Notes From
The UNDERGROUND
"Stop right there. Now don't turn
the page, O.K.? Come, try and deal
with my magnetic personality and
musically opinionated prowess. NO-
BODY SPECIAL won't be with us
this month. She got all panicked
when she heard that the 'Echo &
The Bunnymen' show got sold out,
so she's out making an extensive
search for a ticket. What a loyalistic
gal. I can't believe that band is that
good. I saw 'em a couple years ago
in Palo Alto at The Keystone. They
Check these names, Breakfast
Club (Unique name. Look like they
were managers in a McDonald's for
ten years), General Public (ex-
members of the English Beat offer-
ing little difference, self billed as the
new wave Everly Brothers. Music
for biology students.). Lone Justice
and True West have the only fresh,
non-fashion oriented, band wagon,
here today, gone forgotten tomorrow
approach. Just good, regular music.
The rest, the LeRol Bros.. The As-
were okay, I guess, but the singer/sembly, Icicle Works, Prefab Spr
dude looked all malnutritioned-out
and had psychotic eyes. In fact, one
curious thing was that he looked re-
markably like Ricky Williams, of
The Sleepers and Negative Trend
fame. Ricky was even there and
didn't dig his scene. 'Echo' you've
seen them once, you've seen them
a million times. They were pretty
ahead of their time, though, I guess.
Nowadays, bands along the Echo
and the Bunnymen vein are a dime a
dozen. It seems that every 'new
band out these days are this type,
taking the cue. Bands like Modern
English and that Duran Duran
crap, it's the downfall of rock'n'roll.
It's crap. Top 40 bullshit, that's what.
I picked up the latest copy of Rolling
Stone, and they have this article
called, Rock 'N Roll Rookies, writ-
ten by five reporters who obviously
are trying their hardest to be fash-
ionably modem in the 'New Rock
world, by featuring ten (mostly)
fledgling (safe for the airwaves and
Christians) bands. An obvious strok-
ing of the wee-wee's of some big re-
cord execs. The sad part is, is that
most of gullible America is gonna
swallow this garbage. Out of the ten,
are maybe two legit type bands with
any honesty. The rest are doo-dool!
D.K.'s photo of the month?
Darren Peligro severely pounding.
Darren Peligro severely hurting.
out and The The are so low on the
musical spectrum, that they have to
wear raincoats so the ants won't pee
on them.
I'm glad NOBODY SPECIAL ain't
around, she probably liked that arti-
cle, and those bands.
bands want to play African music?
Do they wish they were born black
like transsexuals wish they were
born the other sex? (That was a
pretty mindless statement, I know,
but that music is just as, if not more,
mindless.) The same for the "White
Reggae" garbage. Leave the Afri-
cans to record their own music.
they're doing a better jobat it anyway.
Angelic Upstarts and continue in
alphabetical order (even though I
can't spell good). This Angelic Up-
starts record called Solidarity is
great. The title song is about the
Polish workers strife in that country.
"Give them hope, give them
strength, give them life. Like a can-
die burning in the black of night. We
are with you in our hearts and in our
minds. And we'll pray for a nation
through it's darkest times." A real
grasping ballad for a country. The
Poison Girls have released a dou-
ble-disk, 7 Year Scratch. It's an ac-
cumulation of some of their best
works, with a lot of good live cuts
and some vintage fledgling stuff
never before heard. From What Re-
the coolest, re-release of an ancient
cords came a bunch of surf records,
band, The Pyramids. It sounds soo
kill, you can almost hear the waves
crashing. A sound that is differently
applicable for today, than what it
was originally intended for. That new
Van Halen album really sucks.
Especially that wimpy Jump song.
What are they trying to get airplay in
the supermarkets or what? (And
now a word on POP-METAL). The
Judas Priest singer looks like a
total S/M leather bondage fag and
the Iron Maiden songs sound like a
narsh Osmond Brothers. Insis
Well now, what do we have going
down in the land of LA.? I have
here, sitting across from me, on the
couch, Mr. Carlos Cubano. He's
gonna talk a little on the happenings
in the LA. underground, or should I
say, the Under L.A. Ground.
Carlos, we haven't heard from you
Triangle helping out unwed mothers
since your so called, job in The
with the duties of the house" type of
deal. I know, sometimes you're about
as useful as a trapdoor in a canoe,
but then again, sometimes you're
worth listening to. So, how about tel-
lin' me what the jive is down in
'Smogville'?
