44. 1980's Nardcore Hall of Fame & Becca Porter

On this ep of Talkin Nardcore we make it official: who's in the 1980's 185 Miles South HOF? Stu, Joe, and I agreed on a handful and we talk about them. Then it's time to go to Storytime with Forrest, which will hopefully be a regular part of all of the Talkin' Nardcore's going forward. Finally, we bring on Becca Porter, who has been in the scene since the 70's, worked at BYO before they had a record out, and once wanted to be a clown. We go through her life from an early punk to eventually getting a PHD. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:01

Hey everyone, welcome to another week of 185 Miles South. This week we're going to do another episode of Talking Nardcore with Joe and Stu. And it's going to be awesome, like every time. If you want to support the show, please like, rate, and review wherever you listen to podcasts. And I've decided if you guys can get me to 150, I think they say it's a rating on the Apple Podcasts, I will do a deep dive on Fugazi. How about that? If you want to go the extra mile and support the show, you can become a Patreon. You go to patreon.com slash 185 miles south and become a monthly contributor. And those are the real American heroes, man. It's about that time. I think I should go through and shout out to everyone again. And in the future, if you guys want me to shout out to someone else, like your mom or your cat, let me know. And I will do that instead of your name. I know some people are uncomfortable. But this is alphabetical. But no, I love you all equally. Although this first one I might love more. And it's the main man, Adam Madball Heckman. Much love. We got Adrian Gonzalez. You got to check out his man Tuning. Fucking hold it down, NorCal. Albert Moreno. We got Albert Moshhardt. You know you want to buy that Death Rays clothing shit. So Google that and buy some Death Rays clothing. We got Alex Payan. We got Andy Diehard. Check out Ill Communication. We got Anthony McCalla. Basically the only guy buffer than a 1998 Don. Alex Lewis. The legend from By All Means. Roger's first band. Hell yeah. We got, you know, Ben, I love you. I can never pronounce your last name. Ben Nahum. But stay strapped, brother. Bobby Wilcox from the mighty Riverbottom Nightmare Band. We got Brian and David Stallworth. That's Civil Conflict and Family Representing. We got Byron Serta. We got Carl Valdez, the legendary original drummer of Ill Repute. We got Casey Weisenbacher. We got Charlie Alvarez. You got to check out that new Warriors record. It just came out last week. Order that shit. It's fucking awesome. We got Chris Holden. That's the original bass player of In Control. Hell yeah, Chris. Clayton Morris. We got Corey Williams. Fucking L.A. hardcore legend. Daniel Rochen. Much thanks to you, brother. Appreciate the generosity. Dan Sant. of the podcast 400 Miles North. We got Davi Rivas of Marlboro Records fame. Donovan Coffey. He's a man. He's coming up on a future episode of this Talking Nardcore. We got Dustin Vogel. We got Eddie Numsko. Also coming up soon. We're going to interview him in January. Emil Gilmanov. Garrett Eli Georgopoulos. Got the Mighty Mighty Greg It Back, a.k.a. Beavis. We got the podcast Favorite Couple, Steve and Heather Wylea. Congratulations on the marriage, guys. That's awesome. Wish you all the best. We got Jacob Mendez. He's holding down the NARD in Denver. Got Rob Moran. If you're in San Diego, you got to go to Heartwork Coffee. If you don't, can you really say he came to San Diego? We got Jason Campbell. We got Jason Neal. We got Jeff Hershey, the man from Night Demon. Joe Revis, the legend, also episode number one, and also on this podcast this week. John F. We got Josh Belshare, my brother from another mother. We got Matthew Kearney, Max McDonald. You got to buy that. No Motive and The Sadness Prevails just got re-released. You got to pick that up. It's been out of press for like 20 years. It's like a$50 record on Discogs now. So buy that repress. Maybe listen to it all the time. But maybe flip it in 10 years and get paid. Got Mike Paras. Excuse me. Nico Adir. We got the legendary Pika. Rick Sakamoto. Doghouse forever, dude. Got Robert Cole. Impeached. Represent. Got Ryan Spellesey. Sergio Chavez. You got to check out his band, The Eulogy. They're fucking awesome. And you're going to be fucking awesome when you got the greatest American hardcore songwriter of all time in your band, right? Skylar Maloney. Stuart Wilson. Omega Point. Check that shit out. And also check this podcast out. What's up, Stu? Wes Woodring. And my main dude, Michael Wolff. If you're in Portland, go to the Fish Wife and have Mike cook you a meal, man, if you're lucky. Hopefully he's working that day. That's all. Thank you so much, guys. I know this is a long intro, but doing a project like this is very hard to get going. And, you know, you think it's going to be kind of easy, but you end up dumping, like, a ridiculous amount of money to get going. And so... I really, really appreciate all the people that can keep this really close to a break-even for me right now. So you guys are keeping it going, because I don't know if I could have gone this long if I was losing a few hundred dollars a month like I was for the first handful of months. So thanks so much for your support, and let's hit the show.

SPEAKER_00: 6:27

185 miles south a hardcore punk rock podcast

SPEAKER_02: 6:42

what's up everyone on uh this week we're back we're doing talking hardcore with dem nard boys uh episode one the legend joe revis phantom revis yeah man and uh And Stu. Hey. A future legend. Hi, everybody. Okay. Yeah, and Stu Wilson. We're back. This week, we are going to talk about what we consider the Hall of Fame of Nardcore. We're going to briefly do the 70s, and then we're going to do the 1980s. And then the next time we get together, we'll do the 90s. Also, after we do this... We're going to interview Becca. Becca Porter. Yeah, we're going to have Becca Porter on. And she's going to talk about basically being punk rock in the late 70s and the early 80s and basically going to shows in Oxnard area, LA area, working at BYO in its inception and through the 90s. And it's really rad to have another outside perspective on all that old school stuff. And a woman. Yeah, and a woman in the heyday of... Punk and hardcore. Yeah. She's awesome. So that is coming up after we bullshit on all this legendary stuff from our home scene. So go ahead. And story time. Yeah. And we're going to start bringing in a segment of the Mighty Mighty Forest. And he's going to come on and tell us a story every time too. Yeah. And that's going to be something. We hope you all enjoy it. Lots of laughs. That's right. The LOLs will be had. Let's briefly talk on the 70s, because we are going to include... Okay, well, first off, we're doing the Nardcore Hall of Fame, so hit the fucking trumpets. All right, to start it off, we are going to induct the second Rotter's 7-inch, which is Sink the Whales.

SPEAKER_00: 9:06

Sink the Whales

SPEAKER_02: 9:27

Now, the first one, Sit on My Face, Stevie Nicks, is maybe more famous. It's a great title. It's great. And the song is good. But the song, Sink the Whales, is a fucking amazing song. It's an infectious late 70s punk song that can hold up against basically anything from the era. It's tongue-in-cheek. It's awesome. It's drivey. It's just a classic song. So for our area, they're a band. They're like an original 77, 78 punk band from Camarillo. And so we're inducting that. Let's move on to the 80s. And four, seven inches. Let's do seven inches first. Yeah. Okay. Joe, go ahead and tell us what we got. You want me to read all of them? No, let's do one at a time. We'll each take one. Well, you can just tell us, and then we'll riff on them. Okay. So, first, we decided the RKL It's a Beautiful Feeling 7-inch is in the Hall of Fame.

UNKNOWN: 10:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 10:55

The Nardcore Hall of Fame. Yes, and this is 1984. Yeah. Yeah, so RKL starts just basically like maybe a year after everyone else, right? Yeah. So because where the big four of Nardcore proper are doing LPs in 84, RKL is doing their 7-inch 84, and their LP comes out in 85. Yeah. But this thing is ripping out the gate of like just next level shredding. For young kids in a 7-inch. And Santa Barbara area. Or Montecito, Santa Barbara? Montecito. Kind of scattered about there, yeah. Okay. So, yeah, it's going in. Any words on it, Stu? Dude, like the art? Oh, yeah. So let's talk about that. Is it the debut of Dan Seitz?

UNKNOWN: 11:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 11:44

Is he known for anything prior to this? Do we know flyers? I want to say prior. Yeah. Okay. I think so too, but maybe, maybe some section eight stuff too. Okay. But this is like a few of the guys bands prior to the RKL. Sure. But this is Dan sites laying down some artwork, which becomes completely iconic. Yeah. So yeah, for sure. Um, just why is why, uh, such an amazing song in them being as young as they are and how perfectly structured that song is in all aspects. The musical staging that they do throughout it, the change, the end, everything about it is just phenomenal. The whole 7-inch obviously is super good, but that song just stands out. It's a standout. That and Tell Me the Truth, the intro to

SPEAKER_04: 12:44

that song,

SPEAKER_02: 12:45

I fucking love.

SPEAKER_04: 12:49

Yeah. The drumming. I feel like this 7-inch and then the LP they do after is like a blueprint, I think, in terms of hardcore. It's fast. Bomber's drumming is unreal fast. Um, and just the riffs, I think just like the song structures too. Um, it's all just, it just lays it out for a lot of my favorite bands, whether or not, whether or not they take direct influence from it, but I feel like it's the most hardcore sounding

SPEAKER_02: 13:28

hardcore record of them. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely the most straightforward and then the LP as well, which we'll get to, um, Because I think that they just go fully fucking buck wild on the 87 record. Oh, dude. On Rock and Roll Nightmare, which I think is their apex. Yeah. But we'll get there. Yeah. So, RKL 7-inch is going in. Nardcore Hall of Fame. Yep. What do we got next? How about the False Confession self-titled?

SPEAKER_01: 14:06

Let me hide myself in you.

UNKNOWN: 14:06

Let me hide myself in you.

SPEAKER_02: 14:16

Yeah. Now, this is a band. They're still playing. They're still ripping. But as far as output, at the time, they did this 7-inch. And they did the song on an hardcore, which is also on the 7-inch. And maybe they're on one of the comps. I can't remember. I didn't go look. Discogs doesn't say so, but that doesn't mean they're not. Because there's so many mystic comps. Yeah, I should have pulled everything out and looked. I can't remember that anything else is on. Yeah, so this is just the standalone contribution of False Confession. But that's much later. Yeah, the demos came out a couple years ago on LP. And they don't touch this. This is like solid, perfect. It's the same stuff that like... It took a lot of time. crafting these songs. Not to say that the demo songs aren't good, but these are the cream of the crop of those songs. Yeah, it's rivaling what Dr. No is doing at the time. I think there's a lot of the D-beat love in all those early Oxnard guys, and this is hitting kind of on the fringes of that. Where Dr. No kind of went full in that way, this is just on the fringe, but it's So infectious, so catchy, so driving. Yeah, clean sounding. You hear everything. Yeah. The recording is fucking great. For a Mystic recording, it's got to be one of the best ones. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, for sure. So, you know. But yeah, so it's in there. And I love the artwork. Yeah. Oh, dude. Back to the recording, there's not a ton of that Mystic echo chamber stuff going on on it. So, yeah. Yeah, someone knew how to use a blanket this time. It's really clean, yeah. Maybe Scott, I don't know. Yeah. And then it ends up with a piano. Fucking sick. Dude, it's like a mini LP. Yeah, dude, totally. It takes you on a ride. Like, for a 7-inch, which is usually, like, kind of like the next step past the demo, this thing is, like, well thought out, takes you on a fucking ride, and, like, I mean, it's a satisfying listen. If you get a full perspective of this band, I wish they would have done an LP one year later. It would have been so interesting. Because they could have gone in so many directions, right? Yeah, they could have. But Fred joined Dr. No right away. Pretty much some of the songs, I think, ended up in Dr. No as Dr. No songs. We'll have to get him soon. and what have you. We'll have to get him in and narrow down the whole story. You know, Scott and, uh, uh, I can't remember who else right now, you know, started the band, the rain and that's, that's, that was their immediate project afterwards. Scott got, you know, really into learning his musical craft, you know?

UNKNOWN: 17:27

Um,

SPEAKER_02: 17:30

So I think that was the end of it for him. But anyway. So maybe it's a perfect storm. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. It's a perfect snapshot of that early 80s, not one of the big four. Yeah. Although they're on the edge of that. I can't not put them in. I just got to say he had to do an LP. Yeah. I don't know. I just feel like the LP is the... The benchmark for... Kind of. Yeah. Okay. But the 7-inch is definitely in the Hall of Fame. Yes. That's why it is. Yes. Yep. And we got one more. One more 7-inch. Okay. What do you think it is? It is Dr. No, the Burn EP.

