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Among long-time San Franciscans, there’s a lot of nostalgia for the 80s to early 90s: rent was cheap, things were falling apart, and every block seemed to have a crazy gallery (like the legendary Kiki), colorful cafes to hang out at (like the late lamented Bearded Lady), performance spaces hosting insane splatter projects (by the likes of the Sick and Twisted Players), or wacky band. This was also a city in the throes of the AIDS epidemic (protease inhibitors weren’t available till well into the 90s), dealing with the effects of the Loma Pieta earthquake, with regular ACTUP/Queer Nation actions and massive protests against the first Gulf War. It didn’t look like things would get better any time soon, but people made and did beautiful things, and partied.
Simon Reynolds, in his essential book on post-punk, Rip It Up and Start Again, devotes an excellent chapter to the San Francisco (freak) scene. I’m a big fan of the better known bands (Tuxedomoon, Residents, Chrome, etc), but there are some poorly documented groups that made some fine music, that’s finally showing up online. Here are a few that I’ve enjoyed.
Minimal Man
Discogs page
Myspace
Wikipedia entry
Formed by leader Patrick Miller when he moved to San Francisco in the late 70s, Minimal Man made some fine noise rock in its early days. (Later songs can sound somewhat like Gary Numan.)
Trial
Discogs page
Sean Reveron’s appreciation
I never caught Trial live; their shows were supposed to be real events. The thick tribal percussion and guitars remind me of a more political Crash Worship.
Glorious Din
Discogs page
Some articles and miscellaneous info
Probably one of the more straight ahead postpunk bands in this post, kind of Joy Division meets shoe gaze, more angular and with hazier guitars. Very tasteful.
Stickdog
Stickdog actually started in Iowa (sounds like there was quite an Iowa-Bay area exodus in the 80s), but moved to San Francisco after releasing their 2nd lp on SF’s Alternative Tentacles label. Love the thick dark guitar sound, and metallic percussion.
Tragic Mulatto
One of those short-lived Bay area legends, with a big sludgy spastic sound (often compared to Butthole Surfers), horn section, Flatula Lee Roth’s operatic wailing and outrageous chaos onstage.
This was probably their (ahem) hit:
Live:
Beatnigs
Beatnigs was of course Michael Franti and Rono Tse’s band, before Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Spearhead. I remember a really electric live gig with a stripped down lineup at the late lamented I-Beam; unfortunately the youtube live clips mostly have terrible sound quality.
Mudwimmin
After Tragic Mulatto, Bambi Nonymous re-emerged as Mudwimmin’s drummer. Their early 90s gigs were always a glorious explosion of noise and burlesque, with their thick viscous sound, odd arrangements, and on-stage antics. This gives an idea:
Luckily they actually recorded a couple albums before disappearing.
Ovarian Trolley
Discogs page
Trouser Press page with snarky Ira Robbins text
Ovarian Trolley slipped in at the tail end of this time window, anchored by the Hall sisters on drums and vocals, and Buck Bito on guitar. Ira Robbins hates their stringent, cutting sound; I love it.
