We Got the Neutron Bomb
Page 31
BRENDAN MULLEN: REM became the Beatles of that whitebread soft-handed “cool alterna-geek” college radio set, many of whom were trust-funded babies who could afford to work as interns at major labels to a point later on where they damn near took over the record biz until studio gangster rap, aggro rock-rap, nu metal, and the boy dance troupes smoked most of ’em out by early 2K.
GREG GRAFFIN: By 1985–86 there weren’t any rock-media-defined “punk rock” bands left. There were very few new punk labels. That was the big picture context; it was also one of the reasons Bad Religion was hailed as fresh when the Suffer album came out in ’87—hardly anybody else was playing melodic punk with a hardcore edge anymore. We were still well below the mainstream radar as we still are.
GREG HETSON: Serious rock critics ignored us. It’s also accurate to say, without seeming too biased, that our good friend Brett was really getting Epitaph up and running as a viable enterprise for getting the records well distributed.
GREG GRAFFIN: In Germany Bad Religion was feted at the time as the “saviors of the punk flame”… we were able to tour 1,000-seater venues in Europe after Suffer, but could only get booked in tiny punk clubs in America outside of L.A. County if we were lucky… but then things changed after Suffer and, of course, there was a before and an after for punk rock when Nirvana popped up on MTV a couple of years later.
BRETT GUREWITZ: In 1990 I was still working out of Westbeach, with no formal Epitaph offices, when I signed Down by Law, Rancid and the Offspring. The Offspring’s Smash album sold nine million worldwide, a landmark feat for an indie with no help from a major label to keep up with pressing and distribution.
BRENDAN MULLEN: Together with multiplatinum and gold sales from the Offspring, Rancid, and other strong catalogue titles from the likes of Down by Law, Pennywise, NoFx, and, of course, Bad Religion, Epitaph grossed $64 million in 1994.
BRETT GUREWITZ: Since that time I’ve received countless offers from major corporate conglomerates to sell.
***
BRENDAN MULLEN: I was working as a paid consultant to facilitate the opening of the Viper Room circa 1993. The club was right across the street from the SST Super Store on Sunset where Pat Smear was a store clerk. The Strip was absolutely the wrong location for this store, which would have been better off down on Melrose. It was a business hawking 100 percent SST Record releases and Black Flag shirts, one for every record sleeve… Black Flag baseball hats, woolen ski caps, shorts, you name it. Everything but Black Flag lunch boxes. But there were never any customers. During lunch breaks, I’d go over there to share a joint with Pat and buy a CD to give him something to do. He’d invariably sit on a stool enthusiastically chain-smoking joints like cigarettes, surrounded by at least three or four little girls who’d wandered in off the street and were squatting lotus style on the floor in front of him. I was fascinated. It was that special voodoo, something Pat had that only the little girls understood. Suddenly the spirited, giggling hijinks was silenced for a second when the phone rang. When Pat got off a few minutes later, his look was completely changed. He was absolutely poker-faced. All stoned mirth completely vanished. I said, “Okay? Anything wrong, Pat?” He lowered his voice away from the little girls on the floor. He seemed stunned. “What is it?” “That was Kurt Cobain on the phone. He says he wants me to play in Nirvana… and I don’t think it was a prank. He wants me to go up to Seattle to play with the band. But please keep it quiet. Please don’t mention this to anybody in case it doesn’t work out. This is a band I actually like.”
MIKE WATT: When Pat Smear joined Nirvana he was as happy as can be. His whole dream was to be Bowie’s guitar player or Brian May from Queen and here he was playing the Forum. And Kurt’s on the other side and his eyes were like, “I do not want to be here… this is shit… this is jive.” Kurt really wanted to be a little punk band. He wanted to be in the van. Kurt loved Black Flag, loved the Germs… all the SST bands. The past shaped me into what I am today… I’m forty-three, I’m going up against cats who weren’t even born then, but whenever there’s a Warped tour, they ask me to do a week. If they’re gonna sell punk rock, they gotta deal with some of the ghosts, I guess. I’m not just doing a fucking sentimental journey. I haven’t changed at all… zero… I got grayer hair, the health is not as strong, but I’ve even started playing with a pick again. I still think of punk as a state of mind and not a style, so how can it go out of fashion? “Alternative” and “new wave” were horrible terms, totally limiting words. “Punk” can mean anything. That’s how it started out—it was whatever you want to chain it to—but understand this: It’s always gonna bust out on its own, there’s always gonna be something that’s kind of wild and you’re gonna call it punk. It’s like what the Renaissance cats had to do. Pettibon had me read this autobiography of Cellini, he’s in the 1500s and he’s trying to get his own thing going despite these huge institutions… this has always been around… I was lucky.