UNKNOWN: 18:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 18:37

Which is probably the greatest hardcore 7-inch there is. Yeah. You know? Just, I mean, the song alone. The song's so ahead of its time. Just the riffery. It's the perfect Dr. No song. I think it's the best Dr. No song. Every song on that 7-inch is deprogrammed. Obviously, Watch It Burn Itself. Yeah. Ice House. I mean, you know, with that, you know, Kyle's weird, has that weird effect on his voice and everything about it. It was so good. Fast. I'm pretty sure that's just a three-piece too. I think it's just Kyle, Ismael, and Rick playing on that too. I could be wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure that that's between Plugging Jesus and Well, I know it's between Plug and Jesus and This Island Earth before Fred came back, but maybe he's on there. I don't know. I can't remember. Yeah, it's got to be there. So let's talk about the white elephant that we're... It's so hard to leave off... In my opinion, the best 7-inch of the 80s. Is that what we're talking about? I was saying the white elephant in the room is that we're not putting Lannanode toilets in. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. But you think that's the best 7-inch? In my opinion, yeah. Then we should put it in. You are the legend. You guys don't want it in. I was going to say Rat Pack, but that's just me. I love the Rat Pack 7-inch too. I think that the Ill Repute LP is so much better than this. I almost want to put this in for Sleepwalking Alone because it's like... Amazing song. Amazing. But the record is, it's just not what, I don't know. I don't know. It's Hall of Fame. So here's my take. The songs are amazing. There's so much energy and power behind all of them. And the performances of everybody in the band is on par. And they're children when they do this. I mean, teenagers. And... My one, and this is the drawback for much of that Mystic stuff too, is that the recording is terrible. Tony's tone is just terrible. It's like the worst guitar tone ever. And that's not his fault, but they just didn't, you know. No, I know, but that's the thing. But then you listen to the False Confession one, and then how much... I know, but that's the thing. I want to hold our Nardicore Hall of Fame standard to the standard that I would hold other stuff to, and I just think that the 7-inch is not there yet. But you put that... What? Rotter 7-inch in, so... I think it's a great 7-inch. You could have shot it down. Are we yanking it? No, no, we're not yanking it. Well, it's the only thing that came out in that decade. Yeah, I mean, they did the two 7-inches, so I don't know. I thought it should go in. I think that song is insane, and it's just a two-song 7-inch. Like, it's a 45. Yeah. So, yeah, that's it. Sorry, dudes. Sleepwalking alone. Yeah, I mean, maybe it should. I just think that, like... So... It's an honorable mention for me. That's how I have it on my list. Well, it would be the highest possible honorable mention. It's amazing. Yeah. And it sounds better on clear vinyl. Does it? Yeah. I have a first press. But it's my favorite. That's the only first press I have of anything, aside of my Jawbreaker records. I think I have every variation of the Land of No Toilets. Sounds good on blue also. Flexing, dude. I'll display it. This guy. All right. So. So move on to the LPs? Yeah, let's go to the LPs. Yeah, what's first? No, no repute. What happens next?

SPEAKER_01: 22:54

Let's go.

SPEAKER_02: 23:09

Yeah, I mean. Here we go. Let's go into it. It's like a perfect LP that nothing ever sounded like before or after. The first time the cymbal is used. On the knuckles? Or on the back. Well, the back and the writing. On something that's for mass consumption. Yeah. You know, it was on flyers and people saying it and spray-painting it all over town. You're saying the NARCOR sign. The NARCOR sign, yeah. Yeah. And then, as Stu pointed out, the NARCOR on the knuckles.

SPEAKER_04: 23:46

Zoomed in. The amount of times that fucking little NARCOR sign has been zoomed in and used is unreal. Who did that 3D one on the back? Who drew that? I don't know. Because that thing's red.

SPEAKER_02: 24:04

I had a Stalag shirt with that on the back. I lost that shirt. Fucking bummed. I would think Jaime, or Gilbert, I don't know. I mean, I would assume Jaime. Okay. But honestly, I don't know. It's fucking tight. It should have blown your mind. Because he did the cover. Yeah. The cover art is fucking... Yeah. The cover art alone. So the art is great. The pictures are fantastic. And it's just enough music that... It's like the perfect amount of songs. Yeah, and they have some straightforward hardcore beggars fill it up. And then they just have songs that go totally wild, like What Happens Next, where it's just like a blast of energy. An hardcore, again, a straightforward hardcore song. And then you got the GOAT song booking its cover. I mean, musically, lyrically... Fucking perfect. It's like one of those songs where it's like, if I wanted to show someone why I love punk rock and hardcore music, I could give them that one song. And it's like, you're going to get a little bit of everything in here. It's just one of those perfect, perfect songs. Yeah. I think my brother and I played... that for my mom because she was interested in like okay well what's this punk rock stuff you guys are listening to and so we played her that and we played her Intense Energy from Aggression and you know she like listens to those and reading the lyrics and like hey this is actually yeah this is not about you know what was being fed to her through television that these punk rockers are all you know you know shooting drugs and you know that's all it's about is just you know chaos it wasn't there was there was some substantial meaning to to what those were trying to say now obviously intense energy is about skateboarding but that that made her also feel like okay well it's they're they're talking about stuff that they're that's fun to them that they like well and i mean i mean the starlet chorus right it's a way to release intense energy yeah so it's like i'm releasing my energy by doing this instead of getting in fights, doing drugs, whatever. Maybe the reality of the situation, at least in the aggression case, is that maybe they were actually doing that other stuff. But at least they were putting forward a positive message. Exactly. What you put out to the world is still like... There was a consciousness in the lyrics that it's like... Here's a different way to be. And sometimes you need to– this is a terrible metaphor, which I'm sure Daniel will love because he loves all my metaphors, even when they're fucking great. And this is a bad one. But how they kind of say– Is this about Sagazi? No, no, no, no. But dress for the job you want, not the job you have. I think that lyrically sometimes it's like that too. It's like, hey, I might not be living the perfect life. Maybe– You know, you have drug problems or maybe I like, you know, maybe you are a little prone to violence or you have a temper or whatever, but it's like, you know, get out and skateboarding kids. Like don't, you don't have to live like me. Focus on this. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I like that, but that's a different record. Yeah. It's okay. We can talk about those both together. Yeah, because it's also on the list. Yeah, but let's finish out on The Ill Repute. Yeah. Whatever's next. You guys touch on the artwork. But let's just talk about how iconic the artwork is. Yeah. I mean, to be black and white and just be so iconic and amazing. And just the font, like the ill repute font can never be replicated. And even the what happens next in the lower corner, it's like, what the fuck is that? Yeah. It's like that could never be replicated. Yeah. It's so cool. And then that, uh, the Serbian team, uh, basketball team that stole their thing and made that huge banner. You never seen that? No. Oh, we're going to have to, we'll have to show us that shit. Yeah. That's rad. Um, but, and then also like the three dimensional Narco sign on the back. Yeah. Oh shit. I made it. I made a banner that Vince and I did. It's fucking huge. Yeah. And, uh, I think Ceremony played at Rock City in the senior award as a gape. Oh, that's sick. We should send it to Croatia the next time we play Serbia. Oh, okay. Yeah, and then... Front cover or back cover, guys? We're skipping... We just didn't mention the actual song, Oxnard. It opens with... Dude, it's fucking wild. Yeah, for like, you know... To not be a big city and then have a band talk about your town is kind of like, yeah, it's cool. And it's definitely influenced the three of our bands, right? We've all sang about Oxnard. And even the secret lyrics part, it's like that influence and control on its own, which is cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Although I was disappointed to know that he didn't really have lyrics. Yeah. I mean, he's singing lyrics, but he doesn't remember them, and they changed all the time. That's cool, though. Yeah. That's kind of cool. Yeah. But... But, I mean, that song has been influential. I mean, just on the pod, you know, Ryan talked about that being, like, what got him into punk. Jeff talked about that being what got him into punk.

UNKNOWN: 29:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 29:42

When they stole each other's stories. But yeah, yeah. I mean, it certainly helped solidify to me that this is what I wanted to do. That there's these guys singing about my hometown, the town that I live in, that I'm growing up in, and then there's a song about it. Like, what is this about? Yeah, it's the reason why I never... So it made me more quizzical about it. And I already knew them. I didn't realize that these are guys I know already. Yeah, and there's a little something to it. If you wanted to go deeper, it could be more about, like, it's loving yourself and where you're from, right? Like, and being proud of, like, whatever you got. Make it work for you, right? Like, it's probably the reason why I never claimed SoCal Hardcore. You know what I mean? What does that even mean? Like, I don't know. Yeah. But I don't know. If you're from some random town in the IE or you're some... I don't know. If you're from Blythe, maybe. But fuck it. I'd claim Blythe Hardcore, man. Blythe Hardcore would be hard, dude. Well, that's why fucking Die Hard Youth is a shit, right? It's like they always claim Tachipi. And that makes them like, you know, we're here. This is us. That's always been a... A kicker for me. Why I enjoyed that. And they had a symbol, too. Because they owned it. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, I mean, even regardless of what you think about the band, if you wanted to just look at a map and do hardcore history and say, like, that town, who came from there? There's a lot of towns you can't name someone from. Exactly. You know? Yeah. Because maybe they just, I don't know, they just claim the... biggest metropolitan city they're closest to, right? Yeah. Or NorCal or SoCal or whatever. But dude, you point it to Atropine. I can name a hardcore band from there. Yeah. So that's sick. But cool. And also, we got to mention that Carl's drumming is like, this is the album. He has a very unique style. And this album is just really suited for that style. It's like, It's loose enough that he can get loose enough, and it's tight enough that when he needs a hone or din, he hones it. He needs flair. Right? Yeah. But it's like some of these songs, they just allow. And again, I feel like talking about music on this podcast, I feel like I'm always dialing in on things that are kind of just like a glimpse in time that can never be recaptured. Yeah. Like nothing sounded like something before it or after it. And I mean, this is- One of those, right? Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's only one year after I landed on the toilet, so it sounds light years ahead. Totally. Completely different, yeah. And then, of course, they never sounded like this again. Yeah. You know, Carl's drumming is phenomenal. Jim's bass playing, like, how clean it sounds and cuts through, especially in, like, Book and its cover, but even in, like, Wayward or, you know, whatever. It is... inspirational to so many other bass players that have come since then. In Tony's guitar playing, for that matter, too. In John's vocal delivery, for that matter. Every single bit of that is the groundwork for everybody else thrown in with the rest of these records we're going to get to here in a minute. Yeah, because this is also John taking a step and just like, going for it instead of singing along with the guitar. So it's him really coming into his own. Voice cracking, like everything. And they kept all the takes. So raw, so good. What happens next, dude? I love it. Stalag 13 happens next. Yeah, well, we should do the aggression because we already started talking about it. Yeah, we'll just jump to aggression. Don't be mistaken.

SPEAKER_00: 33:53

Stalag 13. Okay,

SPEAKER_02: 34:09

so now of all these LPs in the 80s, this is the earliest one. This one's 1983. Yeah. And it's one of two that's not on Mystic, because it's on Bwayo. And probably the most straightforward traditional... punk of all of them. Right. What is like, like a, like a mid tempo, a more of like a black flag, like, like, I don't know. I don't think so. No, but I would say keep, keep going with that. And then it's just more of a, more of a, well, no, I would just say it's like more of a traditional punk rock in the formula of like what early eighties, California punk rock. So it's closer to like the, Adolescents or... Adolescents, circle jerks, yes. Black Flag, I don't know, because there's so many, you know, those break stops and all that weird stuff that Greg would do, you know. Sure, but the down strumming and the mid-tempo and being drivey and not breaking into the fast stuff, although they do have the outliers. Yeah. They do do a couple, like, fast songs. Yeah, for sure. But the majority is mid-tempo, drivey, SoCal punk. Yeah, yeah. And slaying the style. Yeah, completely. Like knocking it out of the fucking park. Yeah. So catchy. Again, if you want to dial into everyone's playing, I mean, Henry's guitar work is out of this world. Yeah, Henry. And Mark's singing is like. I have two notes for this. It's a skateboarding and Cat Keller solo.

UNKNOWN: 35:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 35:55

Dude, that's so... Oh, my God. It still gets to me to this day, you know, when he breaks it. You know, like, it's so fucking amazing. I want to cry, especially now because he's gone, you know, and we lost Henry, but... No, he's amazing. Yeah. For a guitarist, I mean, what a shredder. Yeah. Abra's drumming is great on this. Yeah. Bob's bass playing, if it may be Henry or Mark actually playing bass on it, but I don't know. Is that a rumor? That's a rumor. And then Mark's vocals are just so good. On fire. Yeah, so good. Like you said, a wide range of songs. It's a long LP. Yeah, it's a pretty long LP. Well... If you're used to the CD version or the digital version, there's a few songs on the end of it that aren't on the LP. Right? Because they put on the... Somebody got their head kicked in. Two of the songs. Songs at the end. Okay. Rat Race and Dear John the Letter. But they didn't put the other version of Intense Energy on. Okay. Which I don't understand why, but... Yeah. Which is crazy because like... Maybe our guests can answer that later. Yeah. I always... considered dear john letter like part of this record even though i listened to it i love that song dude it's like the song is so good so far okay and it's a different version than than than than our car version so yeah so yeah anyway another yeah great record that is in the hall of fame yeah yeah that's that artwork that was the first oh yeah glenn yeah just glenn friedman Yeah, the original artwork, not the current artwork. The one that's just white? Yeah. I think Fred actually wrote to me and said that that was like a– it was an error. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it's like– I think it's back in press in one of the– Okay, okay, okay, okay. Good. So the skateboarding picture is, you know, like that sold me on it. Yeah. I'm sure it sold– I got to have this. And then, you know, the skeleton– caricatures of the band on the back. That's so fucking cool. So cool. Yeah. Tattoo. Joe's got it. Little Henry. Yeah. So. Aggression. Don't be mistaken. Body Count was the first Nordcore song I ever heard before I moved to Oxnard. It's funny because it was that skate company Sessions. Yeah. They had a shirt. It's the 23rd? Yeah. Funny the circle, how it goes. But I went in to get a shirt at the skate shop. And they had the skeleton and the cop frisking him. And I was like, I want that shirt. That

SPEAKER_04: 38:50

shirt's rad. I get it. And I'm walking around town. And this dude's like,

SPEAKER_02: 38:55

oh, aggression.

