October 10th, 2000. Thanks (or no thanks) to the advances of the current Information Age, all that once was obscure, hidden and shadowed in mystery is subject to public scrutiny. Look long and hard enough and you'll find too much information on any subject you never needed to know about...ranging from inflatible-animal fetishism to 19th-century eugenics theories, back on down through the highs, mids and lows of pop culture in all its shapes...fun, fun, fun. Apparently. It's been nearly twenty years since Los Angeles' Screamers played a live show in front of a paying audience, and as they left no official recorded documents (apart from fanzine interviews and photo sessions), they've been virtually stricken from the Great Punk Rock Historical Record. More people are familiar with their distinctive logo (a cartoon portrait of singer Tomata du Plenty drawn by Paul Reubens synchophant Gary Panter) than are with the band itself, as it was later ripped off by everyone from ACT UP to a 976-Abuse line I saw advertised in a local paper. Enough digression, though. Back to the matter at hand.
The Screamers were
one of the leading lights of Los Angeles' early punk rock scene in the
late
70s, and different from their contemporaries (like the Germs, Bags, X, Weirdos,
or the Skulls) in that they used distorted/damaged synthesizers and Rhodes
keyboards rather than the traditional Flying V guitars employed by other
bands.
Lyrically, they were no less unconventional: tunes like "Magazine Love"
("...you don't love me, you love magazines"), "Mater Dolores"
("...Mater Dolores, Mother of Sorrows/She longs to be someone else, not
the chosen one") managed to sidestep punk cliches as well as mainstream
rock 'n' roll convention. Unlike later synth-driven groups they kept a flesh-and-blood
drummer (KK Barrett), and never lost their sense of crazed fun amidst all
the sonic experimentation and art-damaged-decadent stage antics.
As far as the best detective work (and back issues of Slash magazine) can suggest, the Screamers originally formed in the Seattle area under the name the Tupperwares, and centered around Tomata du Plenty, Tommy Gear, and a rotating line-up of recruits that once included future Mentors member El Duce on drums, and a pre-punk Penelope Houston (later of the Avengers) as a dancer! A concerted effort/leap of faith led the core members to Los Angeles where they eventually fell in with the early scene that centered around the Masque (a basement-level club underneath the Cecil B. DeMille Building in Hollywood). Photographs of the band appeared in the debut issue of Slash, and their careers were summarily launched before they had ever played in front of a Hollywood crowd. Shows, haircuts, drinks, drugs, wild abandon and eventual abandonment followed 'til their inevitable breakup in the early 80s. I wasn't there, no. I was following the second season of Battlestar Galactica rather than scary punk rock noise intended for adult audiences. I can't offer any inside opinions or authoritative facts about the ins and outs of their personal or professional lives between 1977 and 1980, so I won't attempt to. If you're so determined, nothing is stopping you from tracking them down...assuming you can be sure of their given names.
Final notes, in no particular
order: Paul Roessler makes a walk-on appearance in the 1982 Ridley Scott
film Blade Runner (look for the leather-clad punk rockers during the
scene where Harrison Ford's chasing the red-headed robot in a clear plastic
raincoat); KK, with his wife Trudie, opened the Radio, one of the first LA
clubs to cater to a hip-hop audience in the early 80s; Tomata du Plenty was
featured in a mid-90s coffee-table book showcasing 50 up-and-coming Los Angeles
artists and in the Dickies' song "I'm Okay, You're Okay;" at least
one Screamer was related to one member of Black Flag (My War era);
and Tomata du Plenty is, unfortunately, a very recent cancer casualty...and
the man to whom this piece is politely dedicated.
Untitled (Live at the Masque?) double 7", recorded in late December of 1978. Four tracks ("Punish or Be Damned," "Vertigo," "Magazine Love," and "Peer Pressure") are captured with rough-to-adequate sound quality. Presumably the first Screamers bootleg, dating from anywhere in the late 80s to the early 90s. Note the snappy Tomata du Plenty introductions to "Vertigo" ("...have any of you ever felt fear in your lives?! This song is about fear...") and "Peer Pressure" ("...we tried to write a holiday song in honor of X-Mas, but it didn't work out...this song is about what the holidays are really about!").
Untitled (Demos 1977, if anything) three-song 7" containing "If I Can't Have What I Want," "Punish or Be Damned," and "Mater Dolores." The bootlegger chose to use the obvious Gary Panter logo for its cover artwork, along with some rough and manic du Plenty scribblings. The three tunes are marred by a fierce tape hiss and demo-level sound quality, but the performances and tunes themselves are exciting regardless. "Mater Dolores" is driven by a mechanized rhythm-box beat that would appear much more prominently on the Death-Cone Clown double EP (discussed below).
