey, with the Consumers from Arizona opening. They’d later turn into 45 Grave, give or take a couple members, and their songs would become their songs. “These guys weren’t no Arizona cowboys, believe me. Fucking great; 1-2-3-bam-bam-bam music, all of ‘em in a shaking frenzy. Hell, they were good. Wish they’d move out here”. Scarlett would get her wish! There are also several reviews of San Francisco’s Avengers, who’ve clearly become a Lobotomy staff favorite in their brief time on the planet.
There’s a Jam interview, about as exciting as the many other incredibly unexciting Jam interviews from the same era. This is offset a bit by a Blondie interview, who were way more fun than the dour Jam. I think this must’ve been the time Pleasant talked about on the Rock Writ podcast where she mentioned Debbie Harry walking into the room and her thinking, “This is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen”. (This understandable comment makes this issue’s cover photo a bit of a hoot). And there’s an ad for a 11-day period at The Whiskey in Hollywood, just a mere eleven days from May 23rd to June 3rd, in which you’d have been able to see Black Randy multiple times (including one show as “Mexican Randy”); the Deadbeats four times; X, The Germs; Fear; The Plugz; The Weirdos; The Skulls; and even The Dickies and Arthur J and the Goldcups. One club! Park me on the Sunset Strip and I’ll see you on June 4th.
Finally, I’ll mention again that Lobotomy was xeroxed only on one side. This is pretty awesome and explainable at some level, despite how “wasteful” it appears to be. I can remember a time when double-sided copiers were not as ubiquitous, and that they were actually expensive to use and a bit of an ordeal when they did appear, with frequent paper jams and sliding paper that caused print and graphics to run off the page. I’m sure they’ve been gabbing about it at those punk scholar forums, but one has to figure there’s at least a 75% chance that’s why this mag only went out single-sided with a corner staple, right?
Fanzine Hemorrhage 