SPEAKER_04: 38:56

I'm like, what is that? Go home. Figure it out. And then a couple weeks to a month later, my dad's like, we're moving to Oxnard. And I was like,

SPEAKER_02: 39:07

that's where aggression's from. Yes. Yeah, rules. Yeah, that's badass. So let's move on to the one that Stu said. Stalag. Which is Stalag 13, In Control, 1984 Upstart Records. So another one that's not a mystic, and this one definitely benefits from recording elsewhere because this recording is so clean and so good. This one's a really hard one to describe because it just, without saying, oh, it just sounds really clean and really good. But I don't know, you hear everything really clearly, super drivey. It's got that old school sound, but again, you hear everything perfectly. Yeah. I can't really describe it because there's reverb on it. It's a little reverby. It's a little reverby. It's pretty clean. But it's not like mystic reverby. No, it's not. No, no, no, no. It's reverby in the good way. It's reverby when all the tones of all the stringed instruments are represented well. Yeah. And again, just bangers. I mean, starting out first song. Condition. Condition, yeah. You know, one of the. John's bass is, you know, all of the sonic qualities of all the instruments sound perfect. But John's bass on that, yeah, man, so good. Yeah. Oh, man, here we are. Here we are. Bam. Right. Yeah. Yeah, it's beautiful. I mean, that song can just catch you, you know, so sick. Yeah. Black and gray. Everyone's favorite like semi-tiered jerker, but like... You're my bro, but... You know, it's like, do I want to slam or cry? That's when you do the arm and arm in the pit. Yeah, it was like the original Pennywise bro. Yeah. Like... I love you, brother, but don't look me in the eye. Again, here's another record with a ton of like super posi message songs. Yeah. You know, and... But also, I don't want to say the beginning of the youth group thing. Well, okay, so I think I read somewhere that someone was claiming they were the first straight edge band in California. In California, probably. In California. And number two, America's Hardcore, and number three, Justice League. How do you think about that? Yeah, that probably makes sense to me. um so yeah they were the positive on that very very dc influenced yeah yeah for sure but but like taking making it their own sound so even like i love when ill repute like fucks with kind of like those dark notes that are kind of like the tsol influence yeah and they do that also on i think what are you looking for is like one of the Coolest sounding songs like ever. Yeah. Because it's like, what is this? It's like fast and driving, but you're like doing those dark chords, but it's not like a spooky sound of song. It's just like, like, what the fuck is this? Like, this is like a, it's fucking brilliant. It's like one of those things where it's just like, I don't know. Like sometimes you listen to punk rock and you get these songs that are like so good. And it's just like, it validates everything. the way we all feel, but sometimes we can't describe, right? Yeah. Because a lot of people think, oh, this song's great for a punk song. But put it up against Led Zeppelin, and it's like a shit song. Oh, it's pretty good for punk, right? But it's something like that. I'm listening to it, and I'm like, dude, this is one of the greatest songs out of all songs. Yeah. Because it just validates like, oh, why do I love this music so much? Oh, it's because of something like this. How the fuck do you even think how to do that? And so it's just like a joy to listen to. I don't know. Well, it stands on its own, excluding the genre. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Casillas' guitar playing, his licks, his leads, I like just... phenomenal Blake driving, driving through everything, you know, uh, uh, uh, it's Harry, Harry, Harry Meisenheimer playing drums on that. Um, fast, like with two weeks to rehearse, to, to play. Yeah. Ron's vocals. Perfect. Oh man. Ron's vocal. I'm bad. Like, like shouty, not screamy. That's still like an urgent feeling. I knew I could never do what John or Kyle or Israel or anybody else did. I wanted to be Ron Baird singing in Burning Dog. That's what I tried to do. I never got close to that, obviously, but that was my intention. That was always what I was attempting to do. It fell far short and was something completely different. No, but it's what you're grasping for. Yeah. And you don't have to be so self-deprecating. Yeah, but you know what? What you did is rad. Yeah, I'm just trying to say that that's what I wanted to do. Yeah, I think that's great. That's like your inspiration. Because he had this, you know, it was open, it was throaty. But it still had like bite. Yeah, the bite with everything. But he hit melody pieces here and there, like where he was supposed to and like all that stuff. He's painting this, it's just like he's painting... on top of something that's already rad. Yeah. And then again, if you want to go to the artwork, here's more classic artwork from the Hernandez brothers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 45:41

Jumping guitar guy. How can you go wrong?

SPEAKER_02: 45:44

I know. It's like so simple and so good, right? With a missing pant leg in one of the panels. That's the

SPEAKER_01: 45:53

best part. Yeah. Like, oh man, we forgot

SPEAKER_02: 45:54

that. And going for the yellow, early yellow. Yeah. You know? Yeah, the color choice too. Is it like, you know, here it's not a mystic. It's not, Sounds like anything else, and it looks completely different. 84 Red and Yellow, dude. Who was the fucking Hulkamaniac in the band? That's what I want to know. Because that's the year he slammed the Iron Sheik and took that shit. But yeah. So the fourth one, this is the one dearest to Joe's heart. You think so? I don't know. We're going Dr. No Plug in Jesus, right? Dr. No Plug in Jesus.

SPEAKER_01: 46:33

On

SPEAKER_02: 46:45

Getaway or Mystic? Well, which one's first technically? It's Getaway. It's the same thing. Yeah, but yeah, Getaway. Sorry, Stu. What? It's embarrassing me flexing on my records. No, dude, I'm glad. Yeah, okay. My notes say so much good stuff. Yeah, I mean, like... And bass solo. That's my other note. Yeah, the circle of fear bass solo, right? Yeah. Unfuckwithable. Yeah. You know? This is a banger album. Like, if you... If... You were DJing a party where people just wanted to slam. And you could only choose one of the big foreign hardcore records. I would say this. Because it's hitting that beat and it's going. And it's never fucking stopping. And it's a pit frenzy, fist in the air, rage or up your ass. Or up your ass. But yeah, I think this is the... the rage or album and, and probably the best overall musicality. It's heavy. Yeah. It's scary. The first time I heard it, I was like, Oh shit. It's just like a, it's a fucking unit. You're getting fast. You're getting clobbered over the head with like a, a thing where we've talked on a lot of these other records about like, Oh, I love the way that, you know, the bass plane is happening and the guitar is happening. And I like the vocals and all this, but, I almost feel like this Dr. No, it's like such a unit that it's like the drums, the bass, and the guitar is like just all one thing clobbering you over the head. Yeah. You know? It's like the instrument is Dr. No. And it just is fucking 7,000 pounds and it just fell on your head. Yeah. You know? That's all I got. The dueling guitars between Kyle and Fred, and I already mentioned bass solo for his mile. The intro to Life Returns. It's fucking heavy, dude. Dude, so heavy. It's so heavy. I mean, Life Returns is top five hardcore songs for me. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, killer. And again, the art just... I don't know, it makes you feel like you can kind of guess what the record's going to sound like, right? Yeah. I mean, isn't that great art? Well, that and the burn art, too. They're both really simple. And what's also cool

SPEAKER_04: 49:27

with all these bands is their logos and the fonts they used. And the Dr. No, they take like the, it's like this fucked up PhD, like, RX band. art, I don't know, font thing, dude. And then they have the Jesus that you plug into the wall and they invert the colors.

SPEAKER_02: 49:50

It's fucking scary.

SPEAKER_04: 49:51

And it's just black. Black, white, and then whether or not you have the

SPEAKER_02: 49:53

white or the blue-fonted record, it all works. Or both. Or both. It's like a darker shade of hazy green. Oh. Yeah. And then the back cover... you know, the pictures of the band, like, seeing that as a kid, like, I'm all, whoa, there's like a Mexican in this band, you know? That's repping. Yeah. The Salape, you know? Fucking so hard, dude. Looking hard. This male looks hard as fuck. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's the sweetest, kindest, most shy guy on the face of the planet, but... Back then, I didn't know that. I see that, and I'm like, oh, my God, this is so crazy. That guy must be crazy. Well, he didn't get shy until he met him in 87. Before that, he was fucking up everyone. But, yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, it's great. And what is good album art, right, is it just is adding to the package, right, of like, I'm getting a feeling off this. Yeah. For people that enjoy tangible music, that's a part of it, right? I'm putting the record on. I'm holding the cover in my hand. I'm hoping to pull out an insert, but you're probably not going to get one in most records. So you get the front cover, the back cover, and you just... It's a full experience. You listen to the record, and you study the art front to back. So that cross... yeah thing is that's a that's a christian thing it's not a it's not a spinoff of of the drug rs yeah yeah yeah yeah so because it's on a church on uh on c street uh c and like teakwood there's a giant thing on the front of the church that's that symbol is basically on the front of a church there Dude, shout out to the garage walrus. Yeah. I'm going to go buy that. It could be Robert. It's somewhere in one of those streets up north side. Anyway. Yeah. So those are the big four. Those are the big four, but we still have... We got the both RKLs, right? Two RKL records to talk about. Yeah. Keep Laughing and Rock and Roll Nightmare. Do we want to just talk about both of them at the same time? Yeah, we can talk about them all at the same time. So... Again, Keep Laughing is just them continuing the fire they have from the 7-inch. It's still a pretty similar band. My note says, holy fuck. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of a way to look at those first two RKLs and the 7-inch. It's just like, this fucking band shreds. Was it the LP or the 7-inch that Bomber broke his hand?

SPEAKER_04: 52:55

Oh, fuck, dude. We didn't even talk about that. How he broke his hand skateboarding

SPEAKER_02: 52:59

out in front when they were going to record. It was a 7-inch. It was a 7-inch. And he recorded the entire 7-inch with a drumstick taped to his hand. Taped. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 53:06

Fuck.

SPEAKER_02: 53:07

Yeah. That's insane, right? So the drummer breaks his hand, and then to go do the record, tapes a drumstick to his hand. That's insane. That's crazy. So keep laughing. Think positive. The whole record is great, but Think Positive itself is just... It's an anthem. It's an anthem. dude. Yeah. Like whatever opens the right. It's like, Oh, you're slamming before the drums. Yeah. And I love how, how it, how it fades in. Oh yeah. Like, I don't, I don't know if that was intentional or just mystic, like fucking dropping the ball, but it's fucking perfect. Yeah. It's so good. It's insane. And then the, you know, sort of, it's not really a breakdown, but a breakdown at the end. Totally. Totally. It's a mosh part. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're just there. For them, I think they're just hitting all different types of rhythm to push the musical boundaries that they're comfortable with pushing at the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for them, it's like a rocker part, probably. But Stu's slamming. I'm always slamming to that record. Oh, yeah. And then I think that... Do you have more on that record? Well, it's just like the way that it's all... Like how every song goes into each other. It's like you have the fast song with the dance part, and then it goes straight into the dead teds, which is mid-tempo the whole time. And then like Life in a Bottle starts out... Every fucking song, one after another, leads into it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 54:59

And I think that was the first... Because I was starting to get into hardcore around that time. And then I heard RKL. And I was like, like I mentioned previously, they do these parts where it's like guitar hauling fucking ass in one headphone. And then it just drives in with a drum roll into the fast part circle pit. And you're slamming. And it just blows my fucking mind. The drumming

SPEAKER_02: 55:26

is insane. Everything on that record is fucking insane. Yeah. I think it gets even more insane. we're gonna get into hell fuck yeah rock and roll nightmare like some people say this record is like ahead of its time and and i and i always say i'm like i'm like i still don't know if my brain is ready for it like this thing is like out of this world Like, what the fuck is happening here? I didn't like it the first time I heard it. I definitely think this is an acquired taste record. Yes. Respect it on first listen, because you're like, this is insane. I was like, what's going on? But your brain can't grasp it. It doesn't have the catchiness of some of the songs on the 7-inch and the LP right away. Right. But it's just like... Or maybe ever, but that was irrelevant to them. That... They played these songs that were so beyond what anybody else was doing. And as you guys have mentioned, it's the blueprint for everything else to follow. Every band. Yeah, I mean, it's a blueprint for NoFX and Lagwagon, right? For sure. Yeah. There wouldn't be either of those. But I mean, that's face-to-face. And that's all the other bands that were, I don't want to say copying them, because they all did their own thing. But it's certainly that blueprint. And it's a mix of this record, Rock and Roll Nightmare, and possibly Suffer. The melody of Suffer. Taking the melody of Suffer with the shredding of this. The recording isn't that great. No. It's not that great.

