For me, the two essential, iconic “faces” of the Los Angeles punk subculture will forever be Darby Crash, the feral frontman of The Germs and twisted voodoo dolly Exene Cervenka of X. Here is the duo captured in their surly youthful glory on a Hollywood rooftop in the late seventies by photographer Melanie Nissen (from her book Hard + Fast). Crash (aka Bobby Pyn, real name: Jan Paul Beahm, 26 September 1958 - 7 December 1980) was born on this day sixty-six years ago. “He was Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious rolled into one, a befuddled punk prophet with a brilliant mind,” Chris Campion writes in “Darby Crash: Saint Anger” in the October 2014 edition of Dazed Digital. “Darby Crash presided over the birth of the LA punk scene in 1977 and signaled its demise with his own self-inflicted death three years later. His was a vision of chaos that would never come to pass but left in its wake a legacy of destruction and one fiery punk classic, the Germs' 1979 Joan Jett-produced album, G.I.” Swallow a fistful of ‘ludes, smear yourself in peanut butter and blast “Forming”, “Lexicon Devil” or “Media Blitz” LOUD today in Crash’s memory!