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Matt Riot: Adventures with The Soulsteppers and Death Valley Driver · San Joaquin Sound

0:00
This is a content warning. This episode contains
0:04
graphic descriptions of violence, some sexual
0:07
references and mentions of homophobia and racism.
0:14
You're late. You run to your car and race downtown
0:18
committing a few minor traffic violations. It's
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2001. President George W. Bush is in office,
0:27
and the mayor of Bakersfield is Harvey Hall.
0:30
As you drive down Truxton Avenue, on your left
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you see the Centennial Garden, where the Condors
0:36
played. You also see the Convention Center, where
0:39
you saw Ozzy Osbourne play back in 1995. But
0:42
today you're in the mood for Bakersfield music.
0:45
You're on your way to Jerry's Pizza to see a
0:47
punk show. You park and race inside to pay the
0:53
$5 cover. As you walk downstairs to the brick
0:56
-lined basement, you hear the sound of an organ.
1:00
It's not punk you hear, it's reggae. This is
1:03
the sound of the Soul Steppers. You're listening
1:29
to the San Joaquin Sound Podcast, the podcast
1:32
about music in Bakersfield and the surrounding
1:34
valley. I'm your host, AJ Rodriguez. For this
1:40
episode, I interviewed Matt Riot. He played in
1:44
bands like Death Valley Driver, The Kill, and
1:47
The Soul Steppers. To start out, what was growing
1:51
up in Bakersfield like for you? I grew up as
1:53
kind of just a skater kid. You know, like there
1:57
wasn't a lot to do in Bakersfield. There was
1:58
skateboarding. And back then, skateboarding culture
2:01
hadn't quite turned to hip hop in like Thrasher
2:04
magazine or any other magazines. And it was still
2:06
mainly punk rock influence. So pretty much if
2:09
you were a junior higher with the skateboard,
2:12
you were probably going to shows at Chaos Coffee,
2:16
Bam Bam's Empire, Romper Room or Jerry's. And
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that's kind of how we all navigated. A lot of
2:24
us were skaters. Some of us were punk rockers.
2:26
Some of us became more influenced by the punk
2:29
rock scene, dropped the skateboard because during
2:32
those years it went from, like if you wore...
2:35
airwalks you were a dork or everybody thought
2:38
you were gay if you had colored hair or whatever
2:41
back then so um when that started getting invaded
2:44
by more jockey type kids and it was okay for
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like you know little yuppie girls to start wearing
2:49
dc shoes like we were just like fuck that on
2:52
the punk you know yeah it really became mainstream
2:55
at the end of the 90s with the x games with tony
2:58
hawks pro skater and stuff yeah so it's about
3:01
94 for me when I completely stopped skating by
3:08
that point. And there were a few of us, you know,
3:10
Matt Levan. Yeah. Yeah. He was the best skater
3:13
in town at the time, like out of all of our crew.
3:15
We went to Tevis together, Tevis Junior High.
3:18
And me and him were some of the first ones to
3:20
start smoking pot like that young at Tevis. And
3:24
we'd go to Jerry's shows and bring the tapes
3:26
that we bought and like listen to him smoke pot
3:28
out in the fields at Tevis. Yeah, we were big
3:30
influences on each other at the time. Do you
3:32
remember any shows here in Bakersfield that you
3:34
saw growing up that really influenced you? Early
3:36
on, the Fugazi show was a big one, where they
3:39
came and played at a tone theater for five bucks.
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My band played its very first show a few weeks
3:46
before that, No Compliance. We played with Unwritten
3:49
Law, which was like, back then that was a big
3:51
deal to play with Unwritten Law. They were a
3:52
pop punk band. I was 12. I think, for our first
3:56
show. And our singer jumped off the stage scared.
4:00
So all of a sudden I'm playing bass and I'm having
4:02
to sing all the songs, do all that stuff on my
4:04
first show. And Tejon Theater was a big theater
4:07
and a big stage. Yeah. The only thing I really
4:09
remember was after we got off stage, some other
4:12
band got on. Our friend Tracy Turkey told them
4:15
to get off so the next band could come on. And
4:17
then some cholos came and stabbed Turkey because
4:20
this was on Baker Street Tone Theater. It was
4:23
not safe out there for punk rockers or anything.
4:26
Damn. There was other good shows. John Bentley
4:28
threw a lot of the best shows in Bakersfield
4:30
during that time. There's the famous Pansy Division
4:33
show. I don't know if you've heard of that. I
4:35
haven't heard of it. I know the band. Yeah, Pansy
4:38
Division, amazing band, amazing guys. Talked
4:40
to them tons over the years, even after the incident.
4:43
They came here and played. And they were an openly
4:46
gay pride band. They were playing with a band
4:48
called Siren. Number one with my friend Ward
4:52
Husted. And a few at Basic Four, Oliver Droppers
4:56
and some other people. And Pansy Division was
4:59
on last. Now, this was before I was in the skinhead
5:02
scene, and I really didn't like any of those
5:04
dudes. I'll even name their names. Cameron, Chris
5:07
Sawyer, who are some of my best friends still
5:09
to this day now. But the Pansy Division was up
5:13
on stage. There was still a lot of homophobia
5:14
at the time, like where even in the traditional
5:18
skinhead crews, like you didn't fuck with homophobia.
5:20
I'm the one who got into the crew and then made
5:23
everyone kind of drop their guards on that because
5:25
they couldn't get me out of their group. constantly
5:29
was like making them like have my balls on their
5:32
head and stuff but pansy division played a show
5:34
they pointed out that some of the skinheads in
5:36
the crowd were very cute and then he lifted the
5:39
singer lifted up his dress showed him his nuts
5:41
and balls and said i'll see you later son or
5:44
something like that And Cameron and Chris jumped
5:47
on stage to fight them. And the drummer grabbed
5:49
his cymbal stand and started just beating the
5:53
fuck out of Chris. And then I started beating
5:56
the fuck out of Cameron. We got everyone out
5:58
of there. And that was the last time Pansy Division
6:01
ever played here. But it's one of their stories
6:03
that they tell because it was an extreme example
6:06
of homophobia in Bakersfield. And it sucks because
6:10
none of those people today have those kind of
6:13
politics. But we were all young and stupid and
6:17
the skinhead crews were there for violence. That's
6:21
what we, you know, later as I got into it. That
6:24
was what we wanted to portray. We took ourselves
6:27
very seriously, even though we were a bunch of
6:28
fucking LARPers in the end. We took it so seriously,
6:31
it was almost comical. So let's talk about what
6:34
is a skinhead. It actually started in the UK,
6:37
but... There were a lot of Jamaicans living in
6:41
the UK at the time, and they were importing the
6:43
Jamaican records, the reggae records. During
6:46
that time in England, the mod movement was really
6:49
big, and they were into soul music. And they
6:51
started getting into some of this import Jamaican
6:53
music. And over time, their styles, their dress
6:56
styles stayed very much the same. But they started
6:59
shaving their heads to have a tougher look. And
7:01
it was first called hard mods. Hard mods. They
7:04
were the hard mods, the ones that wanted to fight.
