Beyond the Streets Highlight the Pulse of LA Punk with New Doc, 'Dead City Punx'

Beyond the Streets Highlight the Pulse of LA Punk with New Doc, 'Dead City Punx'

- By Ramon Gonzales -->

With Zack De La Rocha serving as executive producer, the film frames the pandemic era rise of the Los Angeles underground anti-heroes and their illegal, DIY performances that turned punk rock shows to riots. 

Photo by Erick Castles

Art collective Beyond the Streets and executive producers Roger Gastman, Joseph Pattisall, and Zack de la Rocha have unveiled a new documentary film that centers its focus on the LA underground punk movement ignited with a molotov by the band, DEAD CITY PUNX. 

First emerging in 2019, armed with stolen gear, cans of spray paint and a singular vision to disrupt the LA underground, DEAD CITY PUNX leveraged their street corner savvy to begin a movement that took flight during the darkest days of the pandemic. 

 

Platforming the thriving LA underground, DEAD CITY PUNX earned their chaotic reputation for transforming punk shows into localized riots complete with burning wreckage and police helicopters. The footage from the band's live upheaval would reach far and wide, going viral on social media while most of the world was in sequester amid a climate of uncertainty and living live through their phones. 

While the band's shows were becoming the stuff of punk underground lore, DEAD CITY PUNX would infamously make high-powered foes along the way. Among those adversaries, L.A. mayor Karen Bass took aim at the band's chaotic DIY shows, asserting her rank and declaring that the city would not stand for the band's brand of bedlam. Despite such formative opposition, DEAD CITY PUNX stood ten toes down - dead set on defiance. 

Among the subthreads of the film, DEAD CITY PUNX also frames the individuals players in the band and the often times harrowing reality that ultimately lead them to band together. In an environment of trap houses, gangland politics, drug addiction and the graffiti adorned backdrop of the real L.A., DEAD CITY PUNX stirs bigger conversations on the DIY ethos of punk and the complex intersection of art, addiction and anti-authoritarianism. 

The film is set to premiere April 16th in Los Angeles, CA at The Regent Theater. The premiere will also feature a special DJ set by Keith Morris of Circle Jerks. There will also be a second screening later the same evening which will feature a surprise guest.

Starting April 17th, the DEAD CITY PUNX gallery exhibit will open at BEYOND THE STREETS, chronicling the chaotic, DIY live experiences that is DEAD CITY PUNX in the flesh. 

Tickets and information on DEAD CITY PUNX can be found - HERE

 

 

 

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