REVIEW: THE REAL IMPOSSIBLES – IT’S ABOUT TIME – REISSUE (2020)
BY ANDY THORLEY - JANUARY 26, 2020
This won’t surprise anyone who knows me, but small print, minutiae, all that type of stuff, never been my thing. Back in the early 90s, I was taking my exams. I was an exceptionally lazy kid. I’d been accepted into college on the premise that I needed to pass four of the nine I was taking. English lang and lit, that was two, Geography? I could piss that and History. That was my favourite. Easy. Who needs maths anyway? (I still haven’t got it and I worked in a bank for 10 years – true story)
I sat doing my History exam. I’d finished way before the other kids and because I was bored, I finally read the instructions. Answer three of the four, it said. Shit. I’d done two like the mocks. Still, it all worked out in the end. Just. That approach to, you know, not actually reading instructions still goes with me today. The new car I had the other week. How hard could the cruise control be?
Fair do’s maybe I shouldn’t have just randomly pressed buttons on the motorway, let’s just say that. Then there’s this. Now, you see, I’d stuck this on my iPod after listening to “Burned” the first song.
You would too. It is marvellous. Sweet as honey harmonies, an understanding of proper old time rock n roll out of the Sun Studios, and that moment when the lead guitar pierces? Man, sign me up for this.
So I was listening to the rest of it at “work” the next day. No longer in the bank, and not strictly meant to be sat with my iPod on, but its better than listening to shite about Love Island and no one has actually told me to stop, and I am inwardly making my notes. Like these: “80s sounding”, “power pop”, “The Knack” and all kinds of others.
Then, I read the helpful bio that the always lovely Rum Bar Records sent me (Hey Lou, you rule!) and here’s the thing. The thing came out in ’83. It’s a reissue. With some bonus tracks. But here’s the real point. And this is the point that people who are obsessed with “details” and “facts” don’t ever get. It doesn’t actually matter. What is of concern is this: “It’s About Time” is a marvellous thing. It makes no odds whether it came out last week, last year, last century, it is just superb.
We're back to the Top3 new Video Countdown for Jan. 18, 2020!
Today first up is a band that is touring the USA & Mexico! They are the Jackets and they are awesome! Their bio states: "The Jackets are dark, exciting, dynamic, loud, fun and addictive! They mix the best elements of Rock and Roll into a potent, irresistible cocktail with a ferocity that is also full of good humor, high spirited fun, and full blast excitement! Just when you thought it had all been done with three-chord garage rock, The Jackets have not just reinvented it, they own it!" Here's their Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejackets/
#3) The Jackets - Dreamer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HAV7IM-8z8&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2-bGnFONlWkm1Pmvz_-Zpa5dj4pEwyFkyUVG9uS_5hn3dMfCuLd1W02Vo&ab_channel=TheJackets
Next up is Brigitte Handley the front person for Brigitte & the Dark Shadows. Music Shock World writes: “The black fairy from Sydney flies through Londoners’ hearts with a performance that provides confirmations and surprises: the elegance and power of human sincerity connected to immense performer skills have made this meeting a special moment…”
And at #1 this week is the newest from the great teamwork of the band the Tearaways and Hollywood Director Stephen David Brooks.
The band's influences? "Franklin, Grant, Jackson, Hamilton, Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, Samuel Chase... The Beatles, Stones, The Knack, Petty, Bee Gees, The Airplane, you pretty much get the drift Dockside to Beachside - California to Liverpool, London to Dublin..." Hey! Wait a second!!!!!
SPOTLIGHT ARTIST! Today's Spotlight Artist is a rarity I found whilst surfing the internet(s). They are called the Minks. And that's it. That's all I know. I can't find anything about this band. This video was published in 2007! If you know about this band, send me a holler. I'll play this on the radio!
Here's their Facebook page: No FB page, it seems.... Sigh.
