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Raymond Pettibon – Books

Portrait of Raymond Pettibon, Los Angeles, California 1983. Copyright Edward Colver.

Between the years 1978 and 1986, Raymond Pettibon (a.k.a., Raymond Pettibone; St. Pettibone; Chuck Higby; Ray Dylan; Raymond Ginn) produced an aggressive trove of graphic works for seminal Southern California punk bands, providing them with a visual identity that mirrored the sound they were inflicting.

To market the albums, SST Records—which was founded by Pettibon’s brother and Black Flag guitarist, Greg Ginn—was formed when no other labels would take the bands on. It was with Ginn’s foresight that Pettibon’s artwork first began to appear on the covers of SST’s bands album covers, gig flyers, and later t-shirts, stickers, and skate decks, all at a time prior to Pettibon thinking of himself as an artist and long before he began showing in commercial art galleries.

“The flyers were one of the best things about working with SST,” recalls the lanky Pettibon at his Redondo Beach studio. “It’s more of a general audience when it goes on a telephone pole. It’s not something that you can buy in a store or see on TV. You see it at a glance and you can’t switch it off.”
—from “Black Flag Cover is Pure Pettibon,” by Jeff Spurrier, Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1984

Many of the images for the gig flyers were drawn from the pages of the forty-seven artists’ books by Pettibon that were published by SST. In addition to flyers for Black Flag’s gigs, Pettibon’s artwork graces flyers for bands such as Angst, Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, Descendents, D.O.A., Fear, Throbbing Gristle, Germs, Go-Go’s, Hüsker Dü, Meat Puppets, Minutemen, Ramones, Red Cross, Saccharine Trust, Stains, Subhumans, TSOL, Wasted Youth, Youth Gone Mad, and others. Pettibon is also credited with both conceiving the band’s name—a riff on the British heavy metal band Black Sabbath and the legendary Black Flag insecticide—as well as designing Black Flag’s iconic four black bar “flag” logo.

Post 1986, Pettibon was commissioned to produce covers for Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, and various bands that have included Pettibon himself as a musician such as Blank, Super Session, and Sür Drone.

Beginning with Raymond Pettibon’s first artists’ book, Captive Chains, published in 1978, his publications contain a myriad body of explicit, graphic, sexual, and violent material. Famously, the announcement card for Pettibon’s first New York City one-man exhibition, held at the Semaphore Gallery in March 1986, reads: “I am the wrench in people’s lives, really fixing them up.”


A note on the sequence of publications: Ohrt appears to have listed
publications in alphabetical order within years; this checklist follows the order that was set forth in the SST Records merchandise lists where each publication was assigned a number based on the order of publication date.


1. Pettibone, Raymond. CAPTIVE CHAINS
Lawndale: SST Publications, November 1978
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 7.25” x 10.5”, 64 pages, 5000 copies (according to Ohrt, only approximately 100 were sold), offset printed. (SST P-1) (Ohrt 1) 

From the introduction: “’In this issue: no bronze-skinned barbarians, their wonderful muscles rippling, a strip of hide hiding —; no lush science fiction, art nouveau, mythology (pick 1) pieces to hang next to your McDonald’s Neiman; no art as therapy for devotees of de Sade and Sacher-Masoch; no stories about peace-loving hippies vs. heartless authorities, set in the summer of love… 2067; no superheroes for your kid brother.”

2. Pettibon, Raymond. TRIPPING CORPSE
Lawndale: Raymond Pettibon, 1981
Side-stapled in printed and illustrated covers, 8.5” x 11”, 48 pages, (according to Ohrt, limitation unknown), offset printed on rectos only. (SST P-2) (Ohrt 2)

Contents include Black Flag interview and “Psychedelic Translation” of Alan Ginsberg’s Howl.

