On Monday 12th October 2009, Brendan Mullen, founder of the legendary Hollywood Punk club The Masque, died at Ventura County Medical Centre. His death was the result of a massive stroke he suffered two days earlier. He was with his partner of 16 years, Kateri Butler, with whom he was travelling through Santa Barbara and Ventura in celebration of his 60th birthday. In a statement from Butler, Mullen is said to have shown no indication that he was a likely stroke victim.
The importance of The Masque in terms of Punk’s own history cannot be understated. It acted as the lynchpin for the early Los Angeles Punk scene and Mullen himself is often credited as being the first promoter of Punk Rock in Hollywood.
Mullen was born in Paisley, Scotland on 9th October 1949 and grew up in Manchester, England prior to his move to America. In his photo book, Live at the Masque: Nightmare in Punk Alley, he describes himself as a, "dirty, hapless schmuck from Scotland" who was looking for a place to live and bang his drums (Mullen played drums in his own Punk-lounge act, the SATINTONES.). In June 1977 he, "tumbled into the basement of the Hollywood Center Building." This space became The Masque.
The Masque was a 10,000-foot space located behind the Pussycat adult theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Initially, Mullen rented out the space he didn’t use as a rehearsal room, “at such rock-bottom monthly prices, even Punk bands could afford them. Within a month or so, the basement morphed into a performance space.” On 18th August 1977, The Masque staged its first show hosting both THE SKULLS and THE CONTROLLERS.
From there, the club became a haven for those alienated from the mainstream, frustrated by regularity and addicted to the pulsating and assaultive sounds of the new beat that we know as Punk Rock. Regularly bands as infamous as THE GERMS, THE WEIRDOS, THE DILS and THE SCREAMERS would perform their earliest shows at the club. The club became the pantheon of Los Angeles Punk as X, THE DICKIES, THE GO-GOS, THE BAGS, THE FLESHEATERS and more all made the club their spiritual home. Mullen usually hosted the events (which went onto include San Fran Punks DEAD KENNEDYS and AVENGERS and fledgling performances by USHC legends BLACK FLAG) and is often described as both charming and acerbic.
As with every club since, The Masque soon came to the attention of police, fire and licensing officials while also facing hostilities from local businesses. Such scrutiny lead the club to closing and reopening on several occasions. It even moved to another space on Santa Monica Boulevard before closing its doors for good in 1979.
After the closure of The Masque, Mullen fell on hard times finding himself broke and homeless after a spell as an independent Punk Rock promoter. This spell of inactivity was to end in 1981 with a residency at the Club Lingerie.
Situated on Sunset Boulevard, Club Lingerie provided an outlet for Mullen’s skills for over a decade. He was the club’s in-house booker arranging eclectic shows ranging from R&B, Punk, Pop, Jazz and, most significantly, Hip-Hop.
While Mullen will first and foremost be credited with ties to Punk Rock, it should also be noted that he lays claim to have staged Southern California’s, “first full-spectrum, New York-style Hip-Hop event including MCs, DJs, graffiti writers, and b-boy breakers, all of ‘em flown out specifically from the South Bronx.” The bill included Grandmixer D.ST, Afrika Islam, Crazy Legs and others. In attendance was 17-year-old Andre Williams who had slipped past security. Today, Williams is more widely known as one Dr. Dre.
While booking at Club Lingerie, Mullen simultaneously booked at the Variety Arts Center during the late 80s and aided Johnny Depp and his partners in opening the Viper Room in 1993.
In recent years, Mullen has vigorously chronicled the history of L.A. Punk, which in turn documented his own role in the scene. These books, which include We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk (2001, with Marc Spitz), Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs (2002, with Don Bolles and Adam Parfrey), and the previously mentioned photo history Live at the Masque: Nightmare in Punk Alley (2007), have brought Mullen to the attention of a whole new generation of Punks eager for first-hand knowledge on this influential and pivotal era. He also authored the JANE’S ADDICTION oral history Whores (2005). For the last year prior to his passing, he had been working with Red Hot Chili Peppers on a book about the band’s career, according to the band’s bassist, Flea.
