We Got Power! Hardcore Punk Scenes from 1980s Southern California

Press release

September 8–October 6, 2012 HELD OVER BY POPULAR DEMAND FOR ANOTHER TWO WEEKS (ENDS 10/20)

Opening reception Saturday, September 8, 2012. Starts at 6 PM

RAYMOND PETTIBON adds to the exhibition:

Description: Jordan Schwartz in the "Punk Shack" (an abandoned real estate office taken over by teenage friends David Markey & Jordan Schwartz, Santa Monica 1982)

Track 16 Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition and installation, WE GOT P0WER!: We Survived the Pit, celebrating the release of the book "WE GOT P0WER! Hardcore Punk Scenes From 1980s Southern California" By David Markey & Jordan Schwartz [Bazillion Points Books, 2012]. The exhibition runs from September 8 to October 6, 2012 HELD OVER BY POPULAR DEMAND FOR ANOTHER TWO WEEKS (ENDS 10/20) with an opening reception on Saturday, September 8 from 6 to 11 PM. The opening will feature live music by Adolescents, Saccharine Trust, The Last, White Flag, & Dead Issue. It is important to note that WE GOT P0WER!: We Survived the Pit threatens to be Track 16 Gallery's last exhibition before it is demolished to make way for Metro's light rail. Please check our website for updates. Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday from noon to 6 PM.

As a pre-teenager, David Markey began making 8mm and Super-8 films while publishing

neighborhood newspapers in Santa Monica in the mid 1970s. In 1979 he met fellow teenager Jordan Schwartz and by 1981 they founded We Got Power!, a fanzine dedicated to the first-generation hardcore punk music community in Los Angeles, and beyond.

Armed with a typewriter, exacto-blades, Letraset rub-on lettering, and rubber cement

they fashioned collaged spreads of their collected images and they reported on the burgeoning underground scene. Their text and cameras captured local bands; Black Flag, the Minutemen, Circle Jerks, Social Distortion, Red Cross/Redd Kross, Suicidal Tendencies, Descendents, White Flag, the Last, the Gun Club, Saccharine Trust, Sin 34, Circle One, Firehose, and many others at the height of their creativity.  In the process, the duo's photographs also captured the dilapidated storefronts, and dereliction of the early 1980s Reagan era Southern California landscape. We Got Power! also looked beyond its singular 213 area code, giving attention to emerging national acts such as Minor Threat, The Necros, Husker Du, The Misfits, M.D.C., Big Boys, D.R.I., the Butthole Surfers, & Flipper.

The exhibition focuses on the impact of hardcore punk on Markey, Schwartz

and friends, and the way this music would influence and effect their lives and artistic output. Celebrated in a richly dense installation the exhibition will include their unique photographs, 'zines [Neighborhood Journal, We Got Power], films ["The Slog Movie", "Desperate Teenage Lovedolls", "Lovedolls Superstar" & more], videos, skateboards, ephemera, and original art by Raymond Pettibon, Cameron Jamie as well as others.

For more information and updates, please visit our website

For press images, please contact Jordan Schwartz at the number above.

David Markey was born December 3, 1963, in Burbank, CA. He made his first

film at the age of 11 and published a neighborhood newspaper at 12. In 1980, he

became involved in the local underground music scene. Markey was a part of We Got Power magazine from 1981 to 1983, then kept the name alive through his independent film production company We Got Power Films. He helped form Sin 34 in 1981, and captured the punk scene in the Super 8 film The Slog Movie. He co-wrote and directed Desperate Teenage Lovedolls in 1984. He photographed, edited, co-wrote, and directed Lovedolls Superstar in 1986. Also that year, his second band Painted Willie toured the continental United States with Black Flag for six months, a period depicted in his tour doc Reality 86'd (1991). In 1991, he joined Sonic Youth and Nirvana for a Summer European tour, which yielded his documentary 1991 The Year Punk Broke. Most recently he made the documentaries The Reinactors (2008) and My Career As A Jerk (2012). Markey has also directed music videos for Redd Kross, Black Flag, Meat Puppets, fIREHOSE, Shonen Knife, Mudhoney, Pat Smear and many others, and collaborated with visual artists Cameron Jamie, Raymond Pettibon, and Kim Gordon.

Jordan Schwartz met David Markey while skateboarding in a flooded Santa

Monica parking garage in 1979. As they discovered the growing Los Angeles

hardcore punk rock scene, Jordan teamed up with David, his sister, Jennifer,

and Alan Gilbert to found We Got Power magazine. Jordan contributed in many

roles, including that of staff photographer. Jordan had producing and acting roles

in Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and the sequel, Lovedolls Superstar,

notably appearing as the rock star Brews Springstein. Jordan facilitated the

release of three Black Flag skateboards featuring original artwork by Raymond

Pettibon. In 1984, Jordan began working and living at SST Records' Global

Network Agency booking gigs and tours for various high-profile bands (Dinosaur Jr., Saint Vitus, H. R., Saccharine Trust, DC3, The Mentors, and others) during the pioneering years of the U.S. independent music scene.