7:06
And then later on, it became called skinhead.
7:10
Skinheads had that title as not even an anti
7:14
-racist movement because there were black skinheads.
7:16
But by 1976, the Young National Front movement,
7:21
kind of like how, this is going to piss people
7:24
off, I'm sure, kind of like how the MAGA movement
7:26
picked up a lot of the young generation here,
7:29
the Young National Front movement. pulled kind
7:32
of like a turning point USA and started going
7:34
to the youth at punk shows that were violent
7:37
and recruiting these kids, telling them, you
7:39
know, you're down and out because of the immigration.
7:42
And that's when this bands like Screwdriver came
7:46
out that represented themselves as skinheads
7:49
and Jerry Springers and the, you know, all that
7:52
stuff started spreading wider. And the original
7:56
words of skinhead. It has always offended anyone
8:01
who is a traditional skinhead to run into a Nazi.
8:03
And there's never a fight that doesn't happen
8:05
when that happens because of this long confusion.
8:09
And usually Nazis don't know the difference.
8:11
They don't know the history. So they'll often
8:14
come up to us if they think that they're dressed
8:16
like us or they see us wearing docs or whatever
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and say, hey, you fellow Nazi brother. And usually
8:21
ends very bad. And that's how it always has been
8:24
at Bakersfield. I read an article about. a lot
8:27
of violence between, in the California in 1990,
8:32
it said that Jake Chavez was the president of
8:34
the Sharps, which is the skinheads against racial
8:38
prejudice, right? Yeah, I'm not so sure on his
8:43
presidential status on all that. A lot of that
8:46
was coming down from Oregon and the boys from
8:48
Oregon bringing it down here. The anti -racist
8:51
action was getting brought down here. Oh, I just
8:52
meant president of locally. Is what it said.
8:55
I mean, it's very possible he may have taken
8:58
that claim. But I know there were several guys
9:00
that were very integral. And Jake was integral
9:02
in that scene. He was integral in our scene.
9:05
But maybe not the most beloved character in the
9:07
end because of some other actions. Much later
9:11
on with the Soul Steppers. Do you want to talk?
9:13
Any about what a sharp is and the difference
9:17
between that and traditional even? Any of the
9:19
kind of rivalry that was going on? Yeah, sure.
9:23
So first off, traditional skinheads usually would
9:27
not involve themselves in politics. They were
9:28
not racist. Most of the time, not racist. We're
9:31
not allowed to hang out with racists. There were
9:33
very few people in my era. I was the only one
9:36
that was carrying the sharp flag. That was it.
9:38
No one else would do it. That didn't mean that
9:41
the traditionals, if I was fighting a bunch of
9:44
Nazis, wouldn't come and fight with me. We were
9:48
like blood brothers. So it always went that way.
9:51
Yeah, I mean, Oildale isn't a far shot from Jerry's
9:54
Pizza or Empire. And there were guys like Diamond,
9:58
Tiny, a bunch of dudes. You know, there were
10:01
guys like Scott Mathis that would walk. we called
10:04
it fence walkers that would hang out the nazis
10:06
and with try to be cool with us but like would
10:09
also fight with us if those guys were around
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yeah and it just depends like older aj like he
10:15
was in the in the penultimate time of nazis where
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he was going to jail for hurting nazis and stuff
10:21
and there were times like one of the dudes went
10:24
to prison from the sharp gang for killing a nazi
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so there was some serious stuff that went down
10:29
and it kept going until about 2000 three 2004
10:34
nazis kind of started getting wiped out and realized
10:36
that coming to shows wasn't smart and you were
10:39
in the repugnance right and yes yes yeah it was
10:42
an oi band it was uh me Chris Sawyer was our
10:45
manager. Cameron, a part of the Pansy Division
10:47
guys, was our guitarist. We had a bassist. We
10:51
had two bassists, a guy named Meathead, Meathead
10:54
John, and then John Stinnett later on played
10:57
bass. And I was the drummer in that band. So
11:01
when you were in the Repugnance, this would have
11:03
been in the mid -90s? This would have been 99.
11:06
99? Right, I would have been... Not out of high
11:09
school yet. I graduated in 99, so I would have
11:12
been not out of high school yet. I would have
11:13
been 17 when I was in the Repugnance. Where were
11:16
you playing shows at? Repugnance, we're mostly
11:19
playing shows at Jerry's, I think. I don't know
11:22
where the hell we played. We played several shows,
11:24
but I want to say it was always at Jerry's. We
11:27
were playing shows with, like I said, there was
11:29
one show where we played with Vi Squad, where
11:31
it was the Soul Steppers. The Repugnance, and
11:34
The Kill on it. So it was this major old British
11:38
oi band and then three of my bands. And they
11:40
were just kind of shocked that one person was
11:42
playing in three totally different style music
11:44
bands. That was cool. But yeah, we played a lot
11:48
of shows like that. Pistol Grip, The Generators,
11:51
whose singer recently died. The singer Schlepprock,
11:54
Doug and the Slugs. Yeah, any oi show that came
11:58
through, we were on. There was a great show,
12:01
a good story for you. Vicious Rumors was a band
12:05
from, an OI band from the late 70s, and they
12:08
came and played with us. That was the Generator
12:10
Show. And this is still when they're, you know,
12:13
like they're traditional skinheads, but there
12:14
are also gangs involved. We were called the 19th
12:18
Street Crew and B Street. 19th Street were mostly
12:21
the punk rockers. B Street were the traditional
12:24
skinheads, right? And then you had, as you went
12:27
further down L .A., you had the Carson City Skins.
12:30
And, you know, there were all kinds of other
12:32
groups throughout there. The San Diego Knuckle
12:34
Girls were like the mean, burly skinhead girls
12:37
nobody wanted to mess with. But the Carson City
12:40
Skinheads came up. And we had Boot Party from
12:44
Fresno, which was another very violent. gang,
12:47
bunch of, they were like Cholo, Cholo skins.
12:50
And they came down and there ended up being a
12:54
knife fight with a chair fight between two of
12:57
our good friends. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was,
13:00
it was pretty scary because it was, it was legit.
