Flyers by Danny Breeden

        Danny Breeden, lead singer for Fuck Shit Piss has always made a big splash.  He's always been an inspiration to me.  Trouble maker, heartbreaker, animal tamer.  He's gotten away with a lot.  There's no question that his flyers are bonafide works of art.  He recently had health problems and I wish him all the best. 

        These are all flyers I found in my collection of useless ephemera.  The above flyer is the only show I went to out of all these.  Apocalypse being a Crass sounding band from LA made up of all Asians.  Not like that matters but there you go.  Glycine Max were hardcore also from LA I think.  They were pure soy power vegan types.  I'd never encountered that before so I was really into it.  It wasn't until later on that I'd find out how much vegan food sucks.  I've seen the Glycine Max LP going for big money in record stores.  That's gotta piss those guys off.  Right?  

        A Solution was brutal hardcore, fucking amazing powerful stuff, and the first time I'd heard the reference Crust Core.  That's what people were calling them.  I downloaded their records and it doesn't sound anything like the weak snotty metal shit that was going by the name of Crust later on in the 90's.  What a let down that whole wave of crust bands was from the late 90's onward.  Spiked and pierced crusty punks bitching and moaning generic politics.  It was a cliche before that scene even got off the ground.  Drunk punk poor mans rock star bullshit.  With a message.  Who gives a shit about the opinions of a guy with a green mohawk and bondage pants desperate to tell me about the plight of the indians?  It gets really insipid when he's trying to bum a cigarette from me after they get done playing.  Back to A Solution.  They sounded nothing like that!  In fact a stellar band worth hearing.  This may have been among Atomic Gods last few shows.  Atomic Gods were a great band.  Sean Sloan from Atomic Gods deserves buttloads of credit for pushing the scene like he did.      

        This post is about Danny so back to the main idea here.  The above flyer scan looks like shit.  I'll try and redo it sometime.  The blob on the bottom left is George Bush Sr.  He just got elected President.  By his head it reads "Fast Flyer by Danny 1988."                

      Fuck Shit Piss broke up before playing the above show.  Notice the skinhead flashing a peace sign.

        Years went by without seeing any flyers from Danny and then along came this show in 1994 at the North Las Vegas Elks Lodge.  Crazy how the underground network made Sublime.  Everyone I know had a dubbed cassette copy of the "40 Oz To Freedom" record.  I don't think it ever came out officially until their major label debut.  Although it kind of pains me to admit it they were pretty rad for what they were.  It was a definitely a time and a place for them.

       Sadly we showed up late to this show and Fuck Shit Piss didn't play, or we missed em, I forget which.  Sublime didn't play either because their drummer didn't show up.  I think their manager got behind the drum kit and they tried playing a few songs but it ended up as a mess.  The Elks Lodge was packed that night.  I mean packed!  As usual I'd never see most of those people ever again.

        I'm such an internet buffoon.  I didn't realize Danny has most of these flyers and many more posted already!  Well at the least the last two are ones he didn't get around to posting, so maybe you learned something new today?


See way more of Danny's work here.


Download more flyers from my collection here

Wholes Demos

     Wholes were a unique band and that's putting it mildly.  They were off the charts in terms of weirdness.  In the early 90's the Wholes more or less filled the vacuum that was left when the majority of the Las Vegas underground bands imploded in the late 80's.  

      I was probably most acquainted with the singer Billy Thornton.  And I didn't even know him all that well.  He went to my high school briefly.  After that I'd chat with him at shows occasionally.  In truth our relationship mostly involved drug deals as I bought quite a few doses from him, as did everyone else in Las Vegas at that time.  A nice guy.  He was crazy in an understated way.  No matter what stories I'd hear about him when I'd encounter him in person he seemed in control.  He was always playful and never stressed out.  I heard that he was in a foster home when he was going to my school. (Eldorado HS)  I think he later transferred to Western or Bonanza because he was put in a different foster home but maybe I'm imagining this or it was a rumor.





