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It’s summertime and that means relaxing with the things you love and for that means music. Loud angry punk music to be specific. What can I tell you, I am who I am.

Anyway, I’m a big fan of west coast punk, specifically the bands of the late 70’s early 80’s west coast punk scene. And a year ago found this amazing book by John Doe, of X, one of my favorite bands, and Tom DeSavia, a music A&R exec. The book was called Under The Big Black Sun and it was an oral history of the first three or four years of the West Coast punk scene. I tore that book, them bought and listened to the audio version, just loved it. Lo and behold, John and Tom have continued the story with Under The Big Black Sun, taking us through the 80’s heyday of the scene. The book is fascinating and full of stuff that I did not know. Did you know that the Go-Go’s started out as a punk band, and that they were, in fact, notoriously some of the hardest partiers in the scene? It’s true.

Anyway, I was performing at a club here in LA that I love called Largo and saw that John and Tom were going to be having a book event with some of the other authors from the book. Skateboard pro Tony Hawk, Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go’s, Pleasant Gehman from the Screaming Sirens, and I asked Flanagan, who runs Largo, if the event was sold out. He asked me if I’d like to moderate it. I tried my best to act cool, and I did and we recorded it and here it’s here.

Now, one of the kids who grew up in the San Fernando valley in the early 80’s who listened to that music and went onto form his own band was Rob Zabrecky. Rob became the front man of Possum Dixon in the mid ’90s and, well, to know about his life, by all forms of rationale and logic, eh should be dead. But he ain’t! And to see where he has ended up in life… He’s here as well today to talk about his new book, Strange Cures.

Anyway, this is a very special episode because all of these people are talented creative people who I look up to an admire and through this podcast have become friends and that’s really the best thing there is.

Tags: Charlotte Caffey, John Doe, Pleasant gehman, Rob Zabrecky, Tom DeSavia, Tony Hawk, X