Also, I have a Patreon account! Please send over a few dimes if you like what I am doing: Mike Rogers Show on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20842243) Well, that’s it for today. Have a great weekend!
----------------------------
About Mike in Tokyo Rogers: Mike has been a professional music/TV/radio/anime-related program producer in Japan since the eighties.
He began in the music business in 1977 as lead vocalist with the legendary Los Angeles Punk Band, “The Rotters” (Sit on My Face Stevie Nix.).
As a university student, he was assistant to the legendary Rodney Bingenheimer (Rodney on the ROQ – KROQ Los Angeles from 1980 ~ 1981.)
Mike was the first and only foreigner in Japanese history to become the General Manager of a major Japanese broadcasting station (TV Tokyo owned InterFM). Has produced a few smash hit programs (some real losers, too!) and several of Tokyo’s highest-rated and most famous radio programs.
A recent hit Internet TV program was “The TV Show” (Set Program with “Ninja Slayer”) which, between April – Oct. 2015, garnered over 10 million viewers.
He is currently producing and hosting “The Mike Rogers Show” daily around the world!
Also, Mike is the creator and founder of the Raindance Japan Film & VR Festival.
Also his life’s dream is his full-length motion picture, “Ghostroads – A Japanese Rock and Roll Ghost Story,” which enjoyed its World-Premiere at the Raindance Film Festival in London on Sept. 25, 2017, and was released by a major Japanese motion picture company and in theaters all across Japan from Sept. 2017 ~ Mar. 2018. The DVD and Blu-Ray went on sale all across Japan on June 13, 2018!
His next project, “Matsuchiyo – Life of a Geisha” world premiered at the 2018 Raindance Film Festival in Oct. 2018.
Mike is also an Official Jury member to the Raindance Film Festival in London making him the first person ever to serve as a Jury Member from Japan in Raindance Film Festival history. …
When I was young, I was the lead singer in a "One-Hit Wonder" Punk Rock Band. The band's name was "The Rotters." We played with the Dead Kennedys, Fear, Black Flag, the Germs, Angry Samoans and a bunch of other 1978~79 Los Angeles Punk Band's whose names I can't remember. I've written about it here: I Was a Teenage Punk Rocker - Why Dedication Beats Fanaticism Anyday! Even for Punk Rock or Success in Any Field! (If link doesn't work, copy & paste this into your browser: https://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/2015/12/i-was-teenage-punk-rocker-why.html)
I'm glad I did that and played in that band. It was a great experience.
(Left to right: Johnny Brewton, Peter MacKenzie, Bob Rogers, me (crouching with rifle). Dead on the ground was our dear friend Arya Sabahi.)
The Rotters played lots of shows with famous bands and we had, actually, more than one song released on 7 inch analogue vinyl single... I once saw the first pressing of our debut single on sale in a record store for $750 (USD). That was about 30 years ago. It sold on Discogs auction for $1240 a few years later. I have heard that our second single is even more valuable. After that band broke up, I floundered in a few other bands, but never really did anything that was as exciting as the Rotters... I thought... Until a while back... I opened up my Facebook and my jaw dropped to my socks! My old friend who was the drummer in another band project we had made in the early 80s had tagged me in a post showing where a record we made back in those days had sold at auction for $1,350! What the hell? (It would later sell for $1680 on Discogs.) The Wuffy Dogs featured the original guitarist for Berlin (Take My Breath Away), the original drummer for M.I.A., and two former Rotters.
I couldn't believe it! "The Wuffy Dogs" makes the Top 10 list for the most expensive items sold on an Internet music auction site!? What?
In brief: A few years after the Rotters broke up, my friends and I made this band, called the Wuffy Dogs (Barbara Woodhouse). It was my university room-mate Peter MacKenzie (Who was the original guitarist for the band Berlin "Take My Breath Away" but quit that band because they didn't want to rock n roll... He'll never hear the end of that mistake from me!) and my older brother, Bob (The Rotters) and a really talented young drummer named Johnny Brewton (Later to become the drummer for MIA) and me (The Rotters). We never played live but I was convinced that some of the songs I had written could be radio hits (again) so I conned my friends to get together and record some tracks.
