I couldn't get enough of the band Operation Ivy at age 17. I bought their Hectic 7” EP in 1988 with money I earned making pizzas at Little Caesars in the Kmart shopping center on Nellis and Bonanza. Loved them again in 1989. Also 1990. I pretty much never stopped loving Op Ivy. Their music was pure joy, but it didn’t skimp on the rage and rebellion. For my money they were the most inspiring national “punk” band of my generation. I say that because they seemed to break out from their own regional scene and became as big as stalwarts like the Dead Kennedys, who ceased being relevant years before at that point.
Op Ivy were smart enough to call it quits right as they were on the precipice of complete crossover stardom. It’s my guess that the singer, Jesse Michaels, was the one who had the brains enough to make the band throw in the towel. I’m basing this on circumstantial evidence considering after they broke up the rest of the band, without Jesse, limped along with a lesser quality incarnation known as Downfall, who came across as a lot more roots Ska in nature and didn’t show a lot of “punk” trappings. They were a pale imitation of Op Ivy and I think they realized that too since they only recorded a few songs and then splitsville.
I didn’t learn about Op Ivy’s full length “Energy” until I found a beat up casette copy of it in Greg Telles’ car one night when we were out being stupid. He forgot he had it. The tape had been smashed and had a huge chunk of the top corner missing. It somehow still played in the tape deck of his car so we played it over and over that night before getting busted drinking beers in the parking lot of Circus Circus. Duh.
The music they recorded was classic, and I forgive them for giving flight to, or at the very least being a big part of the turd wave of Ska music that stunk up the joint in the early 90’s. They were of it, but way above it. Both the EP and the LP were blazing hardcore first and foremost, with tiny elements of hyper paced pseudo Ska thrown in. It sounded very little like the Specials or Selector, the only other Ska I was familiar with as a punk chump in the desert southwest circa 1989.
I loved all their music but the Hectic EP was something I worshipped. Mostly because it was one of the only records I had back then. I listened to it over and over, pouring over the lyrics looking for a meaning to the screaming, and it was there in spades. These guys were not putting on a show, they had heart, they fucking meant it and it made sense.
The thing that blew my mind was the intensity of the lyrics. Jesse Michaels lyrics are genius. Even more importantly he wrote explanations of the lyrics! What?! How fucking brilliant is that? Lyrics have no choice but to be lyrical. Poetry written to fit the music, finds the beat, produces a cadence, many might even be shoehorned into a song to make it fit. In that way the message can be open to interpretation. It could be misunderstood, maybe even twisted to mean the opposite of the authors intention. This made my young mind wonder: why would you not write an explanation for any song you wrote? Why didn’t everyone write an explanation, given the chance. I understood a lot of Bob Dylan, but couldn’t alway wrap my head around all his bullshit. As brilliant as it could be. Why didn’t he write an explanation? It seemed obvious.
Some will say the author was amateur and couldn’t express himself completely within the song, so having to explain it is a little like cheating. There may be some truth to that but if you got something to say wouldn't you want it to be understood? I want to know what you're saying. And I sure the fuck want to be understood. To me it was a stroke of genius, perhaps Jesse got the idea from someone else but being able to decipher his meaning changed me. It’s the approach I took when I eventually got a band together and wrote my own lyrics. Every song on our LP had an explanation for it. I’m exceedingly proud of that huge amount of pretentiousness.
Funny thing is OP IVY offended the fuck out of me with what they were saying. Well, one song on that record did and it pissed me off to no end, haunting me as a young man rushing into adulthood. I’m so very glad it did, it made a world of difference in what I came to expect from the world and what I wanted to give the world of myself.
