Tag Archives: Los Angeles

The Alley Cats

The Alley Cats were a Los Angeles-based punk rock trio featuring Dianne Chai (bass and vocals), Randy Stodola (guitar and vocals), and drummer John McCarthy. They were part of the first-wave L.A. punk rock scene. X’s John Doe described the band as having “made some of the toughest, most nihilistic music on the scene.”

Originally signed to Dangerhouse Records alongside other seminal California-based punk bands including the Bags, Black Randy and the Metro Squad, and X,The Alley Cats released their first single “Nothing Means Nothing Anymore” backed with “Give Me a Little Pain” in March of 1978. At Dangerous they released the album, Nightmare City (1981), while major label MCA released Escape From The Planet Earth (1982). They are among the six bands featured on the 1979 compilation album Yes L.A. and appear in the 1982 film Urgh! A Music War.

The Alley Cats were regular performers at such Los Angeles venues as Club 88, Hong Kong Café, The Masque, and the Whisky a Go Go.

A. Official Releases (7″ vinyl)

1. Alley Cats ‎– Nothing Means Nothing Anymore / Give Me A Little Pain
Label: Dangerhouse
Catalog Number: LOM-22
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Released: March 1978

Notes: Track B is titled “Give Me A Little Pain” on the sleeve and “Gimme A Little Pain” on the label. The runout etchings and labels indicate “Nothing Means Nothing Anymore” is side “AA” and “Gimme A Little Pain” is side “A”. Picture sleeve is a 14″ sheet folded in half.

Tracklist
A – Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
B – Gimme A Little Pain

2. The Alley Cats ‎– Too Much Junk
Label: Time Coast Records
Catalog Number: TC #22
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Released: 1980

Notes: includes two inserts-sleeve with either
white or black labels.

Tracklist
A – Too Much Junk
B – Night Along The Blvd.

Online Resources

Punk 77 – The Alley Cats biography

7" vinyl, Los Angeles, Punk Rock

The Cheifs

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In November of 1979, Bob Glassley and a few friends piled into his car for a road trip down the West Coast. It was a retired police cruiser from the Dorris California Police Department, an all-white Plymouth with a souped-up engine. At the time, Glassley sang for a young punk band from Portland called the Rubbers. They were on a mission that day, to make some alliances in the Los Angeles music scene, and to line up some shows for a touring caravan of Portland bands. “We set out for L.A., and the motor blew somewhere outside of Stockton,” Glassley says. “When we got back on the road we found out it was the day they were taping the Hollywood Christmas parade. All of the freeway exits were closed, so we just kept driving around the city, looking for an off-ramp.”

Eventually they made it into the city and crashed at the Holly-West in Hollywood. The space was a former MGM studio and office building on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Western, housing everything from a porno studio and a church led by a gay preacher to rehearsal spaces where musicians lived, practiced and spent most of their time hanging out.

One day, Glassley was listening to a group making noise in a nearby room when a young man with bright blue hair — George Walker — poked his head around the doorway and asked if anyone played bass. “I said I did, although that was a serious stretch,” Glassley says. “I owned a cheap bass back in Portland, so I felt qualified.”

Walker was a gay black man in the late ’70s L.A. punk scene at a time when there were few out gay or black punk musicians.

The two became friends, and after sticking around and playing music for a few days, Glassley was invited to join the group and play bass alongside Walker on guitar with singer Jerry Koskie and drummer Kenneth “Rabit” Bragger. Soon they would come to be known as Cheifs. (further reading…)

The Cheifs

In November of 1979, Bob Glassley and a few friends piled into his car for a road trip down the West Coast. It was a retired police cruiser from the Dorris California Police Department, an all-white Plymouth with a souped-up engine. At the time, Glassley sang for a young punk band from Portland called the Rubbers. They were on a mission that day, to make some alliances in the Los Angeles music scene, and to line up some shows for a touring caravan of Portland bands. “We set out for L.A., and the motor blew somewhere outside of Stockton,” Glassley says. “When we got back on the road we found out it was the day they were taping the Hollywood Christmas parade. All of the freeway exits were closed, so we just kept driving around the city, looking for an off-ramp.”