The recordings were done at some local studio (I forget the name) near my home. We recorded 4 songs, I wrote 3 of them and sang (screamed) on those 3 too. Pete wrote the "Radio-friendly" single and sang on that.
When the recordings were done, I tried to get us aired on KROQ in Los Angeles, but there was no fire. Nothing was happening with this record. I was kind of surprised. It seemed so easy with the Rotters.
We pressed about 250 or so of these records and I threw most of them away when I moved to Japan in 1983.
I hear that record collectors today call this particular record one of the "Holy Grail" of 7-inch records from those days. Why? Two former Rotters and the later the original drummer for M.I.A.! Peter MacKenzie was famous for quitting an extremely famous pop band (Berlin - "Take My Beath Away) before they became huge and had a Billboard #1 single!
But, back then, when we made these records, I couldn't give them away! Now, , someone paid over thirteen-hundred dollars for one!? (Actually saw it on another auction at $1,780!) WTF?!
I was so happy to see this news! It was the best present I have received in years. Thank you so much for allowing me to brag!
To think that the effort we made over 30 years ago finally gets some recognition today... Unbelievable!
As my dear friend, Ken always says, "Dream as if you will live forever. Live as if you will die tomorrow!"
Thank you, er, destiny or fate, or just plain good luck, and being in the right place at the right time and making the effort.
Folks, live without regrets! - Mike in Tokyo Rogers
---------------------------
OH MY GOD! Somebody has actually put up on Youtube one of our songs! (I think this is one of the worst best songs I ever wrote - I Must Be Lou Reed was another one) "Things Dogs Do." Anyone who would pay big money for this must be outta their minds!!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5VbgTxFxSY
* As one of my dear friends pointed out, even after all these years, it's nice to still be wanted.
We're back! Happy New Year! It's time for the Top 3 Video Countdown for Jan 11, 2020! And the Tomboys are going to tour the USA! トムボウイズ史上初！ アメリカツアー決定〜！
Today's Top 3 countdown is celebrating the Tomboys just announced USA tour! You go girls! You must see this awesome band!!!!!!
The Tomboys will be at SXSW in March. Also San Francisco, Las Vegas (be careful of the casinos, girls!) Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York! Get your tickets NOW!
This song was produced by Glen Matlock of Sex Pistols fame!
SPOTLIGHT ARTIST!Today's Spotlight Artist are the Tomboys (duh!) The Tomboys formed in 2011 with help from the 50 Kaitenz! Their original name was "No Name" band. They dropped "No Name" and became the Tomboys in 2016!
They will also be featured on my radio show this weekend!
Also Tomboys special on Kyushu Love FM 76.1 on Jan. 29, 2020 at 11 pm!
KOR Radio UK: Saturday 9pm UK time. Saturday 1pm Los Angeles time. Sunday 5 am Japan Time. (日曜日の朝5時スタート！） http://www.koradio.rocks/
Radio Lantau (Hong Kong) Mon - Friday 5pm Hong Kong 6pm Japan 日本は月〜金（毎日！夜６時！） http://radiolantau.com/
Big Indie Giant from South Africa: Sunday 11am - Cape Town 10am - London 6pm - Tokyo And will repeat Wednesdays （再放送） 2pm - Cape Town 1pm - London 水曜日２１時！ https://www.bigindiegiant.com/
Also, I have a Patreon account! Please send over a few dimes if you like what I am doing: Mike Rogers Show on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20842243)
Well, that’s it for today. Have a great weekend!
----------------------------
About Mike in Tokyo Rogers: Mike has been a professional music/TV/radio/anime-related program producer in Japan since the eighties.
He began in the music business in 1977 as lead vocalist with the legendary Los Angeles Punk Band, “The Rotters” (Sit on My Face Stevie Nix.).