13:02
And those two guys knew how to fight really well.
13:05
And we had to get in the middle of a knife fight.
13:07
One was fending one off with the chair and one,
13:10
I think it was Stan or Gramps had the knife going,
13:13
but that, that was definitely very memorable.
13:16
Was that outside or inside? That was right outside
13:19
Jerry's on the patio. Wow. And that night, we
13:23
all went back to Kevin Bruce's house, who was
13:25
also part of the Soul Steppers for a little bit.
13:28
And we were partying there, and vicious rumors.
13:32
They were in their 50s and 60s. And at 5, they
13:36
didn't drink, do nothing. They stayed with us
13:38
at 5 a .m. They were out doing exercises on the
13:41
lawn, like jumping jacks and push -ups and stuff.
13:44
Still in contact with them, and the dude's still
13:46
like a physical trainer and stuff. So yeah, that
13:49
was memorable. Did you have bands staying at
13:53
your house a lot? All the time, especially during
13:56
the Munoz Gym days. A lot of bands crashed in
13:58
my house, which wasn't necessarily a good thing
14:00
for them. If I really liked them, they'd be fine,
14:03
but there was a band called Light the Fuse and
14:05
Run. I did not like them at all, so I took their
14:08
camcorder that they brought with them, and I
14:11
filmed myself when they went home. They had a
14:16
nice surprise, and they ended up writing a song
14:18
about how much they hate me and want to kill
14:20
me, but it never happened. We were wild. We liked
14:26
pranks. We did a lot of drugs. My favorite band
14:30
that would come by was Page 99, I want to say.
14:34
And they became the Vita Blue. The Vita Blue.
14:39
And there's a documentary called Afropunk. And
14:43
they interview Matt from the Vita Blue in there.
14:45
They would always stay at my house. Fucking loved
14:48
those dudes. And Matt was always the one that
14:50
was never into drugs, never drinking. Just this
14:52
cool fucking dude. And he ended up dying of a
14:55
brain aneurysm really young. Wow. So that was
14:58
rough. That was a rough one to go through because
14:59
he was close with all of us. But losing Gabe,
15:02
I think, has been the hardest. Gabe Serbian from
15:05
The Locust and all the other bands he's been
15:08
in, you know, playing with Slayer and everything.
15:13
You were in The Soul Steppers. The Soul Steppers
15:16
had started with another drummer. And because
15:20
we were both skinhead bands, we were playing
15:21
shows together. And eventually Adam got out of
15:24
the move. movement or you know got out of the
15:27
scene a little bit playing whatever and i was
15:31
the only one out of our crew who knew how to
15:32
play drums but i was playing hardcore and they
15:35
wanted me to play skinhead reggae style which
15:37
is like late 67 to 73 era reggae and uh had to
15:44
pick it up real fast learn it and yeah that was
15:47
probably the most musical band that most people
15:51
like when they hear it as opposed to my other
15:54
bands. Lots of noise and punk people didn't identify
15:59
with outside of the punk scene, but the Soul
16:02
Steppers kind of transgressed that. Originally,
16:06
Adam Combs, who's no longer with us, recently
16:08
passed. It was Mike Umholtz, AJ, and Graham.
16:14
on keyboards. Graham's still a part of the Tread
16:17
Scooter Club. We still see him every scooter
16:19
because we still do scooter runs and stuff like
16:22
that for our crew. AJ's still part of it. I mean,
16:25
we're all still close. And Jake Chavez was the
16:28
manager of the Soul Steppers, which is probably
16:30
a good part to bring this point in. We had records
16:33
that were selling. We sold a lot of records.
16:37
None of us ever saw a dime for that except Jake.
16:39
Damn. And that's when none of us really talked
16:42
to Jake ever again. He also opened a record store
16:46
downtown before Ronald did called Downtown Records
16:48
with our good friend Brian Miller, who was also
16:53
a part, a major part of our scooter scene. He
16:55
started Unforgiven Scooter Club, which is our
16:58
scooter club. And B, Brian, was the real record
17:01
collector. And he had magic in that store. And
17:05
Jake wanted to quickly take it over very greedily.
17:07
And that caused a rift. And then me, AJ, no one
17:11
ever saw a dime for any of our records ever sold.
17:14
He said it all went to postage, which was ridiculous.
17:17
So we lost our manager, and he was really close
17:22
with the singer at the time, and me and the singer
17:24
didn't get along. I do get along with Mike as
17:27
we're adults now. I love Mike, and we've known
17:30
each other since we were real little. Graham
17:33
and AJ stopped getting along as well. So eventually
17:35
it just became me and AJ in a room. In a studio
17:40
recording reel -to -reel and trying to cover
17:43
everything and do everything. There's still a
17:45
version of Rod Stewart's Maggie Mae out there
17:47
that's really, really good that hasn't been mixed
17:50
down yet. He has for the last Soul Steppers release,
17:54
I think. That's cool. Oh, and Billy was in the
17:57
band too? Billy, yeah. Billy was the lead guitarist.
18:00
He's still married to Chris Sawyer's wife. Her
18:05
sister's married to Billy. And we're all still,
18:07
I mean, we don't really, I haven't talked to
18:09
Bill bought in a long time, but me and Billy
18:10
went to elementary school together. Oh, that's
18:12
cool. So like a lot of us have been lifetime
18:14
friends. And if, even if we still don't talk,
18:17
we are still like, if we see each other, it's
18:19
instant back to them. We should talk about scooters.
18:22
You mentioned the scooter club. Why do, why does
18:26
skinhead culture love scooters so much? Um, it
18:29
was all based on the mod culture in, in the British
18:32
music scene, 63, uh, mods all road. scooters
18:36
that was a part of their thing you know like
18:38
put as many mirrors on it make it as gaudy as
18:41
you could and because the mod scene and the skinhead
18:44
scene were really one in the same thing just
18:47
different years leading on different haircuts
18:50
and slowly different styles but the scooters
18:53
have stayed with it all the way through it and
18:55
we still throw yearly scooter rallies unforgiven
18:58
scooter club up by Lake Isabella each year, where
19:03
we go out, DJ punk rock, oi, northern soul, reggae,
19:08
and hopefully try to stay standing as long as
19:12
we can. That's awesome. Yeah. You know, you were
19:15
in an oi band before this, and you think of,
19:18
you were talking about some of the fights that
19:21
happened. The Soul Steppers is just more relaxing
19:24
music, but were there still fights? Yes. Still
19:27
fights. There was a real, real well -known one.