Eventually they made it into the city and crashed at the Holly-West in Hollywood. The space was a former MGM studio and office building on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Western, housing everything from a porno studio and a church led by a gay preacher to rehearsal spaces where musicians lived, practiced and spent most of their time hanging out.

One day, Glassley was listening to a group making noise in a nearby room when a young man with bright blue hair — George Walker — poked his head around the doorway and asked if anyone played bass. “I said I did, although that was a serious stretch,” Glassley says. “I owned a cheap bass back in Portland, so I felt qualified.”

Walker was a gay black man in the late ’70s L.A. punk scene at a time when there were few out gay or black punk musicians.

The two became friends, and after sticking around and playing music for a few days, Glassley was invited to join the group and play bass alongside Walker on guitar with singer Jerry Koskie and drummer Kenneth “Rabit” Bragger. Soon they would come to be known as Cheifs.

Glassley returned to Portland to play the final shows the Rubbers had booked and was L.A.-bound soon after. The Rubbers’ Bruce Loose went on to sing and play bass with San Francisco’s legendary punk outfit, Flipper. Back in L.A., Glassley experienced a thrilling new beginning, building friendships with the now-legendary denizens of the local punk scene, including Darby Crash and Lorna Doom of the Germs, Keith Morris of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, and Jack Grisham of T.S.O.L.

A. Official Releases (7″ vinyl)

1a. The Cheifs ‎– The Cheifs
Label: Playgems Records
Catalog Number: PG 001
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, EP
Released: 1980

Notes: Darby Crash credited on sleeve as “Creative Consultant”; recorded September 1980 in North Hollywood.

Tracklist
A ‎– Blues
B1 ‎– (At The Beach At) Tower 18
B2 ‎– Knocked Out

1b. The Cheifs ‎– The Cheifs
Label: Spontaneous Combustion Records
Catalog Number: SCR-006
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, EP, Reissue
Released: August 2004

Second pressing reissue

 

B. Unofficial Releases (7″ vinyl)

1. Cheifs / Black Flag ‎– Career In Bootlegging
Label: Bootleg Institute Of Bakersfield
Catalog Number: BIB – 3001
Format: Vinyl, 2 x 7″, 33 ⅓ RPM, EP, Unofficial Release
Released: 1995

Tracks A1 to C2 are April 1982 demo tracks.
Tracks D1 and D2 are 1981 demo tracks.
No track list provided for Cheifs songs on the release itself.

Tracklist
A1 – Cheifs – Cheifin’
A2 – Cheifs – Liberty
B1 – Cheifs – Hollywest Crisis
B2 – Cheifs – Karen Walach
C1 – Cheifs – Drowning
C2 – Cheifs – Eddie’s Revenge
D1 – Black Flag – Spray Paint
D2 – Black Flag – American Waste

Online Resources

Cheifin Out – band history

The Dils

Once labelled as “California’s The Clash”, The Dils were part of the very first wave of the L.A. punk scene. They formed in Carlsbad in San Diego County before moving first to San Francisco – where bassist Tony Kinman was briefly in The Avengers – then to L.A.

In 1977 What? Records released their debut 7″ I Hate The Rich / You’re Not Blank. Their second release was their critical high-point, issued in 1977 on the Dangerhouse label, in a pressing of 1500 copies, entitled 198 Seconds Of The Dils. The last contemporary release was a three-sided double-7″, Made In Canada. The Dils broke up in 1980.

A. Official Releases (7″ vinyl)

1. The Dils ‎– I Hate The Rich / You’re Not Blank
Label: What Records?
Catalog Number: WHAT 02
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Released: September 1977

Notes: First pressing released with a unique sleeve, known as the “Oils” sleeve, as the band name appears to be “THE OILS”, due to the font used in the logo.

Tracklist
A ‎– I Hate The Rich
B ‎– You’re Not Blank (So Baby We’re Through)

2. The Dils ‎– 198 Seconds Of The Dils
Label: Dangerhouse
Catalog Number: SLA-268
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Released: December 1977

Notes: Recorded in Los Angeles in the Fall of 1977. Reissued in 2016 and included in the Dangerhouse box set.

