Lobotomy was founded in spring of 1978, when my
high-school classmate Randy Kaye and I realized we needed to write about the
nascent LA punk scene. Randy and I went out every single night, and cut school
almost every day to feed our rock ‘n’ roll obsession, going over to somebody’s
house to listen to music and get drunk and/or stoned.
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| Randy Kaye and Pleasant Gehman on the streets of San Francisco, 1978 |
The main reason we wanted
to start a fanzine was so we could get free records and get into shows. We took
the title from The Ramones song “ Teenage Lobotomy”. Though everybody on the
scene referred to our fanzine simply Lobotomy,
the real title was Lobotomy: The
Brainless Magazine. Later, we amended it to Lobotomy: Where Glamour Is A Way Of Life, ironically stealing the
phrase that was printed on the shopping bags from Frederick’s Of Hollywood. Lobotomy
was published usually-but not always- monthly from 1978 to early in 1982.
Because punk rock back then was so
significantly different than it is today, and was totally underground, DIY and
non-corporate subculture, we never had to deal with agents, managers or major
record companies-we had access to everyone in the bands themselves. Our friends
were in bands, or we’d meet bands who were friends of friends, or simply call a
hotel where a band we liked was staying (usually the
Tropicana Motel or The
Continental Hyatt House on Sunset, which was known locally as “The Riot House”)
We’d ask the band if they’d want to hang out, go record or thrift store
shopping or take them to a gig, and interview them. Most of the time, we became fast friends. We were
semi-delinquent teenagers who hung out with and interviewed artists who later became
known as huge, groundbreaking stars.
Just
some of the interviews that we did
for Lobotomy were with The Clash, The
Damned, The Cramps, Blondie, X, The Go-Go’s, Billy Idol, Lydia Lunch, 999, The
Germs, The Mumps, Black Randy, The Jam, James Chance, The Screamers and
director David Lynch. And since no one was on guard and absolutely
nothing was being filtered through a publicist, those interviews were extremely
candid and totally wild. For example, Brian Tristan aka Kid Congo and I
interviewed Lydia Lunch while she and her new husband Johnny O’Kane were in bed
having sex; Theresa and I interviewed Blondie while crammed into the tiny
bathroom in Theresa’s apartment during a raging party, while all of us were
high on Quaaludes and beer. I probably don’t need to tell you that shit like
that just doesn’t happen any more, right?
Once we decided to start Lobotomy, Randy and I
immediately enlisted our friends Theresa Kereakes, Anna Statman and Herb Wrede
to take photos, since we wanted to write about our local Hollywood scene and no
one who was “legit” was covering it. We knew it was important to have live photos
from the shows we reviewed and the interviews we did… although I also combed Sounds, NME, Melody Maker and Creem Magazine to appropriate- photos of
concerts we missed or album covers.
Theresa
was always the main Lobotomy photographer; she did the first issue’s cover photo,
of New York band The Mumps standing in front of The Whisky in spring of 1978. Randy, Theresa, Anna and I- or some combination
of the four of us- conducted all the interviews.
I did all the typing (or handwriting if I ran out of typewriter
ribbons) and the layouts for every issue. We always did the layout together,
furiously cutting, pasting-and even writing- up to the very last minute- before
taking the originals to the printer, or more specifically, the local Xerox
place. These magazine layout sessions were always done shit-faced drunk at “The
Lobotomy Apartment”- as Theresa’s place off La Brea and my place on Palm Drive
were both called… although in some issues of the magazine, my place was
referred to as “The Lobotomy Pig Stye”!
Randy, Brian Tristan aka Kid Congo and I did
most of the writing, and we also all used several pennames so it would look
like Lobotomy had a big staff. When I
wasn’t writing as “me”, the name I used most often was Scarlett Fever, and
Kid’s alter ego was Cootchie Coody, which I think came from an R. Crumb comic.
Nick Garrard who managed British psychobilly band The Meteors was our London
correspondent and Joe Stevens of The Student Teachers was our New York
correspondent. They’d snail mail us typed up accounts of the recent goings-on
in their respective cities. We’d also rope our roommates, houseguests and friends
to write things- even if they hadn’t ever written! We'd get them drunk and shove a piece of
paper and a pen at them and literally force them to write a record review. Some
of those contributors were Marcy Blaustein, Nancy Nitro aka Nancy Nagler,
Dennis Crosby (grandson of Bing Crosby) Ann McLean and punk girl-about-town
Trudy. Randy got our pal Joan Jett to dictate an account of a 1978 Runaways UK tour
to him which became “Joan Jett’s Holiday
In The Sun” in our second issue.
Although we were very serious punks, we also covered
tons of insane stuff we thought was hysterically funny- such as the time Kid
Congo reviewed The Village People at LA’s Greek Theater, or the random reviews
we did of 1950’s novelty records bought at swap meets or non-music industry
45’s, like “How Pain Helps Us”, which was actually a promotional item aimed at
kids that the Jack In The Box fast food chain was giving away at their drive-through
stands! In a piss-take on Playboy, we had a “Lobotomate Of The Month” in every
issue.
Some of the foxy Lobotomates included Smuttie Smiff from Levi And The
Rockats, LA legends The Screamers, Phillipe from New York punk/r&b band The
Senders, Kim Fowley’s also-ran “star making project” Dyan Diamond, Kevin Kiley
of The Mumps and Ivy from The Cramps.
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| Brad Dunning |
Teenage
artist Brad Dunning was the creator of
the Lobotomy logo.
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| Jeffrey Lee Pierce |
Brad and Kid both wrote extensively for Lobotomy, and
together they made another fanzine called Contempo
Trends, which published a few issues concurrently. They both were also
founding members of The Gun Club, encouraged to perform by our friend Jeffrey Lee Pierce… who also wrote for Lobotomy frequently. Currently,
Brad is an esteemed interior designer, and often writes for The New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
Kid
Congo was my roommate for years, and wrote reviews of live shows & records
for nearly every issue of Lobotomy. He worked at Bomp! Records when we were
living together, so he had access to all the new British punk import 45’s. Kid
usually had at least four pieces in the magazine each time it came out.
For those living under a rock, in his
post-Lobotomy career, aside from the Gun Club, Kid played with The Cramps, Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch, Knoxville
Girls, Congo Norvell and his most recent band, Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds.
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| Anna Statman |
Anna and Randy had
incredible taste in music, and they both went on to be well-respected A&R executives
at the Slash, Geffen and Interscope labels.
Sadly, Randy passed away a few years ago; Anna lives in Los Angeles, and
is a café owner. Marcy, Nancy and Ann still live in LA, too.
Theresa
currently resides in Nashville, and is world famous both for her photo exhibits
as well as her Punk Turns Thirty blog. Her
live and studio photos have appeared on numerous album covers and in several
books; during the ‘90’s, she was also an executive in charge of production at
VH1. Lobotomy was what started my mainstream writing career, too. After a few issues
came out, Jay Levin, editor of LA Weekly asked
me to write for them. My infamous LA Dee
Dah column ran from 1978 until 1984 when Craig Lee (of the Bags) took it
over because I was touring with my band, The Screaming Sirens. I went on to write for almost every major
rock publication, and have written eight books…with more on the way.
Never
in our wildest dreams did any of us consider
that the loopy Xeroxed fanzine we started as a lark nearly forty years ago would
be a turning point in our lives, let alone a significant piece of Los Angeles
punk rock history.
-Pleasant Gehman
January
27, 2016
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