Orange County California punk band, derived from an acronym that changes from album to album, most notably standing for “Doggy Intercourse”. Rikk Agnew (Christian Death) played with the band for some time. D.I. can be seen in the 1983 Penelope Spheeris film ‘Suburbia’ performing their classic “Richard Hung Himself”.
Related: Christian Death, California, Punk, Rikk Agnew, Suburbia
Location: Long Beach, California
Active: 1978-current
In the early 80s California punk scene, alongside the Hollywood and Los Angeles proper bands, the outlying areas like Orange County and Long Beach developed similar, yet at the same time brilliantly different scenes. In Orange County, T.S.O.L. (an acronym for True Sounds Of Liberty) formed in the city of Huntington Beach during 1978. Many of the OC bands (Adolescents, Agent Orange, D.I., Middle Class) were faster, harder and had something of a weirder streak – perhaps a penchant for narrative that was lacking from many of the more traditional LA bands. None more weird than TSOL, their singer Jack Grisham was a west coast nod to Dave Vanian of The Damned, with his gothic dress code, and their songs conjuring up such subjects as horror movie chic, film noir and… necrophilia.
Their self-titled 1981 EP presented a political focus, but with the release of their LP later that year, ‘Dance With Me’, their horror punk/deathrock influences were in the forefront – gothic typography with a graveyard scene on the cover, and more than half of the track listing dedicated to death, darkness and and a ghoulish, high-camp creep factor including the infamous “Code Blue”, giving necrophiliacs the world over a catchy anthem. This was followed by the 1982 ‘Weathered Statues’ EP, which continued their more goth-punk direction. Later that year saw the ‘Beneath The Shadows’ LP, with the addition of a permanent keyboard player, taking their sound in a more artistic direction with synthesizer driven punk rock, without altogether losing their darker themes. It was this lineup that appeared in the 1983 Penelopee Spheeris punk drama ‘Suburbia’, playing “Wash Away” from the ‘Beneath The Shadows’ album, and ‘Darker My Love’ (recorded at the same time as the album, but was not released until 2014).
Prior to their first album, Grisham and Barnes disbanded the first incarnation of TSOL to form Vicious Circle, only to reunite in 1979. By 1983 Jack Grisham, Todd Barnes again left, as well as keyboard player Greg Kuehn, but instead of this being the end of the band, Joe Wood (Der Stab) stepped in on vocals and ‘Change Today’ was released in 1984 on Enigma Records – maintaining the dark romantic punk direction. At this point, Roche and Emory were the only original members remaining. However they too would eventually depart the band, leaving none of the original lineup. This incarnation of TSOL took a drastic detour into the then-popular hard rock / metal direction.
Meanwhile, Grisham moved on to form a succession of projects – Cathedral of Tears, Tender Fury and joined by Emory with Joykiller. Interestingly enough, one of the other projects Grisham formed with Barnes, Roche and Emory was a duplicate TSOL (also under the name LOST), which existed concurrently with the previous TSOL that had shed all relation to it’s original lineup. Needless to say, legal battles ensued, and eventually by 1999, Jack Grisham obtained the rights to the name, resulting in a reformation of the original lineup, and despite the untimely death of Todd Barnes in 1999, the excellent ‘Disappear’ album in 2001. As of 2020, TSOL remains active with Grisham, Emory and Roche still in the lineup.
Related: Vicious Circle, Der Stab, Cathedral of Tears, Tender Fury, Joykiller, LOST
Links:
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/255060-TSOL
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.S.O.L.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tsol_official/
Bandcamp: https://tsol.bandcamp.com/
TSOL performs “Darker My Love” in Penelope Spheeris’ 1982 film ‘Suburbia’:
This profile is in development. Contributions?
Location: Cheltenham, UK
Active: 1980-1985, 1997-1999, 2014-present
Formed in Cheltenham UK in 1980, Screaming Dead were a punk band that took aspects of camp horror movies for their name and songs, as well as their graphic design. Before terms like goth or deathrock were being tossed around as genres in the UK, ‘horror punk’ was an apt description, though their inclusion in any gothic rock collection by todays standards would be essential for variety and originality. Their first demo circulated as a tape before they were picked up by No Future records for their next two singles ‘Night Creatures’ and ‘Paint It Black’, with their following releases ‘Danse Macabre Collection’ and ‘Dream Of Yesterday’ on their own imprint label, Angel Records, before disbanding in 1985.
Guitarist Tony McCormack went on in 1989 to form gothic rock/pagan band Inkubus Sukkubus. The 1993 CD release of ‘Bring Out Yer Dead’ is the best compilation of the bands original material. However, in 1997 McCormack reformed a version of Screaming Dead, this time with a female vocalist, re-recording the bands early material on the ‘Death Rides Out’ album, which unfortunately often gets mistaken as the original material to those just discovering the band now. This incarnation lasted until 1999, and not much was heard again until 2014 when the other members, this time without McCormack reformed for another stab at it, releasing ‘The Resurrection EP’ in 2016 and touring the eastern USA in 2018.
