 |
| The Weirdos "Destroy All Music" single |
“If New York punk was about art, and London punk about politics, LA punk was about pop culture, TV, and absurdity.”
-Greg Shaw, founder of Bomp Records, from “We Got the Neutron Bomb” by Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen
The punk scene in New York famously coalesced out of several disparate fields, including experimental theater (David Johansen and Jayne County acted in plays by John Vaccaro with Jackie Curtis), underground poetry (Patti Smith, Richard Hell), avant garde classical (John Cale of the Velvets played with La Monte Young), modern/pop art (the Velvet Underground and their association with Andy Warhol), and of course the glitter rock movement (prior to starting the Ramones, Joey Ramone was singer of a late-era glitter group, Sniper). Art was central to the evolution of New York punk. However, in the bleak economic atmosphere of mid 70’s England, punk became politicized, and came to be a cry of rage against the stultification and pessimism surrounding England in the 70’s. Sonically, most English punk was harder edged, taking its cues from the Ramones more than anyone (except perhaps the Stooges). But whereas the Ramones were inspired by early Who, garage rock, the Hollies, 60’s Motown girl groups, and bubblegum, English punk bands turned the amps even higher and left the feedback squealing a little more.
Los Angeles in the 70’s didn’t have the same eclectic art/poetry/theater scenes of New York, nor did it have the bubbling political rage of England. Mostly what LA had was boredom. LA in the 70’s was musically dominated by three related musical genres: the singer/songwriter thing that grew out of the post-folk movement centered around the Troubadour Club in Hollywood; the country rock movement that followed the Byrds and Gram Parsons; and the peaceful, easy California sound as evidenced by Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, and Fleetwood Mac.
In some senses the glitter rock movement in LA had been a reaction to these other movements, and for a time it was the only alternative for kids who weren’t into mellow and smooth AOR music. As mentioned in a previous post, glam/glitter rock was wildly popular in LA, fomented by scenemakers like Rodney Bingenheimer and Kim Fowley. Rodney’s club the English Disco was ground zero for the glitter scene, playing the latest singles by the Sweet, Bowie, and T. Rex to ‘luded out kids, and occasionally offering live shows for local acts like Zolar X. Glitter went bust in 1975 and Rodney shuttered his club but many of the players in the early LA punk scene had made the scene at Rodney’s before it closed.
Glitter was therefore the wellspring from which much LA punk eventually arose, but punk in LA was fed by two other sources. The first was a direct connection to the Detroit sound. Following the failure of Raw Power in 1973, the Stooges broke up, but all four members stayed around the LA area, continuing to play occasional gigs and make records. Iggy played gigs at Rodney’s English Disco before it closed, and future Germs founders Darby Crash and Pat Smear would supposedly go around to Iggy’s hotel and talk with him and guitarist James Williamson. In 1976 Iggy and Williamson also released “Kill City”, which collected some of Iggy’s last songs from the Stooges as well as a couple new tracks. Ron Asheton formed his band The New Order in LA in 1975 with former Stooges bassist Jimmy Recca and former MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson, who had also relocated to LA in the mid-70’s. The New Order played a few shows and recorded some demos and provided yet another link to a previous protopunk scene. And finally, the Dogs had moved to LA in 75/76 and were playing around town, adding yet another Detroit connection.
Another movement that provided the foundation for the emerging LA punk scene was the powerpop movement. LA’s powerpop scene was incredibly vital, with several bands forming and/or moving to LA in the pre-’77 era, including the Motels, the Pop, the Zippers, 20/20, and the Nerves. These bands not only played powerpop with a harder, more streetwise edge, but they were also instrumental in the DIY ethic that emerged with punk of recording your own album (which the Nerves did) and booking your own gigs at independent halls (the Nerves, Motels, Pop, all did this, often playing with post-glitter groups like the Quick or Berlin Brats or the Dogs).
LA had one advantage that New York or London did not: radio support. Rodney Bingenheimer was hired in 1976 as a DJ at radio station KROQ, and Rodney, who had extensive connections with the London music scene, started playing the Ramones and the Sex Pistols as well as singles by any local artists (including the Runaways). Over the next couple of years, KROQ began playing more and more punk/new wave music, providing a much-needed media outlet for local bands as well as exposure to the latest music coming out of New York and London.
