Tag Archives: Whisky a Go Go

The Germs

The Germs were an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, originally active from 1976 to 1980. The band’s main early lineup consisted of singer Darby Crash, guitarist Pat Smear, bassist Lorna Doom, and drummer Don Bolles. They released only one album, 1979’s (GI), produced by Joan Jett, and were featured the following year in Penelope Spheeris’ documentary film The Decline of Western Civilization, which chronicled the Los Angeles punk movement.

The Germs disbanded following Crash’s suicide on December 7, 1980. Their music was influential to many later punk rock acts. Smear went on to achieve greater fame performing with Nirvana and Foo Fighters.

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

Formation
Crash (born Jan Paul Beahm) and Smear (born Georg Ruthenberg) decided to start a band after being kicked out of University High School for antisocial behavior, allegedly for using “mind control” on fellow students. Their original name was “Sophistifuck and the Revlon Spam Queens”, but they had to shorten the name as they could not afford that many letters on a T-shirt. The (initially hypothetical) first lineup consisted of Beahm (then known as Bobby Pyn, and later as Darby Crash) on vocals, Ruthenberg (under the name Pat Smear) on guitar, an early member named “Dinky” (Diana Grant) on bass, and Michelle Baer playing drums. This lineup never played in front of a live audience.

In April 1976, the band added Lorna Doom (born Teresa Ryan) on bass, with transitional member Dottie Danger (later famous as Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go’s) on drums. Carlisle never actually played with the band, as she was sidelined by a bout of mononucleosis for an extended period. She was replaced by her friend Donna Rhia (Becky Barton), who played three gigs and performed on their first single. Carlisle remained a friend and helper of the band (she can be heard introducing the band on the Germicide: Live at the Whisky recording, produced by Kim Fowley), only leaving because her new band, the Go-Go’s, were becoming popular and, as she put it, “I was really disturbed by the heroin that was going on”. Nickey Beat, of various noteworthy Los Angeles bands including the Weirdos, also sat in on drums for a time.

The band’s first live performance was at the Orpheum Theater. Smear recalled: “We made noise. Darby stuck the mic in a jar of peanut butter. It was a dare, we had no songs or anything! Lorna wore her pants inside out, and Darby covered himself in red licorice…we made noise for five minutes until they threw us off”.

The Germs initially drew musical influences from Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Ramones, the Runaways, Sex Pistols, and New York Dolls. Early on, Smear was the only musically experienced member; Doom survived early performances by sliding a finger up and down the fretboard of her bass while Rhia generally kept a minimal beat on the bass drum, periodically bashing a cymbal.

Early performances were usually marked by raucous crowds made up of the band’s friends. As a result, their gigs became notorious for being rowdy and usually verged on a riot.

Recordings
The first single, “Forming”, was recorded on a Sony 2-track reel-to-reel recorder in Smear’s family garage, and arrived back from the pressing plant with the note, “Warning: This record causes ear cancer”, printed on the sleeve by the plant staff, much to the band’s displeasure. It was released in July 1977 on the What? label. The single featured a shambolic but serviceable performance on the A-side and a muddy live recording of “Sexboy” on the B-side, recorded at the Roxy for the Cheech and Chong movie, Up in Smoke. The song was not used in the movie, nor was the band. They were the only band not to receive a call-back to perform live for the film’s “Battle of the Bands” sequence, perhaps due to the fact that the Germs’ chaotic Roxy performance had featured an unscripted, full-on food fight.

The Germs, despite most expectations, developed a sound that was highly influential. Throughout their career, they had a reputation as a chaotic live band. Crash often arrived onstage nearly incoherent, singing everywhere but into the microphone and taunting the audience between songs, yet nevertheless, delivered intense theatrical and increasingly musical performances. The other band members prided themselves on similar problems, with many contemporary reviews citing collapses, incoherence and drunken vomiting onstage. Fans saw this as part of the show, and indeed, the band presented it as such, even when breaking bottles and rolling in the glass, with the music coming and going.

Smear was revealed to be a remarkably talented and fluid player; much later, after Crash’s death, critics finally acknowledged his lyrics as poetic art. Crash’s vocals had begun to mold themselves around the style of the Screamers’ vocalist Tomata DuPlenty (The Screamers, a huge LA live attraction at the time, never released a record, but covered the Germs’ song “Sex Boy” at live shows, as heard on bootleg recordings.) Another strong influence on the band’s final sound was Zolar X, a theatrical glam rock band popular in the Los Angeles area circa 1972–1980. Crash and Smear were enthusiastic fans of the band from the pre-Germs days, and the fast tempos and raw guitar tone of (the historically pre-punk) Zolar X were similar to the sound achieved on later Germs recordings.

The Germs recorded two singles (with alternate tracks), an album-length demo session, and one full-length LP, (GI), each more focused and powerful than the last. Crash was, despite his erratic behavior, generally regarded as a brilliant lyricist (a contemporary critic described him as “ransacking the dictionary”), and the final lineup of Smear, Doom and Bolles had become a world-class rock ensemble by the recording of (GI), turning in a performance that spurred an LA Weekly reviewer to write, “This album leaves exit wounds”. It is considered one of the first hardcore punk records, and has a near-mythic status among punk rock fans. The album was produced by Joan Jett of the Runaways.

The Germs were featured in Spheeris’s documentary film The Decline of Western Civilization along with X, Black Flag, Fear, Circle Jerks, Alice Bag Band, and Catholic Discipline.

Online Resources:

Break My Face – review of Forming

Los Angeles, Punk Rock

Punk Rock in Los Angeles

Starting in 1976, following recent releases of recordings by punk bands such as the Ramones, a number of punk bands formed in the Los Angeles and Orange County area. Among these bands were the Flesh Eaters, the Weirdos, the Germs, the Controllers, the Deadbeats, the Skulls, the Angry Samoans, Agent Orange, the Dils, Black Randy and the Metrosquad, Catholic Discipline, the Go-Go’s, the Alley Cats, Kommunity FK, the Screamers, the Dickies, X, the Zeros, the Bags, the Plugz, the Consumers, and their successors, 45 Grave.

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.’” (further reading…)

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