19:30
What had happened was I mentioned a guy named
19:32
Scott Mathis earlier, who we called a fence walker,
19:34
right? He was hanging out with Nazis all the
19:36
time, but he would try to be buddies with some
19:39
of us, but not really. You never knew where you
19:41
stood. You always knew he would probably stab
19:42
you in your side if he could. And he was downstairs.
19:47
I had quit the band. for a few weeks because
19:50
I got sick of Mike. And they got another drummer
19:53
for one show. And I showed up to be supportive
19:55
anyways. It was his kid, Tony. And so I was there
19:58
being supportive in the crowd. My friend Celso,
20:01
I don't know if he lives here anymore. He was
20:03
a part of our crew. And then this guy Scott Mathis
20:06
was right there. And as they were playing their
20:10
show, Scott Mathis bowed up on AJ's girlfriend
20:15
at the time. like really got in her face and
20:19
then punched Celso. So I punched Scott Mathis.
20:23
AJ took his Fender jazz bass while they're playing,
20:27
unplugs it, smashes it on the ground, uses it
20:31
like an ax and chases. Scott Mathis out of Jerry's.
20:35
So that base used to hang above the very front
20:37
register of Jerry's Pizza for years. Because
20:41
Jerry's was like, that was fucking awesome. Jerry
20:44
himself was like, that was something. Like this
20:46
beautiful music and then chaos erupts. So, you
20:50
know, we're all dressed nice, look nice, singing
20:53
love songs and still the same scene. Yeah, shit
20:56
still goes down. We took the gang shit way too
21:01
seriously at the time, I think. Like looking
21:03
back, when I say we're LARPers, like we were
21:06
dressing like people from the late 60s. We were
21:10
playing music like the people from the late 60s.
21:12
Yeah. We were acting like the people from the
21:14
late 60s. We were liking and dressing, you know,
21:16
like at some point you're LARPing and you can't
21:18
take yourself too seriously. And we, for a long
21:21
time we did. And then eventually... That all
21:24
kind of went. Like, you know, AJ now, you wouldn't
21:27
picture him just flying, kicking someone in the
21:29
head. But he's probably one of the toughest dudes
21:31
I know. Yeah. And he has that reputation because
21:34
people watched it. But him now, you just probably
21:38
couldn't picture him doing anything but being
21:40
quiet and quietly say something under his breath.
21:43
Yeah, I've only known him in a very calm, as
21:46
a really calm, chill guy. Yeah. Yeah, I got to
21:49
watch him do flying scissor kicks. Like... Spin
21:53
kicks. Great. That dude looked like he had done
21:57
Taekwondo for 10 years and never touched it.
22:00
Yeah, you had an LP that came out one last time
22:04
in 2001 with Michael on guitar and vocals. Yeah,
22:08
Mike Gumholz. Graham on the organ. Yep. Billy
22:11
on lead guitar. Yep. AJ on bass. Yep. And you
22:16
on drums. Yep. And sometimes we would do things
22:19
like where I'd lay lead guitar tracks. on different
22:23
parts bill bill bought bill did most of the lead
22:27
guitar on that one but in later lp or later eps
22:30
and different lps it was different people playing
22:33
stuff because slowly people like we kicked mike
22:35
out of the band eventually even though he was
22:38
our singer and he was a amazing singer the guy
22:41
anybody you hear his voice and you think you're
22:43
getting taken back to the 60s soul era amazing
22:46
singer amazing dude but we me and mike did not
22:49
like each other we went to junior high together
22:50
we just never got along we had the same kind
22:53
of personalities that was fight fight fight he
22:55
was bigger and so we just can't yeah it didn't
22:58
work out yeah the soul steppers is interesting
23:01
because it's almost like a I don't know what
23:03
I would call a time capsule band. It's a, it's
23:06
a band that you listen to and they don't sound
23:08
like they're, they don't sound current. They
23:10
sound like 60s, 70s reggae. Yeah. I think I'm
23:14
not an expert, but we actually went and got Buck
23:17
Owens eight track recorder, which was about.
23:22
seven or eight feet tall it's a big huge machine
23:25
real real and we were using an echo plex and
23:29
all kinds of other stuff to keep the sound so
23:30
traditional that no one could identify it differently
23:34
from a 60s album that was our whole goal with
23:37
that and i've tried to look up the soul steppers
23:41
in a bunch of zine archives and i found references
23:45
to the soul steppers all over the world. In Europe,
23:50
people really loved your sound. Huge. And just
23:54
references in South America to the Soul Steppers
23:57
on any zine that was a reggae zine was talking
24:01
about this record because it was so unique and
24:04
sounded so authentic. Yeah, it was a cool time
24:08
and it felt like we had a lot of upward trajectory.
24:11
There was another band out during that same time
24:14
called the Rhythm Doctors. Later on, I think
24:17
some of those people became agro -lites. And
24:20
now one of the guys from here is in the agro
24:22
-lites that played in a later iteration of kind
24:26
of the Soul Steppers that became called Capsouls.
24:29
Great drummer. Oh, cool. Were there like full
24:33
reggae shows or were you playing on split bills
24:36
with other genres? We were playing on split bills
24:38
a lot with other genres, usually like the big...
24:42
big oi bands that would come through we'd play
24:44
with them like vice squad the business um it
24:48
was just the two off the top of my head but we
24:50
would also play with bands like god the insiders
24:53
which were a soul band from norcal we did play
24:57
with the rhythm doctors down at the whiskey a
25:00
go -go we had a santa monica pier show with i
25:04
can't remember that band but they ended up getting
25:06
big but yeah um you ever have shows with menta
25:09
buru I don't know if we ever had shows with Mentor
25:12
Brew, but they were all close friends of ours.
25:14
Cesario from Mentor Brew taught me how to play
25:16
drums when I was in junior high. Oh, that's awesome.
25:18
Yeah, he would go to our junior high. We'd sit
25:21
there, smoke cigarettes, and fucking teach me
25:24
drums. And he was a major influence on me in
25:26
many ways with that. But our biggest show, I'd
25:29
say, was with Dave Wakeling from The English
25:31
Beat and Ika Mouse at a reggae fest. Awesome.
25:34
But the problem was they left a keg backstage
25:37
for us to drink. And so by the time we were playing,
25:40
I don't really remember playing much. And someone
25:45
was passing around a bottle of 151, and we were
25:47
all taking shots of that. So there's a lot of
25:50
stuff I don't remember too well, but we pulled
25:52
it off somehow. So what about the other bands
25:56
that you were playing in? Did you ever play in
25:59
Death Valley Driver? I did. I was one of the
26:02
longer members of it. Originally, I'm trying
26:04
to remember, it was Bo. Oh, could you say that
26:07
one more time? Yeah. Because you moved it. Yeah.