They haven’t performed regularly in decades. But they can still play:
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p.s. Hey. ** PL, Hi. I think MJ’s saint days in the US are behind him at this point. Maybe 50% are still high on him at most? I like what I know of Clams Casino, but I don’t have that album, so I’ll get it, thanks! A long time ago, there was a regular commenter on the blog who made up a fake other identity for a while. In that case, it was obnoxious because the fake person was supposedly young and suicidal and asking for help and stuff. Someone from here found out what was going on, and I confronted the commenter and told them to never, ever do that again. But months later, they did the same thing again, and then I told them never to come back here. I’m big on trust, and if someone betrays my trust, I sort of have to totally distance myself from them. Other than that, the fake commenters have mostly been kind of amusing and obviously made up. You know, I’ve never read The Bible. Not even a word. Weird, no? So that stuff is really foreign to me. You should make that animated film. I’m already really interested. And in your take on animals. That’s super interesting. I like animals, especially birds for some reason. Pigeons live near my apartment windows, and I study them a lot when I’m smoking at my smoking window. I was surprised at how complex their social lives are. Hm, I don’t think I have any wild animal encounter stories. A shark chased me in Hawaii once. That was scary. Otherwise, whenever I’ve seen wild animals it’s always been kind of a chill, polite encounter. Have you had intense one-on-ones with wild animals? Awesome talking with you too. ** Dominik, Hi!!! I like trying to come up with the perfect title, but I think it would be hard with clowns. The problem is I watched a couple of pet rescue videos on Facebook, and Facebook decided I must like them, and so now I get tons of them in my feed all the time. I’m trying not to watch them so Facebook will unlearn that interest of mine and leave me alone. Ha ha, love has the best rocks, no doubt. Love disappearing my disappointment that our film didn’t get accepted at Cannes, even though I saw that rejection coming from miles away, G. ** ellie, Hi! Cool, I look forward to it! I’m assuming the complicatedness in your life isn’t the good kind, so I hope that passes. My life’s a bit complicated too at the moment, but it’ll simplify soon, I think. Take care. Excited! xo. ** _Black_Acrylic, I never got into Primal Scream. Well, except their very first single ‘Velocity Girl’ when they didn’t sound anything what they soon became. ** Tosh Berman, So cool you were on those sets. I visited the set of ‘I Love Lucy’ when I was a kid because my aunt was friends with Lucille Ball. I hung out on the sets of the ‘Hardy Boys’ TV show in the early 70s because my friend was one of its stars. My new book is really short and skinny, so it won’t take up too much space. ** Charalampos, Oh, okay. I don’t have any Kylie albums either. I think the Gacy/Corll theories are total made up fantasy crap. But more power to the dreamers, I guess. High five from 75008. ** Misanthrope, Glad you dug it. I think David needs to try the cafe allonge with double espresso chaser combo, and then we’ll see who’s the bigger maniac. ** Justin, Hi, Justin! Happy you liked that piece. When I’m not creating something, I literally don’t what to do with myself. I’m trying to imagine listening to ‘I Wished’ while playing a video game, and I can’t, but I like the idea. I’ve never listened to the audible version. I wanted them to let me read it, and they wouldn’t, and that kind of pissed me off. The fake commenters: most of then were just for fun and self-entertainment and general entertainment too, I guess. The one fucked up one, which I described above, was for … well, I don’t know why they did that. Wanting attention and wanting to mess with people, I guess. Another commenter found out that the fake commenter was fake, I don’t remember how, and he told me. I didn’t confront the perpetrator here on the blog because I didn’t want to start some big controversy that would be taxing and exhausting to deal with, so I told them to stop privately. It really pissed me off because … I don’t know if you know the whole JT Leroy thing where I and a lot of people were duped by a fake supposedly dying boy/writer, but the fake commenter thing here was totally exploiting the fact that I had fallen for a similar prank, and I thought that was evil because the JT Leroy thing was really ugly. So, yeah. Thanks, I’m very happy you liked Zac’s and my films. No, the Adam Lanza photo was a decision made when shooting the film. Zac had it on his wall, and we just decided to use it. It’s such an amazing photo. Zac was really fascinated by Lanza, may still be. Great idea: the film based on/inspired by Lanza. My advice would be to not worry whatsoever about possible sentimentality and just write exactly what he inspires you to write. I’m a big proponent of what you can do in revision and editing later, so I would just write freely and then see later if you think it’s too sentimental towards him, and then excise that if you want to, My suspicion is that what you write won’t be as sentimental as you fear. The death metal track in ‘PGL’ is ‘Permanent Funeral’ by the band Pig Destroyer. Bon day! ** Darby 🐗🪓🏃♂️, Ha ha, that emoji sequence honors my boar experience. Although, technically, I was armed with a bow and arrow. Congrats on the roommating of your cat. Give them a scrunch for me. Huh, it is kinda of like alchemy. Its effect is certainly magical. Ha ha, no, none of the pigeons around me do that. Wow, that’s amazing. I wish I could teach them that skill. What a beautiful gif. I stole it. I’m going to use it in something. Speaking of rocks, you rock. ** Steve, I saw a preview for ‘Civil War’ before the ‘Godzilla x Kong’ viewing the other day. I thought it would be more stylish. It just looks like a ‘meaning’-packed disaster movie. No, I know nothing about that ‘HB’-like TV series, no. How curious. The perspective of someone who’s outside of something, say ‘Bollywood’, seems