From a Facebook group called Salt Lake Hard- Core Underground, I very respectfully swiped these photos, and I hope they satisfy you, dear readers, this Fashion Post Monday. (And please see the Salt Lake Hard-Core Underground Facebook group for appropriate attributions. For those of you not on Facebook, if you have questions about an image, please comment.)The photos and digitizations of fliers document about three scintillating years in my young life, from 1983 to 1985 or so when I was still a student at BYU in Provo, Utah.
This Minor Threat flier I never saw at the time, but I went tp the show. I remember getting a ride to Salt Lake with some other students from the dorms. We convened in the cafeteria. It was my first punk rock show ever, although by that time, everyone was referring to the genre--or sub-genre--as hard core, and "punk rock" was a term thrown about ironically and with some disdain. I'm sure I wore my denim jacket to the show. It was April, and still chilly, and the Levis jacket was the most "hard core" item I had. The southern California Mormon boys I was with were aleady big fans of Minor Threat, as the band was "straight edge," which meant they espoused no drinking, no drugs, no sex. We could all relate. As BYU students, we were "straight edge" by default.
(Okay, I STILL can't seem to sync text w/images. Do the best you can; my apologies.)
Discharge flier:
I love the painstaking, hand-done, do-it-yourself quality of these fliers, like the Discharge flier below. Note the "A" made into an anarchy sign. I went to this show, too, with some BYU girls. We were milling around afterwards, and the band members, who were sweeping up their own discharge and detritus, asked us to go back to their hotel room for a "party." We looked at each other. We knew we would no fun at all for Discharge (straight-edge, after all), who had come all the way from England, and slunk back to our car.
The Indian Center was the main venue for these shows during this time. It was a community center for the local Native American population, and they rented the space out to local alternative music show producers for years. I saw a slew of shows at the Indian Center--too many to mention individually--sometimes getting rides there, sometimes taking the bus downtown and then walking the 13 blocks--long blocks measured out by Brigham Young. At times, I drove my 1974 Chevy Nova, which was the first of three cars that I have ever owned in my life. (I have not owned a car since 1985. Is that bad?)
Minutemen flier:
I am very glad to have been at this Minutemen show. The Massacre Guys was a local band who opened for most of the national acts. The high-school aged Potato Heads did as well. Le Club, where this show was held, was in downtown SLC, and had no stage. I remember Minutemen's d. boon shuffling about on the dirty floor, performing right where we all were standing. They may have been the best band to come out of that era, and I feel lucky to have seen them. d. boon was killed in a freak car accident not long after in 1985.
Crowd photo:
This was from a 45 Grave show at the Indian Center. I can't be sure, but that looks like the back of my blonde head, short bad hair cut, washed-out denim jacket. I was not cute. Speaking of which, there were very few female performers in this scene. The lead singer of 45 Grave was one. Kyra, the bassist of Black Flag, was another. And then there was Exene of X, but they were in a different league.
Hell House, front:
This was the Hell House--a punk dorm of sorts--not far from the University of Utah. Some key scenesters lived there, including Heroin Bob and Steve-O Riley from the Massacre Guys, and my friend Mark, from the Bad Yodelers, who had constructed a small, tongue-in-cheek grave yard in his room. Local bands rehearsed there; out of town bands stayed there. (I remember seeing stacks of skateboards from visiting musicians.) Baby dolls were nailed to the wall. I was from Provo, and always felt square and self-conscious. The movie "Valley Girl" seemed to be always playing in the VHS player.
Mosh pit photo:
A mosh pit at an Indian Center show.
Black Flag flier:
Can you believe this seven buck show? The fliers got more professional once Raunch Records began producing shows. Raunch opened down under the freeway viaduct one 4th of July in probably 1985. I think I saw Black Flag about 5,000 times at the Indian Center.
Brad and Daphne photo by Rick Egan:
Brad Collins and Daphne Mundane of Raunch Records. Brad was "older" and had a show on KRCL, Saturday nights: "Behind the Zion Curtain." He and his girlfriend, Daphne . . . well, I thought of them as the ersatz king and queen of the Salt Lake City scene, as cornball as that sounds.
Massacre Guys in performance:
The Massacre Guys, Jamie Schumann lead singer.