26:09
Early before me, it was Bo Mingus, Adam Harreld,
26:15
and then Drew and Ronald. And Adam and Drew were
26:20
professional wrestlers at the time. And I was
26:23
already doing stuff with them under Prolapse
26:25
Nation, which quickly became The Kill when Bo
26:27
moved out. And since we are already all playing
26:31
there and we're already playing the same shows,
26:34
it was like, well, I might as well just stay
26:36
on drums and just do blast beats and stuff like
26:40
that and let the guys who wrestle hurt themselves.
26:42
And I was the referee, so I'd always wear a referee
26:46
jersey with other things on it, with other symbols.
26:50
So Death Valley Driver only became a thing because
26:55
we had extra time. Drew, our... The singer of
26:59
The Kill was also a pro wrestler and doing real
27:02
pro wrestling shows, as was Adam Harreld, if
27:04
I remember correctly. Yeah, down at the Dome.
27:06
Yeah, down at the Dome. They were doing legitimate
27:07
pro wrestling. And they wanted to do extreme
27:12
wrestling. And Drew was really... all about bleeding
27:16
and blading and if you if you're not familiar
27:19
with wrestling blading means hiding a razor blade
27:21
somewhere and cutting your forehead up when no
27:23
one's looking and all of a sudden your head will
27:26
bleed a lot especially if there's sweat you'll
27:28
just be covered in blood in every show he would
27:31
do that he would get naked and it was it was
27:35
chaos and it was in a boxing ring and sometimes
27:37
he'd fly out of the ring and hit people and come
27:39
back in the ring everybody covered in blood Yeah,
27:42
I don't even know why or how. I'd never heard
27:44
of a band doing that before. I know bands do
27:47
that now. There are other bands that have done
27:49
it since and have gotten big for it. But I wish
27:54
people would release the video of that stuff.
27:56
I know Adam has some of the video and he put
27:58
it up on Instagram not even that long ago. But
28:00
he cut out the fight scenes. He's like, this
28:02
will just be memories for us who were there and
28:05
that's it. So I'm not going to put these up.
28:06
And I wish you would because I don't remember
28:08
some of them. I do remember having a lot of fear.
28:12
Even with all the drugs I was on, I remember
28:14
being really scared for Adam a few times and
28:17
Drew because some of those hits were not okay
28:19
that they took. You know, 10 feet in the air
28:21
being power bombed onto concrete. That's nuts.
28:25
Wow. Drew specifically was impervious to pain.
28:30
Adam was just very tough. What were the songs
28:32
about? It's hard to tell with that type of music
28:35
what the lyrics are, right? No lyrics. No lyrics?
28:39
Anything to do with Drew had no lyrics. I don't
28:41
believe. There were songs called, we had songs
28:43
like Ric Flair 14 times, where we'd yell, holy
28:46
shit, 14 times. All the songs were supposed to
28:49
be about wrestling, but what Drew actually sang,
28:51
nobody's ever seen any lyric books or anything.
28:53
In the kill, it's why, like, trying to come up
28:55
with the, I think me and Ronald named the songs.
28:59
but we never knew the lyrics to any of the songs,
29:01
so I don't know if the lyrics aligned with any
29:02
of the names, and they never really got kept
29:05
because we didn't really release much, you know?
29:08
Yeah. We had no interest in recording. Everything
29:11
for us was like, get it on video because that's
29:13
where the fun shit's going to be. Yeah, I've
29:15
seen like a live tape of Death Valley Driver.
29:20
but that's it i've never seen any albums i think
29:23
there's some kill there's some kill albums oh
29:25
yeah there's some kill albums out there i guess
29:27
yeah yeah we were on a uh compilation jello biafra
29:31
put out called dropping food on their heads is
29:34
not enough in a compilation for the women of
29:38
afghanistan we did that compilation with jello
29:40
biafra that's cool and that's the only thing
29:42
that we released like professionally and i thought
29:44
it sounded like shit because whoever recorded
29:47
it like recorded it so clean that it just didn't
29:50
sound right because our stuff was supposed to
29:52
be very lo -fi death valley driver was a wrestling
29:56
band it's named after a wrestling move yes and
29:59
there would be live wrestling yes At the same
30:03
time as the music and almost, you know, against
30:07
the music, stopping someone playing or something
30:09
like that. It built up into like. As this as
30:13
the music was kind of on our last songs, they
30:15
started hitting each other and then it would
30:18
just lead on. And dude, the things that they
30:20
were doing, it's not it was no joke. They were
30:22
really fucking hurting each other. There was
30:24
blood on the rafters everywhere, dropping on
30:26
people's faces. Some of the things they did were
30:29
really dangerous. And like, I can't I can't express
30:31
how when we say wrestling, we're not just talking
30:34
like small moves. They were going outside of
30:37
the gym, power bombing each other through each
30:39
other's truck windows. And like really, really
30:43
hurting each other. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like,
30:46
I'll play the drums, bro. But yeah. When I talked
30:49
to Adam, he told me he has serious injuries that
30:53
still guarantee, you know, affect him today from
30:56
doing these wrestling shows. Yes. And yeah. And
31:00
Drew had told me that people in the audience
31:03
thought they were fighting and sometimes tried
31:06
to stop and stuff like that. So there's a there's
31:09
a specific show he's talking about. And I brought
31:12
my friend Estevan and his brother Jose. And they
31:15
were like east side guys, kind of like a greaser.
31:18
One was a greaser and one was kind of just like
31:20
a kickback cholo. And I brought them with me,
31:23
but I didn't know they ate a bunch of acid before
31:24
they came in. And I didn't tell them what Death
31:27
Valley Driver was. So they saw my band playing
31:31
and then they saw our bassist hit our singer.
31:34
And all of a sudden... jose was like oh my god
31:37
you're gonna kill me so he started just swinging
31:40
on adam and just really hard and he could fight
31:42
really well so we all had to like i had to be
31:45
like guys no don't hit either of each other because
31:49
they were all my good friends and yeah yeah that
31:52
turned into a big mess a lot of people got beat
31:54
up over it because they didn't understand what
31:56
was going on And Drew's still a wrestler. He
31:59
still does wrestling stuff. Yeah, that blows
32:00
my mind. He's so old now to go do these death
32:04
matches like he's doing. It genuinely worries
32:06
me, and I've told him that, but he's always been
32:10
like that. He is impervious to pain. He always
32:12
has been. And you played the Munoz Gym, right?
32:15
Yes. A lot. Yes, yes. With all these bands. The
32:18
earliest shows were Ronald was running them.
