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Angry Samoans | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Van Nuys,California, U.S. |
| Genres | Hardcore punk,garage punk |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Labels | Bad Trip,Triple X |
| Members |
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| Past members |
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| Website | angrysamoans |
TheAngry Samoans is an Americanpunk rock band from thefirst wave of American punk. Formed in August 1978 inLos Angeles,California, by early 1970srock writer"Metal" Mike Saunders, his sibling lead guitarist Bonze Blayk[1] and Gregg Turner (another rock writer, forCreem from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s), along with original recruits Todd Homer (bass) and Bill Vockeroth (drums).[2]
In 1969 the Saunders/Blayk siblings cut a 14-song high schoolgarage rock album,I'm a Roadrunner Motherfucka, in their hometown ofLittle Rock, under a twice-used local band name, the Rockin' Blewz. The album went unissued until the late 1990s.[3][4]
Mike Saunders briefly played in an early backing lineup for 1950s rockabilly cult artistRay Campi during 1975, before moving back to Arkansas for two years (pursuant to a second college degree).[5][3]
Bassist Homer had played in 1977Masque-era band Jesus Prick, and drummer Vockeroth was a veteran of thePasadena "backyard kegger party" cover band circuit (which also spawnedVan Halen).[3]
During 1978, both Turner and Mike Saunders played with rock criticRichard Meltzer in the Los Angeles punk bandVOM, which issued a posthumous five-songEP,Live at Surf City, onWhite Noise Records in early summer 1978.[3]
Patrick "P.J." Galligan was formerly a member of heavy metal bandCirith Ungol.[6] Galligan died from throat cancer in 2014.[7]
The first Angry Samoans gig was on October 30, 1978, opening forRoky Erickson and the Aliens inRichmond, California. Erickson was sick and did not make the show (Aliens band members covered for his lead vocals) but remained a lifelong friend and inspiration to Turner.[8] The next night, the Samoans played an "all-LA bill" at theMabuhay Gardens inSan Francisco, opening for Shock andthe Zeros.
The Samoans' first release,Inside My Brain, featuring P.J. Galligan on lead guitar as a replacement for Bonze Blayk, was one of the earliesthardcore punk albums to come out of the 1980s LA punk rock scene. Between this recording and second albumBack from Samoa, the band released a four-song EP as "The Queer Pills", allegedly using the pseudonym for the EP to get airtime onRodney Bingenheimer's KROQ radio program. Their 14-song, 17-minute hardcore album,Back from Samoa, released in 1982, featured lyrics with such themes as the trendiness of poking your eyes out ("Lights Out"), anthropomorphizingAdolf Hitler's penis ("They Saved Hitler's Cock"), and dissing your father ("My Old Man's a Fatso"), sung over heavily distorted guitars and early LA/OC hardcore drum beats.
In the mid-1980s, the Angry Samoans added guitarist Steve Drojensky, and returned to their roots in mid-1960s Americangarage rock (they had long cited bands such asthe Velvet Underground, the13th Floor Elevators andShadows of Knight as among their musical influences). The next two releases recorded during 1986–87, theYesterday Started Tomorrow EP andSTP Not LSD, were largely in this neo-1960sgarage/psych style.[9]
In late January 1979, Mike Saunders, Turner and Homer wrote an infamous song about longtime LA/Hollywood scenemaker andKROQ-FM DJRodney Bingenheimer, titled "Get Off the Air".[10] When the song was included on the band's first record,Inside My Brain, the Samoans were blacklisted at theStarwood, theWhisky a Go Go, and other clubs in the Hollywood/LA area from mid-1980 through late 1982, seemingly due to Bingenheimer's strong influence within the LA/Hollywood club scene.[11]
Homer left at the end of 1988 and formedthe Mooseheart Faith Stellar Groove Band with Larry Robinson, formerly of 1970s teen pop-soul bandApollo. In 2005, Homer formed free-jazz band the Hollywood Squaretet with comedian/drummer Larry "Copcar" Scarano, formerly ofComedy's Dirtiest Dozen (HBO), and the 1960s New York rock band, the Bougalieu.[12]
Turner left in early 1992, releasing an album,Santa Fe, in 1993 with the Mistaken, which featured guitarist Sean O'Brien (formerly ofCome), bassist Heath Siefert (formerly ofBackbiter) and drummers Elizabyth Burtis and Kelly Callan (formerly ofWednesday Week). Turner's next band, the Blood Drained Cows, issued two albums, and occasionally features autoharp player Billy Angel (née Miller) from the Aliens.[13][14]
During the mid- to late 1980s, Mike Saunders moonlighted in several electric/acoustic two-guitar duos (no rhythm section) such as the Clash Brothers (with Bob Fagan), the Sons of Mellencamp (with Turner), and the Gizmo Brothers (with Kenne Highland), performing at various small clubs during that period in San Francisco, LA/OC, and evenBoston (with Krazee Ken Highland from the Gizmos and Hopelessly Obscure).
The Angry Samoans have continued from the late 1980s onward with Mike Saunders, original drummer Vockeroth and a wide variety of other individuals. They have performed mainly along theWest Coast, aside from occasional out-of-state weekend trips and three short, successful tours of mainland Europe in 2003, 2007 and 2008. In 2010, they performed on the Legends Stage on four dates of theVansWarped Tour.[15]
Gregg Turner has toured in October 2019 with the Oblivians as a solo act, in anticipation of a re-release of the Angry Samoans discography.
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