Have you noticed how lately lots of folks have been yammering on about punk rock and porn? Like it’s something “new,” right? I mean, even though the original prison term “punk” is, uh, sexual in nature and pornography has worked its way just about everywhere since the dawn of civilization, folks are acting like it’s a unique thing for the two to ever cross paths. Well, of course, LOTSA guys and gals connected to the punk scene have been involved with the “sex industry” over the years; ranging from Dee Dee Ramone hustling on the corner circa ‘75 to those S&M fetish Punk Ladies of Wrestling videos that Kembra Pfahler’s been putting out. The list of participants can actually go on and on (Lisa B. Faloor’s Bikini Girl zine from that late ‘70s! Wendy O Williams’ adult loops! The Suicide Girls website! Someone you know who’s gonna be doing some stripping tonight!), but okay, okay, I’ll admit that it’s sorta new to see a more “mainstream” XXX vid that’s going out of its way to grab the punk rock nose ring while simultaneously appealing the usual porn hound consumer (which probably includes your Dad). Yeah sure, there have been a few others – in 1978 a hardcore movie called Punk Rock came out that was even less accurate than those episodes of CHiPs and Quincy from the early ‘80s (you can get it from Alpha Blue Archives if you’re really interested) – but this Little Runaway one was done recently by a buncha folks who probably have at least some of the same records you do. Well, maybe if you’re over thirty that is.
So... anyone out there remember Kilroy? Early ‘80s LA punk band? Had a kind of British ‘77 cartoon punk look about ‘em with all that goofy liberty spike stuff? C’mon! There was a letter once written to Flipside accusing them of following all the rules of McLaren’s Great Rock and Roll Swindle to get as far as they had. Just a few of you, huh? Well I guess that makes sense. They were pretty popular on the west coast for a while there, but no one seems to be talking ‘em up much these days (but hey, with all the punk nostalgia that’s running rampant, that’s sure to change eventually, right? Look for the complete discography on CD soon!).
ANYWAY, this dude “Jim Powers” (Lane) used to be IN Kilroy and NOW he’s a porn producer who’s been tossing in some bits of this punk rock stuff into his films for a while now. “I once did a video called D.P. (double penetration) Party Tonight where all the music was by Guttermouth and it’s the story of these punk rockers that invade this town and D.P. every women in the neighborhood. They spray paint this house with Black Flag, Sex Pistols and all this stuff. NOFX did the theme song to the Monkey Gang Bang. I’ve used Piss-belly, the Swingin’ Utters, Jughead’s Revenge... Fat Records gives us a lot of stuff to use,” he tells xmag.com. No, really, that’s what he said. Well anyway, from what I can gather, he and this guy Rob Rotten and a few other folks decided to remake Penelope “Beverly Hillbillies” Spheeris’s 1985 punk exploitation film Suburbia as a hardcore video called Little Runaway with all the usual stuff you’d expect in a modern mainstream porno. You know – lots of oral, anal and vaginal sex scenes that were shot on video in a couple of days with all the amateur lighting and cheesy acting you could want. The twist here is that they got D.I. and U.S. Bombs to play in a couple of scenes (with both live and synced sound) and stocked the soundtrack up with stuff from the Stitches, the Lower Class Brats and the Sick, and then dressed up a bunch of porn gals as the same kind of ‘77-UK-influenced / liberty-spiked-looking-punks that you might’ve seen at a Kilroy show on a good night around 1983.
Like I said before, the plot loosely follows Suburbia’s – a kid (a girl this time; played by Rachel Rotten) runs away from her unacceptable home life (her father not only replaces her flyers with Barbie dolls, but has taken to screwing her step sister in the living room) and winds up at a punk show where someone drugs her drink. She passes out and gets rescued in the form of being taken to a punk rock crash pad house covered in graffiti and filled with losers. These losers fuck on camera a lot more than the ones from Suburbia, of course, but the acting is just about as convincing (and having had a bit part in a porn film myself, I can tell you that it just doesn’t matter anyway since these scenes are gonna get fast forwarded through by 90% of the viewers). Still following the plot? Okay, well, the property owner is gonna tear the place down, you see, and after he and his “meat head” pal break in and have a threeway with a junkie chick in the house (Ashly More; “you guys are lucky I’m just a whore”), the gal ODs and the punks take her body back to her parents.