KID CONGO POWERS: The last time I saw Jeffrey Lee, he was really wasted at one of Pleasant’s benefit concerts. He was going through a kind of cleaned-up period and then it went really bad. We had done some Gun Club reunion shows—the band was really good but he was really wasted… he looked terrible. We’d played four or five months earlier at the Viper Room and he was great, in great shape, everyone was like, “Wow.” But he would very quickly fluctuate—you could tell by his appearance. It’s not a fond memory—that was the last time I saw him. The last time I talked to him we’d been offered good money for a reunion tour. We talked about it and said, “This is too horrible.” We knew people would come, but it seemed horrible to us, like going backward. We had kind of lived through it already, we knew it was kind of bogus, so we decided not to do it. Jeffrey was gonna move to New York. I’d already just moved there, and I’d been talking to him by phone. He’d gone to his father’s in Utah, which was where he died. He was trying to finish his book, Go Tell the Mountain—he’d call me and read me stuff, we’d laugh—we thought the book was hysterically funny. We’d been talking about doing stuff here in New York, so we’d been calling each other. One time when his mother answered the phone I said, “That’s weird, why’s his mother answering?” And Marge said, “Oh, you heard then?” And I said no. And she said, “Jeffrey died.” And I just… whew… I can’t even believe it. I was calling to tell him I’d gotten these musicians to do something if he’d just get over here, so I was really mad ’cause I’d been in New York a week and I had to fly back to L.A. to go to his fucking funeral. You bastard! But he was a sweetheart, too. It was like my brother dying or something.
BRENDAN MULLEN: Claude and Philomena moved to England, where they spent seven years in London and Manchester. Claude worked as a VJ at the Hacienda Club in Manchester and for Rough Trade in London, writing sleeve notes and producing videos for the Throbbing Gristle and the Fall. He also produced this amazing William S. Burroughs video made up from some rare footage of the old mummy himself.
PHILOMENA WINSTANLEY: Claude was hired at Rough Trade to do promotion work, but he wouldn’t promote any of the bands he didn’t like. He hated the Raincoats, for example. And they told him, “Look, you’re supposed to be our promo person!” But he wouldn’t do it so they fired him.
BRENDAN MULLEN: After that Claude and Philly moved to Barcelona, Spain, where Claude took up drawing and painting, and teaching English.
JAVIER ESCOVEDO: When the Zeros played Barcelona in ’95, we had dinner with Claude and Philomena, and at the end of our show we got him up on “Pushin’ Too Hard.” He was so ripped it came out like “Pussin Too Hard”! “Pussin too hard” became our battle cry for the rest of the tour. I had a feeling that he wasn’t into old punk bands getting back together, but he seemed to have a blast that night anyway.
BRENDAN MULLEN: In ’99, Claude died from lung cancer at his home in Barcelona. Philly was by his side. He was 54.
STEVE SAMIOF: It’s really unbelievable it wasn’t his liver that quit him. Unbelievable. He taught me how to dr
ink with abandon; he was my guru. He taught me red wine, and he taught me brandy. And when we’d get loaded, we’d lament all the assholes in the world, wishing they’d fuck off and die. And while I hadn’t seen him in fifteen years, it broke my heart to hear the news: The asshole, he fucked off and died.
TOMATA DU PLENTY: One day I found this little kiddie paint kit in an alley off Hollywood Boulevard. I lived off Hollywood Boulevard. And I just started drawing. First I drew a picture of my cat. Then my boyfriend. Then my landlady. Just people you know? Then Bob Forrest of Thelonius Monster said, “You should show this stuff.” And he was great. He brought me to the Zero Gallery, which is also on Hollywood Boulevard, and they let me hang all my little ten-dollar paintings.
PLEASANT GEHMAN: The last time I saw Tomata was at this, uh, art show he had at Beyond Baroque. I was reading and Vampira was reading and Tomata looked like he was really sick but he was great. He looked more gaunt than usual, but he was still awesome. He was working and productive right up until the very end. During his memorial everyone was crying but laughing hysterically, too, ’cause of all the stories people were telling. Vampira was there and this ’50s female wrestler called the Cheetah Woman. And like all the Screamers were there, a bunch of crazy drag queens in their ’60s or ’70s that had known him in many different weird ways. It was a crazy collection of people. Tomata would talk to anybody, and he’d cultivated friends from a million circles of people.
