JONNIE DOG AND THE DINGOS

Though fine in low doses, I've never been a surf music aficionado, and never will be. But I loved Jonnie Dog and the Dingos, and saw them many times in the 80s and early 90s. They rocked hard, never took themselves seriously, and always seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. Naturally they did their share of covers, but their originals meshed just fine. Particularly authentic for the genre was their sci-fi movie summation in two-plus minutes, "Teenagers From Space."

Jon Neilsen, a.k.a. Jonnie Dog, worked with me at Targum Productions, and our musical tastes were similar at the time, which is to say we liked a lot of the same punk and post-punk bands — actually I don't think we ever played surf music at Targum Productions. I was starting to record songs when we met, and he sold me his Univox guitar, a Japanese Mosrite copy later made sort of famous by Kurt C. A Mosrite guitar was a key acquisition for many surf guitarists in the 60s and 70s; Johnny Ramone most likely played them exclusively for that reason.

The surfing dog is one of my favorite 1980s flyer images — and you have to love the yellow highlighter accent. All three flyers are early examples of incorporating "desktop publishing" type and graphics during a time when you were lucky to have a baker's dozen fonts on your company's laser printer (yes, I said your company's — in the 1980s, you probably couldn't afford one at home).

[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]