As a university student, he was assistant to the legendary Rodney Bingenheimer (Rodney on the ROQ – KROQ Los Angeles from 1980 ~ 1981.)
Mike was the first and only foreigner in Japanese history to become the General Manager of a major Japanese broadcasting station (TV Tokyo owned InterFM). Has produced a few smash hit programs (some real losers, too!) and several of Tokyo’s highest-rated and most famous radio programs.
A recent hit Internet TV program was “The TV Show” (Set Program with “Ninja Slayer”) which, between April – Oct. 2015, garnered over 10 million viewers.
He is currently producing and hosting “The Mike Rogers Show” daily around the world!
Also, Mike is the creator and founder of the Raindance Japan Film & VR Festival.
Also his life’s dream is his full-length motion picture, “Ghostroads – A Japanese Rock and Roll Ghost Story,” which enjoyed its World-Premiere at the Raindance Film Festival in London on Sept. 25, 2017, and was released by a major Japanese motion picture company and in theaters all across Japan from Sept. 2017 ~ Mar. 2018. The DVD and Blu-Ray went on sale all across Japan on June 13, 2018!
His next project, “Matsuchiyo – Life of a Geisha” world premiered at the 2018 Raindance Film Festival in Oct. 2018.
Mike is also an Official Jury member to the Raindance Film Festival in London making him the first person ever to serve as a Jury Member from Japan in Raindance Film Festival history. …
In the early 1980s, I was in a band called the Wuffy Dogs. The Wuffy Dogs were my college roommate Pete MacKenzie, a very talented drummer named Johnny Brewton and Bob on bass (oh and me). We made a record but it went nowhere. We couldn't give them away. Most of them went into the trash. No, 40 years later, I am told it is the Holy Grail of late 1970s LA punk band records. They are selling for more than $1,600 each.
No kidding. It is listed as selling for... Are you sitting down? $18,000 on Discogs. I think someone in Japan must have bought that one.
Anyway, a record I could give away sells for this much? Unbelievable. Now it is being released by a label in LA. "The Wuffy Dogs ."Wuffy Dogs" 7" Reissue Originally released in 1983 with members of The Rotters and MIA. The Wuffy Dogs lone 7" has become one of the rarest records in Punk in it's 36-year history. Most copies were unfortunately destroyed in a hasty move to Japan (along with copies of "Sink The Whales Buy Japanese Goods") but the archaeologists over at Meat House Productions have dug up these dogs to bring a 100% legitimate reissue to the masses. Complete with re-mastered audio and a never before seen lyric booklet, Meat House Productions is extremely proud to present the first ever re-release of The Wuffy Dogs 7". Limited to 500 copies with only 400 available to the public, this will sell quickly!" http://www.meathouseproductions.com/products/658291-the-wuffy-dogs-wuffy-dogs-7-reissue?fbclid=IwAR3V3zzc1eafr8aPBi6t2BaC-pFqpgaaSwWHd-7Dy2yd-LAL61_ePhs50WQ I wonder if they'll send me a copy?
"Do something once or do it everyday." - Andy Warhol
Just like the title says, I was a famous punk rocker... Really.... It's true. I was a famous (sort of) punk rocker.... Woo Hoo! And dedication does matter... Even if it is dedication to something that seems as ridiculous as punk rock...
Early 1980 at Santa Barbara for one of our last gigs
I think that everyone knows that dedication has immense value... It is especially valuable if that dedication is true dedication over the long term and not short-term fanaticism.
I was the lead singer of a famous one-hit-wonder band of the late 1970s. Why were we only "One Hit Wonders?" Because we weren't "dedicated" to what we were doing. We were short-term fanatics. By some miracle, or accident of god, even though we were terrible, we sold a sh*t-load of records back then. Bands like the Dead Kennedys or Black Flag were opening bands for our shows. We used to play many shows with bands like the seminal Los Angeles Punk band, Fear. The bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea, was a bassist for Fear at one time.