just as valuable as insider’s perspective, isn’t it? ** Harper, Hey, H. I’ve never read ‘Vineland’, maybe because of its initial meh reaction. Hm, I’m going to rectify that absence. Let me know what you think. I read ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ when I was sixteen, and it seriously blew my mind, as you can imagine. Even though I had already read lots of experimental fiction by then. Your description of it is crazy great! I also read that Richard Farina novel in my mid-teens. I always forget about it. I liked it. I remember thinking it was a lot better than ‘On the Road’, which everybody was reading at the time. I still have a Richard and Mimi Farina album somewhere. My next cigarette will be like the champagne bottle that christens a cruise ship, and you’ll be the cruise ship, and not the Titanic, I promise. ** Joseph, Hi, Joseph! Good to see you, bud. I’ve never thought about it before, but I think I would really like to have a deep conversation with someone who passionately loves rocks, or interview them maybe. I’m glad you liked the Kitchen book. Yeah, really fresh, right? A happy discovery. Cool, take it easy. ** Nika Mavrody, I put ‘rock’ + ‘contemporary art’ into the google search window, and then I hunted what came up with an eagle eye. ** Uday, Oops, my fucking eccentric blog. Goodness. Please thank your subconscious for casting me in your dream in such a meaty role. I’m chuffed. I really like doing events at colleges. I’ve had the most interesting conversations with the most interesting people there. So, yeah, I would be cool with an invitation. Gosh, thank you. Mm, I don’t think I collected rocks. I boringly collected stamps for a while. I collected Pez dispensers for a while. I collected rare records, but I usually ended up reselling them for $$. My friend Kevin Killian used to collect stray pubic hairs he found in public bathrooms. Did or do you collect things? Much love back, me. ** Right. Today you get a restoration of an old post by the honorable Bill Hsu that guides you through the wonders of San Francisco-based post/ art/ punk/ noise music of the 80s/90s, and it’s educational treat. So, throw caution to the wind. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Hello from errands around Chania with my mom and Ireli
I believe the theories are saying that they both had connection with that guy that ran the direct mailing services for you know what and all that. I don’t even want to say his name. But I am sure in these things people are reaching to make theories. What is most important is not fake theories but that not all the victims have identified and in Corll’s case they stopped halfway the investigation entirely I think. But the only connection I can think of, of what I have read is that Gacy was inspired by certain Corll tricks but I don’t know if that is certain too? Another interesting is if you search about one unidentified victim of Corll it shows you someone named Bobby French that is a picture of a very hot guy that is probably irrelevant to the case. It is mysterious pic. Who knows who this is? I am sure he is lost in time by now
All that remind me of The Sluts. Did I tell you before I have two copies? Apart from your wild imagination did any real cases run through your mind at the time of the writing? I believe you were writing it for long time and the book went through mutations I am sure you had so much fun as the reader does putting everything together
Stray hairs? Wow. I personally collect findings from the pavement. Yesterday’s was a playing card with Snow White and said D1 D1 on it. I have this theory that spirits are showing me the way and so I find them findings thanks to them but it’s far fetched and obviously just for inspiration. But who knows? When I close my eyes I see eyes so who knows what company I am with
Love from Crete
Hi, Dennis! It’s good to know it was only once. People can be so weird online, like, senselessly weird. There’s this guy I follow that would change his face with gastronomic proportions of filter and tell that that was his real face, and create situations about how his mother met this actor (with pictures!), and then when people found out it was fake (even the mom was fake btw) he told that he suffered an accident that disfigured his face, and then people found out that was a lie too, and discovered his real face, and it wasn’t ugly! It was just a normal guy. So he just stopped posting. But I still follow him because he was nice and posted many pirated links of good movies. And yes, it’s all about trust in the end. But what about real life? I’m sure you know a lot of weird people, who was the weirdest? I’m surprised you never read the Bible. But I’m always surprised when anyone says they don’t know anything about the Bible. I guess that’s because I was raised as a Christian and I thought it was a norm to know those things. I can’t recommend a Bible story to you, but for me, it’s a big source of inspiration for my drawing “and stuff”. Yeah, pigeons are interesting, but I honestly get kind of annoyed by them here when there are too many. I dislike all urban plagues, rats, cockroaches, and especially centipedes. It’s silly, but I’m deeply afraid of them. I actually have a paste of pictures with animals that I like, if you want to see it, tell me. It’s not a NatGeo thing. An experience I had? Well, one day I was at a hotel pool and a coral snake just dropped from the sky and started swimming very close to me. The guy said it was a fake coral but I still think it was a real one. And another day, a two-headed snake got into my house, and I was very excited about it while my grandfather killed it, only to find out it wasn’t a snake, but a cecilia (I think that’s the name, it’s a type of a blind amphibious that looks like a snake and has a fake head on it’s tail). I always tell everyone it was a real snake because it’s more interesting though. Other than that, nothing. I think the Hawaiian shark beats my two fake snakes. Anyways, it’s great to talk to you! See ya
@ Bill Hsu, thank you for this chronicle of the San Francisco scene! Always find it inspiring to learn of such things.
