Fang is a punk rock band that originated in 1981. Fang was originally part of the punk rock scene in Berkeley, California in the 1980s. The band broke up in 1989 when key member Sam McBride was sent to prison for killing his girlfriend, Dixie Lee Carney. Upon his release in 1995, McBride changed his name to "Sammytown" and reformed Fang.
Known best for their oft-covered "The Money Will Roll Right In," their energetic live sets and recordings also featured songs regarding suicidal ideation ("An Invitation"), repression whilst growing up in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco ("Law & Order"), and the killing of cripples ("Destroy the Handicapped"). All of these and more are featured in the live set below:
Fang's first record under the name 'Fang' was actually more of an experimental record, according to the band. Fang guitarist Tom Flynn and bass player Brian Beattie, his former bandmate from the bands Tapeworm and Safety Patrol, put out Yukon Fang as a duo and thus Fang was born. The original version of Fang toured the country once, only to break up shortly thereafter with Beattie moving on to Texas where he later formed the band Glass Eye. While this was happening, Sam McBride, the band's vocalist, was singing with future Fang drummer Greg Langston in the band Shut Up. Eventually, Fang won out, and the band's lineup included McBride, Chris Wilson (bass), Tom Flynn (guitar), and Joel Fox (drums). Together they contributed the song "Fun with Acid" on the Not so Quiet on the Western Front compilation LP. Shortly thereafter, guitarist Tom Flynn created Boner Records and released their debut LP and EP, Landshark and Where the Wild Things Are. Tim Stiletto drummed on the latter. These two releases are now considered classic east bay punk, with fierce chainsaw guitars, nihilistic lyrics either sung in a monotone or screamed with wild abandon, and a heavy back-beat.
In January 1986, the Spun Helga LP was recorded in West Germany with McBride singing vocals, and two Germans named Joe (Guitar) and Ollie (Drums) playing instruments. We Bite Records in Germany released the LP, but in the U.S. it was handled by National Trust Records. Fang next released was 1987's A Mi Ga Sfafas? (The title literally means "Give Me Head?" in Yugoslavian). The lineup during this era was McBride, Bill Collins (guitar), Joe Miller (bass), and Steve Chinn (drums). Drummer Mike Branum replaced Chinn and Fang recorded the album Pissed-Off Buddah, which remained unreleased until 2008, when it was released with Fang's other albums.
In 1989, Sam McBride strangled his then-girlfriend Dixie Lee Carney while he was high on heroin.
Interview with Sam McBride about Dixie's murder and the end of Fang
During Fang's inevitable break, punk rock group Green Day recorded a cover of their song "I Want to Be on TV" and released it on the B-Side of their hit single "Geek Stink Breath". The song was later re-released on the groups B-Side compilation album Shenanigans. Nirvana played "The Money Will Roll Right In" live on many occasions, perhaps most famously at the 1992 Reading Festival. Mudhoney also covered the song quite frequently in their heyday.
"Sammytown" remains infamous in the Bay Area punk scene, and has even been the subject of a documentary, Welcome to Sammytown.
Fang still play live in the Northern California area as well as the San Joaquin Valley. Check out their Myspace for up-to-date information, and their Discography for more about their releases.