32:22
Me and Drew were terrorizing. um and playing
32:25
shows you know the kill was very very beginning
32:29
of that prolapse was the beginning of that um
32:31
the prolapse nation was a really weird kind of
32:35
uh a move over because it was beau on guitar
32:38
melvin on bass who is no longer it's still one
32:42
of our best friends but he got into religion
32:45
and just totally phased everyone out he was on
32:48
bass and uh Drew was singing, Ronald was playing
32:52
drums, and we were going to bring me in to play
32:55
synths. And at some point, Bo started doing other
32:58
stuff, more serious stuff on his own side, so
33:01
I just carried it on, and the Prolapse Nation
33:04
became called The Kill. What were live shows
33:07
like with The Kill? There was no wrestling at
33:10
those? There was no wrestling at those, but usually
33:12
what would happen would be Drew would be at the
33:14
front, and he was very aggressive. Some of our
33:19
worst shows were in Fresno. When we toured with
33:21
Total Chaos, we went to Fresno with them. And
33:25
we left with everyone wanting to fight us because
33:28
Drew would take the microphones, no matter whose
33:30
microphones they were, he would bash them on
33:33
his head. He would break everyone's microphones.
33:35
He would leave them in shatters. So sound guys
33:39
wanted to kill us. When he was doing this stuff,
33:41
he would punch people in the face in the audience
33:44
and smash the microphone over their head. And
33:47
so they'd want to fight him. And I was behind
33:49
the keyboard, so I was closest to him. Melvin
33:52
didn't fight, so Melvin didn't want anything
33:53
to do with that stuff. And Ronald was down for
33:56
anything. So if Ronald would watch Drew, Drew
33:59
would do his thing. If I got involved, Ronald
34:02
would immediately launch his drumsticks, jump
34:05
over the drum set, and it would just be a fight,
34:07
and that would be the end of the show. And that
34:09
was usually how most shows ended for the kill,
34:11
unless it was at the boxing gym. We didn't do
34:13
a lot of fighting at the boxing gym. Ironically.
34:16
Ironically. It was our place. You can't shit
34:18
where you eat. No, I just think it's funny because
34:19
it's the boxing arena. Yeah, yeah. It's almost
34:24
like performance art. It was dangerous performance
34:26
art, and we got hurt a lot. And in saying this,
34:31
like I'm fucking five, four and a half. Drew's
34:34
not much taller than me. Ronald's tall, but he's
34:37
kind of lanky. Like we weren't like extreme fighters
34:40
or intimidating by any stretch of the imagination.
34:42
So I don't want to kind of come off like we were
34:44
tough. Yeah. We were just stupid. And we knew
34:47
that it would make a great show and great footage.
34:50
And we all knew we didn't eventually heal up
34:52
as long as we didn't get stabbed. Yeah. Yeah.
34:55
Yeah, Death Valley Driver and the Kill sounds
34:57
like we need to get more footage out there, huh?
34:59
Yeah, it needs to come out. I know Ronald's sitting
35:02
on all the videos. A guy named Matt Mickey filmed
35:04
almost every Death Valley Driver show and every
35:06
Kill show. And he had a very special camera with
35:10
special chips in it that made it look like professional
35:14
filming. Yeah, shout out Matt Mickey from Intuition
35:17
Skate Show. Yeah, I love Matt. he put some death
35:20
valley driver footage in one of the intuition
35:22
skate uh videos yes he did like intercut with
35:26
the people falling downstairs yeah on on skates
35:31
probably the best version of death valley driver
35:33
would be with steven coons on drums because he
35:35
could actually play drums from loser life and
35:38
he's gone on to do big stuff yeah yeah i remember
35:41
steven growing up he was a little boy and i forgot
35:43
his first uh band i forgot what they were called
35:46
but i remember bringing him over to my house
35:48
to teach him how to fight because he was he was
35:50
younger and and he knew that you know like all
35:53
this was going on what he was entering into and
35:55
so we were teaching him to fight and that guy
35:57
became a monster When it came to fighting. He
36:00
has his own gym now. Yeah, I'm sure he does.
36:02
Yeah. Yeah. Shout out Koontz. He broke my back.
36:08
I used to pick on him when I was little, and
36:10
I thought I was going to wrestle him after I
36:12
got fat and older. And I went to throw him in
36:15
a triangle choke, and he just picked me up like
36:16
I was nothing and slammed my back on the ground
36:18
and broke my back. Ouch. Yeah, but it was out
36:21
of love. Yeah. Not on purpose. I mean, he tried
36:25
to hurt me, but I was trying to hurt him. But
36:28
we were friends, so. All's fair. It's what happens,
36:32
yeah. Yeah, so with the kill, we would, generally
36:38
speaking, we would play with the lights out in
36:41
the gym. And there'd be like. a stomp box that
36:45
i had that would whenever i stomped on it it
36:48
would trigger a strobe light so everything would
36:50
go crazy during the breakdowns and you could
36:52
see people finally moving but other than that
36:55
there was a gentle lantern over my keyboard so
36:57
i could see what i was playing but it was all
36:59
in the dark for every show drew was almost naked
37:02
for every show um so There was always memorable
37:05
moments. There was playing at Coos Cafe. I can't
37:09
remember who we were playing with, but it was
37:10
pretty big bands. We got banned from Coos Cafe
37:13
for Drew getting naked, chasing people, and then
37:16
fist fighting, and then someone tried to hit
37:18
us with a car. So we were banned from Coos and
37:21
Shea's, Shea Cafe, San Diego, because the same
37:24
guys were running it. All the locust shows were
37:27
amazing because we were all so tight with each
37:29
other. Yeah, all those bands, the 3 -1 -G bands,
37:34
the GSL bands. That was my favorite times. And
37:37
you were working for 3 -1 -G for a while, right?
37:39
Yeah, I was doing 3 -1 -G's website. I was doing
37:42
GSL's website. So I was doing the main record
37:46
label that Locust was on was GSL, but the owner
37:49
of 3 -1 -G was the main guy in the Locust. So
37:53
somehow I just started doing those. I did the
37:56
Blood Brothers for a bit. I did Cattle Decapitations
37:58
early on too. Yeah, Justin just wired me into
38:03
everything. And by doing that, he also wired
38:06
us into shows we probably should never have been
38:09
on because we were just crazy noise. But he enjoyed
38:12
the punk rock aspect of it, like the stage show.
