IT'S PUNK ROCK

(and still rob...)

Austin was a cool town to be in in the early eighties, and the plethora of bands during that time defined regional tastes. But what's weird is to have lived through it and witnessed the permutations that have occurred from that freshman crop of bands that embraced the punk thing and be spit out on the other end, forever altered wondering what the fuck actually happened.
The Big Boys hold a special place in my heart. They spun off as Cargo Cult (Biscuits band), Poison 13 ( Gates and Kerr ) , The Lord high Fixers ( Kerr) and via LA, Junkyard ( Gates...with a Roach boy on vocals) I saw them at the back room with a band called Rhino Bucket...it was loud, it was awesome, I was late to work the next day and caught a load of shit from my girl at the time, and while I thought momentarily I deserved said load, I realized later on that she believed her job was to break my balls.
Then there was Scratch Acid...I think I saw the first show at Club Foot, just based on how shitty it was. I know I saw them at the opera house in 82 and they billed themselves as No Trend...The bass players mom was a nurse at the treatment center I was working at...They were reborn as The Jesus Lizard...singer and bass player taking the show to chicago and creating some of the ugliest music known to man. We love the Jesus Lizard to this day, they put out an impressive catalog but eventually imploded. And the list goes on...
The Dicks, The Huns (short lived but incendiary), Standing Waves, D-Day, The Judies ,The Offenders and The Band from Hell, all central Texas bands and most of them from Austin. Many I saw but have forgotten the names in the haze of those heady days.
"Maybe the stitches should be removed...I'd like to see the opening again"
(David Yow...The Jesus Lizard)
Indeed.
Now what do we do?