“For better enjoyment of this Tape, hook your VCR up to your stereo, and play back at full volume!!!!”
(Black Flag recorded live in Bierkellar, Leeds, May 1984.)
(Media courtesy of Wild Dog Archives.)
West Coast Punk
Wild Dog Zine: Phil Hicks’ ‘Cage’ and No Wave Pop at the Island (1981)
“The overall concept of the band is two girls and alot [sic] of machinery…there is a discordant…there is a quirky element to it. It’s highly personal music, you know?…This is Mod-Art. Get up and dance.” – Mechanical Servants (From a May 1981 interview at the Island)
Releasing only one EP in 1980, New York’s Mechanical Servants consisted of two female vocalists with an arsenal of musical apparatus – Pamela Kifer on guitar, organ, and synthesizer and Victoria Harper on bass, typewriter, and synthesizer. According to Kifer’s Tumblr, where there are photos from a past gig at the Island and pool party with the Bongos in Houston, the tech no-wave duo self-recorded their four-song EP (and only known surviving record), Min X Match, on the Mystery Toast label.
A long-time fan of female fronted groups, Henry “Wild Dog” Weissborn attended the Mechanical Servants’ show Sunday, May 17, 1981, at the Island, after which the band joked about bruises from their performance, which featured male go-go dancers (what must have seemed an odd number at the mostly punk rock dive), and Island manager Phil Hicks’ bondage themed props. “Servants 1 and 2” also discussed plans to release a second independent effort, Zombies Go Home, a nod to NYC’s 3 a.m. crowd.
(Original galley courtesy of Wild Dog Archives.)
Search & Destroy: Iggy Pop at San Francisco’s Old Waldorf (1977)
“We thought LUST FOR LIFE would come out and knock the world backward; we were wrong. It was kind of like working on FUN HOUSE. That was a great album…people hated it.” – Iggy Pop (From a 1977 interview with Search & Destroy’s Lynn X.)
(Search & Destroy No. 4, 1977; photo by Richard Peterson; image courtesy of Wild Dog Archives.)
Wild Dog Zine: Joan Jett & the Blackhearts at the Agora (1981)
“It’s hard for me to even think about being a feminist. When people say, ‘You are a girl, you can’t do this,’ I can’t even conceive of that.” Joan Jett in WILD DOG zine
According to Joan Jett, founding member of The Runaways, Texas had always been good for the band. The Runaways played an early punk show with The Ramones in Houston in 1977, before Houston’s first wave emerged. After disbanding in 1979, Jett headed to England to record alongside Paul Cook and Steve Jones, original members of the Sex Pistols. In 1980, Jett released a self-titled album on Ariola (U.K. import); the domestic LP was released by Jett and bandmate Kenny Laguna on their independent label Blackheart Records.
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts sat down with WILD DOG in 1981 following a performance at the Agora Ballroom to discuss Jett as feminist icon, Wyoming’s Accelerators, British glitter influences and living in N.Y.C.
(Photos by Reta and Judy Hill; Original galley courtesy of Wild Dog Archives.)
Dead Kennedys Shut Down the Island (1983)
The Dead Kennedys headlined the last show at the Island in Houston on May 14, 1983.
According to “A History of Houston Punk Rock Fanzines” by Henry “Wild Dog” Weissborn, which was published in PUNX, the Island officially closed in April 1983.
(Flyer designed by Tom Bunch; courtesy of Wild Dog Archives.)
Wild Dog Zine: X on Chicano Punks, L.A. and Selling Out (1981)
“Obviously, the scene we come from is gone. But we still believe in the whole thing…All the bands in L.A. that started out three years ago are still doing what they believe in and they don’t do it for money.” — Exene (interview with WILD DOG zine)
Henry Wild Dog sat down with members from L.A. band X in 1981, four years after its debut 45, Adult Books, was recorded.
In this exclusive interview, Exene Cervenka (vocalist) — with a copy of WILD DOG #4 in hand — and John Doe (bassist) discuss an appearance in the Decline of Western Civilization, Mexican punk bands in L.A. and Houston, feeling “creepy” about being on the road, the death of The Germs‘ Darby Crash and the band’s unwavering resolve to stick it out with an indie label. 
(Official galley courtesy of Wild Dog Archives.)
Black Flag Hits Houston (1981)
This early publicity photo of Black Flag was contributed to WILD DOG zine in 1981 to promote the band’s first tour with Henry Rollins.
Wild Dog Archives 