Letters

—Christopher Barnes
Studio City

GARAGE BANDS AND THEIR DADS

In “The Kids Aren’t Alright” [September 19–25], Jay Babcock talks about punk as if it were out of one’s reach and so below the radar. Cool. I guess it was, but only to keep out the scared and uninformed conformed like Babcock. He lived in Upland? Then he lived 18 minutes away from Toxic Shock, which, located in Pomona, was the best punk rock record distributor in all of the United States. They carried everything from early releases by Dischord Records to costume punk like the Sex Pistols. The store was open until 1988. By then, punk was available everywhere — or at least at Rhino Records in Claremont.

—Josh Dugan
Los Angeles

Thank you, Jay Babcock, for another insightful article. There’s another component that I’d like to add. I may have turned Dan on to Delta and Chicago Blues (Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters, etc.), but Dan turned me on to Hound Dog Taylor, Cedell Davis and Junior Kimbrough. My life has been greatly enhanced by Dan’s reciprocation. I consider myself one pretty lucky father.

—Chuck Auerbach
Los Angeles

XXXL

Jay Babcock’s [September 26–October 2] Live in L.A. reference to the size of the fans of the Allman Brothers Band was hurtful and unnecessary. I don’t believe weight has anything to do with one’s ability to appreciate beautiful music. And Warren Haynes is proof enough that extra weight does not impede the creation of beautiful music, either.

—Angela Christofides
Brooklyn

CORRECTION

A passage was mistakenly omitted from Randy Tveidt’s letter to the editor [“A Break From Politics,” September 19–25]. Tveidt’s description of Boze Hadleigh’s two books should have read as follows: “While one of his two new books, Holy Matrimony, is fun and inclusive of all love relationships, as writer Dawn Dumpert points out, Celebrity Lies! is entertaining and informative, with the valuable message of looking beyond media babble, stereotypes and now-acceptable hyperbole — be it about celebrities, love, lifestyle, politics or pop culture — and learning to question and to think for oneself.”