    It was a huge scandal when he got busted with a bunch of doses and a pot plant in his house.  He was the main dealer and so people were freaking out worried for him and wondering where the drugs were gonna be.  I read an article about the bust in the newspaper and I was sure he was going to jail.  Luckily he didn't and I don't think he ever had any more trouble with the cops.  None that got headlines in a newspaper anyway.  
     I kinda  knew the other dudes in the band but it was mainly from seeing them around.  I didn't buy drugs from anyone else in the band so maybe that's why I was never too close with the other guys.  Although I do recall going to the "Rainbow Gathering" with Tom Stone and James Palmer.  But that's an LSD story not worth repeating.

     There was a show at the "Ranch" which was a strange West Side ranch house.  Not sure if the Wholes played at this particular show but I do remember doing Ecstacy for the first time there and Bob the guitarist from the Wholes smoked a joint with me in his car and introduced me to the band King Crimson which was a good environment that night.  I remember being bummed that we had to stop smoking the joint and go back to the show.  It wasn't just the drugs.  Something tells me the band sucked that night as well because that was usually the case.

                                As far as their music goes I'd have to admit at the time I couldn't figure out what they were trying to do.  Of course I was pretty closed minded back then.  I was always pulling for them and I wanted to like them because I knew em and quite frankly there were no other bands.  I could never fully get into them because I thought they were like a lesser Butthole Surfers who were fucking incredible at that point.  No one could live up to the awe of the Buttholes even though the Wholes sounded nothing like em.  Still it was the only thing I could compare them to in my narrow frame of reference.  To this day I have yet to hear a band who approached what they were trying to do although I will say that band Idiot Flesh comes to mind in terms of strange artifice.  
    Really that's probably the Whole point.  I see them now as an Art rock band.  The music seems like an inventive showcase on which to hang their art.  

     Live, they tended to be like a performance art piece.  Billy would often do the weirdest shit onstage which was often the focus of the show.  The best Wholes show I saw was the one where Billy wrapped himself head to toe in saran wrap.  He sang for a few songs until you could see he was about to pass out.  He then broke the saran so he could breathe and it was the craziest, funniest shit ever.  That's more balls than that GG Allin "I'm gonna kill myself on stage!" bullshit.  Billy really could have died.  I think that same show he had Jen O. Cide hit him with a whip while he sang a song.  Quality bizarro.        

     Sadly Billy died in the mid 90's.  He was a funny creative guy and he is sorely missed.  He wrote a number of zines as well as being involved in the Wholes.  I think he also made a few audio zine type cassettes.  
    After listening to this it brought to mind another piece of obscurity.  Prior to Wholes, Billy was in a band named Death Warmed Over.  Great name.  They had a demo tape as well.  My friend Jason Gombarcik had their demo tape and the interesting thing about his copy was that the music was only on one side and the other side had Billy repeating Death, Death, Death, Death, Death, Death, Death, etc. for the entire length of the 2nd side!  Awesome shit.  I heard he made like 10 limited copies where he recorded himself saying Death, Death,etc for each individual copy!  Somehow I ended up with a Death Warmed Over T-Shirt years after they broke up.  I think Ryland Luss gave it to me.  I'd heard the tape but don't remember much from it.  Death Warmed Over was a Death Rock/Goth type band.   

     I never got to hear any of these Wholes demos back in the day, maybe that's why I never really got on board with them because these recordings are spirited.  I'm still not a fan of the guitar sound, the occasional forays into blues territory leave me cold, and I always wanted Billy to get more into the effects pedal with his vocals.  Still hearing this music today gives me a new found respect for what they were on about.  
    People have described them as Psychedelic but I'm not sure if I'd put it in that category.  It's Art Rock for sure and there's no mistaking the fact that drugs played a role in their art.  It tends to be pretty uptempo but it's definitely not hardcore.  Scholars will be scratching their heads as to where these guys lie in the family tree of rock.  I'm stumped.  It's still not my cup of tea but I do remember a few of these songs from seeing them as many times as I did.  I'm glad I got to be a witness to their creativity.  I'm super thankful to Jeff Murphy for digitizing this and sending it to me. 

