Never too Young to Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Third Grade Punk of "Old Skull"

There’s been much ado—countless articles, TV appearances galore,  a whole movie even—about pre-teen rockers Unlocking the Truth. Which is fine and all, but what if I told you there was another band, decades before, that were even younger, sold more records, toured extensively, and rode a wave of minor rock fame all the way to high school?

It’s true. And if Unlocking the Truth knew what happened to ‘em after the band broke up—a saga much grimmer than your average episode of VH1’s Behind the Music—they’d find new hobbies. Old Skull formed in Madison, Wisconsin when a couple of punk rock dads—Vern Toulon (Missing Foundation) and Robin Davies (Tar Babies)—decided to recruit their sons into the lucrative world of indie-rock. Toulon’s kids JP and Jamie handled guitar/vocals and keyboards respectively, and Davies’ stepson JP pounded the skins. They “wrote” songs about hot dogs and AIDS (most people assume Toulon senior composed the music, but the truth is lost in the mists of time) and bashed ‘em out with impressive energy, if not finesse. Which was fine, I mean, it was hardcore punk made by kids who were in the third-grade.

Johnny Rotten opens the Reykjavik Punk Museum

Johnny Lydon, otherwise known as Johnny Rotten. mbl.is/Freyja Gylfa

Reykjavik has a new museum, the Iceland Punk Museum and, with a nod to anarchy it's actually located in the former public toilets in Bankastræti in the city centre. Who better to open a punk museum than the world's most famous punk - John Lydon- better known as Johnny Rotten from legendary UK punk band The Sex Pistols.
Lydon is a guest of the Iceland Airwaves festival and took part in the Airwords programme at Harpa where he read excerpts from his books.
The Icelandic Punk Museum offers a fascinating look at the history of punk in Iceland with photographs and objects related to the period around 1980. Iceland's music history is documented from early days to the punk and new wave revolution which in turn served to create some of Iceland's best known artists including Björk, The Sugarcubes and Sigur Rós.

Watch PBS’ 11-Minute Segment On The Ramones From 1978

The Ramones played the State Theater in Minneapolis in 1978. Here’s a great 11-minute segment from the local PBS Station, KTCA, where the band talks about the punk scene in England, with a few scorching moments of performance.

Cooking with the Butthole Surfers: Gibby Haynes’ dessert and drink recipes

If you were going to ask musicians for recipes, the Butthole Surfers might seem like unlikely candidates. There isn’t a Martha Stewart type among them; indeed, their dancer, Kathleen, once mixed her own urine in with the macaroni and cheese. But reading through the band’s old interviews has more in common with taking a Home Ec class than you might expect.