Left to right: Furukawa Taro, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, Flea, me at Tokyo Dome.
Guys like Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedy's and the members of Black Flag, Flea and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are dedicated. That's why they have performed for such a long time. We were fanatics, so we faded quickly into oblivion. Dedicated people stick with something for a long time. Fanatics are like people who get interested in a new religion one day and they are "on fire" about it for a very short time... Yes. "On fire" is a good description... So "on fire" are they that they also burn out quickly and lose interest. The dedicated ones are on a slow, evenly burning flame... Maybe it's like "falling in love" is comparable to fanaticism; "falling in love" is easy and quick but can end too soon in a sudden fashion. Dedication is like "true love;" "true love" lasts a long time and requires dedication and work to achieve. If you do something, anything, try to be dedicated not fanatical. Back in those days I hung around with lots of kind of famous people. Many of those people who were famous in those days are now dead...
That's me on the left
But the guys in my band (and I) were stupid. A lot of those people from the other bands figured out something that the guys in my band were too dense to realize... What did they realize? Well, it's simple; if you want to be famous and live off of playing music then you have to live it. I mean really live it. You have to dedicate to it. Many people do the talk... Few do the walk. My band wouldn't do the basics. We wouldn't dedicate.
Why didn't we figure out? Well, we didn't figure it out that "Stick-to-it-tiveness" and "dedication" pay off... We wanted the easy way to fame and fortune. It was so easy to make our first hit, that I think it spoiled the hell out of us. We got lazy and didn't work hard.
What I am getting at is that, "...if you keep to your guns, and do not compromise and work hard, then maybe, perhaps, you can succeed..." If you don't keep at it, then you fail for certain.... Is there any business or endeavor in the world that doesn't require dedication and stick-to-it-tiveness?
It's pretty easy when you look at it that way, isn't it? You either do or you don't.
"There is no try. There is only do or not do." - Yoda from Star Wars May I digress? There is one other reason we didn't succeed; we were conceited jerks. Long ago, I worked with one of the most famous DJs in the entire world, the world famous Rodney on the Roq (Rodney Bingenheimer). He told me, "You have to be nice to everyone because you never know who will become famous or powerful someday." It's true. In show business, you never know who will one day become a famous producer or get married to a powerful person. It took me years to figure out what he meant. He is absolutely right! Now, I try to be nice to everyone. Even the old cleaning lady who comes to the station to clean up everyday. Who does she come to clean up for? Of course because it is for her job, but she also comes to clean up for us! So we can have a clean environment to work in. Great ideas and creations do not come from dirt and filth; they come from clean and fresh and healthy ideas and places. I told the guys in my band, at that time, that "If we just stay together for the time it takes to build a crowd and a solid reputation - maybe 10 to 15 years - even without any hits - we can be famous and live off of playing music all our lives." (Perhaps that's also what Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his book "Outliers" that says "10,000 hours of work are required for success in any field.") But it was not to be for us... Alas, we were too hard-headed and selfish too see the truth in dedication. My band spent more time fighting over silly stuff like trying to alter other people's behavior to accommodate our own, rather than playing and practicing hard.
The Rotters 1977 (L to R) Phester Swollen, Johnny Condom, Nigel Nitro (me), Rip Chord
What a waste! Now we are all businessmen and/or unemployed and live with high-blood pressure, stress and all sorts of diseases and sicknesses that are going to kill us ASAP. What a fun life, eh? Now, please allow me to indulge myself and allow me now to ramble quite a bit.... From late 1977 to Jan. of 1980, my name was Nigel Nitro and I was the lead singer of a punk band called the Rotters. We had a single that sold 600,000 records in Europe; supposedly 1 million records all over the world. (But remember that record labels always inflate their numbers so remove a zero from those and you are probably closer to the real totals! Still not bad.) It was also the only song by an American band that the Clash played for the BGM of their first American tour. It was also one of the first (and only?) records to be banned nationwide on American FM radio. The song was called, "Sit on my Face, Stevie Nicks." It was a monster hit and why were are called "one-hit wonders."