Then there’s a funeral scene where they start a fight with her sexually abusive uncle and all of ‘em run off except for a pair who stick around to fuck in front of the dead girl’s coffin (“this one’s for you Courtney”). Okay, now that that’s taken care of, we’re back at the house where a (fatter, older) DI are playing (lamer, newer) versions of “Richard Hung Himself” and “Johnny’s Got a Problem” as porn veteran Dave Hardman gets a blow job while wearing a Skrewdriver shirt (Alert! For what it’s worth to you, there’s also some Skrewdriver graffiti on the walls and a swastika flag tattoo on Mr. Rotten’s leg connected to something else [I couldn’t make out the whole thing]). I dunno the contextual meaning behind this stuff for the filmmakers, but it was enough to (at least publicly) sink the interest of some of my peers. You know, it’s a weird thing about porn – because you’re dealing with sex and sexual fantasies – you’re going to move into some areas that are taboo for a lot of people. The thing to remember, of course, is that stuff that gets people off can be the stuff they have no interest in exploring beyond the realm of sextime. Rough sex, power games, and race-oriented fetishes are nothing rare; but I don’t really think the folks behind this movie were trying to tap into any of that to be honest. I think they just dig them some Skrewdriver.)
And then… and then... well, and then the tape ended. Ended right in the middle of the scene. Yeah, it’s pretty common in the cheapjack world of porn – I used to work at a video store and we’d have problems like this all the time, but as a result I have no idea how this thing ends up. Well, okay I have some idea. My idea is that sperm is involved somehow. I mean, it’s a long shot, but I’m willing to go out on a pornographic limb here and say “sperm.” Oh, and I hear the Casey from D.I. gets a blowjob, too.
Okay, so there’s Little Runaway. Now I ask you, who do you think is gonna rent or buy it? Huh? Well I’m not totally sure but I’m guessing it’ll mostly be guys who aren’t busy sitting around listening to the Kill-A-Watts in their spare time or anything, but simply equate punk rock girls somehow with kinky or extreme sex. The ol’ nympho archetype who usually gets served up in smut seems a logical match to the general perception of punks, right? So that’s a bunch of the market. Then there’s the curious punk types who’re looking for something a little different from the usual stuff out there, but still raunchy enough to do the trick for ‘em (and with some familiar fashion decisions, to boot). You know I will say that the cast all look pretty much like the kind of punks they’re supposed to look like. They’ve got zits and stupid hair along with some dumb tattoos and a few beer bellies. There’s no one with those giant, creepy boobs that make it look like they’re smuggling athletic equipment around under their skin, and the sex ranges from enthusiastic and dirty to bored and uncomfortably awkward (just like in real life!). It’s just funny that it took this long, really. I mean the cultural touchstones of this whole little scene have been codified for years, haven’t they? From Black Flag shirts and TSOL patches to colored mohawks and a bald character named El Duce, it’s all here; but the bottom line here is that it’s basically a porn flick. It’s gonna repulse a lot of folks and turn some others on, but that’s porn. By its very nature this stuff usually gets a reaction – sometimes a pretty obvious reaction – and stirs shit up for people (though that’s really a whole other article, isn’t it?). Anyway, I dunno if seeing girls with spiky hair get jizz all over their faces is something you’ve been waiting forever for, but if so, hey – here’s your chance! And if the market turns out to be there, you’ll probably get a few more chances down the road.What’s that? You really dig sex but this kinda stuff doesn’t really “speak” to you?
Well hey, the thing is that porn is a lot like punk rock. If you don’t like what’s out there (and you’re, you know, over 18), you can always make your own. Hey, if you’re comfortable with it and you’ve got the interest, you can bet that there’s an outlet for you. You might not get rich and you might feel kinda silly explaining it to your parents, but the human sexual appetite is so damn huge and varied that no matter what you do (alone or with some friends) there’s gonna be someone who wants to pay you to see it. Sure, you might not wanna run into them later and have them tell you about it, but they’re out there.
DIY, man! Be more than a witness! ...well, unless you just like to watch. –Jason Willis (Notorious Productions. http://www.rachelrotten.com/, http://www.mrfilth.com/