Weirdos

THIS IS A FAN SITE TO THE WEIRDOS!



IT'S NOT THE OFFICIAL MYSPACE SITE!



Weirdos was one of the best bands ever to set foot on this earth, and they deserve to be more recognized and given credit for their great music. The songs here will not be available for download, only for your listening pleasure. If anyone from the band or affiliated with the band has a problem with this site, send a mail and it will be deleted. The official Weirdos MySpace site is located right here folks.

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From out of nowhere came the Weirdos. There was no warning, no advance hype, nothing. Just a gig that I happened to be at and WHAM! Theyre my favorite L.A. band. Thus wrote Phast Phreddie Patterson in Shape of Things to Come, an article for his own Back Door Man, the earliest zine to cover punk rock in Los Angeles. That show, which Phred emceed, was on Saturday, April 2, 1977, at SIR Studios, and it was the nascent L.A. punk scenes first glimpse of the Weirdos, playing without a drummer on a bill featuring the Zippers, the Dils, and the Nerves.



Though not celebrated as much as X or the Germs, the Weirdos were important L.A. punk pioneers, galvanizing the local scene with their homemade, Dada-influenced look and such witty, frenetic-to-metallic tunes as Do the Dance and the wry imperialist anthem We Got the Neutron Bomb. As much as the Sex Pistols and the Ramones were shaped by their cultural and political environments, so did the Weirdos reflect the world in which the group was born.



I sort of pushed on the band, Lets be Hollywood. Lets really cultivate that. Lets be plastic, and wear plastic, and be fake embody fake as Hollywood, says lead singer John Denney, who cofounded the group with principal songwriter and rhythm guitarist Cliff Roman, bassist Dave Trout, and lead guitarist Dix Denney, the singers younger brother. Do-It-Yourselfers nonpareil, the Weirdos handled all aesthetic endeavors themselves unlike so-called standardbearers the Sex Pistols, who had fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, as well as visual artist Jamie Reid, who created their trademark ransom-note lettering.



The Weirdos, on the other hand, designed their own intricate logos, fliers, stickers, and other graphics. They made their own Weirdo clothing, largely out of thrift-shop womens wear and golf fashions, favoring loud prints, floral patterns, Day-Glo, leopard spots, and tiger stripes. These they mutated by tearing, cutting, and painting, adorning them with chains, belts, pins, electrical tape, and other accessories.



We looked like bag ladies, says Denney. Bag ladies were inspiring to us. He didnt want to be punk, because to him that meant New York or London. We were Hollywood Weirdos, he says. I really wanted to start a Weirdos scene. He laughs. To me, that was genuine.



The band didnt make a full-length album (1990s Condor) until long past its formative years, but it remained sporadicalltive through the 80s, then all but retired after 1991s Weird World, collecting 1977-81 demos, 45s, and other rarities. Now, Frontier Records has followed up with the new Weird World II, covering 77-89. It was released on the 26th anniversary of the Weirdos incendiary debut single, Destroy All Music (recorded, coincidentally, on the day Elvis died), inspiring Roman and the Denneys to embark on a West Coast reunion tour with veteran L.A. bassist Zander Schloss (Circle Jerks) and drummer Sean Antillion (the Gears). Theyll play at the El Rey Theatre next Saturday, December 5 (see Concerts listings for info).



The Weirdos proudly proclaimed they were made in Hollywood but it was actually North Hollywood where Roman met John Denney, in a 1971 high school art class. A year later, theyd bonded over their mutual admiration for Dadaists Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, and begun listening to the iconoclastic sounds of Captain Beefheart. Already decidedly anti-hippie, they had short hair, wore trench coats with straight-leg jeans, and made cut-up noise tapes à la avant-garde composer Carlheinz Stockhausen. Roman met Trout at CalArts, and the trio started thinking about forming a punk-rock band after seeing Iggy & the Stooges at the Whisky. But it took one more essential influence to activate them.



I used to play the Ramones [first] album over and over and over, Roman recalls. We saw them at the Roxy, opening for the Flamin Groovies [in August 1976]. We started to think, Well, weve got nothing to lose.



Many other influences went into the mix: early Kinks, Stones, and Who; the big instrumental guitars of Link Wray and Duane Eddy; rockabilly rebels Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps; surf and hot-rod music; and 60s punk such as the Standells and the Seeds.



After a couple more drummerless gigs, they acquired Nickey Beat, who would also drum for the Bags, the Germs, and others. Beat proved the perfect complement to the quartets twin-guitar attack: He pounded hard and fast, and constantly sped up the tunes propelling the band with an unrelenting energy. He was also crazy enough to be a Weirdo: His initiation began by burning his hair off in Romans bathroom.



The band with Beat debuted at a spring 1977 show that jumpstarted L.A.s fledgling punk scene. The Orpheum theater that was the first time there was punk rock in L.A., as far as Im concerned, recalls Alice Velasquez, who led seminal proto-hardcore act the Bags from 1977 to 1980, and is now the guitarist-singer of Stay at Home Bomb. It was the Weirdos, the Zeros, and the Germs, she says. The Ramones had come to town, but that was the first time the L.A. bands had done it . A lot of people didnt know what to expect. But by the end of the show, everyone was doing the Weirdos sign holding your first three fingers in the air to make a W.



The Germs show consisted mainly of Pat Smear and Lorna Doom tuning their guitar and bass while Darby Crash covered himself in peanut butter, but the Weirdos were a fully realized performance package. They were visually arresting and aurally assaultive with their Stooges/Ramones amalgamated wall of noise. And John Denney carved himself a place in the pantheon of punk-rock frontmen.



Its hard; you cant really describe someone who has a magnetic personality, someone who has charisma. And John had that he was very charismatic, Velasquez says.



I can see John Denney as a modern-day Elvis, says Circle Jerks leader Keith Morris. I love his voice. And his facial expressions: goofy, wacky like someone youd see in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. The Chili Peppers certainly borrowed a lot from John all the silly faces they do when they have to pose for photos. And John just did it naturally it wasnt a pose.



Weirdos songs were melodic but raw, the lyrics intelligent but unpretentious. They were funny, as in I Dig Your Hole, I Am a Mole. They could be philosophical, as in Why Do You Exist and Message from the Underworld, or political, as in Fort U.S.A. and Barbaric Americana. The quintet even touched on noir and pulp-fiction themes in Hit Man and Life of Crime. They were masters of the two-minute epic, and their signature early works Teenage, Solitary Confinement, Neutron Bomb deserve inclusion among the greatest punk tunes of all time. Too bad the Weirdos, like so many worthy L.A. acts, never scored a major-label deal.

The Weirdos first album would have been a smash hit, contends punk producer Geza X Gedeon. Their set just fuckin straight off the stage, night after night, was godhead! Thats a lot to live up to now, but the players are in fighting shape. Who knows? They just might inspire a whole new generation to wave three fingers high in the air.

By DAVID JONES

David Jones is currently finishing a book on early Southern California punk, tentatively titled Destroy All Music.

Old 1978 Weirdos / Dils flyer.