38:15
Yeah. Yeah. My most memorable show was with The
38:19
Locust, Bratmobile, Le Shock, when... And we
38:24
played first. And Drew bloodied himself up so
38:27
much. There was blood all over the rafters on
38:30
top because he was swinging from them. And so
38:32
blood from his head got up there. And when the
38:35
locusts set up to play, Gabe... who is no longer
38:39
with us and one of my really good friends. He
38:41
was the drummer of the Locust at the time. He
38:43
wasn't playing guitar at the time. He was the
38:45
drummer. He set up and as they were playing,
38:48
blood was dropping down on his face. And all
38:51
of a sudden he realized what was going on and
38:53
started puking while he was playing. And that
38:55
was just like one of the most punk rock things.
38:57
Yeah. I've never seen in my life. And it was
38:59
so gross to watch someone else's blood hit his
39:01
face and he didn't care, but he was like, you
39:03
know? Yeah. We got to see a lot of the really
39:07
cool shit just by being in that sphere of the
39:09
3 -1 -G group. And I don't want to leave that
39:12
understated. Like Charles Bronson, Mark from
39:15
Charles Bronson was a big influence on us and
39:17
helped us. Justin Pearson, Gabe, all those guys,
39:21
Trash from Cattle Decapitation, all those guys
39:24
were a big part of why our band was known outside
39:27
of Bakersfield. They were a big reason that the
39:31
gym became known. Because once they were talking
39:33
about it, like, you know, I mean, Jerome's Dream
39:35
wants to come out here. Like, all the bands wanted
39:38
to come out here. Owls. Everybody wanted to play
39:40
that show. You know, that gym. Because it was
39:43
crazy. Playing in the middle of a boxing gym
39:45
is kind of weird. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah. I miss
39:47
that place. I miss that place a lot. It hurt.
39:50
It hurt to watch it go. I don't know if Ronald
39:53
went into the details of what happened at the
39:57
end. No. With people kicking in Grandpa's door.
40:01
when he wasn't around and robbing him. And the
40:05
boxers there weren't, they weren't keeping the
40:09
place up for the man who had built it for them.
40:13
And they weren't helping protect him when they
40:16
were there. And at that point, Ronald had to
40:19
make the decision, is this, this can't keep going
40:23
on to grandpa. And we loved grandpa. Grandpa
40:25
was a grandpa to all of us. And he'd take the
40:29
time to show you how to throw a jab, you know,
40:31
a right hook. Yeah. But it was a sad loss. It
40:36
was a really sad loss to lose that because it
40:38
was a landmark in Bakersfield and people, maybe
40:40
that's why people remember it so fondly because
40:42
it never had a time to take a dip. Nobody, nobody
40:46
that ran it became bad people, you know, and
40:50
fuck Jerry's. So another band you were in was.
40:54
black jerks and that was with clayton yes and
40:59
he was a singer and mark and ron and you yes
41:03
right yes and drew stood there with the unplugged
41:07
bass which he didn't notice till later um but
41:12
yeah so that started because melvin um he started
41:17
kind of like being prissy about when he wanted
41:19
to play shows for the kill. And we started having
41:21
to cancel shows because he's like, I don't feel
41:23
like playing today. I'm going to go do this.
41:24
We're like, okay, well we don't. we're not going
41:28
to use you then. And me and Ron had kind of kicked
41:32
around an idea of making a funny fake emo band,
41:35
like just like, you know, Midwest style, get
41:38
up kid style emo band just for the shits and
41:41
giggles. Yeah. And then I started playing some
41:43
more stuff like Teen Generate, early 77 punk
41:48
style. There were a lot of influences on what
41:52
I was writing on guitar. We were like, okay,
41:56
let's jam on this. And the first, it was just
41:58
me, Clayton, and Ron. And we were rocking pretty
42:03
hard, and it was going good, but Mark Velo came
42:07
in, and he made it sound like he could actually
42:09
play a guitar really well lead, which I don't.
42:12
I can play fine rhythm, but he killed it. And
42:16
once Mark joined the band, that sound became
42:18
amplified. And it was really unfortunate we didn't
42:22
record a lot of the best stuff because that's
42:24
a band that most people would turn out to see
42:26
as a punk band and really like the music. And
42:29
we had a few reunion shows later on, but it was
42:32
never quite the same because of the drugs. The
42:34
drugs took everyone out. Is there any memorable
42:37
shows with them? With the jerks? So most people
42:42
wouldn't put our name on flyers first because...
42:46
They didn't understand it, and it just made it
42:48
sound like it was racist. But our singer was
42:50
Clayton, who most people don't know is black,
42:52
and he would sing black power lyrics about how
42:56
all black men have much bigger dicks and how
42:59
he hates Klansmen and stuff, and we were a black
43:02
power band. he was also kind of a jerk. So it
43:06
became called the black jerks, but most people
43:07
wouldn't put it on the bill as that, unless it
43:10
was us putting us on the bill at the gym. Most
43:12
people would put like circus de negros or something,
43:16
you know, like a jerk is the negros or they,
43:19
they put it in another language because they
43:21
didn't want people seeing that for whatever reason.
43:24
But you know, it was a different political time
43:26
and we were always trying to push boundaries.
43:29
Yeah. As much as we could here. Now this thing,
43:31
I don't know what I'm asking, but what about
43:33
the Haberfield building concert? So there was
43:37
something weird that happened before where we
43:39
got banned from Jerry's pizza completely. And
43:43
this is when Ron had, had the record store inside
43:48
something called the Haberfield building in Bakersfield.
43:50
Yeah. And for those who don't know, it's a very
43:52
small echoey. horrible building to play a show
43:57
in. It is so echoey. It's all tile. And I don't
44:01
remember why, but there was an anti -Nate show
44:03
we played. And it was filled. It was packed.
44:06
I remember Nick Bilardis, who wrote a book called
44:09
Lords of Bakersfield. Great book about the corruption
44:12
in Bakersfield. district attorney on down and
44:17
he was covering the show and he did a great write
44:20
-up on it about how like there were people seek
44:22
hiling about like nate berg nate berg who was
44:25
running jerry's pizza and he's a controversial
44:29
figure he's no longer with us um some people
44:32
love nate some people were friends with nate
44:34
for a while some people like i really knew nate
44:38
and some of his we were good friends for a long
44:41
time and knew some of his more scary things about
44:45
him that if people knew, they would not be asking
44:49
for a star outside the Fox Theater. But it was
44:53
mostly as a pushback to Jerry's because we kept
44:57
getting kicked out and banned everywhere because
45:00
we would fight every show, whether it was The
45:03
Gate, which was the Christian place. We got in
45:05
a fight with some oil del guys there. I don't
45:09
know. It was fun, you know? Yeah. yeah kept it
45:14
interesting so after the jerks then what did
45:17
you do after the jerks i ended up moving down
45:20
to san diego to play with some bands down in
45:22
san diego but i was also moving from bakersfield
45:27
to get off heroin and to get out of that that
45:30
because it swallowed our whole scene during that
45:33
time lots of people died some of us were probably
45:36
more integral to bringing that into the scene
45:39
because when i got into the scene it wasn't heavy
45:41
in the scene but when i got on it a lot of people
45:44
got on it and i had to break away so i moved
45:47
down to san diego was going to do stuff with
45:49
the locust guys and they had just gotten back
45:52
from another tour when all their equipment got
45:55
robbed and they were just all depressed all done
45:57
and so i just worked on my normal day job down
46:03
there working for sony doing uh web programming
46:07
helping support stuff, and then started doing
46:10
my current business, which is cannabis seed stuff.
