Angry Samoans

All Music Guide:

Along with X, Black Flag, Fear, and the Circle Jerks, the savagely satirical Angry Samoans rode the first wave of Los Angeles punk. Formed in Van Nuys, CA, in the summer of 1978, the band was founded by singers and guitarists "Metal" Mike Saunders and Gregg Turner, a pair of erstwhile rock critics who'd previously teamed with fellow writer Richard Meltzer in the group VOM. Adding Saunders' brother Kevin on guitar, the group considered names like the Egyptians and the Eigenvectors (a mathematical term), they settled on the Angry Samoans, and enlisted bassist Todd Homer and drummer Bill Vockeroth, and initially set out as a Dictators cover band.

Soon, Saunders and Turner began writing original material, drawing influence from the Velvet Underground, the Sonics, the 13th Floor Elevators, and garage rock. After honing their primitive and increasingly thrashy sound at a series of surreal gigs (including sets at the Camarillo State Mental Hospital and a lunchtime show at Santa Monica High School, where MC Meltzer asked if any "heroin addicts" were in the audience), the Samoans -- substituting guitarist P.J. Galligan for Kevin Saunders -- debuted in 1980 with the EP Inside My Brain, highlighted by "Get Off the Air," their pointed swipe at KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer and the L.A. musical community.

Two years later, they resurfaced with Back from Samoa, featuring titles like "They Saved Hitler's Cock," "Tuna Taco," and "My Old Man's a Fatso." Soon, the bandmembers grew disenchanted with the entire punk culture, and they spent the next several years largely in a dormant state: guitarist Steve Drojensky replaced Kevin Saunders in 1984, Vockeroth went on hiatus, and Jeff Dahl temporarily stepped in for "Metal" Mike in 1985, but by and large the group laid low until 1987's Yesterday Started Tomorrow. Problems with their label and internal differences led the Angry Samoans to disband after recording 1988's STP Not LSD.

In 1991, "Metal" Mike issued a solo EP, Plays the Hits of the '90s; in 1994, Turner released his own album, Santa Fe, and later fronted Gregg Turner & the Blood-Drained Cows. Homer, meanwhile, resurfaced in the neo-psychedelic outfit Mooseheart Faith Stellar Groove Band. By the mid-'90s, "Metal" Mike was also fronting a new Samoans lineup, which still included longtime mainstay Vockeroth as well as guitarists Alison Wonderslam and Mark Byrne, and bassist Adrienne Harmon. Saunders and Vockeroth have continued to anchor the Samoans as the band experienced further lineup changes in the new millennium; as of 2009, Matt "Malice" Vicknair had joined as the group's bassist. The Angry Samoans' infrequent performances during the 2000s (generally once a month in California, although there have also been a few brief European tours) remain a vital link to punk's past.

Wikipedia:

The Angry Samoans are an American punk rock band from the first wave of American punk, formed in August 1978 in Los Angeles, California by early 1970s rock writer "Metal" Mike Saunders, his sibling lead guitarist Bonze Blayk and Gregg Turner (another rock writer, for Creem from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s), along with original recruits Todd Homer (bass) and Bill Vockeroth (drums).

Background [edit]

In 1969 the Saunders brothers cut a 14-song high school garage-rock album I'm a Roadrunner Motherfucka in their hometown of Little Rock, under a twice-used local band name, The Rockin' Blewz. The album went unissued until the late 1990s.

Mike Saunders briefly played in an embryonic backing lineup for 1950s rockabilly cult artist Ray Campi during 1975, before moving back to Arkansas for two years (pursuant to a second college degree).

Bassist Todd Homer had played in 1977 Masque-era band Jesus Prick, and drummer Bill Vockeroth was a veteran of the Pasadena "backyard kegger party" cover band circuit.

During 1978 both Gregg Turner and Mike Saunders played with rock critic Richard Meltzer in the Los Angeles punk band VOM, which issued a posthumous five-song EP Live at Surf City on White Noise Records in early summer 1978.

"Get Off the Air" Controversy [edit]

Shortly after the Angry Samoans formed in late 1978, Mike Saunders, Turner and Homer wrote an infamous song about longtime LA/Hollywood scenemaker and KROQ-FM DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, titled "Get Off the Air." When the song was included on the band's first record Inside My Brain, the Samoans were blacklisted at the Starwood, Whiskey and any other club in Hollywood/LA proper for about two years during mid-1980 through late 1982, due to Bingheimer's strong influence with the LA/Hollywood club scene. The band's ostensibly offensive, politically incorrect attitude and (somewhat humorous) lyrical content was not a factor in this situation.

The Angry Samoans [edit]

The first Angry Samoans gig was on October 30, 1978, opening for Roky Erickson and the Aliens in Richmond, California. Erickson was sick and did not make the show (Aliens band members covered for his lead vocals) but remained a lifelong friend and inspiration to Gregg Turner. The next night the Samoans played an "all-LA bill" at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco, opening for Shock and the Zeros.

The Samoans' first release, Inside My Brain, was one of the earliest hardcore punk albums to come out of the 1980s LA punk rock scene. Between this recording and second album Back from Samoa, the band released a four-song EP as "The Queer Pills," allegedly using the pseudonym in order for the EP to get airtime on Bingenheimer's KROQ radio program. Their 14-song, 17-minute hardcore album Back from Samoa, released in 1982, featured lyrics with such themes as the trendiness of poking your eyes out ("Lights Out"), finding Adolf Hitler's penis ("They Saved Hitler's Cock"), and dissing your father ("My Old Man's A Fatso"), sung over hyper-distorted guitars and "early LA/OC hardcore" drum beats.

In the mid-1980s the Angry Samoans added guitarist Steve Drojensky, and returned to their roots in mid-1960s American garage rock (they had long cited bands such as The Velvet Underground, the 13th Floor Elevators and Shadows of Knight as among their musical influences). The next two releases recorded during 1986-87, the Yesterday Started Tomorrow EP and STP Not LSD, were largely in this neo-1960s garage/psych style.

Singer/bassist Todd Homer left at the end of 1988 and formed The Mooseheart Faith Stellar Groove Band with Larry Robinson, formerly of 1970s teen pop-soul band Apollo. In 2005 Homer co-formed The Hollywood Squaretet, a free-jazz band with comedian/drummer Larry "Copcar" Scarano, formerly of Comedy's Dirtiest Dozen (HBO) and the 1960s New York rock band The Bougalieu.

Turner left in early 1992, releasing an album in 1993 with The Mistaken before forming his next band, The Blood Drained Cows. The latter act has issued two albums to date, and occasionally feature autoharp player Billy Angel (née Miller) from the Aliens.

During the mid- to late 1980s, Mike Saunders moonlighted in several electric/acoustic two-guitar duos (no rhythm section) such as The Clash Brothers (with Bob Fagan), The Sons of Mellencamp (with Turner), and The Gizmo Brothers (with Kenne Highland), performing at various small clubs during that period in San Francisco, LA/OC, and even Boston (with Krazee Ken Highland from The Gizmos and Hopelessly Obscure).

Recent activity [edit]

The Angry Samoans continued from the late 1990s through the new millennium with Mike Saunders, original drummer Bill Vockeroth, and a wide variety of other individuals. They have performed mainly along the West Coast, aside from occasional out-of-state weekend trips and three short, successful tours of mainland Europe in 2003, 2007 and 2008. In 2010, they performed on the Legends Stage on four dates of the Vans Warped Tour. At present the band is still playing weekend gigs once a month, usually all-ages shows around Southern California like many of their fellow 1977-82 LA/OC punk bands active during the 21st century.