EXENE CERVENKA: I’m very unaware of my own age or place in life. I’m very present-tense-oriented. So for me it’s like, “What are your goals… what do you hope to achieve?” And now they’re asking, “What did you think would happen? Give us your whole overview of the past and what do you think will happen in the future.” Which to me is just not interesting… I just kind of go along.
HELLIN KILLER: I got married, had kids, and kind of stepped out of it. I made a conscious decision… one day I said, “This isn’t what it used to be anymore.” I’m going through the motions of trying to hang out and I think I’m beating a dead horse… I’m just not into smashing windows anymore.
source notes
Jim Morrison, from the Doors’ first Elektra Records bio, 1967. Courtesy Danny Sugerman.
David Bowie, from an interview with Lance Loud (Details magazine, 1992). Used with permission.
Zory Zenith, courtesy of Chuck “New Wave” Nolan.
Tom Ayres (see above).
Terry Atkinson (see above).
Kristian Hoffman (see above).
Lori Lightning (see above).
Steve Priest (see above).
Amy Freeman (see above).
Leee “Black” Childers, from Too Much, Too Soon: The Make Up and Break Up of the New York Dolls by Nina Antonia (Omnibus Press, 1998).
Syl Sylvain (see Leee “Black” Childers).
Paul Beahm, aka Bobby Pyn, aka Darby Crash, from Flipside, used by permission.
Joan Jett, from an interview with Jaan Uhelski, used by permission.
Micki Steele, from an interview with Ben Edmonds, Mojo, used by permission.
Joan Jett, from the New York Rocker, used with permission from Andy Schwartz.
Gary Stewart, used with permission from Ben Edmonds.
Pat Smear, from Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times of Darby Crash and the Germs (Feral House). Used by permission of Adam Parfrey, courtesy of Bill Borley.
Black Randy, used with permission from Charles M. Young from his own interview.
Tom Lambert, Los Angeles Times, December 6, 1976.
Tomata du Plenty, courtesy of Jack Rabid (The Big Takeover).
Bobby Pyn, from an interview with Flipside, used by permission.
Editorial, Slash, July 1977, used with permission from Bob Biggs.
Gorilla Rose, courtesy of Doug Cavanaugh.
Claude Bessy, excerpted from Slash, used with permission from Bob Biggs.
Johnny Stingray, from sleeve notes to Controllers CD, courtesy of Dionysius Records.
Claude Bessy, excerpted from Slash, used with permission from Bob Biggs.
Darby Crash, from an interview with No, January 1979. Courtesy Chris D. and Bruce Kalberg.
Pat Smear, Bobby Pyn, Lorna Doom from an interview with Flipside, used by permission.
Lamar Saint John. Excerpted from Punk 77: An Inside Look at the San Francisco Rock ’n’ Roll Scene, 1977. Published by Re/Search Publications (www.researchpubs.com). Used with permission from James Stark.
Terry Graham, courtesy of Doug Cavanaugh.
“Local Shit,” excerpted from Slash, September 1979, used with permission from Bob Biggs.
Pleasant Gehman, from Escape from Houdini Mountain (Manic D Press © 2000). Used by permission.
Darby Crash, excerpted from No, circa January 1979. Courtesy Chris D. and Bruce Kalberg.
Richard Meltzer, excerpted from the Los Angeles Times, December, 1979.
Jeffrey Lee Pierce, excerpted from Go Tell the Mountain: The Stories and Lyrics of Jeffrey Lee Pierce, copyright 1998, used by permission of the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Estate, courtesy of 2.13.61 Press.
Wayzata de Camerone, excerpted from “The Zero Chronicles,” an unpublished memoir by Mark Boyd.
Casey Cola interviews courtesy of Ella Black (Kari Leuschner) and Rene Daalder.
