When recently in New York I was fortunate to catch a short run punk & post-punk themed gallery exhibit that included some wonderful posters, flyers, and other memorabilia of this music from the mid 70's through the early '80's. Titled Rude and Reckless: Punk/Post Punk Graphics 1976 - 82 this one-month only exhibit at the Kasher Steven Gallery on W 23rd St in the Chelsea district, that closes this week but is rumored to be coming to the West Coast sometime in the future, is a most engaging collection for anyone with even a passing interest in this influential time period in music. Simultaneously on display in the same space is the related Laura Levine: Musicians photo exhibit that overlaps some of this same period but whose timeline runs up to a decade later.

This photography section of the exhibit is credited exclusively to NYC music photographer Laura Levine who reportedly started out by talking her way into punk clubs and their backstage areas with a camera slung round her neck and a fake press pass in hand. Within no time she was a legit member of the press working as photographer for the likes of the The New York Rocker, Village Voice, and Rolling Stone. Many of her photos on display (nearly all black and white) intimately capture that famed early 80's Downtown New York scene; a world that included artists and musicians from all backgrounds and genres. Photos include Afrika Bambaataa, an early days 1982 Madonna, the Beastie Boys and Run DMC together in a group shot, John Doe and Exene Cervenka (during their X days), Joey Ramone, and The Clash.
Meanwhile the Rude and Reckless: Punk/Post-Punk Graphics, 1976–82 portion of the gallery includes two hundred plus items on display. As well as posters and flyers (there's a great one from the Mabuhay Gardens in SF that featured the DKs, Angst, Toxic Reasons, and the short-lived talented local band the Fried Abortions) are fanzines, flyers, clothing, stickers, and punk buttons/badges.

1977: Crime & the City Solution formed in Sydney. It seems that almost from their inception they were cursed to never be spoken of without a mention of famous Australian Nick Cave. Their original line-up included vocalist Simon Bonney (the band's only permanent member), Don McLennan on drums, Harry Zanteni on guitar, Phil Kitchener on bass and Dave MacKinnon on soprano and tenor saxophones. Simon Bonney, whilst born in Australia proper, had grown up on a remote farm in Tasmania where his family grew wheat, barley and opium poppies before he moved to Sydney.

Shortly after their formation, Crime & the City Solution relocated to Melbourne and the line-up changed with Dan Wallace-Crabbe taking over guitar, Kim Beissel replacing Dave MacKinnon, Lindsay O'Meara handling bass and Chris Astley joining on keyboards. The band recorded a handful of demos and some live performances are available; the recordings are interesting. Simon Bonney's distinct, moaning vocals are immediately recognizable. The music sounds very much of its time -- kind of a dark, brittle post-punk with saxophone that makes it sound vaguely Roxy Music. It's a bit raw but miles ahead of the contemporaneous Boys Next Door, who aside from their cover of the Young Charlatans "Shivers," were pretty awful. [Note: If you have the Young Charlatans demos, please let me know.]

The Boys Next Door, by their second album, 1980's Birthday Party, pursued (thankfully) a sound very different from the bland predecessor of the previous year, Door, Door. Now the band careened through a cacophonous terrain owing a lot to The Cramps while taking a bit from Crime & the City Solution's post-punk take on The Doors as well. The Boys Next Door relocated to London, signed to the 4AD record label and got huge. Meanwhile, Crime & the City Solution remained silent. I'm tempted to make the analogy of the story of Hedwig and Tommy Gnosis but, to be fair, The Birthday Party was an amazing band with a lot of talent... and a lot of ego. Rowland S. Howard, The Birthday Party's guitarist and writer of some of the band's most amazing songs and Nick Cave disbanded the group in 1984.

One recent afternoon, while ambling through the rock vinyl aisles of Amoeba Berkeley, my eye caught that great Joy Division album cover Unknown Pleasures. Wow, I thought, just how perfect is that cover artwork that was actually taken from an edition of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy? And how even more perfect is that whole album -- originally released on June 15th, 1979? I could listen to it and everything by Joy Division a million times over and never get tired of hearing it. Even the over-played and over-covered "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (released a month after Curtis' suicide) never ages in my head. Perhaps part of the greatness of all this music is that it is frozen in time, never having to be matched by later releases from a band that came to an abrupt early end after the tragically troubled lead-singer Ian Curtis had literally kicked the bucket -- instantly making him and Joy Division stuff of music legend, to be forever admired and romanticized in pop culture from afar.

But what (let's just imagine) if Ian Kevin Curtis hadn't hung himself back on May 18th, 1980, at the young age of 23? What if instead, he had kept on living and making music with Joy Division (meaning, of course, that there would have been no New Order), cranking out (increasingly weaker and weaker) albums throughout the eighties and up until an ugly break-up in 1997, followed by Ian Curtis completely disappearing for many years up until, let's again pretend, in 2004 when the producers of VH1's Band Reunited track him down. What if they find him old, fat, bald, bitter and living in a bedsit in Birmingham? Then, encouraged by VH1's intervention, he officially pulls himself together, temporarily kicks his age old habit, and tours small clubs with a new Joy Division lineup doing at best average covers of his old songs. Not pretty, eh? Not compared to the perfectly preserved, romantically tragic Ian Curtis that is the pop culture icon today.