{"id":20155,"date":"2020-12-29T05:30:45","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T10:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20155"},"modified":"2020-12-30T09:52:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T14:52:54","slug":"always-comes-back-415-records-and-the-sf-new-wave-scene-part-2-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/29\/always-comes-back-415-records-and-the-sf-new-wave-scene-part-2-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Always Comes Back: 415 Records and the SF New Wave Scene (Part 2 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

The Mutants<\/b>
\nIn late 1978, Sally Webster had a giant loft on First and Mission where she often held salon-type events. \u201cA lot of bands played there for their first time; it was sort of an experiment, but it was super fun.\u201d She and some friends recruited musicians \u201cwho could actually play instruments,\u201d and launched theatrical punk group the Mutants in late \u201878 or early 1979. The band \u201cwas a 50\/50 combination of visuals and sound,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The Mutants\u2019 freewheeling onstage show would build upon the ideas espoused by Free Theater troupe Angels of Light. In that respect, the band\u2019s approach was ahead of the curve, incorporating theatrical concepts into live performance more than a year before bands like New York City-based Plasmatics.<\/p>\n

The Bay Area music community of that time was \u201cvery inclusive,\u201d Webster says. \u201cIt was like, \u2018You want to perform? You can perform.\u2019\u201d She describes the scene as \u201can island of misfit toys: people all coming together, really happy to see each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Howie Klein with Sally Webster of The Mutants<\/p><\/div>\n

Webster says that there was a strong sense of community among San Francisco\u2019s underground and semi-underground bands of that era. \u201cThe Avengers, the Dead Kennedys, Flipper \u2026 we were all friends before we were in bands, and remained friends after,\u201d she says. And the bands were mentored by Howie Klein and other high-profile figures. \u201cPaul Kantner was really nice to The Mutants,\u201d Webster recalls. \u201cProfessionally we were hopeless, but he was always trying to help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

That help could only take bands so far, though. \u201cI don\u2019t know that we had any particular goals,\u201d laughs Webster, who today still performs with a latter-day Mutants lineup. \u201cWe just kept going. No one was thinking of a recording contract or making a million dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most infamous Mutants gig was one held at Napa State Hospital, opening for The Cramps. \u201cWe took acid for that one,\u201d Webster recalls. Webster recalls that several of the psychiatric patients came onstage with the band. And although The Mutants played hundreds of gigs, Webster notes that \u201cwe never made any money. It wasn\u2019t a job, but we enjoyed doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mutants\u2019 \u201cBaby\u2019s No Good\u201d was included on a 1980 compilation, 415 Music<\/i>. That same year, the band released a three-song single on 415 Records; one of those songs, \u201cInsect Lounge\u201d is included along with tracks from 20 other bands on the new CD compilation Still Disturbing the Peace<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Readymades<\/b>
\nBassist Jonathan Postal was a founding member of The Avengers. He considers the band one of three \u201ctentpole\u201d groups that established San Francisco’s punk scene. \u201cThe others were Crime and the Nuns,\u201d he says. But after playing with The Avengers for some time, Postal realized that if he wanted to play his own songs, he\u2019d have to start a group of his own, one that could become the fourth tentpole band.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just didn\u2019t ring true to me when the Avengers took up this mantle of anger and politics,\u201d Postal says. He would look at edgy bands of the time and think, \u201cYou\u2019re not poor, working class people.\u201d Postal\u2019s songs drew inspiration from Broadway, as well as from singer-songwriters like Kris Kristofferson, Randy Newman and Leonard Cohen. \u201cIf I wanted to play the songs that I\u2019d written, I had to find real musicians,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco punk and new wave scene of the time was different from comparable scenes in New York City and London. \u201cEven though there were rivalries and factions, it was very small,\u201d Postal says. And in a sense, it included people form an earlier music scene, bands like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.<\/p>\n

Thanks to supporters like Klein and Bill Graham, local new wave and punk acts gained high-profile gigs opening for national bands touring the West Coast. \u201cYou\u2019d have the Nuns opening up for the Ramones,\u201d Postal recalls. \u201cWhen the Sex Pistols came, the Avengers opened up for them. The Readymades opened for Blondie and The Police; the first really big show we did, we opened for Patti Smith.\u201d<\/p>\n

As their choice of band name would telegraph, The Readymades combined a more literate lyrical approach with the raw power of punk, helping to connect the new music with the artistic sensibilities of Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp. San Francisco Art Institute graduate Postal showed that punk could be lyrically sophisticated without losing its edge.<\/p>\n

