* (restored)
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.
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