Tracklist
A ‎– Class War
B ‎– Mr. Big

3. The Dils ‎– Made In Canada
Label: Rogelletti Records
Catalog Number: RR 001
Format: Vinyl, 2×7″, 45 RPM, EP
Released: 1980

Notes: Recorded November 1979 at Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, Canada. Side D has a groove but no music on it.

Tracklist
A ‎– Sound Of The Rain
B ‎– Not Worth It
C ‎– Red Rockers
D ‎– [untitled]

Online Resources

Dementlieu Punk Archive – The Dils biography, interviews, discography, shows

The Weirdos

The Weirdos are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California. They formed in 1975 and broke up in 1981, were occasionally active in the 1980s, and recorded new material in the 1990s. Critic Mark Deming calls them “quite simply, one of the best and brightest American bands of punk’s first wave.”

The band was formed in 1975 by singer John Denney and his guitarist brother Dix, initially using the band names the Barbies and the Luxurious Adults. The Weirdos were originally a 1950s-inspired hard rock and roll band that, like the Ramones in New York City, predated the UK punk scene. While initially trying to distance themselves from the genre name “punk” that was created in New York, ultimately the band, in the words of John Denney, “just kinda became more like this punk ROCK N ROLL type thing and we kinda went with it because the fans wanted it. They wore us down and we just said ‘OK, fine! We’re punk rock, similar to the Ramones. Whatever you say.'”

Show List and Key Dates – This index features show dates, venues, and flyers

Releases – This index features only vinyl and includes official releases

Unofficial Releases – This index features only vinyl and includes unofficial recordings

If-Then-Else – Side project by Dix Denny and John Denny

In a 1990 Flipside interview, John Denney listed the Ramones, New York Dolls and Iggy Pop as fundamental musical inspirations, adding:

“When we saw the Ramones in ’76, we already had short hair and we were already playing fast music like that in late 1975 in small venues and halls mostly, but the Ramones really made us decide to go for it even more. We came before the Sex Pistols and The Damned. They may have been our peers later, but we already had a set of songs in 1975 which were sort of Ramones meets Iggy Pop’s Stooges influenced punk songs. Well before any of the UK bands started cloning America’s punk sound and before any of the UK albums were released. I always felt we were a true garage punk band…”

Denney claimed that the band’s name dated from the early part of the 1970s and referred to his countercultural short hair, at a time when long hair on men was the fashion of the day. “In 1974 according to some left over hippies, I looked like a lobotomy, hippies thought I was weird,” Denney said. “A few months later when we formed, the rest of the band got really short cropped hair too. “We were all weird then, we were considered weirdos”.

By the beginning of 1977, the Weirdos were able to pack clubs (eventually including the Whisky a Go Go, The Roxy and later The Masque) as a headlining band. Known for their zany stage costumes and antics, the band helped shape the vigorous and experimental early Los Angeles punk scene and served as an inspiration to a crop of new bands.

John Denney recalled:

“We [Los Angeles] had our own look, our own sound. It was apart from New York or London…. We were staunchly against safety pins, we tried to parody punk rock at first. We did happy faces onstage as a joke sometimes, which was the exact opposite of what New York was doing. We were just thumbing our noses at everything. Everything was a joke; punk was a joke, we were a joke. Nonetheless, we were still serious about rocking.”

Online Resources

Amoeba Music – The Weirdos biography

Break My Face – The Weirdos biography

Discogs – The Weirdos discography

 

Bags

The Bags were formed by Alicia Armendariz and Patricia Morrison, who had met at an audition for Venus and the Razorblades, Kim Fowley’s next attempt at creating a band after The Runaways had left him. Armandariz and Morrison decided to form their own band and from this the Bags were born. They took the band’s name and their stage names “Alice Bag” and “Pat Bag” from a gimmick that the band used during early performances where they performed with grocery bags over their heads (the practice did not last, in part due to an incident where Darby Crash of the Germs ran up on stage and ripped the bag off Alice’s head). Alice Bag was the vocalist and Pat Bag played bass. The band was rounded out by guitar players Craig Lee and Rob Ritter, and Terry Graham on drums.

