First Entry Part 2

It was a really cool time back then. I was only 18 and the place to see all ages shows was Jabberjaw. I saw everyone from the Melvins to the Jesus Lizard there, Jon Spencer, Karp, the Unsane, godHeadSilo, The Cows, The Nation of Ulysses, God and Texas, Oiler, Sandy Duncan’s Eye, Mecca Normal, Steel Pole Bathtub, Unwound, Bikini Kill. Everybody played there when they were in L.A. It was a great place. I don’t mean to sound nostalgic or even worse, old, but there are times when certain artistic, political, cultural movements have their momentum really propelling them and I think the late 80’s to the mid to early 90’s really did have something great going on and Jabberjaw was the place to see them. I know there was Al’s bar, and eventually the Smell came along but Jabberjaw was still the place that all these bands had to play.

I only got to see Distorted Pony about 10 times. One of the shows my friends and I helped organize. We were in line waiting to buy tickers at Music +, remember that place? If you don’t then you are a lot younger than me. It was a chain of record stores in Southern California, not independent by any stretch but I bought my first record there when I was 10 years old, Led Zeppelin IV and eventually Sonic Youth’s Confusion is Sex so they had some good, albeit slim pickings there. Anyway, you could buy tickets to shows there and we were in line to get Sonic Youth tickets. We started talking to these guys and it turns out they were putting a show together to benefit Aids Project Los Angeles. They asked if I knew any bands and of course I mentioned a few. Eventually we put the show together and on the bill were Oiler, Sandy Duncan’s Eye and Distorted Pony. We shot video of it and it’s floating around somewhere. If I get my hands on it I’ll try to share it. Beyond being a worthwhile cause what was cool about it was that it took place in East Los Angeles where I grew up and still live. Noise rock bands never played East L.A. We had plenty of hardcore shows and there’s always been a strong metal scene, also a rock-a-billy type scene but nothing like the stuff we were into at the time. I was really happy to be bringing bands like these to the area. I remember Bikini Kill played at a hall in Montebello and that was like aliens arriving over Manhattan. At one point we talked about starting our own all ages venue in the neighborhood but we never got it together.

Eventually Distorted Pony broke up. I remember being really bummed out. I had hoped that I’d be able to get a band together and we’d get to play with them but I wasn’t able to get Leopold up and running until 1996 and by then David was in Austin playing in Sweet Pea, Dora Jahr was doing Saraspoden at the time but that didn’t last very long. Ted, had actually tried out for Leopold but didn’t quite fit and he was in Go kart with Steve from Slug. London was also playing in Buccinator although I don’t think he’s on the album they put out. Robert, pretty much left music behind, as far as I knew. Funny thing was Robert works with a cousin of mine for the Department of Water and Power so I’d hear how he was doing from my cousin every once in a while.

After that I’d keep in touch intermittently with various members, mainly David who I would call up and chat about our bands, guitars, amps and school. Ted I’d run into every once in a while, he’d moved near Santa Barbara. My best friend Anthony was going to school there and we met up with Ted for breakfast once.

Fast Forward a bit to Spring of 2000. Leopold was asked to play a showcase for SXSW. I called up U to see if he could put us up, by then he’d bought a house and was pretty well settled in Austin. He warmly agreed to put us up and we got to spend about 4 days hanging out with him and enjoying Austin, the music and the food, but most of all the company. I was glad that David was going to get to see us play. I think the show went well. Also on the bill that night were 400 Blows, the Icarus Line and Matterhorn so California noise rock was well represented.

A year later I had the summer off. I had been teaching by now for a few years. I rang up David and told him I was bored in L.A. and would he like some company. Three days later I was on a plane to Austin with my saxophone. The week I was staying at his place Switchitter was recording an EP and I ended up playing sax on it. I have no idea what I did and to this day, 9 years later I haven’t heard the track! David, still waiting.

That week in Austin was really cool, we went to guitar shops, lots of meals (Ruby’s BBQ is amazing!) and long conversations. It was good to have the time to catch up.

So that’s how things went for years, David would come to L.A. to visit his family and a few of us would meet up to hang out. Always a great time.

Back to the recent past. Along with offering helping with gear I also had to interject that if they needed another guitar player, since I knew that Robert wasn’t into playing anymore, I would be more than happy to join them.

I also called Ted and left the same message.