early punk-era L.A. synth: Nervous Gender, If-Then-Else, Null and Void, etc.

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There's already a thread on the Screamers, deservedly, but not a thread about all of the other incestuous synthy noise collaborations/bands that came and went throughout the L.A./Orange County area in the early 80s... just wanted to start a thread to collect all the best (and warn of the worst, for those of you who feel you need to)

I first heard of Nervous Gender via their split with Beelzebub Youth.. Don Bolles and various other members.. their half album is completely brilliant, peaked by the song "People Like You" (imho).. There are other obscurities by Nervous Gender (one of which was covered by Soft Pink Truth).. and there really should be a full Nervous Gender discography CD of some sort.

If-Then-Else was less "rock" and more experimental.. I think these guys featured Geza X and members of the Weirdos, but I could be wrong...

also many bands on the synth side of KNAC sponsored rarity called Up Another Octave Transmission which was a "future of the 80s" V/A comp put together by, then, very new wave commercial radio station KNAC (who would later became the complete opposite, and turn to cock rock). The only band that would become big from this record was Berlin, but this was a lineup well before Terri Nunn entered the picture.. they were far more caustic then. Also, this features a band called the Detours (or was it the Vectors?) that had Rikk Agnew (Adolescents, Christian Death) in it as well. I found this record a decade ago for a few bucks... I'd love to get a better quality copy (but not for the eBay price listed.)

Anyway, have it, L.A. noisymakers.

― Dom iNut (donut), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 00:29 (nineteen years ago)

i've got a 12" ep by Null and Void called Happiness and Contempt which is pretty cool, but i know nothing about them. anyone care to clue me in?

― one time gaffled 'em up (one time gaffled 'em up), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 00:46 (nineteen years ago)

I have the record at home.. I'll upload the liner notes for the key bands here once I find the record.. (i'm in the middle of realphabetizing my vinyl collection, so stay tuned for lots of these types of threads... they won't be so A-Z like Xhuxkxk's threads though.. I don't have as much music as he does.)

― Dom iNut (donut), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 00:56 (nineteen years ago)

If-Then-Else was a one-off by John and Dix Denney of the Weirdos. Don't think Geza X had anything to do with it. But you could include his album, "You Goddamn Kids!", though I'm not sure there was a synth on it, might've been just a treated guitar. One of the more obscure albums to make it to cd...

I'm pretty sure the only vinyl releases by Nervous Gender were the Music from Hell album and 4 tracks on the "Live at Target" compilation. Don Bolles is on Music from Hell and clearly had a very positive effect on its sound, but I don't think he was a regular member of the group. If I'm not mistaken, Beelzebub Youth was not a performing band. There was something called Gobscheit (sp?) that was similar, minimal synth-drum machine backing and poetry.

Check out the various LAFMS compilations, the "Life is Ugly/Boring/Beautfiul" series, and Bruce Licher-sponsored stuff for the keys to this era.

― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 01:21 (nineteen years ago)

the nervous gender mp3s i have didn't do much for me.

― 2 columbus circle in 1964 (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 01:24 (nineteen years ago)

ha, I'm just in the middle of making a very loose "synthpunk" sort've comp for a friend (teenage whirlwind heat fan) w/the screamers, primitive calculators, nervous gender (TOTALLY agree on "people like you"!) & so on, + 90s stuff such as the vss, six finger satellite & brainiac; & had been to synthpunk.org & d/l-ed some voice farm, units & our daughters wedding, but haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. any of these latter bands from L.A.?

(donut, when yr in aussie you should grab the primitive calculators & slugfuckers reissues! if you haven't already.)

― etc, Tuesday, 10 January 2006 01:25 (nineteen years ago)

also aussie synthpunk should include SPK and Severed Heads, who went on to bigger things then slugfuckers and primitive calculators, but were just as raw at some point.

Voice Farm and I think Units are from San Francisco.

Don't forget Metal Urbain, Metal Boys and Dr. Mix and the Remix. You can't get their music online though, you have to purchase the CDs from Acute Records.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 02:13 (nineteen years ago)

Tell me more of this Acute Records. I have heard of it. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 02:17 (nineteen years ago)

speaking of Nervous Gender and SPK... SPK's first show in L.A. (for a Leichenscharei-era tour) had Nervous Gender opening! If I were only a much tougher hipper 9-year-old that could have told my mom at the time "Mom, we're going to see this fucking show in Hollywood NOW! or I'm gonna cry and SCREEAM ALL NIGHT!"..

..but I didn't. :(

― Dom iNut (donut), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 02:25 (nineteen years ago)

I also was too much a pussy to ask my mom to go to see Throbbing Gristle when I was 9, too.. we read about it from this nice young man in the Los Angeles Times called Robert Hilburn who raved about them. We also missed Los Lobos and ESG opening for Public Image Limited a year earlier. Mom was a homebody.

― Dom iNut (donut), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 02:26 (nineteen years ago)

So much for your punk rock life. The Palisades couldn't handle the heat.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 02:50 (nineteen years ago)

Thats funny...yr mom took me to punk shows all the time!

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 03:04 (nineteen years ago)

The video footage I've seen of Nervous Gender playing live with the child drummer is so punk rock, it's insane. There's a great Nervous Gender website with photos and flyers online, can't find the URL right now. Edward is still active and makes cool video art. Phranc was in the band too . . .

I have the "Lawnchairs" 7" by Our Daughter's Wedding, it's mannered synthpop, not psychotic ala Nervous Gender, but it's fun if you dig OMD or stuff like that.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 03:28 (nineteen years ago)

I played synare with nervous gender at that show opening for SPK , no lie !

