Music History, Part 8 The Early Boise Years 1985 to 1986

Originally posted on My Space, August 31st, 2007

Disclaimer: Memory is a funny thing, and an elusive one. Meaning; I might have some of this wrong, as 1. my memory is not always accurate, like anyone and 2. it is from my perspective only. Any friends who were there, feel free to correct me or add things I have missed. It helps! Also, no gossip on anyone here, it aint about that. Personal details are on a surface level, and friends, girlfriends and others are re-named to respect their privacy. People in bands generally put their names out there on albums and in interviews anyway, and are not in the habit of staying anonymous, and therefore are named here. That said, anyone who is in the blog that wishes me not to use their name has only to ask! Also, a shout out to Paul for sending me the CD of the first ever written Dissident Militia song, Crazed. Wow.

Saints of San Pedro: Minutemen to the Rescue

I must take a step back and speak of an album I bought while still living in the SOC house by the Minutemen; Double Nickels on the Dime. This album was a life changing experience for me. I had never heard anything like it nor will I ever again. Raw but skilled, funk jazz and punk, disparate elements that blended together like completely different brothers who got along well. The lyrics were highly intelligent, politically and personally. D. Boon (voice/lyrics/guitar) was a force not to be denied, playing a crisp, jazzy funky guitar sound and leads like severed electric wires flipping around a room while snarling slightly sarcastic political manifestos. George Hurley, a machine of rhythm and heart, and Mike Watt, the bass scientist, every note planned and perfected yet still played as if it were an inspirational jam every time.

My heroes, the Minutemen

The first time Brad played me The Minutemen, [which was the 'What Makes A Man Start Fires' album] the first time I heard that bass, I never approached the bass the same way again, and my playing improved immensely. To this day, when I first start jamming with someone and they have heard The Minutemen, they notice the influence. And no...I am not in any way saying I am as good as that mofo. He is a martian. I am a servant.

If you have not heard this album [Double Nickles On The Dime]...IMMEDIATELY GO BUY IT NOW. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT. Did I just type that? I didn't really mean it. But seriously, go check it out. I still listen to this album regularly (unfortunately, the cd version does not have the Van Halen cover song on it).
It would be a crime to mention that record and not mention the groundbreaking Husker Du double album, Zen Arcade, that came out just prior to Double Nickels, also on SST Records. In fact, in the inside cover notes of Double Nickels, The Minutemen playfully added the words 'take that Huskers!' Zen Arcade also was on the turntable constantly, even after the aforementioned beerspillage on the vinyl (writing this inspired me to finally, after all these years, get the CD).

About 6 years ago, in the Experience Music Project music museum in Seattle (which is really worth a visit and the admission. I was skeptical, but it was great: www.empsfm.org ) I saw the original Husker Du Zen Arcade artwork and it was strangely exciting for me, an artifact behind glass from my punk rock days, and it appeared to be only a simple photo colored with colored pencils. It was almost holy for me. I know, I am a dork. But I rarely get that way about music related stuff, or much art, really.

Double album brilliance that inspired me, especially Minutemen

Other bands/albums that inspired me...

Why were these records so life-changing for me? Because for a couple years I had been listening to pretty much nothing but hardcore punk; angry, negative white boys, and both Husker and The Minutemen made it ok to know how to play your instruments (though Land Speed Record by Husker Du would make you wonder, if you were unfamiliar with them) made it ok to be sensitive, vulnerable, while still being tough. It appealed to me on many levels, and I thirsted for bands that played hard music with a sense of musicianship and intelligence, a quest that led me later to bands like Bad Brains, Articles of Faith, the Rhythm Pigs, the Sluglords...I could go on...
I often think of parallels with hip hop while writing this blog, though admittedly I am fairly new to hip hop, and I don't know a huge amount about it, though I listen to some (The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, Jurassic Five, Arrested Development, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Run DMC...yes, I am pretty old school). In hip hop as in punk, the movement eventually became about rebelling, against the man, and against the previous dynasty of party music. But it ended up becoming a radio whore, and the intelligent, good groups that have something to say and can sell out large arenas can't get on the radio somehow, but really, it is because some rich white man who wants all the brothers to talk shit about women and act like thugs not only owns the label but owns the fucking radio station. Punk started angry and ended up on a shelf in Urban Outfitters. But essentially, the progression is the same.

