A Look Inside Cleveland's Original (and Short-Lived) Punk Scene

It's been an interesting year for punk rock music. Ann Arbor's punk acolytes Iggy and the Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum last month, and punk rock impresario and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren died on April 8, 2010, at age 64. But the headlines stretch further into the home of the aforementioned Rock Hall as well.

In Cleveland, avant-garage legends Pere Ubu performed their influential 1978 post-punk watershed album "The Modern Dance" in its entirety for a live audience at the Beachland Ballroom this year - helping the North Collinwood club celebrate its 10-year anniversary.

Post-punk outfit This Moment in Black History released the critically hailed "Public Square" album this year, performing a showcase at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

And Cleveland punk legend Cheetah Chrome - guitarist for seminal Cle-punk acts Rocket from the Tombs and The Dead Boys - teamed up with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls for a new band called The Batusis, which played at SXSW as well.

It's a far cry from the 1977 "Summer of Hate," the punk rock phenomenon that audiophiles and rock critics point to as the ignition of the genre. But this trio of Cleveland punk rock happenings has churned up new interest in Cleveland's short-lived but significant punk rock scene.

"Hello... Cleveland...?"

The rise of punk rock is best known in places like London, New York City, Detroit and Southern California. Punk's rebellious roots point to frustration at a global economic downturn and the industrial decline in those places at the time.

The three-year, countercultural revolution that peaked in 1977 touched down in Northeast Ohio as well, an area that struggled with unemployment and fleeting industry amidst Cleveland's financial default - the first of its kind since the Great Depression.

Considered a sister scene to Detroit, which had its own share of financial woes, business decline and population shrinkage, Cleveland gave rise to a generation of punk rock counterculture.

And while The Dead Boys, Pere Ubu and Rocket from the Tombs emerged from the scene to critical acclaim, many of the scene's other bands - like The Pagans, Electric Eels, Mirrors, Pink Holes and Easter Monkeys - never really gained the deserved national traction (or attention) that Motor City acts like The Stooges, MC5, Meatmen, Death, Degenerates and Suicide Machines did.

"Screaming" Reality

But in some ways, that made Cleveland's punk bands and scene even more vital to the people who were a part of them.

"It was a really big thing for me," says Brad Warner, director of the punk documentary film "Cleveland's Screaming." His documentary offers a glimpse into the fire that burned inside members of the Cleveland and Akron punk scenes.

"I got into it looking for something more real and meaningful in society," he says. "The experience has been with me ever since; my life was drastically altered by that scene."

Now a Zen Buddhist ("Punk didn't go quite far enough as far as I was concerned."), Warner remembers Cleveland punk rockers "being sorta unified. It was a very small, tightly knit group of people looking to build a community. It all had a very strong sense of morality and belonging. People made that happen for themselves."

Warner found himself stepping back from the scene when it got bigger.

"The scene was enforced by people inside of it, but a lot of people coming in didn't really understand what it was, or where it was coming from," he says. "The code was that you couldn't slam dance with spikes on, but (new fans) thought, 'We can come in and beat people up.' It all became a little silly."

A Rocket from the Tombs

Former Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Chrome (aka Gene O'Connor) recalls the Cleveland punk scene a bit differently, but chalks it up to a brief relocation to New York.

"The funny thing about the Cleveland scene was that, in the early '70s when I was really part of it, there wasn't really a scene in the way that most people are accustomed to. When Rocket and the Dead Boys were playing, there wasn't really a scene.

"I left Cleveland for New York and spent six months away, came back and suddenly there were 50 good bands and a really vibrant cool scene. Wish it had been there when I was living there," Chrome laughs, alluding to the time that the band's "Young Loud and Snotty" album was recorded and released.

"I never really got to be a part of it while it was fired up. There really should be a book about it."

Chrome, Jimmy Zero, Jeff Magnum, Johnny Blitz and Stiv Bators became The Dead Boys after Chrome's previous band, Rocket from the Tombs, splintered (RFTT members David Thomas and Peter Laughner went on to form Pere Ubu). The Dead Boys scored a minor hit with the rebellious anthem "Sonic Reducer" and carried on for a time until the death of lead singer Bators.

Cle-Punk: A Study in Contrast

"The power of Cleveland's punk scene came from its simplicity," relates Carlo Wolff, author of "Cleveland Rock and Roll Memories."