Puts me in mind of the great Glasgow moment that happened in the late 90s – early 00s that I was lucky to experience, however briefly. Sadly that scene must have evolved somehow when the Art School burnt down and the Tranemission Gallery closed, but maybe it’s something quite different now? Speaking of “the Glasgow miracle”, this week I sprung for this book of the Tatham and O’Sullivan artwork Heroin Kills, which filled the Tramway space with enormous letters spelling out that text. When I briefly lived up there back then, it was certainly the talk of the town.
Dennis, Hahaha. I’ll have him try it, I really will. I’ve tried it. I liked it. But I’m a maniac, too. I think. 😛
Oh, so you were mentioned on Twitter yesterday. I’m curious as to your thoughts about what this fellow said, which is:
“hemmed in by the sedate stylings of Call Me By Your Name on one side and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous to the other, the last hope for gay lit seems to be a return to the white OGs, the lavender transgressor-scriveners: robert glück, wayne koestenbaum, dennis cooper, jean genet”
Hmm.
Have a great weekend. Kayla and her housemate are throwing a party tomorrow night, so I’ll be there. We’re trying to get my mom to go (again). Alex is going and will get there when he gets off work. He’ll finally get to meet my friend Beth, whom I’ve known for 20 years. That’ll be interesting. 😀
Thanks for this Day, Bill. Its first incarnation got me to check out Tragic Mulatto.
Ray Cathode’s YouTube channel has posted a documentary about Anger, made for the BBC in 1991.
I feel less imposter syndrome now that I’ve seen 3 films by Imtiaz Ali, and the one I’m reviewing will be the fourth. I can speak confidently about their recurring themes. There are advantages of being an outsider in certain scenes and not feeling constrained by their rules – for example, I still think Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” is a banger even though the lyrics were ghostwritten – but Ali’s films are devoted to exploring the varieties of romantic longing. I’d like to know the larger context of these ideas in Indian culture and film.
I had a very worrying conversation with my dad this morning. I’m not gonna go into the details, but he’s either having serious delusions or being manipulated by one of his neighbors. Both of those are horrible prospects.
Still House Plants’ new album is pretty awesome – austere, technically complex post-punk, with a lineup of just guitar and drums, that keeps changing shape rhythmically, fronted by a singer steeped in R&B and jazz torch songs.
Hi!!
Ah, Dennis, I’m so sorry about Cannes. I know you said it felt like a long shot, but that doesn’t make the blow any softer. I’m really sorry.
I know exactly zero bands listed in today’s post, so I think my evening plans are decided. Thank you for the revival!
I love perfect titles, but I never seem to be able to come up with them.
Ah, yes, Facebook does that. On the contrary, Instagram decided to randomly unlearn my interests, and now it only shows me celebrity news and Hungarian memes, neither of which I’m even remotely interested in.
Love feeling immensely glad that he doesn’t have children, Od.
Hey Dennis,
I’m in a book club with my friends and they’ve accepted my suggestion of Joy Williams’ “Harrow” as the next title. So I’m about to start that.