It was all a scam (of course, it was Punk rock, right?)... I think about it now and can't figure out how the guitarist, Phester (real name is Tom) and I arranged all that... But we did. We talked people into recording our record, making a master, and printing it.... All for free... It was totally DIY in late 1977! By some miracle of timing, we were lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time to be one of the late 1970s Los Angeles punk bands...
At that time, I had all the most beautiful girls in town as my girl friends (in my vanity I considered them decorations) and our band was hot and famous. We charted on radio stations all over the country and were guests several times on Rodney Bingenheimer's radio show on KROQ and, according to Rodney, "The most requested song in the history of the radio show..." (beating even the Bay City Rollers and the Sex Pistols!)....
I met the Clash, the Ramones, Blondie, Phil Spector, the Knack (My Sharona) and many others; we played at the Masque for Brendan Mullen with the Germs, the Dils, the Bags, The Screamers; as I said, we often played gigs with Fear, the Angry Samoans, Black Flag (before Henry Rollins) and bands like the Dead Kennedy's were the opening band for our shows!.... I was even at the debut show of the Go-Gos (they were terrible! - but they stuck with it!) and I've gotten high with Dee Dee Ramone and the Ramones many times before and with so many artists that I can't name them all.... In fact, I've even gotten stoned with Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO in Santa Barbara in 1979 or 80! All because I was in a one-hit wonder band!
Joey Ramone and I even became good friends one day many years later....
Oh, those were the days, my friends. I thought they'd never end! We'd sing and laugh forever and a day....
So don't you tell me there's no god!
How did that happen?
Here's how: I was a college student in 1977. I was a full-time stoner... I never studied... One day I came home from school "high," as usual, and turned on the TV....
TV in those days was sometimes redeeming as I found Monty Python at that time (I have always been an "early adopter") and would come home to watch PBS. There, that day, on the TV was a program about this, "New and sick music craze that was sweeping Britain!" It was Punk Rock. I immediately loved it!
All I really remember was that people had short red hair and were wearing dog collars and jumping around. I'd find out later that it was a video of the Damned live. They were choking each other.
The announcer was saying how sick these kids were. I thought it was cool. The kids also had cool fashions and wore lots of leather. The bands were real and they were rock and roll. I thought and, as I watched, I felt that I was watching a revolution.
There was a record store in town called "The Wherehouse" so I went there and asked the guy at the counter if they had any "Punk Rock"? He looked at me strange and said, "What?" I said it was a new kind of British rock music. He pointed to the left and said, "The imports are over there!"
I didn't know the names of any of the bands or really what to look for in the import albums but I knew they had short messy hair. I started rifling through the records of guys with nice crew cuts and hippie bands. Then I came upon the first Damned record. The one where they have pumpkin pie smashed all over their faces. I turned it over and there was Dracula and the guy wearing a waitress dress. "That's it!" I thought. So I bought it.
I rushed home and put it on the turntable. Neat Neat Neat came on. I loved it. Soon I took a scissors and cut off all my hair.
That moment changed my life. I became a fanatical fan of Punk rock. Within 3 months, I got together a band and arranged a recording session and we made our first and biggest hit... We toured a lot and played many shows... But my band members fought constantly and weren't dedicated...
And, that, in a nutshell, my friends, is how we became "one-hit wonders."
Phester Swollen, the guitarist in that band is still my dear friend to this day. In early 1979, the famous San Francisco punk band, The Nuns, called us and asked us to open for them. Of course the guitarist and I said, "Yes!" but the drummer and bassist refused to go to SF to open for the Nuns because, get this, they said they had "already promised their friends to go surfing." Idiots. That was the defacto end of the Rotters. I was furious. If I knew then what I know now, I would have kicked those two assholes out of the band right there on the spot and the guitarist and I would have gone to SF and performed by ourselves.... Alas, we didn't. We messed up big time. I fucked up. Really, I should have fired those two idiots. Why? Oh why? Didn't I?
