"The best unrecorded band in the history of rock'n'roll." - Jello Biafra
"The Screamers are our only influence." -- Jim Reid, Jesus and Mary Chain
'Although they were inner circle members of the Los Angeles punk scene, the Screamers – like all of their peers – did not have a record deal. In fact, they never would, despite a heavily defined image, the vaunting ambition that they exhibited in interviews and the acres of press they attracted.
'The Screamers were at the absolute cutting-edge of their time and place. There were other synth-punk groups, such as Suicide, Throbbing Gristle and the Normal, but they were based in New York and Europe, and were moving towards making slightly smoother, electro-pop records. Their nearest equivalent were the fabulously abrasive Metal Urbain from Paris.
'There were other reasons for the lack of music industry interest. The era of mass synth success, of Soft Cell and the Human League, was at least three years away, and the confrontational nature of '122 Hours of Fear', ('If I Can't Have What I Want, I Don't Want) Anything' and 'Punish Or Be Damned' was not likely to get punk-hostile record companies flocking.
'The Screamers kept having these fabulous ideas, while the world passed them by. As the first wave of the Los Angeles punk scene disintegrated around them, they held out for that perfect deal that never came. They never released a record, and disappeared into yellowing fanzine pages, decaying handbills and old VHS copies, an example of what might have been.
'Until the advent of YouTube, that is. Type "the Screamers" into the search option and you'll find an array of live and studio footage, including '122 Hours of Fear'. The total hits for the clips add up to more than 100,000, which is probably 95,000 people more than ever saw or heard the group throughout their career. In the 21st century, the Screamers have finally found their audience.' -- Jon Savage, The Guardian
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Start here
'122 Hours of Fear'
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Interview
Synapse Magazine, 1978
What are you building out here?
Tomata: First they called us punk, then they called us art, now they call us techno-punk. . .
K.K.: Yeah, we've been going down a list to see what we can indoctrinate everbody else to think is "new."
Gear: We also had the reputation of being a mental health or psychotherapy band. At least we're getting away from that, although we played at Camarillo State Mental Hospital recently.
Tomata: There was this girls there who kept following me from one side of the stage to the other just rubbing her tits and going "punk rock . . . punk rock."
Gear: The best part was a guy who sat at the edge of the stage and for the entire duration of the show prayed to Tomata . . . I don't know if I believe in God, but definitely the power of prayer.
Would the Screamers use sound patterns proven invariably to produce certain responses in listeners?
Gear: It could be used, but there would have to be a warning, like on drugs, "This could be hazardous" . . .
Tomata: It would be interesting if we could stimulate cardiac arrest . . . to see them drop . . . It's kind of interesting when you see people who are flipped out or retarded, in the way they talk or try to express themselves, but they really can't, so it's like animal sounds, things like that, they jerk about, their hands go . . . I'm really fascinated because they are saying something and it's very . . . lucid, the way their sounds are made, and it's sometimes more direct than if they were speaking common English.
Gear: It's developing a language that goes beyond differences . . . sounds that come from insied their organism rather than from their brain. Popular music has suffered what I refer to as a tyranny of guitars. It would be like it classical music if they were to feature one instrument alone . . . The synthesizer as you know is a very versatile instrument, but every time I see it, it's used just as a mere sound effect device.
Tomata: It's a whoopee cushion.
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The remains
'Vertigo'
'Eva Braun'
'Peer Pressure'
'Better World'
'Punish or Be Damned'
'The Beat Goes On'
'I Want to Hurt'
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Downfall
In 1979, The Screamers began to work with the Dutch multi-media artist Rene Daadler, announcing that video was the future of music. While this was was a prescient and fresh idea pre-MTV, the general consensus among critics and fans was that Daalder was the wrong collaborator. In their live shows, the band started incorporating additional musicians, other singers, and many of Daalder's artsy ideas. Their performances now incorporated a small string section and a second lead singer, a semi-charismatic self-styled vampire named Sheila. By 1980, their shows had become elaborate productions with stage sets, prerecorded music, video projections, and choreography. In 1980, mastermind Tommy Gear left The Screamers, feeling that Daalder had ursurped his power and hijacked the band. The last "Screamers" performance in 1981 was entitled "The Palace of Variety." Featuring Tomata du Plenty, KK, and Sheila, it was a full on performance art piece with all music pre-recorded and a complex lighting and video component. It proved a technical and artistic disaster which was lustily booed by the audience. The Los Angeles Times dubbed it 'the most disastrous showbiz opening since Heaven's Gate.'
Screamers circa 1979
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Aftermath
Tomata du Plenty later acted in several independent films and became a cultishy revered portrait painter. He died of AIDS in the year 2000. KK Barrett has worked at various professions, most recently as Production Designer on the film Being John Malkovich. Tommy Gear is the mysterious one, although he continues to be spotted at music shows and art openings around Los Angeles.