Punk and Hip Hop share much in common in terms of their evolution

Salt Lake City Rockers

As I was saying in the previous entries, Pat had found us a van and we were mobile and we began doing road shows (although we had done brave road shows in multiple cars). In the days when Pushead reigned in Boise, he had a connection at a really great punk rock record store in Salt Lake City, Utah called Raunch Records. Pushead had designed some logos for them (one of them among my favorite ever Pushead drawings: and I am sure he knew the store first as an avid customer). Raunch Records was a tiny place, under freeway overpasses in a sort of industrial area. I have memories of my first visit to Raunch, meeting Brad Collins, the proprietor, who looked like a punk rock Stephen King and had a booming, lazy baritone voice, a laid back disposition, and a dry, wry sense of humor. See mention of Raunch Records on this edition of Pushead's section in Thrasher Magazine, The Puszone from 1988: http://www.pusfan.com/pusz16.htm

Awesome Raunch logos by Pushead - Artwork/flyer design by Pushead

At any rate, we drooled every time we went to Raunch. Almost every record there in those days were records that could only be found through Pushead, and some even he couldn't get [Since writing this I have been in contact with Brad Collins who informed me that most of the records at Raunch were actually obtained through Pushead]. Being so broke made it hard to go there, though! So somewhere in there was our intro to SLC, I believe. As I mentioned before, in the 80's, SLC Utah had a huge punk scene. Though it was (and is and ever-shall be) the Mormon capital of the world and even more conservative than Boise (being the Mormon Mothership), it was much larger and by default more urban, more of a city. Even just using the bathroom at Raunch Records, walking through the warehouse/loft back rooms to get to it, felt more urban than anything I had experienced, hearing the cars high above, zipping by on the overpass. The kind of thing that you take for granted, or adapt to, when living in a city, but that was new and mysterious to a young Boise Idaho punk, or at least it was then.

Mr. Brad 'Raunch' Collins of Raunch Records, Salt Lake City, UT


In doing my research, I found that Raunch Records re-launched in 2009 (wonderful news!)

See article here: http://www.slugmag.com/articles/1982/The-Rebirth-of-Raunch-Records.html

Mr. Brad 'Raunch' Collins in 2009 (Photo by Dave Brewer)

The urban-nese was also experienced at the shows, that were packed with rough looking punk kids. The children of Mormons (the ones I knew), as I mentioned before (maybe? have to look!) were some of the most fucked up, crazy, promiscuous partying beings I ever met, and the urban feel added to their edge in that city then. I am not sure why at that particular time there were so many punks in SLC, my guess was the it was the same thing as many cities then; Reaganomics created an economic shift and the poor got poorer, and in towns where work was scarce and under the Mormon thumb, there was plenty of strife for a youngster to work off by wearing leather jackets and spiky mohawks, and drinking awful booze, doing drugs and getting freaky in the sack.

I honestly could not tell you the very first show State of Confusion played in Salt Lake City. I remember an early one was at the infamous Speedway Café, a large, oblong café that had shows regularly (or am I confusing that with Al's, we played both of them. Any SLC Peeps in the house?). It was packed and people really dug SOC a lot. We fed off of the energy and it fueled us to tour more places. We had our first real taste of selling our demos on the road. 'Merch' (merchandise) became a business to get us beer, food and gas. And we handed out plenty o 'sticks' (band stickers) that would get plastered all over town (as did we ; )

We had an in to the scene through our friends, the aforementioned Potato Heads and played some great shows with them, and stayed and partied with them at their apartment near downtown. Salt Lake kids were professional partiers, and took it very seriously. Many a night were spent on the roof of the Potato Heads' place, destroying 12 pack after 12 pack of Schmidt, or Milwaukee's Best. Smoking, drinking, talking and blasting tunes through a boombox. Good times, for awhile.

Salt Lake City is an insanely weird city, like a giant toy city in a giant kid's dirt and rock back yard, meticulously built appropriating the idea of a city, and the Mormon Temple is like a stone Disney toy castle offering to God. Incredibly large homes of the rich are set on the shelves of enormous stepped hills, with roads going straight up them, like some modern pyramid of capitalism, of warped, extreme Christworship (note that this is my take on it - and that I mean no disrespect to anyone's faith, after all, many of my relatives are Mormons and they are decent people whom I love...We just don't talk about religion!). Once we drove up these odd steep roads and gawked at the houses, so large, so cold and empty looking. That said, the desert around SLC is incredible, as is The Zion National Park, nothing quite like it anywhere else on earth. Anyhow, I digress (you are supposed to stop me) like I said; the scene was huge, and we were appreciated there, so we played there often.

If Walt Disney had started a church, its temple would look like this

We also went to just see shows in SLC, from tours of bands that bypassed Boise altogether (the majority of punk shows attended and were played at a hall called The Indian Center). The most memorable of these shows was The Necros (out of Ohio), who had been Gods to me for years. I had written them and got a letter back from the drummer, in a fat envelope of stickers. I was the source for Necros stickers in Boise, there must have been 50 sticks stuffed in that envelope! I was so excited.

So me and I think Brad and Erik drove all the way to SLC just to see The Necros, and they did not disappoint. They were loud and fast and sneering, and the bassplayer was super tall and wore his bass very low. The singer was much smaller than his voice sounded, and looked a little like Danny Partridge to me. I of course went immediately to the drummer after they finished and thanked him for the sticks and the letter. He was nice, but very quiet and reserved.
The singer was the opposite of he. As soon as I said I was from Boise, he started trashing Pushead and straightedge, saying how hypocritical it was. He went on and on. I just listened. No matter what he thought of Pushead, the 7 inch record cover that Pushead drew for the Necros (Conquest For Death) was one of his best drawings ever, and definitely their best cover ever. I still own it. Jealous?