The Bags played their first concert at The Masque on September 10, 1977. Their concerts were riotous affairs including altercations with celebrities, such as one between singer Tom Waits and drummer Nicky Beat at The Troubadour.

By 1978, they had released their only record during the band’s lifetime, a single called “Survive”, backed with “Babylonian Gorgon”, released by independent record label Dangerhouse Records. “We Don’t Need The English” was included on the Yes L.A. punk compilation album released by the same label.

After this, Pat Bag left the band. In 1980 the group, minus Pat Bag, was filmed by Penelope Spheeris for the seminal documentary film The Decline of Western Civilization, which also featured the Germs, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, X and other prominent L.A. punk bands. However, at the release of the film in 1981 the producers billed the group as “Alice Bag Band” to avoid any conflict with ex-member Pat. By then, however, the band had broken up.

Craig Lee also played with Catholic Discipline, and he and co-member Phranc performed together occasionally when she embarked on her subsequent solo career. However, Lee is best known as a writer and critic for publications such as Flipside fanzine, among many others, and as co-author of the book Hardcore California: A History Of Punk and New Wave. He died, as a result of AIDS in 1991.

Terry Graham went on to play drums for The Gun Club. Pat, now known as Patricia Morrison, also joined The Gun Club soon after. Once she left The Gun Club she joined The Sisters of Mercy and then The Damned, one of the original British punk bands (and the one that was often credited with sparking the L.A. scene), for which she plays bass. She married Dave Vanian, the Damned’s lead singer.

Rob Ritter also joined The Gun Club, and appeared on their first LP Fire Of Love, but left, changing his name to Rob Graves and forming the seminal death rock band 45 Grave, with Dinah Cancer, Don Bolles, previously of the Germs and Nervous Gender, Paul Roessler of The Screamers and Nervous Gender and Paul Cutler. 45 Grave was influential in the creation of goth rock. Graves died in 1990 of a heroin overdose.

Alice Bag joined the deathrock band Castration Squad, which included Phranc and Dinah Cancer among its many members. In the 1990s, she formed Cholita! with punk rock drag queen Vaginal Davis and the band released several videos. After this, she performed with Las Tres and then formed Stay at Home Bomb, her most recent musical project. According to her official website, since the deaths of Lee and Ritter and her estrangement from Morrison, she considers the Bags to be permanently disbanded, and has refused to perform Bags songs in public.

A collection of recordings from the group has been released on Artifix Records as well as a reissue of the original Dangerhouse single.

Official Releases

1. Survive
Label: Dangerhouse
Catalog Number: BAG 199
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Released: Dec 1978

additional notes…

 

2.Disco’s Dead
Label: Artifix Records
Catalog Number: SPR018
Format: Vinyl, 7″
Released: 2003

additional notes…

 

3. All Bagged Up: The Collected Works 1977-1980
Label: Artifix Records
Catalog Number: SPR025
Format: Vinyl, LP
Released: 2007

additional notes…

 

Unofficial Releases

1. No Excess Bagisims
Label: Dangerhouse
Catalog Number: BAG 200
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Unofficial Release
Released: 1990

additional notes…

 

Online Resources

Alice Bag

Flyboys

The Flyboys were a pioneering Californian punk rock band founded in 1975 before the first wave of American punk. The act was prominent in the Los Angeles punk rock scene around 1976 and 1977. The band broke up in 1980.

The Flyboys’s first release was a recording released on the band’s own record label, recorded in June 1976 and released a month later. The record quickly sold through a first pressing of 1,000 copies.

The band recorded another record which would be the very first for a new label, Lisa Fancher’s Frontier Records in early 1980, a seven-song EP titled Flyboys that included proto-type punk tunes such as “I Couldn’t Tell” and “Dear John” as well as their “Theme Song”, a surf inspired rave up that was covered by Jodie Foster’s Army.

Releases

1. Flyboys – Crayon World
Label: Flyguy Records
Catalog Number: FR001
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Blue
Released: 1979

additional notes…

 

2. Flyboys – Flyboys
Label: Frontier Records
Catalog Number: FLP 1001
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Released: Mar 1980

additional notes…