Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run.
The Mabuhay Gardens, also known as The Fab Mab or The Mab, was a former San Francisco nightclub, located at 443 Broadway Street, in North Beach on the Broadway strip area best known for its striptease clubs. It closed in 1987.
Steven John Bator, known professionally as Stiv Bator and later as Stiv Bators, was an American punk rock vocalist and guitarist from Youngstown, Ohio. He is best remembered for his bands Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church.
Units were an American synthpunk band that was founded in San Francisco in 1978. It was active until 1984. They were one of America's earliest electronic new wave bands, and have been cited as pioneers of synthpunk, also retrospectively known as "electropunk". The Units were notable for their use of synthesizers in place of guitars, and multimedia performances featuring multiple projections of satirical, instructional films critical of conformity and consumerism.
Romeo Void was an American new wave/post punk band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. The band primarily consisted of saxophonist Benjamin Bossi, vocalist Debora Iyall, guitarist Peter Woods, and bassist Frank Zincavage. The band went through four drummers, starting with Jay Derrah and ending with Aaron Smith. The band released three albums, It's a Condition, Benefactor and Instincts, along with one EP. They are best known for the songs "Never Say Never" and "A Girl in Trouble "; the latter became a Top 40 pop single.
Dicks were an American punk rock band from Austin, Texas, formed in 1980 and initially disbanded in 1986. After the first breakup, singer Gary Floyd formed the band Sister Double Happiness, with drummer Lynn Perko, then later fronted a project called Black Kali Ma. In 2004, The Dicks reunited and were active until 2016.
The Screamers were an American electropunk group founded in 1975. They were among the first wave of the L.A. punk rock scene. The Los Angeles Times applied the label "techno-punk" to the band in 1978. In the documentary Punk: Attitude (2005), vocalist Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys cites the Screamers as a key influence on their group and as one of the great unrecorded groups in rock history.
415 Records was a San Francisco record label created in 1978. The label focused its efforts on local punk rock and new wave music acts of the late 1970s through the late 1980s, including The Offs, The Nuns, The Units, Romeo Void, and Wire Train. Its name, pronounced four-one-five, was a play on both the telephone area code for the San Francisco area and the California penal code section for disturbing the peace. The label had a productive partnership with Columbia Records from 1981 until shortly before it was sold in 1989 to Sandy Pearlman, who retitled the label Popular Metaphysics.
The Nuns was an American rock band based in San Francisco and New York City. Best known as one of the founding acts of the early San Francisco punk scene, the band went through a number of hiatuses and periodic reunions, lineup changes, and changes in style. Overall, The Nuns performed and recorded on and off from the mid-1970s into the 2000s. While the band was centered on Jennifer Miro and Jeff Olener through its various incarnations, Alejandro Escovedo, who went on to later success as an Americana and alternative country musician, was also a key member during its years of fame in late 1970s San Francisco.
The Early Years Live is a video album of various live performances of the Dead Kennedys, filmed from 1978 to 1981 by Joe Reis, owner of the punk-centric video studio Target Video. It was officially released on VHS in July 1987 and on DVD in 2001.
The Deaf Club was a notable music venue located on Valencia Street in San Francisco which remained open for an 18-month period. Its main attraction was punk music. The name comes from the fact the building it was in originally began as a deaf people's clubhouse in the 1930s.
The Mutants are an American band, notable in the history of San Francisco punk rock and new wave music. They are known for their theatrical performances which often include elaborate props, projections, and comical antics. They are credited with being one of the first "Art-punk" bands in San Francisco, and were one of the most popular bands of the San Francisco punk scene during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Target Video is a San Francisco-based studio, founded by artist Joe Rees, collaborating with Jackie Sharp, Jill Hoffman, Sam Edwards and others. The studio archived early art performance, punk and hardcore bands on video and film. Performers such as the Sex Pistols, the Dead Kennedys, The Screamers, The Cramps, William S. Burroughs, The Clash, the Avengers, Mark Pauline, Survival Research Labs, The Go-Go's, John Cooper Clarke, Bauhaus, X, The Dils, Johanna Went, Talking Heads, Black Flag, Flipper, D.O.A and Crucifix were recorded in the late 1970s to the early 1980s. In addition, videos often included interviews with members of the bands.
Goldmine, established in September 1974 by Brian Bukantis out of Fraser, Michigan, is an American magazine that focuses on the collectors' market for records, tapes, CDs, and music-related memorabilia. Each issue features news articles, interviews, discographies, histories, current reviews on recording stars of the past and present. Discographies are included, listing all known releases. Coverage includes rock, blues, soul, Americana, folk, new wave, punk and heavy metal. At one point its chief competitor was DISCoveries, which later was purchased by the same owner before folding into it as a single publication.
Negative Trend was an American punk rock band active between 1977 and 1979. Before they disbanded, the band released one self-titled EP in September 1978.
David Ferguson was an American international outsider-culture impresario, activist, music producer and concert promoter. Over his career, most of which has been spent on the West Coast, he worked with musical acts such as the Avengers, John Lydon, Billy Bragg, Iggy Pop, Bad Brains, Black Flag, and Butthole Surfers and visual artists Vaughn Bode, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Barry McGee. Ferguson worked with multi-discipline artists such as avant-garde musician and spoken-word artist Lydia Lunch and the psychedelic drag queen performance group the Cockettes.
The Angry Samoans is an American punk rock band from the first wave of American punk, formed in August 1978 in Los Angeles, California, by early 1970s rock writer "Metal" Mike Saunders, his sibling lead guitarist Bonze Blayk and Gregg Turner, along with original recruits Todd Homer (bass) and Bill Vockeroth (drums).
MX-80, also known as MX-80 Sound, is an eclectic American art-rock band founded in 1974 in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, by guitarist Bruce Anderson. Considered “one of the most out of step but prescient bands of its time", MX-80's signature sound consisted of breakneck metallic guitar combined with atonal chord structure, cross-rhythmic percussion and dispassionate vocals. Notoriously difficult to categorize—the band has been labeled noise rock, post-punk, acid punk, and heavy-metal—MX-80's sonic melange set the stage for bands such as Swans, Sonic Youth, Codeine, and Shellac.
The Jars were a new wave band from Berkeley, California, active from 1978 to 1982. According to Subterranean Records founder Steven Tupper, the Jars were one of the first bands to successfully combine 1960s garage rock and 1970s punk. They recorded two singles and were known for opening for many top punk and new wave bands that appeared in San Francisco during this period.
Lionel White (1948–1998) was an American funk and punk rock musician who recorded music under the name Snuky Tate. He is best remembered for his novelty single He's the Groove (1980) about Pope John Paul II.
San Francisco, California, United States 