Necros 7 inch record cover for 'Conquest For Death' - Artwork by Pushead

We played a show with Samhain, a band formed by members of the infamous Misfits. They were bummed out because at a show they played the previous night, their vocal harmonizer was stolen. Their WHAT? Instantly, we were disappointed, before they even struck a chord. The Misfits were tough, right? Former steel workers and all that. How could they possibly be using a vocal harmonizer? And how could they be so tore up over losing it? They were ok live. I suppose my disappointment tainted it a bit for me. It felt like they were trying too hard to be 'spooky'. It wasn't goth. It wasn't punk. I had never been a huge fan of their records (Samhain) anyway, though The Misfits were up there for all of us.

Young Wayne playing for SOC, Samhain show, Indian Center, Salt Lake City, UT

We all ended up at a party afterwards with Samhain. I spent some time in the kitchen with Glenn Danzig and the disappointment continued. He was unexpectedly short, and with his famous 'deathlock' flipped back and wearing a leather jacket, he looked like a biker, not THE Glenn Danzig! In retrospect, I was being unfair to the man. He had paid his dues, made his mark, way back when disco was still king. No one was ever what you thought they were, but I had years to go before that sank in from meeting many 'heroes'. And as well, I don't remember what we talked about, he did most of the talking, but he was really nice to me, and he took the time to talk to a skinny punk from Idaho. I give him respect for that.

Glenn Danzig singing for Samhain

We also played an amazing show with a D.C. band that never really got the credit they deserved in the hardcore scene, in my mind; Marginal Man, whose song 'Friend' from the album 'Identity' was a hit with all of us, and their record spent a lot of time on all of our turntables. They were phenomenal live. Sadly, the band was to be short-lived.

Marginal Man: Amazing live, sing-along anthems, personal politics, great records, and sadly short-lived

Another band we shared the stage with in Salt Lake City was the infamous Agnostic Front, the controversial New York hardcore band that was rumored to be racist, a charge they denied in every interview, including one I did with the singer. It was my first experience talking to a real hardcore east coaster, and in his thick accent, he referenced Husker Du's song 'Pink Turns to Blue' from Zen Arcade without actually naming it, while describing the Agnostic Front sound; "We sing songs about hardcore shit, real shit, not some fuckin' hooka OD-in from shootin' dope!" Strangely, years later, Agnostic Front thanked State of Confusion on one of their albums (Cause For Alarm). I guess they thought we were alright, and they didn't strike us as racists.

Agnostic Front

Local SLC bands we played with were The Bad Yodelers, Maimed for Life, The Potato Heads and the infamous Massacre Guys, who were the local rock stars of the punk scene, led by a cat named Stevo on guitar and vocals, who at the time had super light bleached hair and was quite the ladies man in the scene. The band members were all really nice chaps, dressed in black, suspenders, like jesters of punk. A major event in my life involved the bassplayer of this band (the second one for them, I believe) Karl, years later, and it was a major fateful event for him as well. But that is, yes, for another blog.

We also played Spokane, Washington, a few times (my father grew up near there). Spokane is an interesting, kind of dirty little town (and still is, I am sure. And to all who live there...I mean dirty in the best way. My pop is buried there. Respect to the hard-workin people). There were some good bands out of there and we played some trippy shows there. One show was to be with the infamous Seattle 'splattercore' band, The Accused. But the show never happened due to a strange turn of events.
We showed up in town early, to hit records stores and try to sell merch, then headed to the hall to talk to the kid putting the show on. He was a small Asian kid, in a trench coat. He looked nervous. It turned out that the hall where the show was to be had no power and it would not be fixed that night. He was really sorry. We were bummed.

The guitarist of The Accused showed up, came in, and when he heard what happened, he was saying "Dude this sucks. I mean I know it's not your fault, I'm fine about it...but when Blaine gets here (singer of The Accused) he is gonna go off, man!" The kid (Eugene?) looked terrified. We went outside and hung out with half of The Accused. The anticipation of Blaine freaking on Eugene built the suspense among us.

Then Blaine showed up. Blaine had the voice of a demon (a loud one), was short, powerfully built; a badass. He got out of his car, walked over to us. We told him that the show was canceled and why. He got a non-plussed look on his face and said "Bummer". And that was it! We ended up just hanging out with The Accused in Spokane, the next best thing to playing with them, I guess, which SOC never ended up doing. A shame, it would have been a great show.

The Accused

Salt Lake ended up taking up most of this blog, as it rightfully should (and will return to my story a few more times over the years) I have been trying to keep these entries around 2,000 or at least under 3,000 words, as it gets into similar territory of a band playing too long. That said, I will not get to the album we recorded (hinted at in the last sign off as 'SOC on wax').

Next entry I will cover some more good road stories, featuring DOA, Moral Crux, The Dehumanizers, and then get into the first State of Confusion album, '6.3 Million Acres'.
And coming soon; The Crazy Horse; Pillar bar of the community, a comedy of owners. And...The Dead Kennedys invade The City of Trees.