SPEAKER_04: 57:18

The bass tone's really good, in my opinion, which Ballmer plays on, because they didn't have a bass player. And the fucking bass parts on this record are like... He's literally just shredding the whole time. And... I was reading a lot of lighter notes on this and they're like, Oh, it's not hardcore or punk. It, we were literally just listening to a lot of blues and rock like in kiss and just making it faster. And

SPEAKER_02: 57:42

that's exactly what it is. Yeah. And like, it's my favorite record of all time. The fucking art. Yeah. That rules. Yeah. What a fucking sick pick

SPEAKER_04: 57:55

it like the art. they're just chilling. There's like empty, like Budweiser tall cans everywhere. And they're just fucking chilling in a backyard. And like, like it's like, it's like a framed photo almost. And like around it, it's just like goblins with like fucking like beers and shit.

SPEAKER_02: 58:16

Yeah. Oh dude. It's so good. Um, and this one is on like something like Alchemy

SPEAKER_01: 58:24

Records. Yeah. Why is that?

SPEAKER_02: 58:26

I

SPEAKER_04: 58:27

mentioned this on another pod, but Bomber tracked the whole thing in one take to silence with no

SPEAKER_02: 58:37

scratch track. Jesus. Those guys, Chris, Bomber, Joe later, such phenomenal musicians. Yeah. that they could do something like that, you know? They were, you know, probably Kyle might be the next best one, maybe, you know? And Casillas, too. But, you know, I don't know. Those guys were phenomenal. Yeah. And, like, Jason's vocals change. He kind of goes, like,

SPEAKER_04: 59:20

into this more, like, guttural, like... Lower pitch, but kind of grimy, whiny, I think. Well,

SPEAKER_02: 59:30

how old was he on Keep Laughing? Teens, I think. Teens, yeah. Right, so it's like, I mean, imagine. 22. It's two years and a lot. I mean, two years can be a long time in your development. I mean, if you're talking about the difference between 16 and 18 or 17 and 19 or even 18 and 20, who knows? I don't know. But the songs aren't the same as Keep Laughing. They're not this blistering speed and scream the whole way through kind of thing. So he has to do something different. And what he does is also that, what did you say? It's kind of like Grimy Whiny. Grimy Whiny, which is Fat Mike, Joey, and all those other... just done with a bit more melody. Right. And then Bomber sings on a few songs, and that's kind of like as a precursor to when he fronts the band. His voice is like fucking prime,

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:37

dude. His voice is so good. But like beyond taking, like they take it beyond the beyonds, dude. Like they shred the whole record, and then they have a country song. And then they end it with a fucking Beastie

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:54

Boys song talking about burritos and shit. And it's just, what the fuck? Yeah. Mind-blowing record. It is a great record. Yeah. So I feel good about that. I do, too. Please don't torch my pad for not putting that in the toilets in the Hall of Fame. I love every guy to a man. And I like that 7-inch. But I don't know. It's an honorable mention for sure. It is an honorable mention. And yeah, I mean, all of it. I like the Rat Pack 7-inch too, Stu. The first one. You like the second one? The other one's not as good as the first one. I like the first one. It's like really drivey. Former years of Reagan. Yeah. It's fucking, his voice is cool. On that record. He's got a cool voice. Oh, we skipped something. We did. Did we? The Nard Car LP. Oh, yeah. Oh, there's an important one. Yeah. The Nardcore compilation. Because I was just thinking Rat Pack, and I'm like, they've got the songs on the... Yeah. Wait a minute. This is like a great American hardcore compilation.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:19

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:19

Got a little bit of everything. It's a stamp in time, you know? One area, 1984. Here's what it is. Fucking... Great record. Great compilation. We're not LA. This is NARCOR. This is Oxnard, not LA. It's not just Oxnard, obviously, because the Riders are on here, and RKL's on here. Scared Straight from Simi Valley. But it's the repeat songs, the Dr. No songs, or Dr. No song. I wish it hadn't been on. both the comp and Plugin' Jesus, but... So be it. Go to War from Aggression. Yeah, the Aggression song. Oh, that song is so good. That's like... That's Corpus. Yeah. That's a cool song. I mean, really, everything on the comp is rad. That AFU song is a one-off for a band that I only ever heard one song from. Yeah. You know? Super cool. Yeah, the intro... habeas corpus the intro to that song is sick yeah um yeah there's a lot i mean the only stuff i don't like on it is i don't like those rotter songs um yeah where but hey dude it's no it's no sink the whales that song fucking rips i'm telling you uh but yeah the wash my hands is garbage the men men men men men men men men yeah homophobic shit on there is garbage yeah that's stupid that's wild That's 84. I really liked, back to False Confession, putting feline on there, which is so different than anything else on that record. Yeah, feline on Nardcore is so cool. And that was intentional. They chose that song because they knew it was going to be so different. At least that's the myth, the legend. They wanted it to stand out from everything else, and it certainly does. Yeah. It's a great song, too. Yeah. And so these are great LRP songs. These are maybe the best Scared of Stray songs. For sure. Even though both songs, they are the same song. They are the same song, but they're both good. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, President. Fuck. President. Yeah. It's Not Gonna Happen to Me, Sleepwalking 75. Oh, it is? It's not going to happen to me, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's Sleepwalking 2. Both are great. Yeah, those are all great, great European songs. Sleepwalking 3 is on the other, the not honorable mentioned transitions. Although, that cover rips. Yeah, of not John. That's true. The not honorable mention is not John on the cover. It's just some dude. That sucks. I always thought it was John. John's like, no, it couldn't be me. I never had that shirt. Like he remembers the shirt. But if anyone does, it would be John Fanoff. That's fucking funny, dude. So that's it. That's an Hardcore Hall of Fame. 1980s. It was the 1980s. We're coming back with the 90s and maybe beyond. We'll see. Yeah. We'll see if you guys want to do the 2000s or not. The 90s. We can do a 2000. The 90s I got. The 2000s are going to need a little bit of help. Well, no, no, no. Not. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We got to maybe add a few demos to the 2000s. Maybe. All right. Well, yeah. Let's go over to Forrest. Okay. For a story. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do that. Okay. And then after Forrest, we're going to have Becca coming up. So. Hang in there. All this shit is tight. Story time with Forrest.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:32

Hi. So the year is 1992, and the year will actually become important in a minute. I always preface this fucking story with, But it's saying halfway through, you're going to think that I'm full of fucking shit. Hear me out. Wait till the end. Because I swear to God, halfway through, you're going to be like, dude, you're fucking making this shit up. Just like, okay, hear me out on this. So I'm not going to use any last names for plausible deniability. Because if nobody wants the story to be out, I'm sure like, oh, that could be any Pika. Anyway. So the year is 1992. The year will become important in a minute. So I was in this band Spring Voodoo in the late 80s, early 90s. And I think at this point, Donovan had already taken off. Anyway, my guitarist at the time was Danny. Could be any Danny. But he had, his grandfather left him a house on the beach in Ensenada. And he's a fucking surfer, right? So he'd fucking just take these little surface excursions and go to this fucking house in Ensenada and go surfing. Here's the thing about Danny. Fucking love Danny to death, but he's a flaky motherfucker. Like in, in, in ways that like, okay. Kids that are listening back in the days before cell phones, before color ID, before anything like that, everything was done landlined. And I, this was an actual conversation with Danny. One time he calls me up and he goes like this, like, dude, forest. Gotta fucking come to this party, dude. It's fucking crazy, dude. There's fucking hot chicks. This one girl's asking about you. I can hear her be like, no, no, I'm fucking talking to him right now. Yeah, he's on the fucking phone. Dude, you gotta fucking come here. He fucking hangs up. I'm like, where the fuck are you? There's no caller ID. There's no fucking, like I have no fucking phone number to call back. And the next day he's like, why didn't you come? Like, where the fuck were you? So that's, but he's also the type of person that like he would get in weird trouble. Like this never happened. But like if he literally called you up and he was like, dude, the Russian mobs after me, I need a place to hide out. You'd just be like, I didn't know the Russian mob was in Oxnard, but sure. You wouldn't even second guess it. You'd be like, all right, whatever. Anyway, when I was a kid, because my dad was a fucking hippie, there was a place that we used to go camping in Santa Barbara. It was the Little Caliente and Big Caliente Hot Springs. There'd be naked hippies and stuff. But I remember as I got older, I asked my dad, where the fuck is this fucking place? So I started taking friends out there. And we're getting ready to fucking go out there. It was me, Travis, who was also in Spring Voodoo, and Pika. No last names. And we're getting ready to go out. Dude, we bought fucking beer. We bought acid. And we're getting ready to go to the fucking hot springs. Boom. Landline rings. Answer is Danny. He's like, dude, I'm in fucking trouble. I'm in Mexico. You guys need to fucking come get me. And we're just like, well, fuck. I guess now we're going to Mexico instead of the hot springs. Cause it was cool. Cause we're already set to like take a little vacation. We're like, we're already good to go. It's like, you guys need to come get me. And I swear to God, I'm like, we'd never been to this house. Like, well, how do we get there? Word for word verbatim. This is what Danny said. We're going to another fucking country. No problem, dude. Just take the fucking 101 to the 405, dude. Take that to Ensenada, dude. You'll see a fucking gas station. I'll be at the bar. That was fucking it. We are going to another fucking

SPEAKER_01: 1:11:54

country.

SPEAKER_04: 1:11:55

101, 405, dude, gas station, bar. I'll be hanging out there. I'll go there in like five hours or so, dude. You'll find me. So once the phone hangs up, that's fucking it. There's no cell phones. There's no nothing. So once he fucking hangs up, That's our fucking directions. We're fucking heading to Mexico. 101-405 gas station bar. That's literally our fucking directions. We're like, okay, well, let's go. So me being smart, I'm like, dude. We can't fucking take drugs into Mexico. Let's drop the acid now. We don't want to come across the border with drugs. So let's drop all this fucking acid. So we drop the fucking acid. And that's why I'm not using last names. It's too late. So we start heading towards fucking LA. Here's why the year is important. Acid starts to kick in. It is day one of the fucking Rodney King riots. Dude, we're going through fucking Bosnia, dude. There's fucking like fires and explosions and fucking sirens and shit. Nobody's on the fucking freeway except for fucking us, dude. It's like we're straight driving through a fucking war zone and we're fucking flipping shit, right? Travis had this old fucking pickup truck with a camper shell. doing 80 miles per hour, getting speed wobbles, hoping to fucking get pulled over by the cops, frying on acid. It's like, just get us fucking out of here. Like we're flipping fucking shit. Like we're straight driving through a fucking war zone. We get out of fucking LA and we're like, we're cool now, right? Everything's

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:44

cool.

SPEAKER_04: 1:13:46

So we get to Mexico. Here's where you're like, you're full of fucking shit. Hear me out. So we get to the Mexico border. So heading from the border to Ensenada is a long, desolate stretch of highway. There's really nothing out there. By this point, we are fucking peaking on acid. Like, we're fucking trying balls. We go in, and all of a sudden, on the side of the road, it looks like it's been there for a long time. It's this wrecked, dirty fucking car on the side of the road with these stiff, bloody, rigor mortis body parts hanging out of the fucking window. I'm like, there's fucking dead people on the side of the fucking road. And everybody's like, holy fucking... We just went through fucking Bosnia, right? Now there's fucking dead people on the side of the fucking highway in Mexico. We get a couple of miles up the road. There's an overturned car with stiff, bloody, rigmarole body parts fucking hanging out the window. And we're just like, dude... I'm seriously just like, dude, if we wreck the fucking car, they're just going to push us off to the side of the road and just fucking let us die. And we get a little fucking further up and there's another fucking wrecked car. Okay, long story short, I don't know how the fuck we did it. Peeking on acid and we're freaking out, dude. We went through Bosnia and there's dead people over fucking Mexico. Well, there's a gas station, right? And we fucking pull in. We go in the bar and there's Danny just sitting there fucking drinking a beer. And I'm just like, dude, Phil, we're fucking with you. There's fucking fires and explosions and there's fucking dead people and fucking cars. And he starts fucking laughing. It was an anti-drunk driving campaign the Mexican government was doing. They were taking wrecked cars from junkyards and putting mannequins in them. Every five miles for like 100 fucking miles, there were fucking stiff body parts hanging out of wrecked fucking cars. So yeah, that was like, after all this fucking shit, like we literally thought it was the end of the fucking world.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:51

So

SPEAKER_04: 1:15:52

we go through Bosnia and there's dead people over fucking Mexico. He's fucking laughing at us. I'm like, so dude, what's going on? Like, what's wrong? Dude, everybody from the beach found out I was out here, and they came out. I've just been partying too much, and you go home. And we're like, fuck you, dude. You're staying for another week. So we just partied in Mexico for like a week after that. And that is literally just the beginning of that story, which I want to turn into a graphic novel at some point. Oh, dude.

SPEAKER_02: 1:16:23

That was great.

UNKNOWN: 1:16:26

Hey, man, hey, man.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:28

Sorry. You're good.

SPEAKER_02: 1:16:31

I can't help it. Cool. So on this pod, we have Becca. And Becca, what's your last name?

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:36

Porter.

SPEAKER_02: 1:16:37

Becca Porter. Yeah. And so this pod has been severely lacking having any sort of female representation. And it's kind of embarrassing. So I've been trying to track down some female perspective on things. I did want to have Kim Possible on the Shea Cafe episode. But Spencer talked me out of it, so get mad at him. And yeah, so now we got Becca. And Becca's super old school. Old? No, old school. See, that's like the respectable way to say it, right? What year did you get into punk rock?