Junkies Running Dry was the song the bothered me, it's the first song on the first side of the Hectic EP. Here’s the lyric sheet with the offending material:
The lyrics are a tad illegible so here's the lyrics posted below:
I always looked up to the ones who walked away
Choosing themselves over preset
Ways of looking at a future that had no room for the
Questions they lived for
Always knew i never could have walked away myself
My self worth was beyond any help
And i didnt care to test it against the rejection i had seen before
But those i loved so much they underwent a change
They're working fourty hours they got caught in the game
Like junkies running dry, the vulnerability
They're always there on time
We're never satisfied like junkies running dry
This wonderful generosity
A third of our lives to do what we please
Doesn't look that great to me
In fact it doesnt even look fair
They call it youthful idealism
And even I would have to agree with them
Except some of us grow up and its still there
I grow up too slow I don't wanna go
But now i'm working just like everyone else
But ill get out of here
Keep in mind I bought this record with money I earned from my first job as a lackey for the Little Caesars Pizza corporation. I fit the profile of what Jesse was describing as I was a high profile punk rocking fool on the East Side of Las Vegas. I was one of the only decked out “punkers” at my school (Eldorado High) and got a lot of grief for that. And yet for all my defiance and rebellious nature I jumped through their fucking hoops slinging pepperoni.
I had earned enough to buy this record. And yet this record dared scold me for tempering my angst, for daring to do what everyone else seemed to be doing? What choice did I have? They had a lot of nerve to tell me I was cheesing out. I got threatened on the daily because of how I looked and who I was. What choice was I being given? How am I supposed to figure this shit out?
Damn good questions that never occurred to me prior to listening and reading the lyrics printed above. It was a ballsy inquiry and pretty heady stuff for a ska/punk band. For years after I kept wondering and asking myself, and everyone else what choice we have? What choice do any of us have? There are more choices than we’re led to believe as it turns out. It made me ask questions that pissed other people off. I’m not fearful of pissing people off from asking questions. No one should be. Are you ready to ask yourself those questions? Do you dare? Or maybe you want to play it safe and look for the easy way out? Why should your life be filled with upheaval? Why should you have to work for more than just money? All valid questions.
I’ve tried to live my life as a persistent question to that staus quo, I don't think I've always had the courage it takes to follow through every time. I’ve played it safe plenty of times. I kick myself when I think about my cowardice. But I’ve gotten in to plenty of faces and asked questions no one wanted to know the answers to. I'm still trying to do just that, I hope you are asking those same questions in your life. I don’t place it all on Jesse Michael’s incisive lyrical bent, but he had a hand in stirring the pot. This song struck a chord that I keep hearing ringing in my ears. For that I am thankful, inspired, and better person for it.
Which brings us to this little project. I was visiting my folks in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada (January 2016 I think?) when I got a call from Drew Livingood informing me that Jesse Michaels had reached out to him, out of the blue, to get some people together to shoot an informal music video in the desert outside of town that very weekend. Of course I said an emphatic yes. All my friends said yes and we ended up waking up earlier than noon on a Sunday to go fuck around with Jesse Michaels.
An enthusiastic group of us, including provocateur Checko Salgado, set out to some impressive locations to help Jesse film b-roll for a music video he was producing for the band Leftover Crack. I will say no more about Leftover Crack as I am not their target audience. As it turns out Jesse recorded vocals for this song for which he was to be making a video.
He had costumes and a vision for the production. We weren't actors, barely technically proficient as a crew, and probably didn’t take direction from him as good as we should have. But we got some cool images.
I was crestfallen when months later I saw the video and noticed he barely used a quarter of the images we shot for him. I vowed to one day return to the scraps that landed on the cutting room floor just to fuck around. The images are pretty surreal and worthy of shaping into something. Jesse once again inspired me with the residue of his vision begging to be turned in to something. Well, here’s something. It’s not nothing. It’s something.
I made a rudimentary soundtrack using multiple synth keyboard emulators. Normally I’d write an explanation of the film, similar to what Jesse did on that first Hectic EP. But I think you can come up with a better story for what these images and edits mean?
Thanks to Jesse Michaels and what few friends I have for continuing to inspire.
Here’s the final cut for the video that Jesse produced for Leftover Crack.
I'd be remiss if I didn't include what amounts to my favorite song by Operation Ivy. Some think it's a lesser track in their canon but it sure means a lot to me.
Turns out Jesse Michaels isn't the only member of Operation Ivy with pretensions towards film making, or in this case TV. I discovered this clip of the guitar player from OP IVY when he acted on the X-Files. Something tells me he might've even written some of his own dialogue. This is almost as bad as watching me act. Although my fake NYC accent is more convincing.
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- Chad Simmons
- portland, oregon, United States
- I grew up in Vegas. East side by El Dog. It will always be my hometown for better or worse. Currently living as a labor activist in Portland, Oregon. For better or worse.
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