I went to a pretty small private elementary school growing up, over on 6th and Shatto in L.A. The alternative would have been Commonwealth Elementary, where I went to summer school but it just was not known for educating kids. For the most part the kids all got along, even though the poor kids (me) were seperated in classes from the rich kids. I liked everyone though and between there and soccer at Fairfax High, I had a lot of friends. My two best friends though were Roy Miyake and Alex Wallace. We stayed friends after I moved to the valley for junior high and shared a common love for music. Alex was a true genius and played several instruments well before he was even 14. We tended to go to jazz shows together(Return To Forever, Dizzy Gilespy, Alan Holdsworth, etc. I'll have to do some posts on those bands sometime (which I think I've mentioned before). We lost touch though while he was living in Beverly Hills and the rumor was he went goth and killed himself. I hope that's not true, he was so talented and was a really good person. Roy was also a lover of music but him and I tended to go to harder shows (Slayer, Black Flag, etc.). He ended up moving to Brentwood while his parents ran a sushi restaurant. He hung out with a whole different crowd, which meant that I was exposed to stuff I may not have been. Shower of Smegma was one of those bands I was intruduced to from his crowd of friends. Roy and I actually did all kinds of shit, like take acid for our first time together. I remember watching Song Remains The Same and really tripping. I may have mentioned it before but him, two of his friends (maybe a Smegma guy), my bro Deustche and I got shot at when we were exploring the Manson caves. So many stories I could half way share.
S.O.S. (Shower Of Smegma, Screams Of Sanity) were my age and had been playing since they were about 14 during the early 80's in and around Hollywood. I don't even know how well they are known outside of that scene, but if you don't know them you should. I got to see them with several other bands, at least twice. Once at Skull Rock (don't ask me where that is because I don't remember) and once at a party out in Palisades. One of my favorite bands from that time period and I really played the hell out of the tape I got this music from. Historic as far as I'm concerned but you can read (and hear) more about them here, http://pjdmusic.com/sos/ and here, http://www.myspace.com/showerofsmegma . A while back I did an internet search to see if I could find Roy, but I had very little luck. In fact all I found out was that he had played bass in a band called Oblitasaurus. In that search though I did find Ed Gregor, the singer of S.O.S. (who has been in several notable bands since). He told me that the last he heard of Roy was that he was in a Buddhist Monastary 10 years ago in San Francisco. I had met Ed a few times but I don't think he remembers that. Anyway he helped me out with a track listing on these and set me up with some other links. He ended up playing in another band that was pretty good, No Use For A Name, along with, Hegehog (http://www.myspace.com/hedgehogspace) that just did a reunion thing recently and his current band I Want Out (http://www.myspace.com/iwantoutrock). Super cool guy with some super cool music, I hope you guys take some time to check that out. He also runs a little label here, http://pjdmusic.com and here, http://www.myspace.com/pjdmusiclabel . On top of the song titles, Ed gave me some notes on each of these recordings which I've included with the music. I've babbled on enough so let's get to the music.
The first demo on there is our 4th demo we did, I think. It was recorded by Steve Tounsand (of mustard) in 1984 or '85.
Tracks 9-17 were recorded by Phil Neuman (bassist of Sin 34 and Painted Willie) at his and Dave Markey (drummer Sin 34/Painted Willie, went on to be a film director of Teenage Lovedoll Superstars, The Year Punk Broke, etc.) recording studio called Spinhead Studios. It was recorded in early 1984 I believe and was our 6th demo we did. EDIT: Unfortunately I/we lost the tracks when two things happened, first I gave up the server space I was renting and my hard drive crashed...that's life in the fast lane, baby
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