By late ’76/early ’77, a critical mass was forming. Three bands in particular were in the process of coming together: the Screamers, the Weirdos, and the Germs. The Screamers grew out of the counter-culture/drag performance troupes the Cockettes and Ze Whiz Kids. Future Screamers lead singer Tomata Du Plenty visited New York with Ze Whiz Kids and played CBGB’s in 1974, getting exposed to the emerging punk scene in New York. After returning to Seattle he formed the Tupperwares with future Screamer Tommy Gear (then known as Melba Toast; their drummer was a teenage Eldon Hoke, who would become El Duce and lead the Mentors); Plenty and Gear relocated to LA in 1976, added K.K. Barrett and David Brown, and changed their name to the Screamers. The Screamers from the start were focused on the big picture, often limiting their performances to build excitement for the band, and attempting to create multi-media products such as videos (well before MTV). Like the New York band Suicide, the Screamers opted to pursue a more technological vibe, with synthesizers rather than guitars, and like Suicide (and later Gary Numan’s Tubeway Army) they used synthesizers to create a sonic atmosphere of alienation, anxiety, and fear.
Regrettably, the Screamers never recorded a full, commercially available album, but several of their songs (usually live versions or demos) are available on YouTube. “Punish or Be Damned” is tinny and the synths sound almost silly now (like a cheap 80’s Casio), but Tomata’s snarling vocal and the occasionally ominous synth swirl give this song a dangerous edge. “122 Hours of Fear” starts with a clanging synth line which becomes layered with more synth lines before launching into a breakneck rhythm and a synth line that almost sounds like farfisa organ. Tomata’s voice alternates between shouting and an almost goofy baritone. “I Wanna Hurt” sounds like a synth cover of “Dirt” by the Stooges and is clearly the inspiration for Darby Crash’s “Sex Boy” (which the Screamers also covered), with its slow chugging rhythm. Their masterpiece, however, is the nearly 10 minute long “Eva Braun”, which chugs and lurches behind Tomata’s repetitive lyric (“She’s the girl with the red glove on”).
Forming on the heels of the Screamers were the Weirdos, who came together out of the Cal Arts scene behind brothers John and Dix Denney. Visually the Weirdos set a standard for the emerging punk fashion, with their affected, art damaged visual vibe of cut-up and paint-splashed clothes. Musically they played blistering Ramones-inspired punk that made them the most popular punk band in LA during their heyday. Like the Screamers, the Weirdos never secured a major label record deal, but unlike the Screamers they did manage to record and release some music, including their first 3-song EP in 1977. iTunes has an excellent compilation released by Bomp! In 2008 which collects their various singles as well as some early demos. “Solitary Confinement” is the standout track, with its blistering guitar by Dix Denny and John Denney’s tortured vocals—this is Ramones-inspired LA post-glitter punk at its very best. “Destroy All Music” is almost as good, with its rumbling bass and catchy refrain and super-fast tempo. “Life of Crime” slows things down for a Raw Power-era Stooges feel, but it also has a 60’s garage rock aspect to it, especially John Denney’s “Aww-awww-awww” vocal). Finally, “We Got the Neutron Bomb” starts with a buzzsaw guitar before launching into Denney’s goofball vocals.
The Germs were four kids who met while trying to meet Freddy Mercury at his hotel during a Queen tour. Initially the Germs played sloppy, repetitive songs (which can be best heard on the live album Germicide, which is available on iTunes) heavily influenced by Iggy and the Stooges, but eventually they evolved into a tight, intense band who’s blistering sonic assault presaged the hardcore movement. “Sex Boy” off Germicide is a pretty good example of their early work, as is their cover of the Archie’s “Sugar Sugar”. “What We Do Is Secret” and “Circle One” show their (slightly) more professional side. “Lexicon Devil” is more sophisticated still, showing off Darby’s increasingly sophisticated lyrics and a slower, almost jangly guitar sound (Jane’s Addiction did a great version of this song live, as a medley with the Doors’ “La Woman” and “Nausea” by X). “No God” starts with a quaint, almost classical guitar piece before launching into another aural assault, but one tempered with background vocals that almost approach melodies during the break. But perhaps the quintessential Germs song is “We Must Bleed”, with its descending guitar line beginning and Darby’s shouted, sneering repeated lyric “We must bleeeed! We must bleeeeed!” The Germs biopic What We do Is Secret is actually quite good so check it out.