Cast of Characters
X-8: Cofounder, Flipside fanzine
Eugene: Star of The Decline of Western Civilization
Gerber (aka Michelle Bell):
Pooch (Pat di Puccio): Cofounder, Flipside fanzine
Mugger: Former roadie, Black Flag
Phranc: Former member, Nervous Gender, Catholic Disciplines; America’s Favorite Jewish Lesbian Folksinger
Robo: Drummer, Black Flag
Trifle: Plunger sister
David Allen: Graphic designer, Slash, Art Trouble
Kittra Allen: Former manager, the Go-Go’s
Dave Alvin: Former member, the Blasters; solo artist
Trudie Arguelles: Former Plunger sister; housewife, mother
Skot Armstrong: Guerrilla theater, mail activist, founder of Science Holiday magazine
Ron Asheton: Former guitarist, the Stooges
Chris Ashford: Founder, What? Records
Terry Atkinson: Journalist
Mike Atta: Guitarist, the Middle Class
Tom Ayres: Record producer; co-owner, Rodney’s English Disco
Alice Bag: Lead singer, the Bags
Barry Barnholtz: Co-owner, Rodney’s English Disco; movie mogul
K.K. Barrett: Drummer, the Screamers, Black Randy, and the Metro Squad; art director
Paul Beahm (aka Bobby Pyn, aka Darby Crash): Former lead singer, the Germs, the Darby Crash Band (deceased 1980)
Nickey Beat: Drummer, the Weirdos, the Germs, the Bags
Judith Bell: Graphic designer (the Gun Club’s Fire of Love)
Elissa Bello: Original drummer, the Go-Go’s
Claude Bessy (aka Kickboy Face): Founder, Angeleno Dread fanzine; chief writer, Slash magazine; lead singer, Catholic Discipline (deceased 1999)
Bob Biggs: founder and president, Slash Records
Blank Frank: Junkie, street hustler (deceased)
Rodney Bingenheimer: Partner, Rodney’s English Disco; disc jockey, KROQ; “Mayor of Sunset Strip”
Don Bolles: Drummer, the Germs
D.J. (Don) Bonebrake: Drummer, the Eyes, X
Billy Bones: Former lead singer, the Skulls
Black Randy: Former lead singer/songwriter, Black Randy and the Metro Squad; cofounder, Dangerhouse Records (deceased)
David Bowie: Musician; songwriter; actor; producer; Internet entrepreneur; Godhead
Angela Bowie: Former wife-muse of David Bowie; musician; author (Backstage Passes)
David Brown: Former keyboard player, the Screamers; founder, Dangerhouse Records
Denny Bruce: Manager, former A&R director
Tony Cadena: Lead singer, the Adolescents
Charlotte Caffey: Bassist, the Eyes; guitarist, the Go-Go’s
Ginger Canzoneri: Former manager, the Go-Go’s
Belinda Carlisle: Lead singer, the Go-Go’s; solo artist
Sean Carrillo: Artist
Gerry Casale: Guitarist/keyboardist, Devo
Peter Case: Former singer/guitarist, the Nerves, the Plimsouls; solo artist
Exene Cervenka: Singer, X; poet
Leee “Black” Childers: Former MainMan publicist; former manager, Johnny Thunders
Casey Cola: Former friend of Darby Crash
Kerry Colonna: Photographer
Miles Copeland: Founder, IRS Records
Richard Cromelin: Journalist
Cherie Currie: Former lead singer, the Runaways
Chris D. (aka Chris Desjardin): Former lead singer, the Flesheaters; Slash magazine contributor; founder, Ruby Records
Rene Daalder: Writer, director, Massacre at Central High, Population One
Martha Davis: Lead singer, the Motels
John Denney: Former lead singer, the Weirdos
Wayzata de Camerone: cofounder, Zero Zero club; teacher
Michael des Barres: Former lead singer, Silverhead; actor
Pamela des Barres: Former groupie; author
Levi Dexter: Former lead singer, Levi and the Rockats
John Doe: Singer, bass player, X; actor
Maggie Ehrig: Former friend of Darby Crash
Lisa Fancher: Founder, Frontier Records
D.D. Faye: Back Door Man contributor
Doug Fieger: Lead singer, the Knack
Robbie Fields (aka Posh Boy): Founder, Posh Boy Records
Jed the Fish: Disc jockey, KROQ
Lita Ford: Former lead guitarist, the Runaways; solo artist
Kim Fowley: Producer/songwriter, the Runaways; solo artist
Jackie Fox: Former bass player, the Runaways
Amy Freeman: Former regular, Rodney’s English Disco
Pleasant Gehman: Cofounder, Lobotomy fanzine; columnist; author; former member, Screamin’ Sirens
Paul Greenstein: Former promoter, collector, historian
Terry Graham: Drummer, the Bags, the Gun Club
Jack Grisham: Former lead singer, Vicious Circle; lead singer of original TSOL