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:15

79.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:15

See, that's about as old school as it gets. What music struck you before that? Like, were you into music before punk, or was punk your first,

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:25

like... No, my dad was a huge Janis Joplin fan. So I grew up with Janis Joplin, who I think was probably the original punk rocker, period. Yeah. So, you know, we listened to...

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:39

Jack is terrible.

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:40

It is

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:41

terrible. I'm trying to get it off. It's worse than the paper on the– It's worse than the Taco Day burrito wrapper.

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:49

Okay. All right. We good?

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:54

Yeah. Well, I mean that makes perfect sense though, right? Yeah. Because Janis Joplin, total counterculture.

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:58

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:58

You know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:17:59

Yeah. And then when we were– oh, God. What did we listen to? KBBY.

UNKNOWN: 1:18:06

KBBY.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:08

Which is a station based out of L.A. or Santa Barbara or Ventura? I don't

SPEAKER_03: 1:18:10

know. We got it in Ventura. I think we got it in Ventura. And then KMET, Huya, Tuya.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:18:17

And I don't even know. I think I remember the year before I wanted a Tom Petty record. When Tom Petty's record first came out, I got that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:28

Still a good choice.

SPEAKER_03: 1:18:29

I got into Elvis Costello and Devo. Wow. Cool. Joe Jackson. Okay. And like when I was in 11th grade, I think that I had already pretty much deviated from whatever normal, whatever that was, and was listening to a lot of the different newer stuff that just whatever. And then I don't even– we went to– I think this was in 78 because we went on– my brother and I– This story is ridiculous. My brother and I joined a Christian campus life group so we could go to this ski trip to Utah. Hey,

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:10

I'm not hating on it. I'll tell you two things.

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:13

So I got sent home basically. But we went and on the way there, I just remember I had a, I was, is that me? I had a...

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:23

No, it's the idiot that's hooked up to the Bluetooth. Nice.

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:27

I had a cassette player, you know, the little flat ones, and I had a cassette tape, and on one side it was the Cockney Rejects, and on the other side it was the Buzzcocks. And so I was already listening to that stuff, and I was a bunch of guys from Sam... What's it called? Bonaventure.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:45

St. Bonaventure.

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:45

Yeah, they're the ones that got me into punk rock. My best friend was... She went there, and... Yeah, I met those guys. They all got me into punk rock.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:54

So cool.

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:55

The music.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:55

So early.

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:56

Yeah, and what are the other stand-up bands at that time?

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:58

Sham 69. Yeah. Love the Buzzcocks.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:03

So the older English stuff. But I mean, that's what's happening in 79. Sex Pistols, you

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:09

know, the traditional stuff that was out.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:11

Yeah. And you're a senior in high school?

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:15

I was in 11th grade.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:16

Okay.

UNKNOWN: 1:20:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:17

Yeah, by the time I was a senior, I was already way too punk rock.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:22

Okay. It was a good summer.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:24

Yeah, it was a great summer.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:25

Do you remember the first show you would have gone to that was punk-related?

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:29

I went and saw 999, and I still had long hair. And I remember Nick Cash pulled me up on stage, and I sang Homicide with him. That was amazing. So rad. Yeah. And then... We actually went to Ben Frank's and ate hamburgers with 9 and 9.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:48

Sick.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:49

Yeah, it was

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:49

awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:51

Yeah. And where

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:52

was that?

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:54

I think it was at the Roxy.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:55

Okay. So is that where the English punk bands, when they came out here, they would play the strip clubs?

SPEAKER_03: 1:21:02

Pretty much the Roxy, the whiskey. Yeah. And then there was a bunch of... I remember one of those guys... from Bonaventure took me to see Sham 69 and the Dead Kennedys. And that was in December of 79. And that was the moment. I remember it like it was yesterday. That was the moment that I went, this is what I'm going to do with my life.

SPEAKER_02: 1:21:23

Yeah. Oh, my God. I can't even imagine.

SPEAKER_03: 1:21:26

So there was some accident or whatever. We were on the one. And it took us a really long time to get there. So by the time we got there, Dead Kennedys were already playing. And the show was packed. It was like at the Whiskey. It was packed.

UNKNOWN: 1:21:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:21:39

And Jello dove off the stage, and all the people went that way, so we just swooped right up to the front.

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:45

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:21:46

And like I said, I still had long hair. I was whatever, a little surfer chick.

UNKNOWN: 1:21:49

Woo!

SPEAKER_03: 1:21:50

And I just stood there with Jimmy Percy's knees in my face, and when they did The Kids Are United and everybody was singing, I was like, this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:01

Yeah. Were people up on stage singing it and stuff?

SPEAKER_03: 1:22:05

I don't remember if people were up on stage or not.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:07

Yeah. Everybody

SPEAKER_03: 1:22:08

in the whole club was singing

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:09

it. Jesus, can you imagine? No. It

SPEAKER_03: 1:22:13

was really awesome. It was really, really freaking awesome.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:18

Even the legend Joe Revis, episode one, looks jealous. Episode one. That's what these guys call me, the legend. Nice. The Phantom Revis. Episode one is making a run for it. Yeah, I like that much better. I was Zach's first guest.

SPEAKER_03: 1:22:37

Nice. What was your first show?

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:41

My first show? Yeah. We tried to think about this, or I tried to think about it during episode one, and I can't quite remember. make it out well i don't know man i wasn't there well

SPEAKER_03: 1:22:54

i figured it out the very first live band i ever saw was sirith uncle on the promenade

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:59

they're practicing next door right now that's

SPEAKER_03: 1:23:01

the first time i ever saw a band and then the first concert i ever went to was i guess i saw neil young at the fairgrounds Before that, so I lied. Ventura Fairgrounds. Oops, yeah. I did parking for cars so I could get in for free.

SPEAKER_02: 1:23:19

Cool. Even back then. Yeah. How do I get in for free? That is really funny because Sirith.

SPEAKER_03: 1:23:24

Then Sirith Ungle, and then I went and saw Devo.

SPEAKER_02: 1:23:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:23:27

At the Santa Barbara Robertson Hall. First

SPEAKER_02: 1:23:30

music I saw live was like Leo Kottke.

SPEAKER_03: 1:23:33

Oops.

SPEAKER_02: 1:23:33

Yeah, exactly. I've never heard of that.

UNKNOWN: 1:23:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:23:39

But actually, Sirith Ungol is practicing next door right now. We were set up in their space. We were going to do this over there. Yeah, and we had to move everything because they started jamming.

SPEAKER_03: 1:23:50

It's so

SPEAKER_02: 1:23:50

cathartic. Everything comes full circle, Becca. You're here. They're here. Bob was just here. Nice. Gnarly. I know. Yeah, so that's 79. We're in the captain's quarters recording studio right now. Yeah. As we're doing this podcast and we're looking at stuff that's surrounding us. Thank you, Armand. And thank you, Jeff, for yesterday. Yeah. Anyway. Jarvis. Jarvis, yeah. So that's 79. And so how big is your group of friends that you're going to shows with at this point?

SPEAKER_03: 1:24:43

Oh, good Lord. I'm trying to think. So I went with the– I took a friend from high school who was not even into punk rock to go see 999 because she had a car.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:58

And

SPEAKER_03: 1:24:59

then, uh, that guy took me to see sham 69. I didn't have a car. I don't even think I had a driver's license yet. No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:08

So you're just going with like a person. You're not going with like a crew.

SPEAKER_03: 1:25:10

No. And then I met, God, I'm so bad with time. I drank a lot.

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:18

Yeah. Yeah. That's okay. Party on. Yeah. Um, No, that's cool. That's okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:25:26

I can't do timelines, but I just remember I met a whole bunch of people slowly but surely. Oh, from those guys from

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:33

Bonaventure.

SPEAKER_03: 1:25:33

Bonaventure. They started taking me to parties at Joey Pina's house. Okay. Yeah. And then there was like, you know, can I say people's names on the radio? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. Can I say your name? Of course. Really? Should I?

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:47

Like Ismael and Brandon and those guys? As long as no one stabbed anyone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:25:51

Contrary to what Brandon Cruz says, he wasn't there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:58

So this is when you start meeting the local people that are already into punk.

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:01

Yeah, like Joey and his brother Art and Mary and John and Carol and the Scalons.

SPEAKER_02: 1:26:07

And is this art of Big Daddy-O's fame?

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:26:12

Okay, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:13

Yeah. Oh, Becky Casson. Should I not say her name loud? No. So Becky was my best friend at the time because when we were in high school, I remember she came up and punched me in the arm. She's like, I wanted to be the first one to get my hair cut.

SPEAKER_02: 1:26:27

Because you shaved your head.

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:28

No, I got a really bad haircut.

SPEAKER_02: 1:26:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:26:32

Really bad. Yeah, it was really bad. I wore a hat for like a month. It was really bad. Well, I had really long surfer blonde hair. And what's that guy's name? Steve. He was a tall guy and he had glasses. Anyway, he cut my hair and he took his time with it. Like he didn't just cut it. He was cutting it. And so he took so long that I started freaking out. because I've never had short hair in my life except for when I was a bald kid, baby. Yeah, and I started getting really nervous because it was about an hour in, and I'm like, my hair was all gone, and so I told him we were done. Like, it shouldn't take this long.

SPEAKER_02: 1:27:17

We're done. He fucked it up slow. How do you fuck it up slow? I think he's just trying to fix it the whole time. Yeah, I didn't

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:23

let him finish, and so it looked like I had a really bad shag. Yeah, it was Carol Brady bad shag. But it was like upside down.

SPEAKER_02: 1:27:31

Did the rotters ever come across your plate at all? Because they're like a 78, 79.

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:37

Can I tell a funny story about the rotters? I want to know everything about them. Without throwing my friend under the bus, but I have a certain friend who's very small who lived in Pasadena. She said to me, we were living, it must have been 1980, 81, and we were living in Silver Lake. And she was like, or maybe I was at her house in Pasadena. I can't really remember. It was 80, 81. And she said, oh, do you know this band? They're from England. And she played the rockers. She said, oh, my face, Stevie Nicks. And I started cracking up. I'm all, no, no, they're like from Ventura.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:11

Camarillo. Yeah. But they weren't a thing when you were getting

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:16

involved? Well, PJ was around. I didn't know the rest. I don't

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:31

know. Well, that's cool. Okay, so you start meeting all the people. I know they

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:44

were older.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:44

Yeah,

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:45

they were older.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:46

Are any of those guys from St. Bonnie's still around?

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:51

No,

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:52

I don't think so. It was a phase. I was just curious. That's what I was curious about.

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:57

They got me into it, but then I think they got lives too.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:01

They

SPEAKER_03: 1:29:02

gave me one.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:03

Yeah. So– I

SPEAKER_03: 1:29:05

definitely didn't have one at that time.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:06

I was a very confused little child.

SPEAKER_03: 1:29:08

Well, I had culture shock. We had just moved here when I was 13 and from Germany and from the military. So when we moved to Ventura, I had like major culture shock. Like we were no longer in the military. We were in some weird place where people not only– it wasn't the military. They– Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:40

Do you remember the first local punk show you would have gone to?

SPEAKER_03: 1:29:44

Like in Ventura?

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:45

Yeah, like this area.

SPEAKER_03: 1:29:46

I think I saw Fear at the Mickey Moose. Or no, it was the Alley Cats. They played at the Mickey Moose upstairs

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:53

on Main Street. Which would have been like the Metro.

SPEAKER_03: 1:29:56

1980 or something.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:57

Yeah, somewhere on Main Street. Club Soda became Club Soda, that place?

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:00

No, it was on the right side.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:02

Oh, then Nickel Bees.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:04

No, the other side.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:05

Yeah, Club Soda then. That was across the street. Above Palermo. Where Palermo's is now. It was above where Palermo's is.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:13

Yeah. It became Club Soda sometime in the mid-80s.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:18

And that's the place that used to be the Mickey Mouse?

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:20

I think so.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:22

But you moved to L.A. in 81-ish?

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:25

No, 80.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:27

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:27

Yeah. My mom wasn't very excited about... 90 of what i was

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:33

doing so she tried to get you out of town

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:34

oh she threw me out of the house

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:36

oh okay she chucked you out and then you moved la

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:39

well it was i wasn't coming home anyway i wasn't going to school i wasn't coming home so i guess you know she just said if you don't want to follow the rules and get out and i said bye

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:51

yeah

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:53

and i remember 1980 i lived in uh with my friend David Hooper. I wonder where he is. Anyway, I lived with him and his dad in Glendora for about a week.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:04

Very sanitary place.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:06

It was a really actually very big, nice house. Yeah. And I remember all my stuff got stolen out of his truck, all my clothes. So I called my dad. Yeah. And he gave me$100 to go to the thrift store and get some clothes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:22

You can go a long ways. Oh, totally.