Two other bands that started playing gigs in LA at this time were actually from the San Diego area. The Zeros were several Hispanic kids who played crunchy, hard but melodic punk that sounded like Iggy and the Stooges and the Dead Boys. “Hand Grenade Heart” has a catchy rhythm and pouty Iggy/Stiv vocals; “Don’t Push Me Around” is even catchier—these kids could play and knew their way around a lyric. Lead singer Alejandro Escovedo eventually moved to Austin Texas and became a well-respected figure in the roots rock movement centered around that city, and guitarist Robert Lopez would achieve fame as the “Mexican Elvis”, El Vez.
The second band was the Dils, led by brothers Chip and Tony Kinman, who sounded a lot like the Weirdos with their fast, sloppy goofball punk, but with lyrics that had a very communist bent. “Class War” sounds like it could be the Weirdos except for the calls for a class war! “I Hate the Rich” mines a similar vein lyrically and sonically, and “You’re Not Blank”, a snotty LA answer to Richard Hell’s “The Blank Generation”, has a melodic feel under all the fuzz and squeal of the guitar. Bacchus Records has released two Dils albums on iTunes, their first studio effort Class War and the compilation Dils Dils Dils.
In the wake of these five bands, several other bands surged into the newly forming punk movement. The Mau Maus were formed by Rick Wilder from the ashes of his Dolls-like pre-punk band the Berlin Brats. The Mau Maus had a couple of memorable moments in the LA punk scene: they were featured, along with the Dils, in the now-legendary “battle of the bands” scene in the Cheech and Chong movie “Up in Smoke” (The Germs also played but their part was cut out of the final edit). Also, the Mau Maus were one of the bands Brendan Mullen set up rehearsal space for at his now-legendary club the Masque. The Mau Maus never recorded an album but some of their songs are available on their MySpace page as well as YouTube. “All Fall Down” is a blast of Dead Boys-like ’77 punk, while “Sex Girls In Uniform” (which I only have a chunk of) sounds more like Wilder’s previous band, the Berlin Brats and their inspiration the New York Dolls. “Laugh Track” is also a partial track but also sounds like post-Dolls protopunk. The Mau Maus were a very unheralded early LA punk band who deserve more attention.
The Skulls likewise never recorded in their heyday but were a hugely popular Masque band, and in 2002 lead singer Billy Bones released an album with Dr. Strange Records in which he re-recorded some of the Skulls’ early material as well as several new songs as well. The Skulls played glitter-punk that was influenced by Iggy and the Ramones but often had a morbid lyrical bent that presaged both the goth and the horror-punk movements (which were surprisingly HUGE in sunny LA). “Kill Me Kill Me Kill” and “Babies” are excellent examples of their “classic” sound and are fast, catchy goth punk; “Gold and Ruby Red” is an example of a more recent song, and it has a phenomenally heavy, chunky hard rock sound.
Another great post-’77 LA punk band was the Bags. Consisting of the beautiful and talented Alice Armandariz (aka Alice Bag) on vocals, Pat Morrison (Pat Bag) on bass, Craig Lee (who documented the early LA punk scene in the essential book “Hardcore California”) on guitar, and Terry Graham on drums, the Bags became one of LA’s most renowned bands. The snotty “We Don’t Need the English” was a cry for LA independence from their most direct inspiration, the English punk bands of ’76 and ’77. “Survive” has a hepcat, noir-ish beginning before launching into its superfast hardcore blast. Alice Bag would play with Castration Squad (with two other doyennes of the LA punk Scene, Phranc from Nervous Gender and Dinah Cancer from Vox Pop and 45 Grave) and Cholita (with Vaginal Davis). Pat Morrison played bass for several other seminal punk and post-punk bands, including Gun Club, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Damned (she married lead singer Dave Vanian in 1996).
“Survive” was included on the seminal compilation released by Dangerhouse Records, Dangerhouse Volume 1, which happily is available on iTunes and contains songs by several other terrific late 70’s LA punk bands. The Alley Cats, led by Randy Stodola and Dianne Chai, released “Nothing Means Nothing Anymore” as a Dangerhouse single and it is included on this compilation. Stodola’s leering, quavery vocals hector and quail while the music surges along. Another song, “Too Much Junk” is included on Dangerhouse Volume 2, and has a peppy rhythm and a soaring, almost operatic vocal by Chai. The Eyes contribute “Disneyland”, which has a peppy beat (drummer Don “DJ” Bonebrake would later join X), accompanying organ, and a snotty vocal. “Let’s Get Rid of New York” is another anti-Big Apple song by the Randoms.