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p.s. Hey. Today, it's the invaluable writer, artist, and d.l. Trees who kindly occupies the main space and directs our attention towards a band and figure whom, if you're like me, have been only names and vague details until now. I'm super grateful to have my head filled, and I hope you will be too. Mega-thanks, Trees, and, as ever, thanks to all of you who take the time to read, listen, learn, and offer some feedback today. Otherwise, I'm back in Paris, and I'm sort of raring to go. While I was away, the dreaded (by me) day when the exile-wielding Recollets cleaning crew breathes down my p.s.-writing neck was changed to Wednesday, i.e. today, so I'll be doing my slight rushing number this morning. And so I begin ... ** Porsha蔡Coghlan明宏, What's weird is that you think we'll bite. ** Bill, Wow, that's what the text means? Nice. That was worth the strange intrusion. Ugh, I'm pretty sure May 20-22 is exactly when I'll be in Brest. I think Gisele said the dates are from (something) until the 23rd. I'll check to make sure when she and I meet up on Friday for a mutual interview for some magazine, but, off the top of my head, I fear (for me) that you'll find Paris to be sans my presence. Dude, this jinx thing sucks. (Wow, that was articulate.) Since my fingers are currently free, I'll cross them re: your weekend gig. What is it exactly, this gig? ** Wolf, Ha ha, thanks, pal. Thank fucking God it's not July yet because, boy oh boy, are we going need every available day between now and then to get that behemoth in shape. I heard that Godspeed was making a quick return, and a feeling of awesomeness ensued. You going to see Silver Mt. Zion on its imminent or current tour? I think I am. ** David Ehrenstein, I really do need to learn French properly, but I have this feeling that if I haven't gotten around to it after almost five years here, I probably won't. Maybe when I finish my novel, though, if I'm still here then. That might be a real plan. Well, I think 50% of planes started flying as of today, so maybe Karina will get a window to make it to LA. Sure hope so. ** Tigersare, Hey, Guy! Glad you made it back not only safely but with veritable bells on. Between the Chills support gig, positive signs re: your next album, and the songwriting ambassador gig/honor ... well, that's just all incredibly nice to hear. My turn to say what a fucking shame it is that Australia can't just cruise up to Europe like a giant ship and dock somewhere for good. I don't think Spain really needs its West Coast all that much, ha ha. Great to see you, man, and pass along the word on how the Chills/you gig goes, if you don't mind. ** Pisycaca, Yeah, it would be awesome if you and Xet could get to Avignon, obviously. If not, there's the Paris gig in March, although that's such a ways off. I remember that complicated, rich, sad feeling of going through my mom's stuff for things I wanted to keep very well. I ended up basically just taking old photos and very few other things, I don't know why. Thanks about HHU, pal. That's very nice to hear. The train trip back to Paris was hell on earth, and I guess I'll lay out the tale to Itmpw. Endless love to you and the big X. ** David, We might be doing 'Kindertotenlieder; in NYC next winter. Maybe with enough time and planning, you could come to that, if it happens? ** Bernard Welt, I don't mind borscht so much, although I think when I've had it, I put a bunch of stuff in it to mellow out the taste a bit. But beets? No sir. The beet is the liver of the vegetable world to me. I hate asparagus too. Is that a surprise? Gruesome stuff. Oh, how I would love to hear your reading/ imitation of Tim. Surely, these readings are being taped. Surely they'll end up on PennSound or Ubuweb or somewhere. You never answered my query about the Jeremy Strick arrival/ impact, but you don't have to. I suppose such talk could be tricky. I do remember that owl story of yours, and it still seems pretty spooky to me. ** Math, Oh, the restaurant, Montparnasse, is mostly awful to me (and a few others in the gang) because it only serves oysters or a crappy cheese plate. That's the culinary choice. It's the kind of place where you're supposed to drink a lot and then not really care that much about what ends up in your belly. Since I drink like a cactus, it doesn't work for me. I only know that name Hot Chip. I'll listen to them. My concert choice might end up being easy since the law of current averages says two if not three of the gigs will get canceled due to the volcano/plane thing. Oh, I like standing around in jostly gigs. It's one of my favorites. I might even jostle myself. It's been known to happen. So glad you'll be on board while you're in SF. You're hitting LA a little too, right? ** Killer Luka, Building the forest, trying to light it, perform in it, turn it into a hallucination, etc. has been a serious bitch, yeah. It hasn't stopped being a bitch. It's still far from non-bitch behavior. It just needs to end up being worth it. Nice owl, right? Very, very stinky though. There were four owls there, actually. Each got its shot at the role. The owl I took photos of is the one we've cast, I think. A she, as I recall. ** Oscar B, Oh, you saw one of the Metal Machine Music live gigs. I've been kind of curious about what they are since I grew up with that album as a touchstone. Not so great, huh? Too bad and not a vast surprise. Recollets news: They've changed the cleaning days. And that cafe