Links:
Discogs.com: https://www.discogs.com/artist/263703-Screaming-Dead
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screaming_Dead
Related: The Waste, Inkubus Sukkubus
This profile is in development. Contributions?
Phranc is a solo performer whose beginnings can be traced back to bands like Nervous Gender, Catholic Discipline and Castration Squad and an important figure in the emerging queercore development of the early punk scene.
Related: Nervous Gender, Catholic Discipline, Castration Squad
This profile is in development. Contributions?
March 1984
Another State of Mind is a documentary film made in the summer of 1982 chronicling the adventure of two punk bands, Social Distortion and Youth Brigade, as they embark on their first international tour. Along the way they meet up with another band, Minor Threat.
The film follows the bands through New York, Montreal, Detroit, Washington DC and other cities, and some of the people they meet along the way, showing the diverse backgrounds, expressions and lifestyles of punks in the 1980s.
Writers & Directors: Adam Small, Peter Stuart
Stars: Mike Ness, M. Otis Beard, Dennis Danell, Brent Liles
Location: London, UK
Active: 1976-current
Part of the initial wave of the UK punk explosion amidst bands like the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Generation X and The Dark, The Damned are especially relevant to deathrock for their inclusion of brooding atmosphere, tongue-in-cheek dark humor and horror movie chic. The Damned remain in a class of their own as a punk band, often crossing over into goth and deathrock waters, be it in stand alone songs or the entire ‘Phantasmagoria’ and ‘Anything’ albums. Also central to their attribution to the gothic and deathrock moniker are frontman Dave Vanian’s iconic Bela Lugosi / Victorian vampire attire and makeup. The Damned are credited with the first UK punk record release, preceding the Sex Pistols by weeks in 1976.
Despite periods of inactivity, the Damned have never stayed split for long, and remain to be active to the current day. Dave Vanian also fronted Dave Vanian and the Phantom Chords. Founding member and songwriter of the Damned’s first two albums, Brian James left in 1977 and eventually worked with Iggy Pop. In 1981, James joined Stiv Bators (Dead Boys) to form Lords of the New Church. Captain Sensible departed The Damned prior to Phantasmagoria to develop his solo career, though he would eventually reunite with the band. During his initial absence, a release under the name Naz Nomad and the Nightmares was actually the Damned without Sensible in 1984 covering 1960s songs and original material in similar style. Dave Vanian contributed the track Tenterhooks to the gothic compilation LP ‘The Whip’ at this time alongside bands like Blood and Roses, Play Dead, Brigandage, the post-UK Decay/Furyo interim song “Slave Drive”, and Sex Gang Children.
The 1996 era of The Damned saw Patricia Morrison (Bags, Gun Club, Sisters of Mercy) join the group, she also wed Dave Vanian. Captain Sensible also reunited with the band at this time. In 2000, ‘Grave Disorder’ was released, and as far as this writer is concerned, presented a refreshing, revitalized incarnation and sound that reintroduced The Damned as a major factor in gothic punk sound.
Trivia: Glenn Danzig Wrote the the song Archangel for Dave Vanian who chose not to perform it. Instead, Danzig recorded the song himself on Samhain’s first album ‘Initium’.
Related: Dave Vanian And The Phantom Chords, Naz Nomad and the Nightmares, Lords of the New Church, Captain Sensible, Brian James
This profile is in development. Contributions?
Location: Los Angeles
Active: 1979-1996
Fusing elements of punk, blues, voodoo, horror comics and a western atmosphere, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Kid Congo Powers co-founded The Gun Club in Los Angeles in 1979 as Creeping Ritual until adopting the new name by early 1980. Their membership fluctuated on a regular basis around Pierce’s wild behavior, with Kid Congo joining The Cramps later that year. Their early lineups saw Terry Graham, Rob Ritter (45 Grave), both formerly of The Bags and Ward Dotson (Der Stab). Patricia Morrison, also a former Bag, would join in 1982.
After touring as support with Siouxsie and the Banshees and another headline tour with support band Sisters of Mercy, The Gun Club split up in 1985, leading Morrisson and Desi Desperate to form the band Fur Bible, while Pierce went on a solo career. They would reform in 1986 with Kid Congo Powers (then with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) back on guitar. Lineup changes continued to occur during their next few albums. Jeffrey Lee Pierce died March 31, 1996 of a brain hemorrhage, leaving behind a legacy that his peers and new generations of musicians continue to revere.
Related: 45 Grave, The Cramps, Tex & The Horseheads, The Bags, Patricia Morrison
Links:
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gun_Club
Discogs.com: https://www.discogs.com/artist/270779-The-Gun-Club
This profile is in development. Contributions?