"Cleveland happened before (punk) was stylized by groups like the Ramones," Wolff says. "I remember going to see Pere Ubu with a bunch of other rock critics at the time and our collective jaw dropped. Who could tell whether or not these guys could really play their instruments? There was nothing virtuoso about them."

Wolff calls Ubu "blindingly original, completely outside the mainstream, and you could tell they were mad, because a lot of their music was angry." He shares similar kudos for The Dead Boys, Pagans and Electric Eels, which "stand the test of time more than contemporaries like Styx, REO Speedwagon or Kansas," he laughs.

"I think punk burned out quicker here in Cleveland than in other places because it burned hotter and faster, and because it was so countercultural while the prevailing culture here was so mainstream.

"Cleveland is a very mainstream place overall, and that contrast made it even more striking. Back then, I couldn't understand how one place could produce (pop band) the Raspberries and Pere Ubu at, more or less, the same time," Wolff offers. "That's still interesting to me."

The Punk's Not 'Dead'

Chrome revived Rocket from the Tombs in 2005 with former members and guitarist Richard Lloyd of the band Television. He offers that the group plans to continue recording and performing. Chrome has also collaborated with New York Dolls catalyst Sylvain Sylvain as the Batusis - named for an episode of the 1960s television show "Batman."

The group's eponymous, four-track EP also features Enzo Penizzotto (bass) and Thommy Price (drums) - the dynamic rhythm section for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

"It was all very spontaneous," Chrome says. "I've known Syl since the '70s and the Dolls were a big influence on me. But the idea (for collaboration) came from Frank (Mauceri) from Smog Veil (Records), who asked if we wanted to do a recording project together.

"We were both like, '(expletive), yeah, we do!' We just decided to go for it. We all decided to use that old Rolling Stones approach - rehearse and record as you go," Chrome recalls of the recording sessions.

"You get the best takes that way anyway. We like to fly by the seat of our pants, so the idea of improvising and getting ourselves in and out of songs in two or three run-throughs was natural."

After a U.K. tour, Batusis will take on a two-leg U.S. tour that will bring the group to the Beachland Ballroom on Wednesday, July 21, at 9 p.m. After that, the plan is to "do a full album by the end of the summer, depending on Syl's schedule with the Dolls and mine with Rocket," Chrome says.

"We're both still working with our 'home projects,' so to speak. But we both enjoy where this is going and want to keep on doing it. We'll see how it forms and progresses."

Cleveland's Punk Rock Legacy

To get a flavor, at least in part, of what Cleveland and its punk scene were like "back in the day," "Diary of a Punk" by Pagans frontman Mike Hudson is cited by many of Cleveland's punk fans as required reading.

Not surprisingly, only remnants of Cleveland's original punk scene remains. The majority of the clubs that spawned it are remembered in name only on message boards like ClePunk.com.

Outside of Pere Ubu, Rocket from the Tombs and a few others, most of Cleveland's punk bands from the halcyon days are not active anymore.

But the spirit is carried on in Cleveland's concert clubs like the Beachland Ballroom, Peabody's, the Grog Shop, Euclid Tavern and Now That's Class; in local bands like This Moment in Black History, Coffinberry and Cobra Verde, which tap into the Cle-punk zeitgeist as they spin out wholly new and original, punk-inspired rock music; and in the DIY aesthetic of labels like Collectible Escalators and Exit Stencil Recordings.

And then there's the Beachland's annual "Old Home Night" concert at the end of every year that often features erstwhile Cleveland punk pioneers and indie rockers who were a part of the scene in those days.

"That's where one could say refugees of that scene gather in sort of impromptu jams," Wolff offers. "The last one I went to featured some inspired playing. Most of it wasn't punk, but it was beautiful."

Sources:

http://www.fastnbulbous.com/punk.htm

http://blog.cleveland.com/top_entertainment/2007/10/sex_pistols.html

http://www.wcpn.org/WCPN/news/15717

http://www.clepunk.com

http://www.trouserpress.com/

http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/23745774.html

http://clevelandscreaming.blogspot.com/

http://www.smogveil.com/ecom/

http://www.myspace.com/thismomentinblackhistory

http://www.uttertrash.net/mikehudson.htm