Bad Yodelers:
A later incarnation of The Bad Yodelers. For three months, I very chastely dated the original lead singer. We went to the dollar movie in Orem every Tuesday night and then rolled around chastely on my living room floor, if you can call that dating. The boy second from left I met my freshman year in the dorms. My roommate set us up on a buddy date for a dance in the cafeteria. I wanted her to do this, but I didn't want her to, I was so boy shy. Instead of dancing, he told me about punk rock. For me, fresh out of Yuma, it was mind blowing, paradigm shifting. Later, he got X tapes to me. This photo must have been taken after his mission to South Korea. I wonder what he's doing now?
Sean and Heron Bob, two photos:
Two iconic Salt Lake City punk rockers: Sean Fightmaster and Heroin Bob--both who influenced characters in the over-rated feature film SLC punk. Sean died two years ago. He was legendary.
This Minor Threat flier I never saw at the time, but I went tp the show. I remember getting a ride to Salt Lake with some other students from the dorms. We convened in the cafeteria. It was my first punk rock show ever, although by that time, everyone was referring to the genre--or sub-genre--as hard core, and "punk rock" was a term thrown about ironically and with some disdain. I'm sure I wore my denim jacket to the show. It was April, and still chilly, and the Levis jacket was the most "hard core" item I had. The southern California Mormon boys I was with were aleady big fans of Minor Threat, as the band was "straight edge," which meant they espoused no drinking, no drugs, no sex. We could all relate. As BYU students, we were "straight edge" by default.
(Okay, I STILL can't seem to sync text w/images. Do the best you can; my apologies.)
Discharge flier:
I love the painstaking, hand-done, do-it-yourself quality of these fliers, like the Discharge flier below. Note the "A" made into an anarchy sign. I went to this show, too, with some BYU girls. We were milling around afterwards, and the band members, who were sweeping up their own discharge and detritus, asked us to go back to their hotel room for a "party." We looked at each other. We knew we would no fun at all for Discharge (straight-edge, after all), who had come all the way from England, and slunk back to our car.
The Indian Center was the main venue for these shows during this time. It was a community center for the local Native American population, and they rented the space out to local alternative music show producers for years. I saw a slew of shows at the Indian Center--too many to mention individually--sometimes getting rides there, sometimes taking the bus downtown and then walking the 13 blocks--long blocks measured out by Brigham Young. At times, I drove my 1974 Chevy Nova, which was the first of three cars that I have ever owned in my life. (I have not owned a car since 1985. Is that bad?)
Minutemen flier:
I am very glad to have been at this Minutemen show. The Massacre Guys was a local band who opened for most of the national acts. The high-school aged Potato Heads did as well. Le Club, where this show was held, was in downtown SLC, and had no stage. I remember Minutemen's d. boon shuffling about on the dirty floor, performing right where we all were standing. They may have been the best band to come out of that era, and I feel lucky to have seen them. d. boon was killed in a freak car accident not long after in 1985.
Crowd photo:
This was from a 45 Grave show at the Indian Center. I can't be sure, but that looks like the back of my blonde head, short bad hair cut, washed-out denim jacket. I was not cute. Speaking of which, there were very few female performers in this scene. The lead singer of 45 Grave was one. Kyra, the bassist of Black Flag, was another. And then there was Exene of X, but they were in a different league.
Hell House, front:
This was the Hell House--a punk dorm of sorts--not far from the University of Utah. Some key scenesters lived there, including Heroin Bob and Steve-O Riley from the Massacre Guys, and my friend Mark, from the Bad Yodelers, who had constructed a small, tongue-in-cheek grave yard in his room. Local bands rehearsed there; out of town bands stayed there. (I remember seeing stacks of skateboards from visiting musicians.) Baby dolls were nailed to the wall. I was from Provo, and always felt square and self-conscious. The movie "Valley Girl" seemed to be always playing in the VHS player.
Mosh pit photo:
A mosh pit at an Indian Center show.
Black Flag flier:
Can you believe this seven buck show? The fliers got more professional once Raunch Records began producing shows. Raunch opened down under the freeway viaduct one 4th of July in probably 1985. I think I saw Black Flag about 5,000 times at the Indian Center.
Brad and Daphne photo by Rick Egan:
Brad Collins and Daphne Mundane of Raunch Records. Brad was "older" and had a show on KRCL, Saturday nights: "Behind the Zion Curtain." He and his girlfriend, Daphne . . . well, I thought of them as the ersatz king and queen of the Salt Lake City scene, as cornball as that sounds.
Massacre Guys in performance:
The Massacre Guys, Jamie Schumann lead singer.