With the White Stripes on July 25, 2002
(Left to right: George Williams, Jack White, me, Meg White)
That may sound disappointing and it was to me for a long time. For years I was bitter and sad about it until one day, Jack White of the White Stripes - way before they were famous - was a guest on my radio show. When I told him I was in a punk band and what the name of the band was, his eyes grew wide and he shouted, "I bought that record when I was, like 13, I loved that!! I told him how I was pissed off at my failure and he then put his hand on my shoulder and said to me, "Mike, it's better to have punked and lost, than to have never punked at all!"
Wow! That was like lightening hitting me right between the eyes. He's right!.. I'm glad I was in the Rotters... Too bad, though, it could have been so much more...
Actually our second single did get some airplay and sold pretty well too...
I once saw it in a record collectors shop selling for $250... I told the clerk that I was
the lead singer of the band... He didn't believe me...
Oh, but that's all past now... Long past. Up until a few years ago, the guys in the band had many reunion gigs in the USA, and asked me to come perform, but I never did. The last time I ever played with that band was a few shows in Japan in 1988.
I don't want to do that anymore. It's a good memory and I want to keep it that way.
The point of this all is, like I said, determination and dedication.... Fanaticism isn't necessarily a good thing. Long term thinking, planning and work and practice - no matter what the business - pays off; whether it's music, a new business venture, sports, or a hobby or craft.
Stick to it. Dedication and hard work pay off... Even if it's only Punk Rock.
NOTE: The above is far too serious. I've always thought that Punk rock should be laughs and fun. If you want a laugh, actually many good laughs, read the below. It is a short recollection of those days by the guitarist, Phester Swollen. Phester has a way with words and this is hilarious! From the online band information site, Break My Face has this:
PULL IT AND YELL...It was 1978 and rock and roll was the worst putrefying heap of overblown bovine excrement imaginable. Walking into a record store was about as fun as having a raging bout of the Hershey squirts and with no choice but to use a Super Seven gas station toilet that was plugged with some wino's puke and butt blow. Hearing the likes of Peter Frampton, Steely Dan, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and that phony working class schmuck, the Boss, left us contemplating the big sleep to put us out of our misery. What the fuck was this shit? It sure as hell wasn't rock. We were frustrated, pissed off and offended.
Nigel Nitro and I were a couple of nasty film production students at Moorpark College, just northwest of Los Angeles. We stuck out and didn't fit in. Neither of us wanted to make films with a couple of retarded lovebirds walking on the beach to some lame ass Jim Croce ballad. Our goal was to make vicious, stabbing satires. If people were offended we knew we were on the right track. One night we both saw an episode of 20/20 on the lobotomy box ranting on the evils of this hideous new scourge on society from England called punk rock. It featured live footage of the Damned and the Sex Pistols with subtitles for the lyrics so that the world could see how vile and disgusting they were. They hated it. We loved it. If it pissed them off so much it HAD to be good! It had everything we'd been dying to hear for years and besides, any idiots could do it. That meant us, too.Within a couple of weeks we started The Rotters with another Moorpark film loony, Bruce Brink on drums and Rip Chord on bass.
Bruce soon bailed out for fear that the local Oxnard or Ventura hillbillies would kill him for playing punk, a reasonable concern. Rip's friend Johnny Condom took over on drums. Since Nigel and I were both students at Moorpark College we were able to weasel our way into the recording class almost immediately as they were in need of bands to record on the four track. The recording students hated us. We weren't real musicians. We were sloppy, not together. We were out of tune most of the time. We didn't know what the fuck we were doing. But we didn't care. We had a lot of wild enthusiasm and the teacher of the class, Richard Simpson, caught on to this. He told us; "you guys aren't any good, but you have fun and that's all that's really important." Then he encouraged us to put out a single, which he would master for us for free.We'd played a few volatile shows. After being kicked out of the Mickey Moose disco in Ventura for sucking and being pelted with debris in Anisque Oyo Park in Isla Vista for being shitty, we knew we were good. "Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks" was a standout and the logical choice for the single. It had been written in about ten minutes as one of the worst songs possible while at the same time taking a stab at the big bucks rock world we hated so much.