     I think these demos are a better representation of their sound than the 7" record they released on Bucky Records.  That 7" I might add was rejected for review in Maximum Rock and Roll.  They said it wasn't punk enough.  Yet another funny twist in punk rock history.  
     I think I'm more a fan of the "Keep You Along As Round As Possible" demo as opposed to the first demo.  The songs seem a little more alive and rockin.  Jeff also included the track from the "Free Aspirin and Tender Sympathy" compilation which was a locals only CD that came out in the early 90's.  Thanks to Michelle Fournier for these pictures of Billy.      


Download links for WHOLES DEMOs below (This does not include the 7" released on Bucky records in 94):


1.  That's Showbiz Folks...
2.  Who Was Actually
3.  Graverobbing In Texas
4.  Cucinare Il Bambino
5.  My Head Hurts


6.  Crackbaby Up All Night Shakin'


7.  Evil Dead
8.  Here We Come
9.  My Mind Mine
10.  Year After Year
11.  Next
12.  Burning Jesuside
13.  Carved In A Rock
14.  Bald Bullshit
15.  Pay To Pray
16.  Refuge of Arkon-Lo Dog God
17.  Evil Dead 
18.  Fuck A Blue Ford Pickup Truck




Tragic Mulato Flyer

Behead the Prophet (No Lord Shall Live) live at Benway Bop Video 4/27/98

      Here's the Behead the Prophet (No Lord Shall Live) video I promised.  They played with Men's Recovery Project at Benway Bop in Las Vegas, NV on April 27,2007.  The Men's Recovery footage is posted elsewhere on this blog.

      BTP were from the Northwest.  I was so overjoyed to just get to see Men's Recovery that I went outside and smoked a joint during BTP's set.  I didn't know anything about them and only got to see and videotape a few songs. That's a shame because it looked pretty wild from the small amount of footage I caught.

     I gave the camera briefly to my pal Checko and he did a fake interview with Joe Preston from the band Thrones, who also played that night.  He's being a smart ass and mumbling.  Joe Preston looks completely confused.  Funny how he says "Thank you" very clearly as he exits.

      I got the camera back from Checko and went into the record store to get the last few minutes of their set.  Wish I'd got more but that's all you get.  Short and sweet.  Wish I'd paid more attention but hey at least I got high right?

     BTP came across as pretty standard thrashy fare but the genius move was adding the crazy old man on the fiddle.  That pushes it into awesome territory especially since he appears to be slam dancing with the fiddle.  How can you go wrong with balls like that?  Nice set of choppers on the old guy.

Download links below or watch on youtube below the links.

Behead the Prophet (No Lord Shall Live) live at B.B. PART 1
Behead the Prophet (No Lord Shall Live) live at B.B. PART 2

Citizen Fish, the Independents, Tedio Boys, Lizards, Automatics live in Las Vegas 1997?

Dick Lucas from Citizen Fish answering probing questions.

    Vegas has a history of desert shows that probably goes back to the pioneer days when the menfolk would go outside camp get shitfaced and attempt to sing songs.

    This desert show happened near the dry lake bed North of Nellis Air Force Base on the way to Mesquite.  It was an unusual place because I never heard of shows happening there before and I never heard o' any since. 

    This show was put together basically by Boyde Wenger from Boba Fett Youth.  That guy fucking rules.  He put on so many of the great shows going to in Vegas from 95-98.    A lot of shit would have gone under LV's radar if not for Boyde.  I want to say David Hayes had a hand in this show as well.  I dunno.

    If you got a flyer for this show you should share because I seem to remember there being a Greg Higgins flyer!  Shit I don't even remember what day this was.  What the fuck?  The line-up was the Automatics from Portland, OR.  The Lizards from Sacramento, CA.  The Tedio Boys from Portugal.  The Independents from South Carolina.  And Citizen Fish from England.  A legendary show and perhaps the largest from that time period.