3. Pettibon, Raymond. ASBESTOS
Lawndale: SST Publications, 1982
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-3) (Ohrt 3)

4. Pettibon, Raymond. OTHER CHRISTS
Lawndale: SST Publications, 1982
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 32 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-4) (Ohrt 7)

5. Pettibon, Raymond. A NEW WAVE OF VIOLENCE 
Lawndale: SST Publications, May 1982
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-5) (Ohrt 6)

6. Pettibon, Raymond. TRIPPING CORPSE 2: THE HIPPIE THING
Lawndale: SST Publications, October 1982
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 32 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-6) (Ohrt 8)

(SST P-7: [poster] “Turn off the Radio…”)
(SST P-8: [poster] “Parents of Punkers”)
(SST P-9: [poster] “O.D. a Hippie”)
(SST P-10: [poster] “Patty/Tania”)

7. Pettibon, Raymond. FREUD’S UNIVERSE
Lawndale: SST Publications, October 1982
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 32 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-11) (Ohrt 4)

8. Pettibon, Raymond. MY STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AFTER DEATH
Lawndale: SST Publications, October 1982
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 32 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-12) (Ohrt 5)

(SST P-13: [poster] “Free Charlie”)

9. Pettibon, Raymond. VIRGIN FEARS
Lawndale: SST Publications, January 1983
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 32 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-14) (Ohrt 11)

10. Pettibon, Raymond. CAPRICIOUS MISSIVES
Lawndale: SST Publications, April 1983
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-15) (Ohrt 9)

11. Pettibon, Raymond. TRIPPING CORPSE 3
Lawndale: SST Publications, March 1983
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 32 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-16) (Ohrt 10)

(SST P-17: [skateboard] “No Not, Ever!”)
(SST P-18: [lyrics book] My War)
(SST P-19: [skateboard] “Reason for Living”)

12. Pettibon, Raymond. TRIPPING CORPSE FOUR
Lawndale: SST Publications, August 1984
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-20) (Ohrt 17)

13. Pettibon, Raymond. LANA
Lawndale: SST Publications, August 1984
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-21) ( Ohrt 16)

14. Pettibon, Raymond. Kismet’s Account 
Lawndale: SST Publications, August 1984
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-22) (Ohrt 15)

15. Pettibon, Raymond. CONSOLE, HEAL, OR DEPICT
Lawndale: SST Publications, August 1984
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-23) (Ohrt 13)

16. Pettibon, Raymond. TRIPPING CORPSE 5
Lawndale: SST Publications, August 1984
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-24) (Ohrt 18)

17. Pettibon, Raymond. HENRY ROLLINS – 20
Lawndale: SST Publications, 1984
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 24 pages. Poems by Henry Rollins. (SST P-25)

18. Pettibon, Raymond and Nelson Tarpenny. THE BIBLE, THE BOTTLE, AND THE BOMB
Lawndale: SST Publications, September 1984
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-26) (Ohrt 12)

19. Pettibon, Raymond. HORIZONINGS: MY COMING CRASH (AND HOW TO AVOID IT)
Lawndale: SST Publications, November 1984
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 16 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed on rectos only. (Ohrt 14)

Note: no SST publication number assigned to this title; not found in any SST catalog.

20. Pettibon, Raymond and Mike Watt. AMERICAN LYNCH LAW
Lawndale: SST Publications, 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-27) (Ohrt 19)

21. Pettibon, Raymond. CARS, TV, ROCKETS, H-BOMB – – YOU NAME IT 
Lawndale: SST Publications, March 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (P-28, Ohrt 21)

22. Pettibon, Raymond. THE SKULL GLOBE
Lawndale: SST Publications, April 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-29) (Ohrt 34)

23. Pettibon, Raymond and Nelson Tarpenny. SHORT TEATS, BLOODY MILK
Lawndale: SST Publications, March 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-30) (Ohrt 33)

24. Pettibon, Raymond. WEIN, WEIB, UND GESANG
Lawndale: SST Publications, March 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-31) (Ohrt 37)

25. Pettibon, Raymond. JANE’S BOOK OF FIGHTING 
Lawndale: SST Publications, March 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-32) (Ohrt 24)

26. Pettibon, Raymond and Nelson Tarpenny. NEW WAVY GRAVY
Lawndale: SST Publications, March 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-33) (Ohrt 28)

(SST P-34: [lyrics book] Slip it In [?])
(SST P-35: [flyers] Black Flag)
(SST P-36: [book] Rollins, Henry. 2.13.61)
(SST P-37: [lyrics book] Damaged)
(SST P-38: [patch] Black Flag)