In addition to Butler, Mullen is survived by three sisters: Pauline Mullen, Una Earley and Nuala Rainford.
On Friday 11th September 2009, Jim Carroll, died aged 60. His ex-wife Rosemary states the cause of death was a heart attack suffered at his Manhattan home. According to Carroll’s website, Catholicboy.com, he was at his desk working at the time of death. Carroll was famed for his Basketball Diaries that chronicle his wild youth, and for fronting THE JIM CARROLL BAND that was made famous by the classic ‘People Who Died’.
Born on 1st August 1949 as the son of a bar owner, James Dennis Carroll spent his childhood in Manhattan’s Lower East Side attending Roman Catholic Schools (something he would touch on with future lyrics). It was following a move to Inwood at the northern end of Manhattan that Carroll won a basketball scholarship at Trinity - an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
It was at Trinity that his love affair with writing began as he spent time at St. Mark’s Poetry Project in the East Village, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, while simultaneously acquiring the status of teenage basketball star. It was here that he started writing his diaries, the diaries that became the infamous Basketball Diaries.
His life at this stage mixed sport with poetry and an (un)healthy appetite for drugs. The diaries begin laden with innocence and hope as Carroll writes of feeling enthused via his first day in an organized basketball league. They culminate with the degrading, downbeat confession of being, “Totally zonked, and all the dope scraped or sniffed clean from the tiny cellophane bags. I can see the Cloisters with its million in medieval art out the bedroom window. I got to go in and puke. I just want to be pure,” as Carroll has been reduced to a Times Square hustling junkie.
The diaries were not published until 1978 by which time his writing had already won Carroll cult status, including a 1967 self-published pamphlet of poems entitled Organic Trains and a successor 4 Ups And 1 Down from 1970. 1973’s Living At The Movies was issued by a mainstream publisher, won critical acclaim and a wider audience. The diaries were reissued in 1980 followed by a film in 1995 with Leonardo DeCaprio playing Carroll’s part.
During the early 70s, Carroll continued with his diaries, eventually seeing the light as The Basketball Diaries’ follow-up, Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries, 1971-1973. This was an equally frenetic period for Carroll. He had become a regular on the Downtown Poetry Scene with the likes of Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac hailing him as “the new voice”. He contributed dialogue to some of Andy Warhol’s films after finding his way into Warhol’s Factory after a brief stint at Columbia University. It was during this period that he lived with both Patti Smith and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe; the former proving pivotal to his musical future.
To escape the drugs, Carroll had to escape New York and fled to Bolinas, a small artistic community north of San Francisco where he met his future wife - Rosemary Klemfuss in 1978. The marriage would end in divorce.
It was in the late 70s that Carroll’s musical legacy ignited in a spontaneous fireball as Patti Smith brought him on-stage to deliver some of his poetry as the Patti Smith Band provided the backing soundtrack. Encouraged by the response Carroll formed his own band, The Jim Carroll Band. In even more fortuitous circumstances, the band caught the attention of one Keith Richards (yep, he of the Rolling Stones) who arranged a three-album deal with Atlantic Records.
The debut album, 1980’s ‘Catholic Boy’ is widely considered a classic while the track, ‘People Who Died’ - a rollicking, energised litany of Carroll’s previous friends and acquaintances who have passed on in varying circumstances - enjoyed radio success and even appeared on the soundtrack of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster, ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial’, appearing in the film’s opening scene. The following albums - ‘Dry Dreams’ (1982) and ‘I Write Your Name’ (1984) - while being solid failed to match the Punk Rock ‘n’ Roll cool of the debut.