    The cops showed up and left because they were outnumbered far outside of town.  Love it when that happens.   

       The Independents footage is priceless.  And to me this was the classic line up from that band.  You get the amazing singer, the blood spitting guitarist, the weirdo 666 guy with the Hannibal Lector mask, the super goth keyboard player, and the Dave Mello look-a-like on drums!  Riotous horror ska(!) with equal influence from the Specials and the Misfits.  With a description like that you'd imagine it sounds like a shit sandwich but it's spectacular pop with pyrotechnics!  I'm not exaggerating.   

    Citizen Fish you know and well maybe you love em?  I could take or leave em but they've been around the block.  It was a novel thing when CF first came over for a US tour.  They played in Las Vegas around 1992 or 93 at the Rainbow caves with Life of Lies and a few other bands.  I never heard of them touring in the States before that show and it took a long time  for them to return, this show being 1997 or maybe 96?  The last few years Citizen Fish seem to be coming through like clockwork every Summer.  I consider the Citizen Fish/Subhumans franchise the Rolling Stones of Anarcho Punk.  But I think that's cool.  They deserve it.  I might not be a fan now but there's someone new turning 15 years old every second so they will never run out of fans.

    After this show I rode my motorcycle back to Greg Telles house with the intention of passing out on his big couch.  Around 3 in the morning the door opens up and Dick Citizen comes in with his "bird."   I guess they took their girlfriends on that tour because she had an English accent.  Apparently I was passed out on their bed.  So I dragged myself into a corner and went back to sleep, but I could hear his girl asking Dick who the "chap in the corner is."  I think I prevented them from having a love connection.  Proof that these guys deserve their status as the Rolling Stones of Peace Punk!  I'm sure they're still crashing on couches when they tour half the time.  They probably deserve that too. 

    Tedio Boys is a weird one.  I posted most of these videos on youtube and the Tedio Boys got the most attention with a 1,000 or so viewings.  I found their CD some months after the show and thought it was horrific.  But they put on a good show.  The Portuguese people who posted comments about the clips were adamant about how great they are.  Well it looks cool anyway.  Pretty standard garage stuff but loads of energy.

Lizards.  Doin what feels right.

    Very Small records recording artists the Lizards were an awesome band from Sacramento, CA and they played Las Vegas at least once before this gig at the La Canada house off of Desert Inn Drive.  The Lizards footage fucks up a little bit.  Probably cause they rock so hard.  

    I recorded the Automatics too but have somehow misplaced the tape.  You can see various members of the Automatics in the crowd during the show.  It was a good sized crowd.  Probably 300-400 people at this show maybe more. 

    I had a fairly standard Sony hi-8 camcorder for this show.  It ran on a crappy 1 hour battery so I tried to get a few songs from each band.  Ultimately the battery died during Citizen Fish's set.  

    I was intrepid enough to have a brief interview with Dick Citizen.  It's pretty laughable yet somewhat insightful.  I've included that here in this download.  While I was interviewing him we got surrounded by kids who blocked all the light.  That's why he goes dark half way through the interview.  I got stage fright being the center of attention and just kind of walked away.  I'm not Barbra Walters what do you want from me?


   

    I saw other people with camcorders at this show.  Maybe someday we'll see their footage?  In the meantime here's the footage I shot.  On a technical note, for some reason the video is a bit shrunk down.  I transferred this stuff ages ago.  Not sure why it's like that but digitizing this shit is a serious pain in the ass.  I don't plan on doing it again.  Enjoy.

Download links for all these videos below    

Independents PART 1
Independents PART 2
Lizards
Citizen Fish PART 1
Citizen Fish PART 2
Interview with Dick
Tedio Boys Part 1
Tedio Boys Part 2
Cops came to investigate

Always hassled by the man when we're trippin'