Brendan Mullen-- Dead At 60

Mike and Brendan

Right now I'm finishing up the exciting new book by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor, Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day. It's an invigorating if nostalgic trip for me back into a special period of my life. This morning, though, I was jolted out of my comfort zone by an e-mail from an old friend, bass player Mike Watt of the Minutemen and fIREHOSE. He informed me that Brendan Mullen had died yesterday.

brendan mullen was always very kind to me... in the old days, always a kindness and interest. when the band before the minutemen made two cassettes of a prac (only recording of them), I gave one to brendan-- he was only person to get cuz the other got kept in a drawer. ever
since old days we'd have huge spiels together, lots. intelligent man. helpful man. drummerman too. he'd call me w/ideas all the time... more recent was to make album... now there's no time. fuck. he was great cat, great cat! big love always to him from mike watt. he touched many folks' lives...

big loss for our team-- missing you!

Brendan is best known for having founded and run L.A.'s most vibrant punk rock club, the Masque, in 1977 at 1655 North Cherokee. I always thought of him as someone who was doing in L.A. what I was doing in San Francisco-- trying to promote a more genuine and authentic music at a time when corporate rock was peaking and in its death throes. We were born within months of each other and, like most people he met, I always liked him a lot and found him a pleasure to deal with. This morning's L.A. Times memorialized him as the creator of "an underground space that became a crucible for musicians and fans who felt alienated from mainstream society. Anger, frustration and self-deprecating humor flowered in the assaultive music that had been roiling in New York and London, as L.A. bands including the Weirdos, the Germs, the Dils and the Screamers turned up regularly at the Masque for some of their earliest performances. 'He was the first promoter of punk rock in this town,' veteran promoter Paul Tollett of Goldenvoice Presents said Monday. 'Everything started with him.'"
RIP