'Punk' Magazine

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Surely no further proof regarding the US's punk credentials is necessary when you consider the magazine 'Punk'. Originally to be called 'Teenage News' after an unreleased New York Dolls song it was Legs McNeil who suggested the title 'Punk'.

'Punk' seemed to sum up the thread that connected everything we liked - drunk, obnoxious, smart but not pretentious, absurd, funny, ironic, and things that appealed to the darker side. Legs McNeil - Please Kill Me

John Holmstrom (a cartoonist) was the editor, Ged Dunn (businessman) the publisher and Legs was the resident punk. Musically the initial frame of reference was The Velvets, The Stooges, Ramones, The New York Dolls, and the Dictators.
 
'Punk' magazine ran for 15 issues from January 1976 to June 1979 and all bar the Sex Pistols puppet cover (#14) featured Holstrom's cartoons on the cover. In terms of content the magazine always seemed to cover the usual suspects on the NY scene so there were interviews/features on Patti Smith, Television, Ramones, Blondie, Richard Hell and Iggy. It also included the Pistols and Clash.

The one thing it lacked though is for a so called 'punk' scene paper it doesn't have any focus, any ethos and certainly no passion.  Its professional and its expensively printed but feels like a cosy pals act all based around CBGB's key bands.

In fact it could be said that  the magazine accurately reflects the so called US punk scene in that there was no focus musically, ideologically or image wise.  As a magazine 'Punk' never led. It would rather spend three pages on a Mickey Mouse cartoon than feature new bands - You would be more likely to find an advert for Cheap Trick or an interview with Willie Loco Alexander (who?) Secondly how many other magazines came into being having been inspired by 'Punk'. I'm not sure there were many.
Its worth contrasting 'Punk' with its UK counterpart 'Sniffing Glue' because straight away the differences between UK and US punk are visible. I'm not saying one is better or worse but 'Sniffing Glue' is direct, forceful, provoking, in your face, amateurish but raw and full of youth and documents a scene as it happens with its highs and lows. 

Its ironic that in Please Kill Me Legs says that the Sex Pistols killed punk as it became a phony media thing and because of that he quit 'Punk' magazine. Its ironic because bands can't exist in a vacuum in the Bowery. Punk went commercial because it had to because bands need to sell records. 'Punk' magazine didn't move with the times - mid '78 it was featuring the Bay City Rollers and early '79 a Sid & Nancy interview. Punk had moved on without 'Punk.'

Sniffing Glue 1

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