27. Pettibon, Raymond. THE NAVIGATOR’S WIVES
Lawndale: SST Publications, March 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-39) (Ohrt 27)

28. Pettibon, Raymond. JUST HAPPY TO BE WORKING
Lawndale: SST Publications, March 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-40) (Ohrt 25)

29. Pettibon, Raymond. THE OBSERVABLE WORLD
Lawndale: SST Publications, March 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-41) (Ohrt 30)

30. Pettibon, Raymond. TRIPPING CORPSE 6
Lawndale: SST Publications, April 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-42) (Ohrt 35)

Contents include Sonic Youth interview

31. Pettibon, Raymond and Nelson Tarpenny. A CAN AT THE CROSSROADS
Lawndale: SST Publications, April 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-43) (Ohrt 20)

32. Pettibon, Raymond. THE EXPRESS SEX TRAIN
Lawndale: SST Publications, April 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-44) (Ohrt 22)

33. Pettibon, Raymond. LIKE DEATH VALLEY
Lawndale: SST Publications, April 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-45) (Ohrt 26)

(SST P-46: [poster] “In My Head’ [?])
(SST P-47: [poster] “Loose Nut” [?])
(SST P-48: [book] Rollins, Henry. End to End)

34. Pettibon, Raymond. EXTERMINATING THE EAGLES
Lawndale: SST Publications, June 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-49) (Ohrt 23)

35. Pettibon, Raymond. PIG CUPID
Lawndale: SST Publications, June 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-50) (Ohrt 31)

36. Pettibon, Raymond. TRIPPING CORPSE 7 – MEDEA IS THE MASSAGE
Lawndale: SST Publications, 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-51) (Ohrt 36)

37. Pettibon, Raymond. NEW WAVY GRAVY 2
Lawndale: SST Publications, 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-52) (Ohrt 29)

Contents include Minutemen interview

38. Pettibon, Raymond and Michael Gira. SELFISHNESS
Lawndale: SST Publications, 1985
Saddle-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages, 500 numbered copies (according to Ohrt, 400 were destroyed), offset printed. (SST P-53) (Ohrt 32)

[end of Pettibon publications assigned SST number]

The Weirdos – Unofficial Releases

>> return to The Weirdos page >>

This index features only vinyl and includes unofficial releases


B. Unofficial Releases

1. Weirdos ‎– It Means Nothing
Label: Punk Vault
Catalog Number: PV-4
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Released: 1988

Notes: recording of the bands first demo session, recorded in Hollywood in 1977

Tracklist
A ‎– It Means Nothing
B ‎– Neutron Bomb

2. Weirdos ‎– Ranting In A Rubber Room!!!
Label: None
Catalog Number: None
Format: 2 × Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, EP
Released: 1992

Notes: Recording of a Weirdos rehearsal, recorded in Hollywood in 1977.

Tracklist
A1 ‎– Message From The Underworld
A2 ‎– Bad
B1 ‎– Life Of Crime
B2 ‎– Go Kid Hugo
C1 ‎– Scream Baby Scream
C2 ‎– Teenage
D1 ‎– Why Do You Exist?
D2 ‎– Do The Dance
D3 ‎– Destroy All Music

The Weirdos – Releases

>> return to The Weirdos page >>

This index features only vinyl and includes official releases


A. Releases

1. Weirdos – Destroy All Music
Label: BOMP!
Catalog Number: Bomp 112
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, EP
Released: 1977

Notes: Some copies of the first pressing came with a folded Weirdos Fan Club insert.

Tracklist
A1 – Destroy All Music
B1 – A Life of Crime
B2 – Why Do You Exist?

2. The Weirdos ‎– We Got The Neutron Bomb
Label: Dangerhouse
Catalog Number: SP-1063
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Released: 1978

Notes: Around 5000 of the pressing made, but only about 2500 sold, the rest were destroyed in a flood.

Tracklist
A – We Got The Neutron Bomb
B – Solitary Confinement

3. Weirdos ‎– Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Label: BOMP!
Catalog Number: BLP-4007
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, LP
Released: 1979

Notes: The Weirdos first 12″, a “mini-album”.