CNN profile of Tomata du Plenty, 1999
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Finally
The Unofficial Screamers Website
The Screamers @ punkrockers.com
The Screamers @ Myspace
'The Screamers were a group that counted'
Tomata du Plenty Memorial Page
'A Tribute to Synth Punk 101'
The Screamers Discography
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p.s. Hey. One of the blog's readers wrote me an email the other day pleading for the return of today's long-dead post, and no problem. It's so old that it dates from the era when I would actually write some of the texts in the posts. What was I thinking? ** David, Hey. Horror remission? I hope you get better or worse as the case may be soon, ha ha. ** JoeM, Hey. Bleah isn't hate. Bleah is bleah. I don't hate Amy Winehouse. I just find her music retro and conservative, and it just isn't my thing basically. And her tabloid-ready behavior doesn't interest me at all. So, it's not hate, it's just bleah. Man, youtube should give you a commission. I'm serious. That is indeed my favorite Stones song. B-side wasn't so shabby either: 'Dandelion'. ** David Ehrenstein, Greetings. 'Paths of Glory' is based on a Jim Thompson book? I did not know that. ** Oscar B, What's up? It's not raining?! See you later? ** Chris Cochrane, Hey. Oh, that's no problem. We end up doing that with DHL packages all the time. They seem to be the most persnickety of the delivery companies. So, no sweat, and thank you again. Glad all the performances went so well. Hopefully, you can gear up for the 'Them' January thing. I haven't heard any news, have you? On the magazine recommendation, hm, I feel like it must have either been The Wire, which I consider a must, or Mojo, which I consider a guaranteed good, informative time. It was probably The Wire. ** Emily, Hey, Emily! Great to see you! Oh, well, first, if you want to do a post for here, that is wonderful news. As for how to do it, do you mean technically? Well, you see what the posts generally look like here, although there is no set look to them or right way of doing them. Basically, you could send me the text part of the post, and, if there are images or videos or sound files or anything, indicate where they go in the text. Send images as as email attachments. Jpegs, gifs, or bmps are best. With videos, you could include the imbedding code or give me the videos' addresses, and I can imbed them myself. Does that answer your questions? If not, just ask me more. Thanks a lot, Emily! How are you? ** Alan, Well, I guess the only danger in that approach is that you wouldn't give agents the standard info they expect and want up front, and that might cause some prejudice or something. But I don't know if that's true at all. I hope one of them bites, obviously. If not, there are certainly a lot of really good presses out there that don't expect submissions to come through agents. Main thing is, yeah, share that thing, the more widely the better. ** Killer Luka, Well, since my books explode when placed near flames, those must have been counterfeits or, uh, Douglas Cooper books or Douglas Coupland books. Ha ha, well, Ishmael reads my blog, so your goose is already cooked. He didn't dance with Bill T. Jones either, I don't think, although I think they're friendly. He was in a Spike Lee film. Maybe that's the ticket. ** Sypha, A sentimental childhood story by sounds like a very interesting idea. Is it panning out? I know about Facebook's 'offline' option, but, the thing is, once in a while a friends needs to ask me something or talk with me, and I leave the channel open for that reason. Plus, if I'd turned off the IM option, I wouldn't have ended up being in Christophe Honore's film, for instance, since he asked me via a Facebook IM. So, I just let it go and try to ignore most of the popping windows. ** Pilgarlic, You saw the Stones recently-ish. I gave up in the 70s, I think. It's true about Reznor. Really unforgivable, selfish behavior, I think. Yeah, quite a few gay porn stars do straight porn too. I started counting, and I lost count. So multi-talented, those guys, ha ha. ** Steven Trull, I'd like to look natty when I die. Sure, why not? I kind of really don't like parties. When I think back on parties and try to remember highlights, it's usually like boring stuff like someone there had great coke and was very generous with it or about scoring in some corner with some drunk boy I wouldn't have been good enough for otherwise and stuff like that. I don't know. I'd have to think, and thinking and me are vaguely on the outs this morning. How was your party? ** JW Veldhoen, You have this whole new spring in your prose now that you're up north. Kind of pleasant loping quality. It's interesting. Finished some writing? Excellence. ** Andrew, Hey. Oh, credit scores. Mine are scary. I have to buy everything up front with my ATM card. Holy moly re: that link. No kidding. Wowzer. I think we need to share. Everyone, here's Andrew, and do yourself a favor by following his lead: 'This is a link that I have to share with you; but there's no way to really describe. How about; France and Japan had a baby and this is the kind of educational television it makes for pre-schoolers. Behold This.' ** L@rstonovich, Dude, if I'm here, and I will be unless there actually is a God and He is an impatient hater, I'll be there, Trumans Water-wise. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Oh, while I've got you, it's Wednesday the 24th for your guest-post. Mark your date book. Operation? Did I know about that? Hm, maybe only vaguely a little. Fingers crossed for you all day today, and I'll expect a very stoned and charming comment from you post-haste. ** Allesflesst, Moral coherence is an oxymoron, isn't it? You should definitely program all school systems. How about in university, there could be a class 'dealing with people who facetiously prefer boy stars to just go on fucking groupies instead of falling in love'? ** Memoirs of a Heroinhead, You came just for Joe and me? Aw, thank you, buddy. I'm glad to hear the no electricity thing isn't as dire as either Joe's tone of voice or my tone of imagination led me to expect. That said, are you back in the post-modern world again now? ** Jheorgge, Oh, thank you, man! You're my hero! The second I finish my novel, that disc is what will be entering my celebrating consciousness. Yeah, just thank you a ton! How are you? What's up? ** Steevee, Very nice about the email from John Douglas. I get emails from artists and people I've done blog posts about sometimes, and I know how that feels. ** Rigby, How could they do an exhibition on Spare and leave out the magical and sexual stuff? That's just weird. Criminal art world arbiter activity. Anyway, better than nothing, I guess. I'll have a great Monday if you will. ** Postitbreakup, Hey, man. ** Misanthrope, Listening to 'You're So Vain' is pretty ominous, yeah. Where's the link, ha ha? Breakthrough, life, caused by me, ... gosh. I'm curious, duh. Quite curious. I'm starting a movement to call him Biebs rather than Biebz. I guess it isn't working. New Pacific Blush album at last! Wait, this deserves a ... Everyone, here's a very and understandably excited Misanthrope: 'I have the honor of making the biggest announcement of the year so far: Pacific Blush will be releasing their next album this coming Tuesday! It's appropriately titled "Pacific Blush." Look for the official announcement here tomorrow evening, U.S. Pacific time. Yay!' Oh, if you don't know, Pacific Blush is the musical project of the young genius Panda? who sometimes rears his giantly talented head here in the comments section. ** Creative Massacre, I can totally agree that toothaches suck. I have two very fucked up teeth at the moment that are just waiting to attack me. I'm sorry. Enjoy the drugs. Oh, and your photos are just terrific! What a pleasure, pal! ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Thank you again, man. They were wonderful, and, as others said, you are a dream of a writer. Yeah, and there was also some just post-'Clueless' movie where she played a kidnap victim, I think, that was a huge flop and got the bad career ball rolling too. That failed ghost hunting does sound like it was fun anyway. I did a failed ghost hunting once, but it cost $40, so it wasn't as fun. Do you not think you should probably see a doctor again about that ear? Or I don't know. It just seems so unfair. My weekend: On Saturday, I of course mostly worked on the novel. I had coffee with Oscar and Kiddiepunk, and I fished around to see if they might be willing to make a Hard Rock Cafe visit 'cos I'm feeling nachos-derived, and they seemed game, so, who knows, I might even get to eat like a low rent king tonight. It rained. I talked to d.l. Nb via Skype, and that was nice. I realized that fucking France doesn't get the new Harry Potter movie until a week after you and most of the rest of the world does, and that was disappointing. They taped off the playground in the park outside my window to do refurbishment or something, and so my view was full of very sad and sometimes crying children. There are only maybe 12 leaves left on the usually very leafy tree outside my window, but the ground is covered in leaves and looked pretty. Not much else. On Sunday, I worked on my novel from 7 am until 5 pm stopping to smoke now and then. The narrator and his cannibal cohort Francois are currently doing a heavy makeover via dieting and cosmetic surgery on Didier, who is one of Francois' sons as well as a 12 year old nymphomaniac, in order to turn him into an Emo so the narrator can make money whoring him out to his dead father's rich friends because his 3000 euro a week allowance is currently unavailable due to the father's estate being in probate. I didn't really do anything except write. Gisele called, but I was in the middle of writing, so I didn't answer, and I'll call her back today. Ate the absolutely usual. Blah blah. That's it. Monday is now yours to describe, and then it will be mine. ** Tomáš, Hey, man! Good to see you! 'Scar Culture', yes, I know that book. What do you think of it? I can be free this week but only late in the days because I'm hold up here working like a demon to finish my new novel. But after, like, 5 pm, yeah, I am. Shall we meet? ** Oliver, Hey. Oh, that does look interesting. I'll watch the videos tonight. Everyone, courtesy of Oliver: 're Kinect, it's not all bad.' Thanks a lot, O! ** Okay, I have to go back to work now. Enjoy the greatness that was and is The Screamers. See you tomorrow.
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