Dear Friends,
It occurred to me last night as I waited for the Tyson/Paul fight to come on that this type of bullshit is exactly what America richly deserves at this point. We are a nation that champions ignorance. It’s sad, but true.
During my weekdays, I ask nine and ten-year-olds to embrace knowledge and much of the time, they resent me for holding them accountable for their learning. Even my best students do not want to be challenged. They want to succeed, sure, but they often don’t want to have to put out a fair amount of effort to do so. Putting forth effort is asking a lot of people anymore.
I don’t know what I was trying to relive last night by watching that stupid fight. I really don’t. Tyson was scary and athletically awesome in his day, but last night…ugh. I was afraid for his life.
It’s probably best not to dignify it any further. I just won’t be watching anymore of that spectacle in a can crap. I’ll leave that to the worshippers of personality.
*****
Here’s to a productive Saturday. I don’t have any real predictions for anything but getting shit motherfucking done. And swearing.
*****
I had a front row seat for the making of Product of America by Exterminators. While it is easily one of my favorite records in the past 10 years, the music is closer to being fifty years old at this point. I’m going to tell you my version of the story right here and now.
Slope Records was started by a friend of mine, Tom Lopez, a few years before the whole Exterminators thing came to be. Tom reached out to me in 2015 about doing an article for the New Times about his new venture and I was intrigued. After talking to him about it for the piece, I wanted to be involved. The time was right for something like Slope Records in Phoenix, and it was very exciting.
As 2016 got going, Tom told me about Exterminators. They were one of the first punk bands in Phoenix and they featured my friend, Doug Clark on guitar, as well as his brother Dan Clark on vocals, Don Bolles on drums (before he became “Don Bolles” and was still Jimmy Giorsetti), and Rob Ritter on bass. They were contemporaries of The Consumers, who were the first punk band from town.
According to Tom, there was a tape of Exterminators that had been floating around and he had talked to the surviving members of the band, and they were into the idea of going in the studio and making a recording of those old songs. Sadly, Rob Ritter had died many years before, so they were enlisting Cris Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets to play bass.
When things got going, there were two major things I kept hearing from Tom. One was that things were sounding great and the guys, especially Doug, were very excited about getting in the studio. The other thing was how expensive this venture was going to be. With the exception of Dan Clark, the other dudes had a long list of things they needed to make the record happen.
The costs were piling up.
I visited the studio one day, for example, and in the five or six hours I was there, I only witnessed tracks being laid down for about 90 minutes. The meter was running the whole time, though, and the costs to Tom and the Slope label were staggering.
I did see and hear Don Bolles lay down a couple of songs worth of drums, though, that sounded amazing. Doug was in and out of the studio, a ball of nerves, and the guitars that were due to be recorded did not happen while I was there.
Now, the finished product features some excellent work by Doug Clark. There was no guitar player in Phoenix punk rock quite like him. Clark’s work on songs like “Static Planet” and “Just Like Your Mom” is stellar. “Gimmie Head” and “Sometimes I Don’t Know” also stand out to me, but the whole record is punk as fuck and that’s because of the Clark brothers.
Dan Clark’s vocals more than keep up with his late brother’s guitar. Dan spits the vocals out like they taste like bitter shit in his mouth. It’s a clinic, really, on how to be a punk rock singer. “I Don’t Give A Fuck” is a perfect example of this, as is “Patriotic American.”
Jimmy Don’s contributions of “Destruction Unit” and “Bionic Girl” are top notch. He also wrote “Sometimes I Don’t Know” and “Just Like Your Mom.” These songs, in a way, belong to every older punk from the desert. A lot of bands have done these songs over the years, too. I’d like to add another to the list, too. You might hear a cover of one of these from one of my bands at some point before all is said and done.
As for the bass, Cris Kirkwood held down the fort really well without ever making it the Cris K. show. He was respectful of the material and provided exactly what was needed. Kudos to Cris for the good work.
The record just flows right along. Tom did a fantastic job of making it look and sound great by hiring the right people and saying “yes” a lot to all involved. I’m sure he would do it differently if there was a chance to redo things, but I’m also pretty sure that he’s proud as hell of what they did.
You know, there is a pretty detailed account of this story in the New Times. Here is a link to that story if you want to check it out. It was really fun for me to write it.
When it came out, the band did a show right after and I got to have some pretty great moments with a few people who were involved in that show, namely Mike Watt and Curt Kirkwood. They were so proud of my article and thankful, as well. It was as moment where I felt like one of the guys and that was great.
When Watt walked into the Crescent, Don went up to him with the article and right in front of me said, “Mike, do you know Tom Reardon of the New Times?” Watt looked at me and kind of winked and said, “No, I know Tom Reardon from The Father Figures.”
That made my year.
*****
See you tomorrow.
AI gets weird again.
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