Tracklist
A1 ‎– Happy People
A2 ‎– Big Shot (In The Head)
A3 ‎– Jungle Rock
B1 ‎– Hit Man
B2 ‎– Idle Life
B3 ‎– Fort USA

4. The Weirdos ‎– A Life Of Crime
Label: Line Records
Catalog Number: 6.14391
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Released: 1985

Notes: A re-release of the band’s first single Destroy all Music (BOMP!, 1977).

Tracklist
A ‎– A Life Of Crime
B ‎– Destroy All Music

5. The Weirdos ‎– Message From The Underworld
Label: Insipid Vinyl
Catalog Number: IV-04
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Released: 1991

Notes: Message from the Underworld Recorded at The Sound Factory, Hollywood, CA in July 1980. Teenage Recorded at Shangri-La, Malibu, CA in July 1978.

Tracklist
A ‎– Message From The Underworld
B ‎– Teenage

6. The Weirdos ‎– Bourbon
Label: Frontier Records
Catalog Number: Boozewax-002
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Released: November 2015

Notes: Cover art by Jaime Hernandez. Side A recorded in 1977; side B recorded in 1980.

Tracklist
A ‎– We Got The Neutron Bomb
B ‎– Helium Bar

The Weirdos

The Weirdos are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California. They formed in 1975 and broke up in 1981, were occasionally active in the 1980s, and recorded new material in the 1990s. Critic Mark Deming calls them “quite simply, one of the best and brightest American bands of punk’s first wave.”

The band was formed in 1975 by singer John Denney and his guitarist brother Dix, initially using the band names the Barbies and the Luxurious Adults. The Weirdos were originally a 1950s-inspired hard rock and roll band that, like the Ramones in New York City, predated the UK punk scene. While initially trying to distance themselves from the genre name “punk” that was created in New York, ultimately the band, in the words of John Denney, “just kinda became more like this punk ROCK N ROLL type thing and we kinda went with it because the fans wanted it. They wore us down and we just said ‘OK, fine! We’re punk rock, similar to the Ramones. Whatever you say.'”


Show List and Key Dates – This index features show dates, venues, and flyers


Releases – This index features only vinyl and includes official releases

Unofficial Releases – This index features only vinyl and includes unofficial recordings

If-Then-Else – Side project by Dix Denny and John Denny


In a 1990 Flipside interview, John Denney listed the Ramones, New York Dolls and Iggy Pop as fundamental musical inspirations, adding:

“When we saw the Ramones in ’76, we already had short hair and we were already playing fast music like that in late 1975 in small venues and halls mostly, but the Ramones really made us decide to go for it even more. We came before the Sex Pistols and The Damned. They may have been our peers later, but we already had a set of songs in 1975 which were sort of Ramones meets Iggy Pop’s Stooges influenced punk songs. Well before any of the UK bands started cloning America’s punk sound and before any of the UK albums were released. I always felt we were a true garage punk band…”

Denney claimed that the band’s name dated from the early part of the 1970s and referred to his countercultural short hair, at a time when long hair on men was the fashion of the day. “In 1974 according to some left over hippies, I looked like a lobotomy, hippies thought I was weird,” Denney said. “A few months later when we formed, the rest of the band got really short cropped hair too. “We were all weird then, we were considered weirdos”.

By the beginning of 1977, the Weirdos were able to pack clubs (eventually including the Whisky a Go Go, The Roxy and later The Masque) as a headlining band. Known for their zany stage costumes and antics, the band helped shape the vigorous and experimental early Los Angeles punk scene and served as an inspiration to a crop of new bands.

John Denney recalled:

“We [Los Angeles] had our own look, our own sound. It was apart from New York or London…. We were staunchly against safety pins, we tried to parody punk rock at first. We did happy faces onstage as a joke sometimes, which was the exact opposite of what New York was doing. We were just thumbing our noses at everything. Everything was a joke; punk was a joke, we were a joke. Nonetheless, we were still serious about rocking.”


Online Resources

Amoeba Music – The Weirdos biography

Break My Face – The Weirdos biography

Discogs – The Weirdos discography