UNKNOWN: 1:31:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:24

I went to, uh, let it rock on Melrose and bought a pair of white Joe Strummer creepers.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:33

Priorities. Yeah. Yeah. And then you just, you keep going to shows. You don't stop.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:37

No, I didn't stop. And then right, like around, gosh, I guess it was, so I was, um, hanging around. God. Um, So I went to these—I was hanging around over at Joey's house and that whole crew and Becky, and we ended up—we went to L.A. all the time. We went probably every night to a show if we came home. And then I remember her dad put her in a mental hospital, and then she took off to San Francisco, and I don't know, just weird stuff going on over there. But we went to a party one time. Nice. Whose house was that? It was up on Poli. Up, up, up, up, up, up. It doesn't matter whose house it was, but we went to a party and that's where I met Aggression.

SPEAKER_02: 1:32:34

Cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:32:35

And that was 1980. Definitely 1980. And... And had they just started?

SPEAKER_02: 1:32:40

Did they start in 79 or did they start in 80? Well, here's the

SPEAKER_03: 1:32:43

weird thing. I used to go to the Endless Waves Skate Park and my mom wouldn't let me skate. So they wouldn't let you skate without parental consent. My mom said no. I'm still like, why would you not let me skate at this park? But I used to watch these three guys, right? Mark Hickey and Bob Hickey. Clark and Henry Knowles. And they all had really long hair. And I used to watch them skate because they were amazing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:33:08

They were good. All three of them.

SPEAKER_03: 1:33:10

They were great. Yeah. Yeah. They were very, very good skaters. And I remember... watching them skate that pool, and I was just like, oh, good. And I was like, can I just do the snake run? Would that be okay? Yeah. They're like, no, we're not without a parental consent. Yeah. And I guess I hadn't figured out yet that I could just sign that myself.

SPEAKER_01: 1:33:29

Sure.

SPEAKER_03: 1:33:31

But whatever, I was still a good kid.

SPEAKER_02: 1:33:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:33:34

Hi there. Hi.

SPEAKER_02: 1:33:35

Oh, Verity's got drinks.

SPEAKER_03: 1:33:38

Hi there. Hi, how are you doing? I'm good, thanks. How are you? Who's for

SPEAKER_02: 1:33:41

who? They're both the same, so... Hey, when we get to 100 Patreons, we will edit all this. Don't, dude. Does anybody want one of these? I'm fine, thank you. It's a pumpkin cold brew. No, I got my... My iced tea. I just had half a cup. I'm good. No,

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:02

I'm good. I'm caffeinated

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:03

out. So you met them personally at that time as well?

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:06

Well, no, not really. I just watched them. You were just hanging and watching them. And here's the weird thing. So at that party that I met them, so Mark Hickey had on like a Senior Lopez with the sleeves cut off.

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:34:18

I was cracking up. I just cracked up. And then Bob was just big and had a leather jacket on and a bald head. And Henry Knowles, it was just Henry Knowles. And I remember thinking, oh, look at the big guy. Because I always liked big dumb ball guys. It was my problem. Fair enough. Actually, I was going to join the Marines, and they asked me why, and I told them because I like big dumb ball guys. And the guy said, oh, you know that you don't get to be with the men. And I said, well, I'm not in. I'm not joining. Why would I not? What? Anyway, that's a whole other little story. So, yeah, so at this party, everybody was really drunk. No way. And even Kevin Lumberg was there and Neil de Jitsu. Somebody put their head– I think it was Mark put his head through the– someone bet him a dime that he couldn't get his head through the things. And then they said, I'll bet you a quarter can't get him back out. And his ears were stuck and we literally had to call the fire department to have them open with the jaws of life to get his head out. Mark Kickey? Yeah. That was hilarious.

UNKNOWN: 1:35:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:35:33

you have pictures of that party anyway so something happened and I don't even remember Bob was all drunk and took off into the ravine and I was like I'm gonna save him and I went and got him and I don't even know like what happened with that but He ended up being my boyfriend.

SPEAKER_02: 1:35:50

Oh, so you started dating Big Bob. Mm-hmm. In 1980. Mm-hmm. So you got to know the guys pretty well. Mm-hmm. Yes. They

SPEAKER_03: 1:35:59

introduced me to many things in my life that took me on a very bad path.

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:06

We don't have to dive too much into that. Thank you. Although it is interesting. It's part of your story, though. I'm not

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:10

embarrassed about it. It made me who I am today.

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:12

Yeah. It is what it is.

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:13

Shooting up at 17. What's up?

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:17

But it is cool that you know him and 1980 because it lets us get a perspective on the very early, the first one. If you want to count the Rotters as the first, Aggression would be the second. I

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:27

count Aggression as the

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:28

first. Just do Aggression as the first.

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:31

That's because the Rotters were from Camarillo.

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:33

Agreed.

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:35

Sorry. It doesn't really exist on the scene.

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:37

Cambodia. Yeah,

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:38

Cambodia, exactly. No

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:40

offense. Well, we try to be all-inclusive these days. That's

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:43

fine. I'm okay with that. It just wasn't part of my story.

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:46

Yeah, for sure. So, is Aggression already played shows? Have they already played shows and so forth?

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:54

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:56

Do you remember the first time you would have? I

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:57

don't remember. I know I have a bunch of, I literally have, what? Oh yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:05

Sorry, Becca. That's

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:06

okay. I have handwritten lyrics that Mark wrote. I have a whole bunch of stuff. I've got punk rock archives.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:13

I see that stuff. Oh yeah, you

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:15

do. Yeah, I got tons of that stuff. But so I don't, they were writing those songs then.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:21

So

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:23

I don't, I guess they were kind of, I don't

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:24

know. Well, someone got their head kicked on and came out in 81. Right. But

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:28

I worked at BYO when that came out.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:30

Okay, cool. So you were already at BYO when that record came out. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And that's two, right? What? BYO two. Is that the second record or the first record? The first record got their

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:41

head kicked in.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:42

Okay, that's one. And then the Youth Brigade is number two.

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:44

Number two is Youth Brigade.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:46

Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 1:37:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:47

Cool. Number

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:48

three, aggression. Don't be mistaken.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:51

Number four. Someone to believe in?

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:53

No. Is it? I

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:54

don't know. That's in a few, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:56

No. Oh, boy. Don't listen, Sean Stern. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:00

Seven

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:01

seconds. I was really drunk. I can't be held accountable.

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:04

We'll get Sean, too, soon. So do you remember the first time you saw aggression?

UNKNOWN: 1:38:10

No.

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:13

You mean naked? Yeah. Are

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:17

they

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:17

playing parties? Are they playing clubs? I don't remember. I

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:20

honestly have no clue. But I remember how I made the connection that I knew that these were the skater guys is that I went over to Bob's house. His dad was amazing. Big Bob. Little

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:31

Bob. Little Big Bob.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:34

Little Big Bob. But his dad was amazing. But I remember going over to Bob's house and seeing a picture of him with his golden long flowing locks skating that bowl. I'm like, oh, my God. I used to watch you guys skate.

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:47

Yeah. That's so cool that he put it together.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:50

So you moved to L.A. and you started working at BYO pretty immediately? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:56

Well, I went down with those guys to shows because by this time now we were a crew.

SPEAKER_02: 1:39:01

And your crew being?

SPEAKER_03: 1:39:05

The Nash.

SPEAKER_02: 1:39:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:39:07

It was the Nash Gash. Something that now you don't want to really be super proud of being called a gash. But it was funny back then. So that whole thing was just a really interesting little thing. So Northern Area Skinheads, when Skinhead was a haircut.

SPEAKER_02: 1:39:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:39:25

Haircut, not a political power of whiteness.

SPEAKER_02: 1:39:30

Right? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Which is how we got the aggression symbol eventually, too. But yeah,

SPEAKER_03: 1:39:37

anyway. That's not how that symbol came about. Well,

SPEAKER_02: 1:39:40

that's what they say.

SPEAKER_03: 1:39:41

The symbol came about, do you want to know, really? Yeah, because they blocked

SPEAKER_02: 1:39:44

out the N and

SPEAKER_03: 1:39:45

S-H. Okay, so Phil, we used to call him Filipino. Filipino, Phil. I don't know. Maybe that was his last name. I don't know. I found him on Facebook. So Phil came back one time. Or was it John Nobert? I don't know. One of those two guys came back. Maybe it was John Nobert. I don't know. But they're like, oh, the cops are looking for us. The cops are looking for us. Sober's got to, like, whatever. And he took his jacket. Was it John or was it Phil? I feel like it was Phil. And he took a black pen and he crossed out the– he made a big block around the N-A and a little block around the H and left the S that looked like a lightning bolt. Mm-hmm. Left it. That's where that symbol came from. Yeah. Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 1:40:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_03: 1:40:23

That jive with your story. So then we all did it. Yes, it does. So then we all did it, too.

SPEAKER_02: 1:40:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:40:27

Because, you know, everybody had that on their jackets.

SPEAKER_02: 1:40:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:40:31

Yeah, because we were in the Nash.

SPEAKER_02: 1:40:33

Which is your crew out of L.A.?

SPEAKER_03: 1:40:34

No, we were from here.

SPEAKER_02: 1:40:35

Oh, from here.

SPEAKER_03: 1:40:36

Yeah. It was primarily the guys from Oxnard and Silverstrand and me and Becky. I think Becky was part of it. Or she was gone. I don't know. There was... I think it was like everybody that was whatever, but some of us were a little more into being in it than others, I think. I guess. I don't know. Maybe I'm just delusional right now. But my memory of it is that we would go in this white van down to L.A. and, yeah. Yeah. And going with those guys was great because people like X-Head and those idiots would always pick on me and mess with me and pull my hair. I'd go tell Bob and he'd go have a chat with them.

SPEAKER_02: 1:41:21

Yeah. So by going to all those shows with your friends, that's when you met the BYO guys. Right. So

SPEAKER_03: 1:41:27

we were at actually after a show one night, I ended up hanging out with this woman named Curry who was going out with Tony Alva at the time. And I used to be a huge Tony Alba fan. I was very excited to actually meet him. He gave me a skateboard. Sick. That's rad. I don't have it. I was going to say I still have it. That's a lie. I don't have it. I sold it to go on tour with Channel 3.

SPEAKER_02: 1:41:51

That's even cooler. That's even tighter. so you mean to be way okay

SPEAKER_03: 1:41:57

anyway so yeah so uh those i went with this girl curry and we were going to go over to the skinhead manor which was where they were and i didn't know i've never been there and so we were standing out front and um she took off whatever and i was like wait where am i and whatever and so i went i walked inside and i couldn't i didn't hear anything and i guess i went in the back door and uh Eugene. Hey, are you looking for my room? Remember weird little Eugene? He was in... Oh, my God. He was in... What's that movie with Western... Declined a Western Civilization with the light bulb?

SPEAKER_02: 1:42:34

Okay. That's what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42:37

He's like... You're looking for my room? And I'm like, oh, yeah, no. Right? And so anyways, and then Sean Stern comes walking up, right? And I don't know Sean Stern yet. And so I'm like kind of looking around, whatever, and he comes walking up and I'm leaning against his bed. Which I didn't know. I was just leaning there just kind of trying to figure out what I should do, right? Yeah. Do you know where Big Bob is? And he backs up. He's like, oh, yeah, the aggression guys are all over there. It was funny. But that was my first meeting of Sean Stern. How he remembers it, I could care less. But that's actually what happened. That's actually what happened. And then... I don't remember how we got friendly. I don't remember. But I know I knew him and Mark first. And I remember that they asked me if I wanted to work for BYO. And I think that I somehow or another, they asked me one time. I think I was always trying to get into shows for free. I don't even remember. So

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:58

what is BYO at this time if it's before the record label? They're promoting shows?

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:02

It's a better youth organization.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:03

Yeah. Right, so what are they?

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:06

The Better Youth Organization.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:07

Right, so what are they doing?

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:08

Bettering the youth.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:09

Oh, okay. How so?

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:12

Unifying them.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:13

Yes. Unifying the punks. Yes. How? Positive political movement. Okay. And the Northern Area Skinheads, the Nash, was part of the BYO.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:24

Okay. Yes. Which is why aggression was on BYO. Yes. Okay. Okay. Joe, take it from here.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44:34

So

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:42

you're working for BOIO.

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:43

Yeah. Somehow or another, that happened.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:47

Through all your time with BOIO, you did a lot of various jobs, shall we say, with them, right?

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:58

Yeah. Well, so I started by... So I don't even remember. I'm flyering shows maybe. And then they asked me to set up or work with and set up a mail order business. So I did that, the label. The first record had come out. The compilation came out. And so... Yeah, no, so I used to go over to... They hadn't– oh, man. So they lived in this house on Flores that had garages on the bottom and two apartments, and Sean lived in one and Mark lived in the other. And I remember handwriting record– the addresses for record

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:45

labels,

SPEAKER_03: 1:45:46

handwriting the labels, and then packing those records together and mailing them off with little– Hey, this is our record, and this is who we are, and play this on the radio.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:59

Oh, so cool. Because it's so early. There's no blueprint of what to do.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:03

No, there wasn't. And you know what was really cool? I think that the coolest part was is that people would call, right? They would call, and they'd just say, hey, who's playing tonight? Hey, what's going on? Are there any shows or something? It was just so word of mouth. And I remember that we would just call people and talk to them. Nobody knew what they were doing. We were all trying to figure it out. And that was the days, like in that movie, they talk about it, but the days when people had calling cards.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:46:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:33

Yeah. So we should address that. The whole Sprint

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:36

scam thing. Yeah, yeah. I don't know anybody that wasn't doing it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:40

The movie you're talking about is another Stand of Mind documentary, which you were actually on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:47

Drunk off my ass.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:49

And you never got to grow up and be a clown.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:53

No. Thanks for pointing that out,

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:55

though. But you did get a doctorate.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:56

I did. I'm Dr. Clown now.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:59

The rules.