Bad Yodelers:
A later incarnation of The Bad Yodelers. For three months, I very chastely dated the original lead singer. We went to the dollar movie in Orem every Tuesday night and then rolled around chastely on my living room floor, if you can call that dating. The boy second from left I met my freshman year in the dorms. My roommate set us up on a buddy date for a dance in the cafeteria. I wanted her to do this, but I didn't want her to, I was so boy shy. Instead of dancing, he told me about punk rock. For me, fresh out of Yuma, it was mind blowing, paradigm shifting. Later, he got X tapes to me. This photo must have been taken after his mission to South Korea. I wonder what he's doing now?
Sean and Heron Bob, two photos:
Two iconic Salt Lake City punk rockers: Sean Fightmaster and Heroin Bob--both who influenced characters in the over-rated feature film SLC punk. Sean died two years ago. He was legendary.
8 comments:
Yea J! Great post! Good memories..I wish Kris and I had made it to some of those early 'hardcore' shows with you. and AAHHHHH Raunch Records! What ever happened to Brad and Daphnie? D. was my friend Mark's older sister and I was in luv with her..
Just what I need after a night of no sleep – to have my mind COMPLETELY BLOWN first thing in the morning!!! I love that time from my life too, as you know – it was where I first met you! I still have a cassette tape somewhere of the Yodelers back in their very first incarnation, with Jeff Yellowsweater singing Bored of Ed, Red Fish Blue Fish, and a few others. I oughtta put THAT up on Facebook one of these days!
OH - i loved this post.
In LA we vacillated between non 'straight edged' hardcore (very OC), new wave and new romantic scenes...all good music, all good fashions and all good fun.
and a lot of that music is on my i-pod today.
RJT
what is it about girls in denim jackets?
i'm so jealous you got to see the minutemen!
Daphne was so cute! Brad is still in SLC--someone told me he is back listening to the Grateful Dead like he did in the '70s. Tinarama, i had completely forgotten about Jeff Yellowsweater. I would love to hear that cassette. RJT, i may be closer to getting an i-pod. Jesse, i feel so lucky to have seen the minutemen. thanks for your kind comments!
That Black Flag/Meat Puppets show was a lot of fun.
Thank you for your excellent, vivid memories. My memories of the SL Punk Scene aren't as romantic. I encountered too many "more-punk-than-thou" types. There was an amazing amount of conformity in the scene. If you didn't shop at Raunch Records or if you missed an important gig, you were labelled a "poser." Sean Fightmaster may have been "legendary," but there wasn't anything particularly distinctive about him. He once wanted to kick my ass for no apparent reason and he didn't seem very intelligent. He was a drugged-out idiot. And the only thing unique about Steve-O was his name. What did the guy do that was so extraordinary? I still don't know.
It wasn't all depressing. I still appreciate some of the great gigs that came to town. I remember Minor Threat, the DK's, Black Flag, and lots of great shows. And there were a few individuals who were really cool and understood what they were rebelling against and welcomed newcomers into the scene with open arms and an open mind. But I really didn't like most of the people in the local scene. After a few years in that scene, I dropped out. It was a lonely, depressing milieu. I don't miss it.
I realize your posting is a bit old and came across it doing a search for Brad Collins.
This month SLUG ran an article that Brad and his current partner have reopened Raunch Records in Sugarhouse right off of 21st South.
Both myself and my best friend moved to Sandy in 1982 and 83 respectfully where we met up and eventually got into 'Punk' music as two non-Mormon kids in the neighborhood. We used to take the bus downtown and get off in front of Crossroads Mall and skate through Pioneer Park to Raunch to spend our allowance. Afterwards we would skate back to Cosmic Aeroplane, hang out and then catch the bus back on the corner.
Fast forward through all the history and relocations of Raunch and it's eventual closer, to the mid-90's my friend ran into Brad working at the Sports Castle selling golf clubs. Later I ran into him at the Salt Lake Roasting Company getting coffee and we caught up. It was quite odd seeing him in Dockers all cleaned up.
So the jist of the article is that Brad is now 52 (2009) and felt a positive energy going on in Salt Lake again. Supposedly his online Raunch business was doing well and so him, along with 4 other people decided to relaunch Raunch this year. He's back to his old, blonde halo hair cut. Daphne was not included in the revamp and didn't go into what she's up to other than having moved to LA in 1990 when Positively 4th Street was rezoned.
For the history buffs: Raunch opened it's doors July 4th 1984.
Definitely feeling old....
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