Congrats on finding a publisher for the new book. Are.you allowed to say who it is yet? I’m looking forward to having a very slim one of yours on the shelf. I think that will be a really nice object!
I had a weird moment looking at Hemingway’s prose a few days ago when I was like “oh shit, I’m a fish and this guy is a huge part of the water I’m swimming in.” I’m about to take a closer look at him (and Stein) in order to try and situate myself a bit more clearly. Did anything like that ever happen to you?
Hope you’re well and have a lovely weekend! James
Fuck Cannes!!!! They don’t know Shit!!! may their film projectors melt and their digital projectors all download ransomware and conk out
Hi, Dennis! Looks like there’s another ‘Justin’ commenting here now, so I’ve added an initial to my user name. For a moment I was confused by the merging of the P.S. replies (mine with the other Justin’s), but I figured it out. Re: listening to the Audible version of ‘I Wished’ whilst my bf played a video game – The sound of the game was turned way down so it was easy to focus on the reading. What a shame the publisher didn’t let you read for it. I mean, that makes perfect sense to me, what with it being such a personal piece of work. We did indeed finish listening to it last night. I preferred reading it, but it was interesting to hear it read. By the last few lines I looked over at my bf and we were both sobbing/sniffling. Let’s see if I can get him to read the Cycle next! I did watch that JT Leroy documentary a couple of years ago, so I was familiar with that story. Sorry that happened and that someone would take advantage of your kindness and love of helping other young writers/artists. Hope you have an ideal weekend!
Hi Dennis. I remember someone actually recommended Beatnigs to me once because I like Death Grips and he said they were similar but I forgot. Thanks for the reminder!
In other news, I’m getting a lot better. I’ve regained a lot of the energy you lose when you’re sick and I’ve had a pretty good day. Yeah, I read Pynchon when I was pretty young as well. My mum works in a book store so I was lucky enough to always have books and would ambitiously pick difficult or disturbing books off of the shelf. One of my earliest memories is of my dad finding me in bed with one of his biographies of Jack the Ripper and snatching it from me angrily. After a certain age they decided if I was reading quietly in a corner then it was probably better than raising hell. Since I was so isolated when I was a kid, if all of these crazy books weren’t satisfying my imagination then I really don’t know what what have become of me. As much reading is obviously very important to me, it kind of started as a way to kill time haha.
Hi Dennis! First time commenter, long time reader. I like punk but most of the bands I listen to are fairly surface level, so I’ll definitely have to check out the bands in this post. I love extreme metal though, so I’m curious: what if any metal are you into? I’ve seen you jokingly reference black metal a few times so I assume you’re at least a little familiar.
Currently I’m trying to make a final decision on where to attend medical school, so I have to ask, if you could go to med school in either Washington DC or New Orleans, which would you choose? Don’t worry; I’m not actually gonna base my decision on your answer, lol.
I’m not familiar with Bill Hsu or their work but this was a fascinating read! Will try my best for the college invite. Any booking fee ranges etc? Kevin Killian as in the guy who wrote Shy? Never voluntarily collected anything much unless you count books but that’s more of an accumulation.
Oh also could you tell Steve I’d be happy to discuss Indian film? Not sure how to cross-talk between comments.
Thanks for this revival, Dennis. I love these bands, hope they get more ears. I remember seeing a number of Mudwimmin/Ovarian Trolley double-bills back in the day.
Hope you like some of the clips, Ben. I’m not familiar with the Glasgow post-punk scene; the only Scottish band of that period I know is Fire Engines from Edinburgh (sorry!). What are some of the edgier Glasgow bands I should check out? Glad you liked Tragic Mulatto, Steve. I keep hoping they’ll have a glorious reunion gig sometime…
Sorry about the Cannes disappointment, Dennis. Good luck with your other festival submissions.
Misanthrope’s twitter quote, whoa.
I watched the first episode of Ripley. Very pretty, but veeeery slow. I hear it picks up.
Bill
@ Bill, Glasgow nights of that era were very much soundtracked by Optimo, a club night on a Sunday that would play Postpunk, Acid House and all other kinds of good music. As for local bands you got the Vaselines, Simple Minds, the Pastels… and no doubt 100s more.