Scuzzy the Death-Cone Clown double 7". Terrible cover artwork, terrible title, terrible concept. Ugly powder-blue vinyl. This boot was released in the early or mid 90s and looks very similar to a flood of unofficial live Fugazi-Nirvana-Soundgarden EPs that were appearing in record stores at the time. Why the bootlegger decided to put out the Screamers in that poor company is beyond me, but hey...for what it's worth, the EP does include some otherwise unreleased tunes ("Scream," "Need a Head-On"), and some others that have been released in better versions with better sound quality (a very long take of "The Beat Goes On," "Punish or Be Damned," "Magazine Love," "Peer Pressure"). The sound is distant and slightly muffled, and KK's drums sound like they've been replaced with a robotic 1978-vintage rhythm box. No thanks...not bad, also not the greatest introduction to the band (which it was, for me). At this point it's long gone from the open market, which isn't that great of a tragedy.
One track ("If I Can't Have
What I Want") on Killed by Death #13, which was, incidentally,
compiled by the late Tim Yohannon of Maximum Rock 'n' Roll fame (and
infamy). It's the same version of the song that appeared on the Demos 1977 EP,
taken from what sounds like a later-generation tape that had been sitting
in a shoebox since the turn of the 80s. To quote Bobo's liner notes: "LA's
Screamers vowed never to put out records, relying on their live performances
and video (a great one is available on Target Video). Singer Tumata (sic)
du Plenty, Tommy Gear, David Braun (of legendary Dangerhouse Records), and
KK were the only real punk band to not use any guitars. Relying on drums
and
synths, they were powerful and electrifying. A 4-song bootleg EP came out
a few years back, but doesn't contain this track here, tho it is from the
same year, 1978."
Demos 1977-1978 LP, containing "The Beat Goes On," "Through the Flames," a cover of the Germs' "Sex Boy," "If I Can't Have What I Want," "She's the Girl," "I Wanna Hurt," "122 Hours of Fear Pts. I and II," "Punish or Be Damned," "Government Love Affair," "Peer Pressure," "In a Better World," "Vertigo," "Magazine Love," and "It's a Violent World." A mysterious bootleg that appeared around the turn of the century and disappeared just as quickly. I'm not connected to the networks that produce and supply such items, so I can't offer any guesses as to its origin...though it had to have come from some source near the band. Either way, it's the single best recorded document (barring the Target video) of the Screamers, and the closest thing to a full, legitimate album you're going to get. Rough sound quality aside, this is arguably the Great Lost Punk Rock LP...a title once claimed by the Misfits 1977 Static Age album. Demos 1977-1978 is as good as the first Metal Urbain record, Wire's Pink Flag, more fun than Throbbing Gristle...and heads and shoulders over their neighborhood rivals, Devo. The fact that these are rough rehearsal tapes, rather than slick studio sessions, only adds to its impact. High bids by collectors are justified. Hopefully this will see a legitimate release one day (with the packaging and promotion it deserves), but until then...I got mine. Every crumb for himself, remember.
Live at Mabuhay Gardens...true, it's a video rather than a record, but it still warrants inclusion here. Target (not to be confused with the chain of cut-rate department stores!) Video were a do-it-yourself San Francisco outfit fronted by one Joe Rees, who videotaped virtually every local (and most touring) punk-new wave-art-noise-pop band that set foot in city limits, all during the primitive, pre-VHS days of the medium. Though the company has long since vanished (along with all the rare tapes of Crime, the Avengers, Nuns, Black Flag, and any other band you wish you had seen), copies of the Screamers' set at the Mab on Broadway were once readily available through mailorder and various distributors. No, I don't own it. Yes, I have seen it and have an audio dub of the tape, which runs roughly a half hour. The video contains "The Beat Goes On," "In a Better World," "Punish or Be Damned," "Vertigo," "122 Hours of Fear" and "Magazine Love," and features Tomata in bright yellow plastic fireman's gear (minus shirt, and possibly, pants). The performance is incendiary, sound and film quality (and it does look like 16mm, not video) are excellent, and the audience includes early SF scene stars (Penelope Houston, among others) and a young (!) Jello Biafra in a horizontally-striped boating shirt. Good luck hunting for it...and make sure you don't pay a hundred bucks for a Betamax copy on eBay, hmm?