The Devil's Music 54: Joseph Brooks

The Devil's Music with Pleasant Gehman

Joseph Brooks was instrumental in shaping the entire Los Angeles music and club scene for decades. His impeccable musical taste became his job and nowadays, he’d be called an influencer. In 1981, with partner Henry Peck, he opened the groundbreaking alternative record store Vinyl Fetish, known as much for their sarcastic clerks as for the import records they stocked. In store appearances by artists befriended in the UK before they became famous, like Siouxsie And The Banshees, Duran Duran and Depeche Mode put the store on the map. Soon, Joseph and Henry started their first club The Veil, devoted to death rock, which later became known as goth. From there, Joseph either conceived of and/or spun discs at the hottest clubs in town: Fetish, Glam Slam, Sin-A-Matic, English Acid, Cherry and more. In this episode, Joseph and hostess Pleasant Gehman compare notes from the Hollywood underground during the 80’s and 90’s and into the early two thousands. They reminisce about Dee Dee Ramone’s last performance ever at Club Makeup, talk about Hollywood’s early 80’s punk and goth scenes and much more.

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