SPEAKER_03: 1:47:02

Yeah, so I'm upstairs, and I was really hungover, and I was like, I'm not going to drink today. I need to go back to Ventura, blah, blah, blah. And I open the fridge, and there's beers in there. I was at Mark's house, and there's some guy from Texas there who was driving me nuts. So I start drinking Mark's beers, and I'm like, well, I should clean his apartment. I mean, that's like the right thing to do if you're going to drink all this beer. So I was doing the dishes and cleaning up and whatever. And someone knocked on the door and they're like, hey, well, Sean said they're going to come for this key. And I said, okay, fine. Right. And I'm looking outside and there's all these people out there. Like all these punks are showing up and I'm like. Yeah. Yeah. punk rock's dead i totally remember that was like 1982 and um yeah yeah anyway so they just after the third time they had to come up and ask me to turn down flux they lie we die you know yeah um they said do you want to just come be in this movie i said no not really I was drunk by this time. Yeah. And they convinced me I should come downstairs and they should ask me some questions. And the really good ones, they didn't put in there. But the clown thing, of course, they put that in there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:48:43

It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_03: 1:48:43

Yeah. That's pretty good. It's ridiculous. I'm serious. It was like my embarrassing moment. It's pretty quotable. I remember how I felt.

SPEAKER_02: 1:48:51

Yeah. How did you feel the first? At the premiere. Yes.

SPEAKER_03: 1:48:54

When they showed that movie before Tony knocked over the projector. Tony

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:00

Cortez? Tony from the adolescence. Okay. Tony from the adolescence. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:49:05

Yeah. So yeah, he knocked over and broke the projector.

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:10

Oh, but how, how far through the movie?

SPEAKER_03: 1:49:12

All the way. It was second showing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:13

Okay. So, so you're watching the movie and your piece comes on.

SPEAKER_03: 1:49:17

I'm embarrassed.

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:18

Of course.

SPEAKER_03: 1:49:19

Yeah. I'm embarrassed. My face is like this giant thing on the screen. I was like, Oh my God.

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:24

It is a pretty tight shot.

SPEAKER_03: 1:49:25

Yeah. Oh, and my hair. The hair is rad. I did not have a flock of seagulls hair do what it was. The hair is rad. The hair was up, and I woke up and started drinking, and my hair was, that's sleepy hair.

SPEAKER_01: 1:49:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:49:39

Yeah, I was not a flock of seagulls

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:43

fan. Yeah,

SPEAKER_03: 1:49:43

but no, I never live that down still to this day, do I? Nope. Nope.

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:47

But it's great. Me and Maddie, every time we see you. Yeah,

SPEAKER_03: 1:49:51

it's pretty embarrassing. Flock of Seagulls, Clown Lady. Memorable. That's my claim to fame.

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:58

You've seen this, dude. No, dude. Oh, we'll have to watch it. I need to see it. I know. I mean, it's an amazing documentary.

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:06

And then the part where I say, well, it's not recommended for girls. That's another one of my favorite little things. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:14

I don't recommend it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:17

Yeah. Well, you were there, and that's your opinion.

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:19

It wasn't my opinion. I was drunk. I think I was doing two things. I was trying to be funny and I was trying to be ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01: 1:50:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:28

Because punk rock was dead by that time. So why are you making a movie about it? It's 1982 for fuck's sake.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:34

Yeah. It's the second wave. That's when all the good stuff starts.

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:38

I think the Starwood was already closed and all the cool hall shows were not happening anymore. It just got weird. It got huge. It got ginormous. It was freaking awesome. I remember every time you go to a show, first it was just like a packed club and then it became like these hall shows. Well, the hall shows were actually during the same time. And there'd be so many punks there and it was so awesome. Yeah. And then they got bigger and bigger and bigger. And I remember going to like the Palladium. And yeah, it was crazy. There were so many people there. Yeah, Santa Monica Civic. Oh, I saw so many good bands at the Civic.

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:17

So pre like the 90s punk explosion and stuff, what do you think?

SPEAKER_03: 1:51:22

Pre 90s what?

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:23

I'm not including Green Day and the stuff in the 90s. Green Day was

SPEAKER_03: 1:51:27

a great band. No, no, no. When I first heard them at the, what's that place called in Gilman in San Francisco? They opened for some band, and I was like, oh, my God, it's Green Day. They sound like the Buzzcocks.

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:37

Yeah, but my question is, what year in the 80s do you think punk was at its peak in L.A.? 1981.

SPEAKER_03: 1:51:42

81

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:43

for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:51:45

80, 81.

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:47

And the shows were the biggest? They were huge. All the way.

SPEAKER_03: 1:51:50

The Olympic Auditorium? What year was that?

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:55

I mean, there were shows there until 84. The only time I ever went there was to watch pro wrestling. that place is huge I can't imagine a show

SPEAKER_03: 1:52:05

there you just go down there and there would be so many weird little bands drinking beer and I'd go into every one of them talk to them, drink their beer go to the next one, talk to them, drink their

SPEAKER_01: 1:52:15

beer

SPEAKER_03: 1:52:16

so I was like how are you so drunk I'm like I just go find the bands they got the beer I figured that one out pretty quick hang out with these guys that's who's got the beer I wasn't done dummy Mama didn't raise no dummy.

SPEAKER_02: 1:52:30

Nope. Anything went strong through... When do you see it starting to peter out? Like, 86-ish?

SPEAKER_03: 1:52:40

You know, I hate to say it out loud because I love a lot of these people, but there was, like, this time when it started getting a little stupid and violent and gangy.

SPEAKER_01: 1:52:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:52:49

And I know that that kind of started happening way earlier, but by the time... So, it kind of started with, like, Suicidal Tendencies and TSOL. That's kind of... The TSOL people would show up with their faces white, and the Suicidal Tendencies people had an upside-down cross on their face, and... The mercenaries. And it was just weird and dividing, you know? And

SPEAKER_02: 1:53:11

you think that's around what year?

SPEAKER_03: 1:53:12

80, 81-ish. Okay,

SPEAKER_02: 1:53:15

so it's already starting then.

SPEAKER_03: 1:53:16

It's kind of like just before the whole BYO thing kind of started, I think.

SPEAKER_02: 1:53:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:53:20

Or kind of maybe at the same time. But that

SPEAKER_02: 1:53:22

stuff lasted for

SPEAKER_03: 1:53:23

years, right? Well, then it started. I mean, there were always fights, right? And, you know, people doing stupid things and stuff. But people started bringing in weapons and knives and things. And then they started kind of ganging up. And that whole, like, 82 colors and all that weird stuff that... Punk rock wasn't... They were part of that, too. They started... Like, there was a lot of... I don't really want to talk about who, but...

SPEAKER_02: 1:54:00

Well, you don't have to say who. We're just trying to get an overall perspective.

SPEAKER_03: 1:54:03

There were some people who started some gangs. A lot of them were young kids, and they were getting beat up, and I get it. I totally get it, but I think it got out of hand. Okay. And then on both sides. Yeah. And the people involved kind of, in my opinion, wrecked the scene.

SPEAKER_02: 1:54:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:54:28

Because it became... Way too violent. Very violent.

SPEAKER_02: 1:54:32

That's interesting, though. I've never thought about that some of the gangs would actually be... They're banding together because they were actually singled out and picked on before.

SPEAKER_03: 1:54:40

I think so. I mean, most of them were.

SPEAKER_02: 1:54:42

Yeah. And so they're like, well, I actually... want to be a piece of this and if i'm going to survive here i got to get my friends together and that's not what

SPEAKER_03: 1:54:50

it was about and that's why it got so weird yeah and then like you'd go to shows and it was just like these huge fights and it was like i'm not here to fight i want to listen to the band

SPEAKER_02: 1:54:59

right but i don't i don't

SPEAKER_03: 1:55:01

drink their beer

SPEAKER_02: 1:55:01

but what but i don't what choice would those guys have had if they still wanted to go to shows and they were getting victimized like that's kind of it right like band together and stand up and... I don't know, go to college? Well, right. If you want to still... I know, but if they wanted to still be in punk, that's just like an interesting thing to think about, I

SPEAKER_03: 1:55:20

think. Yeah, no, you're right. It is.

SPEAKER_02: 1:55:21

Oddly inevitable. I never thought about that. I would have thought... I just wouldn't have thought of that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:55:27

Yeah, and it wasn't everybody's experience.

SPEAKER_02: 1:55:29

Sure.

SPEAKER_03: 1:55:30

It was just these two groups.

SPEAKER_02: 1:55:32

Yeah, well, you know, when you talk to the Ill Repute guys, they were able to go to LA a lot and not have to get involved in anything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:55:40

Yeah. Cause they were awesome.

SPEAKER_02: 1:55:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:55:42

They're like the nicest guys in punk rock.

SPEAKER_02: 1:55:43

Right. So there was, there was a path to be able to go and enjoy it and not be.

SPEAKER_03: 1:55:48

Yeah. And we had a house in Silver Lake and we had an apartment. So they weren't mine, but I was a glomer on her. And, uh, those guys used to come play all the time. Actually, we had a house in Silver Lake. Um, That Youth Brigade and Social Distortion and MIA and the Tourists and Disability all played at our house.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:07

So rad.

SPEAKER_03: 1:56:09

And we got evicted by Mayor Tom Bradley.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:11

Hey, what a dick. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:56:16

Yeah. Now, that was a really fun party.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:18

Yeah, I bet. Well.

SPEAKER_03: 1:56:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:22

Joe, you got anything? I got lots of stuff, but. What do you got? So, through the 80s, you're at BYO. Yes. And you worked at BYO until...

SPEAKER_03: 1:56:34

I was

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:35

40. Mid-90s, right?

SPEAKER_03: 1:56:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:38

That's a long run.

SPEAKER_03: 1:56:39

Well, I quit six times and was fired six times.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:46

So there's 12 lapses of employment with BYO.

SPEAKER_03: 1:56:49

Correct. And I worked at a few other labels. Right. But the weird thing is, is Sean would always call me and ask me to come back, except the last time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:02

But what happened then?

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:03

I don't want to talk about

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:04

it. Yeah, okay. But what happened after that? What's the best B.O.A.O. record ever?

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:12

Someone got their head kicked in.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:15

It's one of the best punk comps there is.

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:17

Yeah. There's so many. You know what? I'm not even going to say that. That's definitely the...

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:22

You know what's an overlooked one that... I was so disappointed. No, I was so disappointed. They brushed over it on the Youth Brigade documentary. It was To Sell the Truth. To Sell the

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:32

Truth is a great record.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:34

It's amazing. It's a really good record. And it got totally brushed over. It's not their comeback record because they did Happy Hour right before it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:40

Happy Hour is a good record, too. Great song, Punk Rock Mom. Great song.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:44

That's a good record. I wonder who that's about. I have no idea. Are you the Punk Rock Mom?

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:49

I am the Punk Rock Mom.

UNKNOWN: 1:57:52

Hey! Hey!

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:52

Yeah, I remember when Sean was writing that song, he's all, check this out, I wrote a song about you. And he starts singing it, and then he starts singing some more, and I'm like, I don't know how I feel about that. He goes, well, this part's about my mom.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:05

I'm like, oh, okay. Oh, man. But yeah, I think To Sell the Truth is one of the greatest second run, you know, a band that does a second run. I mean, Only Comparable would be like

SPEAKER_03: 1:58:16

the-

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:21

for three piece through most of their career too that's always boggled my mind that they always sounded I remember sitting in their

SPEAKER_03: 1:58:29

at their mom's house they had this like room outside had a loft and that was like their little recording studio and I remember sitting up in that loft and watching them write songs and asking questions and they'd be like what do you think I did and I actually felt like I had some input I don't know if they actually listened to me or not but it was cool it was very very cool super cool

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:50

So we have you to thank for Youth Brigade.

SPEAKER_03: 1:58:53

No, absolutely not. They did that all by themselves. A little shaping of the song. It made me feel part of.

SPEAKER_02: 1:59:01

What do you do when you leave BYO? What's your next career? The final time. Yeah, after you left the final time. Do you stay in music?

UNKNOWN: 1:59:11

No.

SPEAKER_02: 1:59:13

What other labels did you work at? I

SPEAKER_03: 1:59:16

worked at Fearless. I worked at Lethal. I worked for Revelation. Am I missing somebody?

SPEAKER_02: 1:59:29

Those are the three that I remember.