"Amputee", a kind of anthem of the stupid, was on the flip side.Once we had a test pressing we naively decide we should take it down to KROQ and give it to Rodney Bingenheimer to play. Rodney's show Rodney On The ROQ was THE punk show on L.A. radio at the time. We drove down to Pasadena to the station and snuck in by standing at the back door with a bunch of punk looking guest types. When they let them in, we walked in too. We didn't know it right away but they were the Ramones and Clem Burke, the drummer from Blondie. Even though we didn't have any drugs for Dee Dee, Rodney still played our record and put us on the air with Joey Ramone. Almost immediately Rodney asked us, live on the air, if we liked the Ramones. Nigel and I simultaneously said, "uh... er... we like the Sex Pistols". They broke for a commercial, told us "you guys gotta leave now!" and kicked us out. But the damage was done. KROQ was inundated with requests for "Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks" the next day.
For some strange reason Fleetwood Mac took offense. Well, there's no accounting for taste. It seems this was the era when Mick Fleetwood was boning Stevie Nicks behind Lindsey Buckingham's back and he felt he had to rescue her honor. Christ! As if they didn't have enough problems of their own with all the break ups, infidelity, cocaine addictions and millions of dollars burdening them! They had to throw their weight around and go after some fledgling punk band. I guess it was a case of the big bully beating up the asthmatic wimp on the playground for making a smart ass comment and laughing during his oral report. We soon found we were banned in Los Angeles. Someone claiming to be Mick Fleetwood himself called KROQ and threatened them with a lawsuit if they played the song, then called Nigel at home with the same threat. All the major record stores in Los Angeles were threatened with no more big selling Big Mac albums if they sold our nasty little single. Ooh scary! What a threat. Who the hell bought Tusk anyway? It sucked the turds out of a dead bloated water buffalo's anus. Some stores hid our records under the table like a bunch of pussies and some gave Fleetwood Mac the finger and still got their albums anyway. Then they decided to be less obvious and the doors to a number of the clubs in town closed to us mysteriously.
We didn't really need their help in fucking everything up though. We could do that ourselves. Any money we might have made went into beer. We couldn't play worth shit most of the time, didn't follow any L.A. punk clique rules and were lazy as hell. None of this helped at all. The second single, "Sink The Whales Buy Japanese Goods" b/w "Disco Queen", we couldn't give away. None of us had any use for stacks of the record so many of the 1,000 copies went into the trash. Now it's a coveted collector's item. Go figure. Disillusioned, with our dreams of glory crushed, we broke up early in 1980. However, The Rotters have managed to survive although not with the original line up. But what the hell, how many punk bands stay the same for more than 20 years? The whole idea of middle age punks is offensive anyway. But then again, that's the point.
— Phester Swollen
The first Rotters 7 inch. had at least two distinct pressings. The first pressing says "BANNED" only while the second pressing says "BANNED IN L.A." (pictured above). The second and far more rockin' Rotters 7in. was a single pressing, but with a couple of different paper stocks. The more common sleeve is on standard white stock, the less common is on heavier yellow stock (though either are practically impossible to find). Some copies have both sleeves. Both Rotters 45's (along with several other early L.A. punk greats) have been reissued by Dionysus Records.
Here's a video that I made that has footage of our 1988 show in Japan:
Thanks to Jp Valentine, and Enrico Ciccu. For my dear friends Yuri Tsujimoto, Sharon Kennedy and Tom Swollen