And finally, several bands formed in ’78 or ’79 who have now become legendary. Nervous Gender was certainly one of these; NG played blaring, distorted synth music similar to that of the Screamers. “Cardinal Newman” was their opus magnum, taking the atonality and shouted lyrics of the Screamers even further; its available on Nervous Gender’s 1982 album Music From Hell, which is on iTunes. The previously mentioned Castration Squad played strident goth/horror punk; “A Date (with Jack)” and “No Mercy For the Dead” are typical offerings and are both on YouTube from CS’s appearance on the 70’s TV show New Wave Theater. This band was a female LA punk super-group of sorts, with Mary Sims of 45 Grave (“Partytime” is still one of my all-time favorite LA punk songs) and Vox Pop, Alice Bag on bass, Elissa Bello formerly of the Go-Go’s on drums, Tracy Lea of Red Kross on guitar and Shannon Wilhelm on vocals (Phranc also occasionally added backing vocals).
Looking back over this list, its depressing how infrequently the early LA bands ever recorded more than some demos, singles, and a live version or two. However, some did, and some even achieved some lasting fame. The Dickies, as mentioned in a previous post, were “associates” (guitarist Stan Lee was supposedly their drug dealer!) of the glitterpop group the Quick, and even covered “Hilary” and “Pretty Please Me”, and were one of the first LA bands to get a record deal, with A&M in 1978. Their goofy punk was extremely popular in LA and in England and they had a couple hits in both places. My favorite of theirs has always been “Manny Moe and Jack” and “Stuck in a Pagoda with Trishia Toyota”. X became deservedly lauded for their cerebral, roots/rockabilly-influenced take on punk; in some ways X can be considered the first POST-punk LA band; even though they were clearly part of the first wave of LA punk bands, sonically and lyrically their music was much more complex than most of the straight-ahead bashing their peers were doing. The fact that X were a bit older than most of their punk “peers” is salient and probably contributed to their more intelligent and interesting (and longer-lasting) take on punk. The fact that Ray Manzarek produced their first album, and played organ on such phenomenal tracks as “Nausea” and their cover of the Doors’ “Soul Kitchen” is also telling; like the Doors, X was far smarter, for more complicated, far more far-reaching than their colleagues, and to me X represented the band best suited to take the torch as the quintessential LA band. I saw X in concert a couple years back and they were STILL a phenomenal band live.
Fear was another LA band that achieved a small measure of fame, mostly for their crude and obnoxious take on punk, which was featured in the documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization”. In some ways, songs like “I Love Livin’ In The City” are merely an extension of songs like “Heroin” by the Velvet Underground, exploring the seedier side of (urban) life.
Finally, Red Kross evolved away from their kiddie punk beginnings (bassist Steven was only in junior high when they started!) to become one of the leading lights of the LA post-punk scene. Perhaps because of their youth, Redd Kross were one of the first bands anywhere to glorify the trash pop culture of the 70’s, most notably on early songs like “Linda Blair”, “Solid Gold” and “Charlie” (as in Manson; they also covered Manson’s song “Cease To Exist”) and their cover of “Look On Up From The Bottom” from the movie “Beyond The Valley of the Dolls”. Later they released a whole album of unusual and interesting covers called Teen Babes from Monsanto, which included Bowie’s “Savior Machine”; “Citadel” by the Rolling Stones; “Deuce by Kiss; “Ann” by the Stooges; “Heaven Only Knows” by the Shangri-Las; and perhaps most memorably, “Blow You A Kiss In The Wind”, which was from the TV show “Bewitched”!! I saw Redd Kross for the first (and thankfully not last) time in 1987 on their “Neurotica” tour and they were incredible (Frightwig opened and they were amazing too, especially their cover of “Punk Rock Jail Bait” by the Runaways), still one of the best concerts I ever saw. My favorite song of theirs though is a snippet of a free concert they played at the Santa Monica Pier in 1982; they are playing “Somebody Wants To Love You" originally by the Partridge Family, and their version sounds NOTHING REMOTELY like the original, but is utterly joyous in its sloppy fun. Check it out if you get a chance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGPMa6k4mFk
No comments:
Post a Comment