OK, first the skate thread and now this. You are hell bent on pulling me back in time!
I spent my high school days on the air for KLEL. We barely hit downtown but it was fun none the less. I remember most of these Jocks coming out and desperately trying to convince us to run away from radio as fast as we could.
That was a great time in music for the bay area. Well, until Seattle took over.
924 Gilman was going strong. Green Day was playing Bday parties. Mr Bungle to Faith no More then back to Mr. Bungle. Primus was hitting it big. Jello Biafra was constantly on a spoken word tour. Great time, great shows.
Oh how I remember those days. Speaking of parties - those were the days when No Doubt were playing parties and Gwen Stefani was a total....well, she was hot then and she was easy to get to know, let's put it that way. Even then you could tell she (at least) was destined for huge things, though she kind of had the attitude to go along with it - regardless of how great a fuck she was. I was, by default really, a trumpet and valve trombone player in this ska band (that shall remain nameless at this point, but were well known in the SJ, SF and Los Gatos/Monte Sereno areas - even if payment did come by way of Taco Hell, Weinerschnitzel and Mickey D's) that used to play with them all the time - got to know a lot of folks that way - Dickey Barrett - played with the Bosstones at the old One Step Beyond out by the San Jose Airport a few times, as well as with Let's Go Bowling and with some legendary guys like Buster Bloodvessel (aka Bad Manners), Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook, Lester Sterling, etc. - even Special Beat when The Specials re-formed with The Beat. Then kind of quit the band and just would go help them out at shows and stuff with merchandise. Kind of became big and then really fell apart with Mike going off on his own to start his own record label(s) -forever ran out of his parent's garage. Just heard recently that one of the band members died - I think she was 36 years old or something - very sad and hard to believe she's gone at this point. She played well, sang some great songs and was, genuinely, a great person. Even though I hadn't spoken to her in over 15 years, it was tough to hear.
Grew up with those guys and it was indeed a great time. The LA bands and the SF bands were relatively cool with one another and it was, generally, a great, unified scene. Spent equal time down there and up in SF, as well as with doing endless rally-runs on my countless array of Lambys, Vespas - doing runs to SLO, LA, Seattle, with other scooter clubs like Vespa Club Los Gatos, East Bay Wreckin' Crew, Some Assembly Required, Burgundy Tops, etc....spending many mornings having breakfast up at the wonderful Alice's at the intersection of Hwy 84 & 35 in the Woodside area. Goddamn that place was great and started getting into bikes up there after graduating from scoots.
Green Day - used to see BJ and crew hanging out at Amoeba's in Berkeley (where I used to live at Amoeba's, Rasputin and First Kick Scooters - in addition to Gilman). The days of grandpappy's Operation Ivy, others like Donkey Show, Dance Hall Crashers, Hepcat - it was a great era and everyone seemed to help each other with whatever it was they were doing. Back before Alex Desert left to go to television (anyone remember "The Heights" on the then fledgling Fox?) and movies (Swingers, in particular). Alex is a fucking great guy and I still hear from him from time to time. Back when Mike Patton was an approachable guy you'd find at the Tower on Van Ness and then, the next day, see him at the Bammies. Swingin' Utters were around too - having known those guys from their days hanging out in Santa Cruz to days in SF. Chris Isaak as well - used to catch him surfing (we had that and boxing in common) quite often and would also run into him in SF, at Golden Gate Boxing Club - often grabbing a bite at this shithole mexican joint in SF. Of course, these were the days that he was still putting on free shows at the Three Flames Restaurant in San Jose - and the pseudo-wannabe-rockabilly group from SJ - The King Pins - were doing Star Search with Ed McMahon. But Chris was a nice guy and, to this day, I've never had to purchase one his cd's - they continue to arrive, with a short note, as gifts. Very cool.
Primus and Jello too - damn Les was, and is, such a cool guy. I remember seeing them back in their Frizzle Fry and PRIMUS SUCKS! days in Berkeley - Les trying to really get his name out there and hearing about him once try out for Metallica. Jello and the Alternative Tenacles bunch were cool as hell too - but then...I don't know...age and greed set in and all of it went to hell. As I've said before, I've gotten to skate with some of those guys and know Geoff, Darren and Ray - but I see both sides of things with that battle; just find that both sides have become the very things they used to sing against.
Ah, memories...
