Tequila Mockingbird, L.A. punk's great archivist, is still pissed off and spectacular

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Set us as preferred Tequila Mockingbird remembers the exact night she became a punk historian.“Darby Crash asked me to do this,” she said, walking around the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles’ Westlake gallery, showing off rare show posters, Gothic Vivienne Westwood outfits, videos and photographs from grotty dives in the early days of the L.A.

scene.She pointed to a picture of a snarling Crash, performing with the Germs at the Starwood on Aug.

27, 1980.“That’s the day he asked me to keep punk rock alive.”Five decades later, Mockingbird’s done a comprehensive job of it.

The musician, curator, TV producer, visual artist and collector has an ongoing exhibition from her personal catalog of L.A.punk artifacts and ephemera.

(The rest is in the Tequila Mockingbird L.A.Punk Museum collection, at UCLA’s library.) She has bashed heads in pits with nearly everyone in the “Decline of Western Civilization” cinematic universe.

The Times spoke with Mockingbird about how a counterculture movement like punk has been co-opted and reclaimed, and if L.A.’s nihilistic feelings back then teach us about surviving today.Music Dead City Punx fans swarm freeway underpasses for chaotic, secret shows, one of which Mayor Karen Bass called “unacceptable.” Some in the rock and art worlds are intrigued.

But can the band build a career?Back in the ’70s, were you aware that you were at the dawn of an important cultural movement?For me, this is all from ’76 till ’86 roughly.Everything stems from that, the beginning of punk and the feelings that evokes.

I love seeing the passage of time in a visual manner.I always wanted to hang around rock stars.

I had Mitch Mitchell in my band Trouble for Nora.I hung around with Timothy Leary, Bob Marley and the Bee Gees.

I just grew up into the counterculture.I think it calls you, and you either follow it or you get a day job.

I was a jazz singer and a model, so I ended up in...