"Well, I'll tell you what's new.
There's a new album out by LA
local talent, Tupelo Chain Sex, with
Don (Sugar Cane) Harris on violin,
Duff on sax, J.J. Poskin on guitar,
"Altee" Altruda on bass, Willie
Dread on drums and Sims Cass on
Can you get this? Darren Peligro. Heavy Metal? Some people got mouith harp. All this led by some
the drummer for the D.K.s, calls me
the other day and says, "Hey, come
visit me here in the hospital and take
a picture of my cast before I get out."
So, I grab one of the photographers
at the mag, go to Mission General in
San Francisco, up to his room, and
there's like this full-on party going on
and everybody's watching this Redd
Foxx video on a little T.V. that's on a
mechanical arm. Darren's sitting in
his bed with a big old scrape on his
chin, a cast, with Thrasher written
across it, on his right arm and big
brace on his right leg (he hit a man-
hole while speed skating down one
and flew a half block before coming
to a stop), and then this nurse
comes in and yanks the L.V. out of
his arm and says, "What, are you
some kind of rock star or some-
thing?
of San Francisco steepest streets
I got a whole bunch of cool albums
this month, I'll start with The
nerve, and some people fall for it.
The harshest people involved with
those bands are their graphic artists.
The bands merely travel on the pre-
ployed images. And if you thought
Heavy Metar was getting absolutely
sterilized, that foolish fad, Break-
dancing is worse. It was cool when
was a novelty, but it's gone as far
as having some shoe company
it
bizarre cat who goes by the name
Limey Dave and sings and plays
the echoplex like no one else. The
album sounds great, it's called Ja-
Jazz The cover art was done by
Mike Doud, who was also responsi
ble for Supertramp and Go Go's
covers in the past.
Cathay de Grande is still the only
club who still has enough balls to
cater to those aggressive, won-
drous, young kids that society calls
PUNK Even this building is just
about gutted, due to the agression of
these wonderful kids, Mike Bren-
nen still put together a very nice
making a Break-dancing shoe. Now,
how lame and over-capitalized is
that? These kids are doing this for
entertainment, and companies suck
relabeling of a product that was
the blood from their energy with the
probably intended for something show, with Tex-ass kick-assers, the
else. Plus, Break-dancing has got Big Boys, the Skoundrelz, plus
ten boring. You see it everywhere three other bands not worthy of ink.
except maybe a few shiny coins in a
and there's nothing to gain from it, But still the Skoundrelz, with T.A. on
thick and bad-ass bass and Mike
Ball on guitar, were very fine open-
cup, but heck, street-scum-bums
get that for doing nothing and lookers for the biggest, baddest boy
ing like shit. Plus, now even white from Texass. When the Big Boys hit
the stage, they brought the whole
Long Star state with them. Biskut
tore through a set of lullabies that
helped the brain grow! Hollywood
Swinging' was done better than the
original. In the crowd were spotted
John Doe and Exene of X, Kelth of
the Circle Jerks, Mark Alva, Alan
Losi, Potatoes #1 and #2, with #1
toting a rooster on his back.
kids are doin' it.
Here's another album, on Placebo
Records came a compilation of
Arizona bands, called This is
Phoenix Not the Circle Jerks,
with some great live cuts from
some of the most original and some
of the most weirdest bands known.
Two quick cuts from J.F.A. pass as
quickly as the wind in two breaths,
and definitely a shocking perfor-
mance comes forth from The
Mighty Sphincter. Indescribable
chaos and forward madness on this
record. Don't pass it up.
And now to vibe all of these art
bands who are attaining a new di-
rection. You read or hear interviews
of bands like Talking Heads, Laurie
Anderson and Peter Gabriel, Phil
Collins (Genesis), or The Police,
who all are claiming the same thing
is almost the exact same words.
"We've been going in a new direction
utilizing lots of African rhythms and
such.... Shit, why do all of these
In the SINK OR SWIM DEPT.,
Power Punk Funk Quartet, the Red
Hot Chill Peppers are treading
water with EMI America for an un-
disclosed, big time, unmentionable,
non-of-your business cntract. so
says Bob Forrest.
Skate demon Johnny Ray of the
Red Devils has just gotten the
chioppewa from the band, and has
already beem seen in the studio gar-
age of me, Carlos Cubano, with
LA's own Limey Dave, John Bazz,
Bill Bateman and also Tupelo Joe
Altruda was in natural form for this
meeting of the masterminds in
Condon 47
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