Although Carroll took a break from being actively involved in music until the release of ‘Pools Of Mercury’ some 14 years later in 1998, he remained a cult industry figure. You could find his lyrics on Blue Oyster Cult and Boz Scaggs albums and find him performing live with Ray Manzarek (formerly of The Doors) as part of a spoken word act. More recently his influence can be seen in the likes of Pearl Jam that recorded a version of ‘Catholic Boy’ with Carroll. More significantly, Rancid used his lyrics on ‘Junky Man’ and had Carroll recite the spoken word section of the song. Furthering his legacy has been Marilyn Manson and Drive By Truckers which have both recorded versions of his songs.
Carroll also published several further poetry collections: The Book of Nods (1986), Fear of Dreaming (1993) and Void of Course: Poems 1994-1997 (1998) and has released several spoken-word albums. Although having been out of the public eye for several years, it is reported that he had been working on a new novel for sometime - presumably the work he was pursuing at the time of the heart attack.
Carroll is survived by his brother Tom.
Personally, Carroll’s legacy has been primarily through music and his diaries. All three original albums deserve a listen but the debut album, ‘Catholic Boy’, stands testament to near-perfect Punk-tinged rock ‘n’ roll; it’s sneering, arrogant, confident and has a natural fluidity that only the best can match. Both The Basketball Diaries and The Downtown Diaries make rivetting reading, so much so that for a latter issue of Scanner, I made serious attempts at contacting Carroll for an interview. I got close but not quite close enough.
FLIPPER - MOUNTAINEATER
San Francisco Bath House, Wellington, New Zealand, 18th June 2009
While waiting for the first band to start playing, I was talking to a long-time FLIPPER fan who expressed surprise that the audience being made up of many in their twenties and possibly younger rather than the over thirties. I'm not sure what I make of that myself. It's been quite some time since the days when Kurt Cobain donned a FLIPPER T-shirt. Perhaps FLIPPER is a prime example of a band gaining a live audience miles from their home country due to the mp3 buying/downloading crowd.
First up were Dunedin trio MOUNTAINEATER who made me ponder what early GORDONS shows were like. MOUNTAINEATER had a HUGE wall of noise bringing the previously mentioned band and SPACEMEN 3 to mind. The sparsely used vocals were not unlike THE CURE's Robert Smith in his prime. They played about six songs.
FLIPPER came out and Bruce Loose started talking about his band not being serious rock unlike the previous group and finding himself trapped in a cage again. Ted Falconi stood pretty much in the same place all night while strumming his guitar. The bass player and frontman moved around a lot but it's like contrasting ADD kid on speed and caffiene with a turtle. Bruce had to check his bass player's glossary (set list) a few times. Into the band's second song he states, "Fuck all those heavy stoner bands (a reference to support band Mountaineater's sound perhaps?). Acid Punk is where it's at. We're the original Acid Punk band." Songs like personal favourite ‘Life’ are played as are newer less engaging tracks. It's difficult to tell if Bruce is genuinely annoyed at the kid knocking the monitor orwhether it's part of the band's confrontational approach. I find myself thinking about live footage of THE BIRTHDAY PARTY I saw a good many years back as there's a similar dramatic aspect. Bruce claims to have lost his voice and asks for a couple of audience members to sing ‘Sex Bomb Baby’ as he straps on a bass. Two young guys are happy to oblige. No encore is played.
Chris (Small Takeover)
So I've decided to go with a seperate Blog. The one on the main Scanner site was basically crap. I had hassles uploading photos, formatting text and using sub-catagories. Is this gonna be any different?? Time will tell
For older posts including Obituaries, Show Time reviews and more, hit HERE
Enjoy
Steve S
On Monday 12th October 2009, Brendan Mullen, founder of the legendary Hollywood Punk club The Masque, died at Ventura County Medical Centre. His death was the result of a massive stroke he suffered two days earlier. He was with his partner of 16 years, Kateri Butler, with whom he was travelling through Santa Barbara and Ventura in celebration of his 60th birthday. In a statement from Butler, Mullen is said to have shown no indication that he was a likely stroke victim.
