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Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s John Lydon Giving St. Vitus a Taste Of His New Memoir

April 29, 2015 By Daniel Maurer

(Photos: Daniel Maurer)

It’s not often you see Monty Python and John Lydon in the space of a week, but there was Britain’s other living legend at St. Vitus last night, chatting with Pitchfork’s Jenn Pelly about his new autobiography Anger Is an Energy. The book, out this week, tells how a childhood bout with meningitis shaped his personality (“I’m a shy, sensitive kind of fellow,” he insisted to the incredulous crowd at St. Vitus) and then goes on to recount his trailblazing and troublemaking with the Sex Pistols, Public Image Ltd., and, of course, his later dalliances with reality tv (that time he showed off his “fried-egg breasts” in I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!) and butter commercials (“the most anarchistic thing I’ve ever been presented with”).

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Tags: Arts + Culture, cbgb, green day, Greenpoint, John Lydon, Johnny Rotten, kurt cobain, lou reed, nirvana, pil, public image ltd., punk, richard hell, the ramones, the sex pistols

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Marky Ramone On Life as a Ramone in the E. Village: ‘Everybody Was Psychedelized’

December 4, 2014 By Frank Mastropolo

(Photo: Frank Mastropolo)

No band is more identified with the East Village than the Ramones. The band’s performances at Hilly Kristal’s CBGB and other neighborhood venues defined punk rock forever. In 2003, the corner of the Bowery and Second Street near CBGB was officially named Joey Ramone Place. Over time, members of the group lived, drank and hung out in the East Village.
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Tags: Arts + Culture, autobiography, cbgb, East Village, irving plaza, marky ramone, marky ramone's blitzkrieg, memoir, punk rock, punk rock blitzkrieg my life as a ramone, the ramones

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‘Tommy Was the Ramones’: Friends and Colleagues Remember Tommy Ramone

July 18, 2014 By Frank Mastropolo

Tommy Ramone at The Roundhouse in London on 4th July 1976. (Photo by Gus Stewart/Redferns)

Despite their impact, the Ramones struggled for commercial success. Their debut album, Ramones, has been called the most influential punk record, but it was only this past June – 38 years after its release – that the LP went gold.
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Tags: cbgb, dee dee ramone, East Village, joey ramone, johnny ramone, max's kansas city, the ramones, tommy ramone

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NY1’s Roger Clark Is In a Band, and Pat Kiernan Is One of His Groupies

February 6, 2014 By Jenna Marotta

Courtesy of Perp Walk

While reporting from remote locations for NY1, Roger Clark has sung Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” and shredded on the air guitar for a solid minute of live television. For the past decade, viewers of his feature stories have come to know Clark as a loveable dork with rock star reveries. But he really does have a bit of musical street cred. Clark and co-worker Bunny Hirsch play monthly gigs as Perp Walk, a drum/bass duo with songs like “Tranny Man” and “Stench In My Kitchen.” They’re jamming tonight at Hank’s Saloon and then again in March at The Way Station, as part of a Lou Reed tribute.
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Tags: black flag, Boerum Hill, Bunny Hirsch, Bushwick, cake shop, cbgb, Dr. Who, East Village, Freddy's Bar, Funkadelic Studios, Greenpoint, Hank's Saloon, hell's kitchen, Looming, Lower East Side, NY1, Otto's Shrunken Head, Pat Kiernan, Perp Walk, Prospect Heights, rock bands, Roger Clark, South Slope, Spike Hill, The Dysfunctional Theatre Company, the ramones, The Spines, The Way Station, Williamsburg

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There’s a Debbie Harry Bobblehead (and No, It Doesn’t Have a Heart of Glass)

November 8, 2013 By Daniel Maurer

(Courtesy Aggronautix)

Nothing is real but the girl, but what about this?

That’s right: there’s now a Debbie Harry bobblehead. Till now, we’ve had to settle for the Debbie Harry Barbie, which, as you can imagine, looks pretty much like any other Barbie (which has confused a lot of folks who’ve seen it displayed in our office alongside our Ramones collection).

This new doll — limited to ~~1,000~~ 2,000 units — is made by Drastic Plastic, creators of the Iggy Pop bobblehead, and it’s being shipped Monday by Aggronautix, makers of “throbbleheads” in the likeness of East Village punk legends GG Allin and Handsome Dick Manitoba. The Debbie doll will set you back $24.95 and can be ordered here.

Tags: aggronautix, Arts + Culture, blondie, bobbleheads, cbgb, debbie harry, drastic plastic, East Village, gg allin, handsome dick manitoba, the ramones

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Watch Glenn Branca Hold Forth On Bowie, Byrne, CBGB, Sonic Youth + His Own Bad Self

October 11, 2013 By Daniel Maurer

As excited as we were to celebrate Glenn Branca’s 65th birthday at the B+B Newsroom last week, we didn’t expect our discussion with the trailblazing composer to be as epic as, say, the time in 2001 that we were blown away by his 100-guitar symphony beneath the Twin Towers, and (more recently, in 2010) the debut of his 15th symphony at Le Poisson Rouge. How wrong we were: the master rolled into 155 Grand with a bottle of whiskey and, just like when New York spoke to him in 2004, immediately lit up a cig. We weren’t about to tell him to put it out.
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Tags: blondie, cbgb, coco 66, david bowie, david byrne, glenn branca, Greenpoint, kim gordon, lee ranaldo, newsroom, paranoid critical revolution, reg bloor, sonic youth, talking heads, the ramones, thurston moore, tony ousler, wharton tiers, Williamsburg

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Watch the House Videographers at CBGB Call Richard Hell a Crybaby

October 10, 2013 By Daniel Maurer

As you may have read over at Rolling Stone, Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong — in what’s sure to be one of the highlights of the CBGB Festival — are screening some of their rare late-70s and early-80s concert footage at Bowery Electric tonight, between performances by Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys, Syl Sylvain of the New York Dolls, and Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. We were lucky enough to have the authors of our weekly Nightclubbing column into the B+B Newsroom last Friday, along with Richard Boch, who’s working on a memoir of his time manning the door of the Mudd Club, and Pat Irwin, the guitarist for the Raybeats, 8 Eyed Spy and the B-52s, who spoke about his recently unearthed collaboration with Philip Glass.

If you missed Friday’s discussion, watch the replay above. Here’s what the gang had to say about Suicide (we spoke to Martin Rev of that band back in June) and the evolution of the Ramones.
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Tags: 8-eyed spy, b-52s, blondie, cbgb, East Village, iggy pop, mudd club, pat irwin, patti smith, punk, richard boch, richard hell, suicide, talking heads, television, the dictators, the ramones, the raybeats

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Nightclubbing | Student Teachers, 1979

April 3, 2013 By Emily Armstrong and Pat Ivers

Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong continue sorting through their archives of punk-era concert footage as it’s digitized for the Downtown Collection at N.Y.U.’s Fales Library.

(Photo: Steve Lombardi)

It’s that time of year again: Spring break! While college students are streaming like lemmings to the usual spots — Florida, Mexico, the Caribbean — there’s been an uptick of revelers heading for New York this year. You can see them — earbuds in, texting and stumbling around the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, updating their absent pals. We hope they’re enjoying themselves.
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Tags: bill arning, blondie, cbgbs, chris parker, david scharff, East Village, howie pyro, jim jarmusch, jimmy destri, john cale, lydia lunch, max's kansas city, nick berlin, nightclubbing, patti smith, permanent vacation, philip shelly, richard hell, student teachers, talking heads, teenage jesus and the jerks, the mumps, the ramones, the voidoids, x-sessive