SPEAKER_03: 1:59:31

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:59:32

That we've talked about in the past. Fearless, though. You've got to grab me a Whitecaps test press. The funny thing about working at Fearless is

SPEAKER_03: 1:59:41

I didn't know any of those bands. Not the best label. There's a band called Recoil. I freaking loved Recoil. That's how I got hooked up with Welt and Recoil. I put them both on tour together because they both wrote records about the same girl. I thought, how interesting. I'm sending those two out on tour to see what they come up with for this because they both were... Hash

SPEAKER_02: 2:00:11

it out, boys. And then when I started

SPEAKER_03: 2:00:16

looking at Revelation, I remember calling people. I was the sales manager. And I remember calling people and they'd be like, oh, you don't know anything about any of their bands, do you? I go, nope, not one thing. And they're like, oh, you don't even like hardcore. I go, no, I don't. I said, I like that melodic shit. Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 2:00:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:00:34

But they knew. And I remember Fury 66 used to always tell me I didn't like their band. They were one of my favorite bands that I ever booked. And they used to tell me I didn't like their band. And I'm like, yeah, I do. And they said, but you don't like hardcore. And I said, well, I didn't think that you guys were hardcore, but I guess I don't know what hardcore means.

SPEAKER_02: 2:00:54

They're pretty melodic just right outside.

SPEAKER_01: 2:00:56

I

SPEAKER_03: 2:00:56

think they're amazing.

SPEAKER_02: 2:00:58

I love Fury 66. And great lives. I

SPEAKER_03: 2:01:00

wish I still had that first cassette. Anybody got it? Do you have it?

SPEAKER_02: 2:01:03

Mickey listens to this podcast, so we'll just tell him to send you one.

SPEAKER_03: 2:01:08

Mickey, I need a copy of that first cassette, please. Thanks.

SPEAKER_02: 2:01:13

Just send it to the legend Joe Rivas, episode one, and we'll make sure Becca gets it. What's up, buddy? Cool. Got anything? No. Do you want to talk about your afterlife career? Sure.

SPEAKER_03: 2:01:27

Yeah. So let's see.

SPEAKER_02: 2:01:31

This section is called Surviving Punk Rock. Do you

SPEAKER_03: 2:01:34

want

SPEAKER_02: 2:01:34

the whole story? Coming out on top.

SPEAKER_03: 2:01:35

So I was in a really interesting relationship with a really interesting drug problem and a really interesting alcohol problem and a kid who's amazing. Hi, Bash.

SPEAKER_02: 2:01:48

Shout out, Bash.

SPEAKER_03: 2:01:49

And I was living in Orange County and I always knew I should never have gone behind the orange curtain because I knew no good would come of it and it took me out. I guess I'm not an OC survivor. And I ended up asking my brother if I could move in with him in Ojai. And I moved to Ojai and I struggled and I didn't know what to do. And I felt, you know, I'd been fired for really, really icky reasons. And I... For the first time in my life, I ever felt like what it feels like to know that there is no loyalty. And I thought that everything I had done for a really long time, I was just pretty beat down. You know, my life has been a lie. You

SPEAKER_02: 2:02:33

should have gotten into some of that hardcore shit. You know, every other song is stabbed in the back.

UNKNOWN: 2:02:38

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:02:38

Would have been a good time. Should have explored that Rev catalog,

SPEAKER_03: 2:02:42

man. I like some of it. I listen to some

SPEAKER_02: 2:02:45

of it. Sorry.

SPEAKER_03: 2:02:46

That's okay. So I ended up moving to Ojai, and then that was like around November of 2003, and then somehow or another I figured out around February of 2004 that I probably had an issue with drugs, alcohol, the whole shebang, and I'd been hanging around some people who were clean, and we were on our way to punk rock bowling, and I just decided that if... You know, if I'm going to do this, I'm doing it now. So we stopped at an AA convention on the way out to Vegas and I actually stood up and... Identified as a newcomer at a convention on the way to Punk Rock Bowling.

SPEAKER_02: 2:03:30

That is trial by fire. And I remember my

SPEAKER_03: 2:03:33

friend, I just held on to her like nobody's business. And a friend of mine who's clean now, Novak, he walks up to me. He's like trying to hand me a 12-pack. And I was like, oh, my God. It was just so horrifying. But I made it. I made it through the whole weekend. And so I figured if I can do that, I can do this. And so I did. Just decided that I just probably wanted to figure out how to get my life together. And that January, I'd actually started going to school. My motives at the time were completely all screwed up, which is what kind of led– going to that school kind of led to– it was Oxnard College and the Addictive Disorder Studies Program. And that kind of led to my decision to get clean. Go

SPEAKER_02: 2:04:15

Condors?

SPEAKER_03: 2:04:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 2:04:17

Right?

SPEAKER_03: 2:04:18

Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 2:04:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 2:04:19

And then I ended up going to that school, getting a job at the methadone clinic, learning how to be a counselor, getting certified, going to work at adolescent rehabs. And just along the way, blah, blah, blah, I ended up working at the county, ended up working for just– I just kept moving until I found places that I really wanted to be and populations I really wanted to work with. And I worked DUI to pay back all the– I'm doing amends for all the drinking and driving I did in my life.

UNKNOWN: 2:04:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:04:50

And yeah, so I ended up two years clean being asked to go teach there. So that was cool. So I did that. And then they gave me another class and another class. And yeah, so as an adjunct, I teach three classes a semester in summer school. I've been doing that for the last 12 years.

SPEAKER_02: 2:05:10

Awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:05:11

And then after I was hired, Bill Shilley, who's no longer with us, unfortunately. Moment of silence. Okay, I'm moving on. He suggested I get my– I had a bachelor's degree already. Don't remember getting it. We used to do lines on it. I know. I just don't– I got it from San Francisco State, but I really literally don't remember getting it. Sort of. No. So he suggested I get my master's. He said, you know, eventually you're going to have a full-time job, so you should probably get your master's. She said, oh, we got you hired with a bachelor's degree, but you should just go ahead and get your master's. So I did that. And then when I was done with my master's, I was like, well, hell, I might as well get my PhD. So I did that. And then a full-time job came. I didn't get it. And I So I started looking elsewhere, and I got a job teaching a substance abuse class at KALU. And then I teach two biopsych classes online for Southern New Hampshire University. And what else do I do?

SPEAKER_02: 2:06:24

Shout out Southern New Hampshire, my people.

SPEAKER_03: 2:06:27

Yeah. Are you from New Hampshire? No. Yeah, me either. Yeah. So that's pretty cool, though, that biopsych class is rad.

SPEAKER_01: 2:06:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:06:35

Because the brain, I'm a total brain geek now.

UNKNOWN: 2:06:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:06:39

What else? So I have a PhD. I'm Dr. Becca. I got married. How do your brain... I got married. That's huge. How do your brain... I married a person who isn't into punk rock at

SPEAKER_02: 2:06:50

all.

SPEAKER_03: 2:06:50

Oh, yeah. He's the greatest person on the planet.

SPEAKER_02: 2:06:54

That rules.

SPEAKER_03: 2:06:54

It's so amazing. Like, you do everything right, and then you figure out who you are, and the world works out the way it's supposed to. Yeah. Yeah, so his name is Ronnie Miller. Hence, my name is Becca Porter Miller.

SPEAKER_02: 2:07:08

Oh, you hyphenated. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:07:10

Well, I've been Becca Porter for way too long.

SPEAKER_02: 2:07:13

Yeah. It's awesome. I think it would be very interesting, though, having your brain students know that you were the first person doing mail order for the compilation. Someone got their head kicked in.

SPEAKER_03: 2:07:26

Right? Yeah. My brain students. Yeah. I think that people would be interested to know

SPEAKER_02: 2:07:32

a lot of things about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:07:35

Yeah. So it's kind of, you know, when I worked at DUI, I remember I was sitting there doing a group and a guy walked in late and he's like, oh my God, you're that chick from another state of mind. And I was

SPEAKER_01: 2:07:48

like, shh. That's

SPEAKER_03: 2:07:49

awesome. My God, my counselor's that chick from another state of mind. It's like, oh boy. I guess Greg Graffin used to get that teaching at Cornell. Didn't he teach at Cornell? Yeah. Yeah. I would have taken his class. I remember he liked rocks.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:03

Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 2:08:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:05

I love Bad Religion. But I don't want to read his books.

SPEAKER_03: 2:08:09

He wrote a book?

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:11

Yeah, he does. He's just a smart guy, right? He's always been a smart guy. I think he released his dissertation.

SPEAKER_03: 2:08:19

Mine is also released and published. You can read it on ProQuest.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:22

See, there you go. Shout out. Sick.

SPEAKER_03: 2:08:25

Mine's about addiction,

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:26

though.

SPEAKER_03: 2:08:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:29

Cool. What do you think? Golden. You got anything else you want to... Share with

SPEAKER_03: 2:08:35

us, Becca. Whatever you want to know.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:37

I think I've really enjoyed this. I think this was great. We got a great hour and plus from you, so. 52. Oh,

SPEAKER_03: 2:08:44

you can get rid of all the garbage and keep all the good stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:47

No, I don't edit it. Not until I'm up to 100 patrons. They got to suffer through all the bad stuff, too. Nice. Joe, you can ask the golden question if you want. What's that? You can ask the golden question if you want. The golden question. There's a

SPEAKER_03: 2:09:00

golden one?

SPEAKER_02: 2:09:01

Do you feel like you've been well-represented?

UNKNOWN: 2:09:03

Oh.

SPEAKER_03: 2:09:04

I suppose so, but not by President Trump.

SPEAKER_02: 2:09:08

On the podcast. Can we please impeach the man? They're working on it. Maybe by the time this actually is broadcast, he'll be out. It's been a challenge for me to not do any politics on the podcast. I don't know

SPEAKER_03: 2:09:23

why you don't. Punk rock and politics go hand in hand. And I'll tell you, I've never been more horrified in my life than hearing actual people who are punk rockers Backing this idiot.

SPEAKER_02: 2:09:36

Well, that's embarrassing.

SPEAKER_03: 2:09:37

You know it.

SPEAKER_02: 2:09:38

Yeah. I

SPEAKER_03: 2:09:39

mean, I love my friends. Don't get me wrong. And I'm not going to not like them because of their political issues. But damn, I thought people were smarter.

SPEAKER_02: 2:09:46

Well, I mean, there's very few things that most punk people can agree on, right? And it has to be unity and equity. Anti-fascism and anti-racism. At least. And if we don't do that basic core, then I don't know. It drives me crazy. But I think we have to agree on those little things. If you're a racist piece of shit, get the fuck out.

SPEAKER_03: 2:10:16

Or a lying sack of shit.

SPEAKER_02: 2:10:17

Yeah. Or Trump.

SPEAKER_03: 2:10:19

I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:10:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:10:22

Like, I'm literally freaked out that our country is so fucked up that that guy became the president. Like, really? How did that happen?

SPEAKER_02: 2:10:31

Yeah, it's scary.

SPEAKER_03: 2:10:33

Well, I mean, I know how it happened, and you know how it happened, and Russia knows how it happened.

SPEAKER_02: 2:10:39

Yeah. Well, a lot of things lined up. Yeah. It's not good. No, it's not good. But things swing one way and things need to swing back. I

SPEAKER_03: 2:10:50

opened a Twitter account just to fuck with him.

SPEAKER_02: 2:10:52

Yeah. See, that's positive. Yeah. And I don't know. People just need to read a fucking book. Or a

SPEAKER_03: 2:10:59

transcript.

SPEAKER_02: 2:11:01

All

SPEAKER_01: 2:11:04

right.

SPEAKER_02: 2:11:06

Thanks so much, Becca. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03: 2:11:08

Appreciate it. You're so very welcome.

SPEAKER_02: 2:11:09

Thank you. That was great. Say your thanks, Stu. Thank you. Oh, you're so very welcome. Thanks for listening. So what do you guys think? It was pretty good, huh? Yeah, that was great. It was a great interview. Sick, dude. It was all worth it to find out that Stu's favorite album of all time was Rock and Roll Nightmare. That made my day. It's my favorite. It's such a cool record to cling to. Yeah. I love it. I love it. And Becca was great. Yeah, Forrest, ridiculous. Yeah, we're going to have to have Forrest on every time, I think. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll just make that a part of it. Yeah, he's the man. Why do you think I love him? Well, being in a band with him, it's the best, because it's slapstick all the time. The way he tells it, dude, is gold. I know, it's like buying the equipment for... This show sucks, obviously. We bought a fourth station. A fourth mic. And it was like, ugh. Putting out money for this. It sucks and hurts. Smash that, Patreon. Smash it, smash it. But seeing Forrest for the first time, because people hit me up. They're like, oh, maybe you should videotape it and all this. And I just think about, dude, it takes hours. I joke about not editing this fucking show, but I still have to like, get the files, put them together. It's kind of a fucking process. Yeah. And people just toss it out. They're like, hey, you should videotape the pod too. And just to me, it was like, oh, I do not want to do that editing. You want to buy another piece of equipment to watch three dudes? I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that editing.

SPEAKER_04: 2:12:56

We were like chilling on a lifetime vacation. Cable that we bought from Costco.

SPEAKER_02: 2:13:02

We're going to take back tomorrow. Yeah, we're taking

SPEAKER_01: 2:13:03

it back tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02: 2:13:06

And these chairs. Tony, what's up? But, yeah. But where I was going with that was, like, I just wish everyone could watch Forrest tell a story. Dude. Because his delivery goes beyond words. He's a true character. He's very animated. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe... Maybe what we could... I got an idea. Just keep smashing that button. We'll see. All right, guys. All right. We'll see you next time, huh? Yeah. Yeah, it'll be cool. Okay, man. Bye.