46:13
And I stopped music from that point on out. You
46:15
still ever play? I mean, in my room sometimes,
46:19
like we've talked about it, you know, a few times.
46:22
But like, I don't, I'm old. I don't want to go
46:25
play shows. I have no interest in playing shows.
46:28
I don't play as well as I used to. So. The creativity's
46:33
kind of gone. Once I got off opiates, that part
46:36
of my brain shut down quite a bit. The creativity
46:39
for music. And I just, this never happened again.
46:43
I still DJ sometimes. You know, I got shitloads
46:45
of records out there. Still have the turntables,
46:48
DJ scooter rallies and stuff. But as far as playing
46:51
music, maybe one day, but definitely not playing
46:54
live. I'm too old for that shit. Do you have
46:56
any other creative outlets that you do now? I
46:59
mean, I have my own show, my own podcast, Cannabis
47:02
History. That's about it, dude. All my creativity
47:09
goes into, like you're doing deep dive research
47:12
into something that you're super passionate about,
47:14
you want to learn about. I got into that with
47:17
cannabis because I learned that cannabis had
47:19
a big punk rock culture in the 70s. And all most
47:22
people know is the deadhead culture with cannabis.
47:26
I wanted to bring that out to the forefront because
47:28
it really wasn't welcome in the can. When I first
47:31
got into cannabis industry, people hated me.
47:33
They're like, who's this loud mouth telling us
47:36
we might be wrong about something, you know,
47:38
like peace, love and vibes, bro. Get out of here.
47:41
So I took all of that creativity that I had for
47:46
like the black jerks doing things that push the
47:49
boundaries and took that and put it into the
47:52
cannabis world. And I'm still probably the most
47:54
hated person in cannabis today, which I'm good
47:57
with for that reason. It wasn't a good thing
48:01
to have people push back and write history correct.
48:05
So, yeah, that's where my creativity went. But,
48:08
yeah, there's still, like I said, there's 25
48:11
electric guitars around the house, so I always
48:12
have something to pick up and play. That's cool.
48:15
Yeah. Is there anything you want to talk about
48:17
that we didn't get to? I think the only other
48:20
thing I'd talk about was the major thing that
48:23
really tore down the scene for a good long while
48:27
was drugs, for sure, for sure. It impacted a
48:30
lot of people, and we needed guys like Ron and
48:34
Mark that weren't into that to carry on with
48:36
the Contaminators and other bands. It's crazy
48:40
to watch. Ron grew up poor like me. We were poor
48:44
kids. He was a poor kid on the east side. His
48:46
grandpa ran the Munoz boxing gym that was an
48:48
actual boxing gym. And to watch him build up
48:52
his company to own part of Bakersfield, like
48:55
that's magic to me, you know. So there were people
48:59
that have made good throughout all the hardships
49:02
that a lot of people in Bakersfield went through
49:04
and pulled through and have a successful career.
49:07
One thing I ask at the end of every episode is,
49:10
like, what are some current Bakersfield bands
49:12
that you want to shout out? But do you know any?
49:16
Sometimes people don't know any. I don't know
49:18
a single one anymore. I haven't been to shows
49:20
in so long. Is there any bands that never got
49:22
their fair shake that you want people to look
49:24
up and listen to from Bakersfield? Oh, my God.
49:27
Yeah. What's the name? Joey Wood. Joey Wood,
49:31
he would play a lot of the shows with us. He
49:33
was an acoustic guy, a lot of bright -eye style
49:35
stuff. I did a side project with him and a lady
49:39
named Lindsey Fair, where it was really low -key,
49:42
bright -eye style stuff. And we played a few
49:45
shows like that. He was awesome. He had a beautiful
49:48
voice. There were other bands that played with
49:52
us at the gym, though, that weren't necessarily
49:54
even from Bakersfield, like Beautiful Skin. They
49:56
didn't get well known. They're on GSL. Early
49:59
80s sounding stuff that was amazing. I remember
50:02
when they played here, everybody walked out except
50:04
for me. And that was very memorable. It was cool
50:09
being known as the band. Like when Molly Newman
50:12
from Bratmobile hit me up to play with us, she's
50:15
like, I hear you guys are like the germs. Like
50:17
that was probably the biggest compliment I ever
50:19
had was because back then. But as history goes,
50:23
like you go to germ shows, you didn't know if
50:24
you were getting cut. You didn't know if you
50:25
were getting hit. You didn't know what was going
50:27
to happen. Something bad was probably going to
50:29
happen, you know, on stage. And having someone
50:32
that I looked up to because Bratmobile, I was
50:34
a massive fan of Bratmobile since I was young,
50:37
young. And she was the booking manager for the
50:41
locusts for a bit, which is how we even linked
50:43
up. So getting told we were. you know, that kind
50:48
of image. And that was our reputation, but like
50:51
before she had ever seen us even was, uh, that
50:54
was one of the high points of my career, I'd
50:56
say. Um, I just did recently did an interview
50:59
with Damien Abraham from fucked up. I'm not sure
51:03
if you're familiar with him. Um, he has a podcast.
51:07
Turned Out of Punk? Yeah, Turned Out of Punk.
51:09
I'm the cannabis episode on there. And I got
51:12
to help him work on one of the music videos and
51:15
the background history on stuff. So I'm still
51:18
doing little tiny things in music, but nothing
51:20
like playing instruments and stuff. And I'm happy
51:23
to even have friends like that still around.
51:27
This has been episode 13 of the San Joaquin Sound
51:31
Podcast. Thanks for listening and stay tuned
51:34
for the next one. So you're gonna go But one
51:39
thing I want to know Is it all because of him?
51:44
I see you found a brand new friend But I, I still
51:49
love you I said I, I still want you I said I,
51:55
I need to hold you So tight in my arms tonight,
51:59
babe Bye. Bye.