that you can see out your windows which got closed down? It reopened. And the trees in the park are packed with leaves again. And the weather has been divine-ish. All the place needs now is you. ** Bacteriaburger, Hi, man. Kickstarter ... don't know it. I'll check it. Yeah, the fundraising thing via Facebook can work. I know several people who've worked that angle successfully. Would a benefit type thing work? You know, sell signed, rare books or art or whatever? Might be more trouble than it's worth with the postage/post office. If the blog can help out with the fundraising, don't hesitate. I'd love it if we can do our part. ** Toniok, Hey, man! Thanks a lot. Now that I'm back in Paris and not running around headless chicken-style, I'll get back to you soon via email about you-know-what. ** Tosh, Thanks, sir. The working together to make something is really fantastic, yeah. Really, really. ** Changeling, Hey, C. Oh, darn, I didn't get the owl meets borscht story. It's okay. Time is the master of us all, or whatever, or so it seems. It must have been a cool story since the only thing I can imagine re: owl + borscht is a drowning. I bet that wasn't it at all? ** Steven Trull, Fake murder and fake food! ** Heliotrope, Hi, Mark! Well, I hope you will get to see one of our things. LA has to come around one of these days or rather years, I guess. I do remember Alan Griffiths, yes. Very sad. I remember in LA, I think, you saying you didn't think you'd be able to both attend the memorial and go to Portland for your nephew's art shebang, so I'm glad you managed to juggle the two. Sucks that The Clean guy might be one ball in the air too many. Give the Mat and anybody else who remembers me at all -- McGarvin, Pocino, ... -- a hug and hello from me, okay? And enjoy Portland big time. It's great you guys can get that far away. ** Trees, Hey, host of the hour. Thank you a lot 'in person', man. Oh, nice about your friend Jen's holographic work. It sounds exciting. I love that stuff. I think you know we originally had these ambitious plans to have lifesize, moving, singing human holograms in our piece, but the forest set is so 'real' that the holograms just looked like crappy 3D video-projections. It sucked, but the psychedelic trip thing we settled on is probably better. Sort of weirdly, not long after I mentioned YMG to you yesterday, I opened the 'newspaper', and they're playing here. I thought they'd long since turned to dust. Okay, hope today is a good one, and thanks a whole lot again. ** Pascal, What is that avatar? First I thought it was a waffle with whipped cream and strawberries. But then I started seeing a pig. Oh, thanks re: the email. I'm going to dig into my long neglected mailbox today. Take care, P. ** Will Decker, Hi, Will. That theater going experience sounds very interesting. I'll google Wayne Rawley and see what I can find out about his work. You doing well, I hope? I hope the moving plans re: Chicago are going well and aren't too full of hassles. Take good care, man. ** _Black_Acrylic, Thanks a lot, Ben. Yeah, find out about that soreness in your side. I'm real sorry to hear about that. Is it possible that it's unrelated to your condition? I hope it's something that's easily quelled. Let me know what happens, okay? ** Robert-nyc, Hi, Robert! How great to see you! I definitely take the Crewdson reference as compliment, and thank you for that. Super convenience about the new apartment. Do you live in East Village? That's what my memory says, but I'm uncertain about that memory. And of course I hope the dating experiences reward you asap. Having fun with that? Big congrats on having a poem in Mary! Yeah, that's a terrific magazine! That's excellent news indeed! I really look forward to turning the page and seeing your work. Wonderful, Robert! Again, lovely to see you, my pal. ** Chris Goode, That 'if' in the 'if y'all' is the big question right now. At the moment, it feels a little like we're a handful of crew members trying operate a steamship, make that three steamships. I think it will be okay, but the technical stuff on this piece is way beyond anything we've had to deal with before. It's really exciting to try to push the work so far, but, man, it's scary too. Anyway, thanks, C. Oh, 'World of Work' has premiered? Fantastic! I can't wait to see the pix and read more about it on Thompsons. Wow, awesome, man. Who's Sam Amidon? Oh, wait, I can find that out myself, I guess. Big up, big C. ** Steevee, Hopefully the fact that Malick actually screened the film, albeit for about 40 people apparently, is a good sign. But, yeah, breath should not be held quite yet, I guess. Sorry to hear about the trio of Artforum turn-downs. Strange. Although, as an Artforum near- lifer, I can confirm that their yeses and nos can be frustrating and hard to figure, for sure. Hope your stress and feeling of antsiness is a quickie, man. ** L@rstonovich, Hi, pal. Great great about your book being in transit. Now that I'm home or 'home', you'll hear from me soon about the post. Thanks, buddy. ** Ken Baumann, Another shortish book? A novel, you mean? Awesomeness in any case, very naturally. I need to find a way to get the channel that shows your show over here so I can catch your 'material heavy' stage, although I bet France is a season behind the US. They usually are with TV. Apart from the sickishness -- feel better, man -- it sounds really swell on your end. Kudos and love and etc., man. ** Creative Massacre, Hey. Sorry to hear about your bad