Readymades songs were, Postal says, \u201cvery melodic, but I had a lot of strange stuff in there. And that was probably the reason the band fractured: Other people in the band were being told, \u2018Hey, if Jonathan didn\u2019t have this quirkiness, you guys would be really big.\u2019\u201d But the Readymades had a loyal local following, and they toured outside the region.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Howie Klein played The Readymades\u2019 songs on his radio show; other deejays picked up on them, too. Their self-released single \u201cElectric Toys\u201d was in regular rotation on KSAN. And at the direction of manager Sandy Pearlman, the band recorded a number of songs. \u201cWe did demos for all the major record labels,\u201d Postal says. \u201cThat\u2019s why we have such a small [official] output.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those songs was \u201c415 Music.\u201d It\u2019s a sardonic look at the San Francisco music scene. \u201cEverything I wrote was kind of snarky; all my songs have little jokes,\u201d says Postal, but he was surprised that listeners picked them up, surrounded as they are by speedy punk arrangements. \u201cI consider it lucky that people can even name the song after hearing it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Howie Klein liked the song\u2019s title, and he put together a various-artists collection of local bands on his new 415 Records. The Readymades stayed together about three years, but never landed a deal, and didn\u2019t release an album. Happily, Liberation Hall\u2019s new San Francisco: Mostly Live<\/i> collects nearly all Readymades recordings in one place.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Pop-O-Pies<\/b>
\nJoe Pop-O-Pie (born Joseph Callahan) recalls hanging out at college with his fellow music majors. \u201cWe were talking about new wave and punk, and somebody said, \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be interesting if somebody did a punk version of the Grateful Dead\u2019s \u201cTruckin\u2019\u201d?\u2019\u201d So he did: he put together The Pop-O-Pies, and initially, the group played only that one song.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t exactly a piss-take on the Dead (or Deadheads), though. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a slam,\u201d Joe insists. \u201cIt was more like \u2026 an experiment.\u201d And the Pop-O-Pies one-song set list earned the band some fans in high places. \u201cJerry Garcia liked it,\u201d Joe says with pride. \u201cThey\u2019re good sports; they\u2019re cool people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet at first, the audiences gave an evening of \u201cTruckin\u2019\u201d a mixed reception. \u201cThey would start chanting, \u2018Play something different!\u2019\u201d Joe recalls with a laugh. \u201cAnd of course that would just make us want to play the same thing more.\u201d Perhaps because the Pop-O-Pies took their name from Zippy the Pinhead\u2019s favorite snack, Joe provides a food-and-drink metaphor: \u201cPeople like sugar in their coffee, so it\u2019s like if we took the top off the sugar flask and poured the whole thing in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though there was certainly more to the group than its reinvention of a Dead classic, The Pop-O-Pies irreverent take on rock royalty hinted at a future musical landscape that would embrace satirical, high-concept genre-smashing acts like Dread Zeppelin, Beatallica and Mac Sabbath.<\/p>\n

On one hand, Joe says that his group was solidly in the punk\/new wave genre. But at the same time, he wanted to push the limits of that label. \u201cTo my knowledge, I was the first white guy to ever put rap and punk on the same record, on The White EP<\/i>,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And Joe admits that calling The Pop-O-Pies a group is probably inaccurate. \u201cIt\u2019s really kind of me and this blind tribe of musicians that I play with,\u201d he says. At various points The Pop-O-Pies included Danny Heifetz and Trey Spruance (Mr. Bungle) and Klaus Fluoride (Dead Kennedys). And for a time, The Pop-O-Pies and Faith No More were essentially the same band.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joe recalls how The Pop-O-Pies got signed to 415 Records in 1981. \u201cI walked into KUSF one day; Howie Klein was a DJ at the time. I said, \u2018Hey, could you guys maybe cart this up and play it on the radio sometime?\u2019 I didn\u2019t realize how popular it would be!\u201d Both \u201cTruckin\u2019\u201d and an original, \u201cThe Catholics Are Attacking\u201d became the most requested songs on the station. \u201cHowie had a label, 415 Records, so he eventually got in touch with me and made a proposition,\u201d Joe says. \u201cIt sounded good, he made me a deal, I went for it, and the rest just happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

After releasing The White EP<\/i> on 415 Records, the group toured North America a number of times. But Joe says that tone of the most memorable gigs was in December 1982, opening for Oingo Boingo. \u201cI got this idea because there was so much backstage beer. There were all these kids down in the front, and I just had this wild idea to start selling the beer for $1,\u201d he laughs. \u201cThat didn\u2019t go over too well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberation Hall\u2019s expanded version of The White EP<\/i> adds seven more cuts including more recent Pop-O-Pies material.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… The Mutants In late 1978, Sally Webster had a giant loft on First and Mission where she often held salon-type events. \u201cA lot of bands played […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,50,62],"tags":[4390,4429,4397,4395,4398,4394,4396],"class_list":["post-20155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-wave","category-rawk","tag-415-records","tag-howie-klein","tag-mutants","tag-pop-o-pies","tag-readymades","tag-svt","tag-uptones","cat-41-id","cat-50-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20155"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20400,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20155\/revisions\/20400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}