day, my pal. I hope today upswings dramatically. My day sucked yesterday too, if you need a high -- or is that low -- five. ** Joseph, Hey, J. Dude, I'm not wrong in congratulating you on being one the almost winners of the HTMLG contest, right? I think James Greer was one too. Authors reading their work in the nude ... hey, why not? I'd bookmark it, that's for sure. I wouldn't contribute though, which is good news for everyone. I say go for it, see what happens. The heavy traffic would be a guarantee if nothing else, right? I was just reading and slobbering over news of the new We Are Champions, probably thanks to HTMLG. I'll get it, yeah. I already decided. Congrats on being in there, of course. Moving to D.C. asap ... how asap? ** Sypha, Dude, that's fucking incredibly awesome about Rebel Satori! Wowzer! Yeah, I mean, tell them you just self-published it through lulu a couple of weeks ago, only sold one copy -- the copies for your families and friends don't count -- and that you've pulled it off the market. That shouldn't be a problem. This is a really great opportunity, James. I can't urge you enough to pursue it. Any help or advice or anything else you need along the way, just ask. ** Fyi, here is where the cleaning crew threw me out into the 'cold', and it's now an hour later. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, If we can get that thing to Texas -- and we've come close to getting a gig for our theater work in Texas twice already, so it's not impossible -- we'll jump. Wow, long achey day you had there, but I'm awfully glad you've seen the doctor and gotten the drops that hopefully will return your eye to its original sparkling, charismatic, clarity-centric state. I read about that Madonna Glee episode. I guess the marm herself liked it even. I'll look for youtube stuff. My day yesterday was a big drag. I got on the train. Due to the airport closures and so on, it was jam-packed, and I mean jammed. That was unpleasant to begin with, but then the train broke in the middle of nowhere with 'electrical problems', and it just sat there unmoving for two and a half hours. We weren't allowed to leave the train 'for safety reasons'. People got stressed and irritable. My need for a cigarette grew painful. It was not pretty. Finally, the train restarted, but, because it was a fucked up train, it didn't stop in the towns it was supposed to until it got to Paris. So the usual quick smokes in the train stations didn't happen, and the French smoke a fair amount in general, so we were all in hell. In all, the train trip took seven plus hours, and I arrived in Paris almost three hours late. I finally made it home only to be confronted with yet another war-starting gesture from my psycho brother, so I went straight from train hell into family hell via phone and email until I fell asleep. Bad day. Awful, really. But now it's Wednesday, and the sun is shining, and even though the family hell will continue today as soon as the West Coast (where my family lives) wakes up in a few hours, at least I'm sitting in my own chair. Now, tell me about your Wednesday. ** Misanthrope, I remember when I used to think Heath bars were healthy because their name was only missing an L. Maybe that's Little Show's rationale. Yeah, the set overwhelming the performance is a real concern, but we're addressing it as best we can. It's tricky because the theater piece is meant to be an installation piece or a display case in which things happen, strange and otherwise, and figures appear, and narrative occurs more than a conventional theater piece. It's more like a single image being set in motion. So the performers need to hold their own, but they're also just toys in the attic as it were too. Jesse Hudson is a good person to ask about Bataille 'cos he's headlong into a Bataille reading fest at the moment. For fiction, I'd say read 'Blue of Noon' next. Non-fiction-wise, it's often thought that 'Tears of Eros' is a great place to enter. ** Alan, Thanks, man. Since you're interested in my food habits, note that I added asparagus to the small pile of edible things I can not abide. ** Blendin, Hey, B. Collages, huh? When can we/I see what's going on in that realm? Very curious to see/know. Can't quite picture what they would be, visually, physically. RIP for sure about Guru. Real, real sad about that. ** Armando, Hi, Armando! I don't think I've seen that Garrel film, hm. Unless I know it by the English title and it's a very different title in English. I'll check. You like that Gorrell, huh? I still haven't read it, but it's sitting here waiting. Seems like a real love or hate thing with that book, but then again the love-hate thing seems more to do with his Tao Lin connection than anything else. ** Put The Lotion In The Basket, Thank you, human owl. ** Bollo, We have the nicest sun out here today too. Really, really pleasant out there. The holography stuff is still in process, partly. The image I showed in the pix involves a kind reinvention of the forest. The holography makes the trees seem infinite and causes them to seem to appear/disappear and, at one point, spin rapidly in a circle, and, if it works out better than it has so far, catch on fire. If it gets finessed, it's going to be an amazing effect. Excellent day, man. ** Okay, I was hoping to get this launched early today, but the cleaning crew foiled my plan, alas. Be with Trees' post today, please, and say something, thank you. See you tomorrow.
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