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 04:35 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.explodingplastic.com/features/artistprofilenervousgender.html

― twelve, Tuesday, 10 January 2006 04:43 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.keyboardmuseum.org/pic/s/snar/3.jpg

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 04:44 (nineteen years ago)

Awesome! I can just imagine fleets of those descending from the clouds, flying over Sunset Boulevard and blowing shit up with lasers . . .

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 06:21 (nineteen years ago)

that's a show I wish I could have seen

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 06:44 (nineteen years ago)

I was first turned on to Nervous Gender through Soft Pink Truth, who did a show here at Club Transmediale in Berlin. The opening line of "Confession," "Jesus was a cocksucking Jew," uttered over a fantastic dance beat got the crowd going (and occasionally looking at each other probably thinking: "Did he just say what I think he said?"), has to be one of the highlights of live shows in years for me. That and the gay porn projected large on the screens behind him just made it gloriously irreverent in its reverence for punk and hardcore of old. Great stuff.

― Guymauve (Guymauve), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 11:43 (nineteen years ago)

I love Nervous Gender, and yeah you're OTM on their best tune.

Brian Turner turned me on to the Nervous Gender album, when Mondo Kim's had a stack of them still sealed for ten bucks or so, about five years ago... On the same visit he had me buying Wolf Eyes and Black Dice, so naturally I listen to the guy.

Do the B People fit into this at all? That song "Making Petrified Conditions Dance" or whatever it's called, totally slays me -- it's from one of those Ethan James/ Harvey Kubernick comp.s...

And wasn't Paul Roessler in both the Screamers and Nervous Gender? I could be tripping, there. Seems like he was in a lot of these kindsa bands before he was in DC3, who were a great live band but then I've always liked Dez Cadena a LOT.

― Michael J McGonigal (mike mcgonigal), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 12:12 (nineteen years ago)

I should check out Nervous Gender, I don't think I was aware of them before. I love the Screamers, Geza X, Primitive Calculators, etc.

The only song I have by B People is the one on Let Them Eat Jellybeans, but that's a good one.

Does "Nag Nag Nag" by Cabaret Voltaire fit into this? I guess it does.

Everyone should buy the Acute reissues of Metal Urbain/Boys, to make up for me buying the French versions instead!

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

Does "Nag Nag Nag" by Cabaret Voltaire fit into this? I guess it does

It does...but they're not from LA, see. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

Neither are the Primitive Calculators, Metal Urbain, TG etc but they still got mentioned! Hmph.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

Brian Turner turned me on to the Nervous Gender album, when Mondo Kim's had a stack of them still sealed for ten bucks or so, about five years ago

Those were the days...Mark Morgan from sightings would get these warehouse finds, I bought that record sealed at Kims as well. Mark turned me onto the Primitive Calculators as well when kim's had the LP with the unmarked 7", brand new, unplayed in stock.

Everyone should buy the Acute reissues of Metal Urbain/Boys, to make up for me buying the French versions instead!

You mean the french versions that are illegal to sell in the United States? The french version that Kim's carried anyway?

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

The French versions may be illegal to sell in the United States, but I'm not in the United States.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

I have that Bpeople album! They're kinda analogous to Polyrock (from NYC I gather) in the sense that there was an undeniable energy and tension to what they were doing, and they were hard to describe, which made them stand-out -- but at the same time, they had another half to their aesthetic that could have dated slightly better.. not unlike a lot of forgotten SST stuff (Trotsky Icepick?) That said, I love both Bpeople and those first two Polyrock albums.

Human Hands may qualify, although we're kinda veering away from the pure synth noisy era into a lot of grossly overlooked L.A. "post-punk", for a lack of a better term... although I don't mind the digression.

I don't know if they were from Phoenix, L.A., or just somewhere totally different from Arizona label Thermidor released a noise album by a group called the The Twenty Committee (or "The XX Committee") called "Network" which was definitely tapped into that early Wire solo project/Whitehouse type feel.

― Dom iNut (donut), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 18:51 (nineteen years ago)

Just dropped by to mention Executive Slacks. "The Bus" is classic synth punk. They were from Philly, though. Carry on...

― Edward III (edward iii), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 21:32 (nineteen years ago)

There is a good comp I just got called Keats Rides A Harley that has a lot of no wave / punk Los Angeles bands, some obscure and some better known. Here is a brief description:

KEATS RIDES A HARLEY - CD available now!

We are now accepting orders for the just-out (finally) CD release of KEATS RIDES A HARLEY, our long-out-of-print 1981 12" compilation. (The band Toxic Shock is an early version of Slovenly!)

In addition to the 9 original tracks, the new package includes one additional track each by the original artists: Earwigs, S Squad, Toxic Shock, Gun Club, Meat Puppets, Leaving Trains, Tunneltones, Human Hands, and 100 Flowers (aka Urinals). Add to this the 5 pieces from our 7" compilation from 1980, THE HAPPY SQUID SAMPLER, which includes material by Urinals, Danny and the Doorknobs, Arrow Book Club, The Vidiots w/ Rik L. Rik, and Phil Bedel.

The disc is in release through Warning Label Records and is also available, of course, through Happy Squid mailorder, your local record store, and on the web.

http://www.warninglabelrecords.com/

― GALKIN (GALKIN), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 22:58 (nineteen years ago)

that keats cd is very good.

was boyd rice/non from LA? he definitely played here, at the la press club w/ i want to say 45 grave and v. early meat puppets. good show.

― dan (dan), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.slippytown.com/45flyer.jpg

― dan (dan), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 00:44 (nineteen years ago)

i can't remember where i parked this morning but parts of 81 are very clear.

― dan (dan), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 00:45 (nineteen years ago)

wow, i was at that show ! Monitor were amazing.

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 01:21 (nineteen years ago)

It's not synth related, but it is LA related: does anybody know if there are any affordable reissues (or CD reissues at all) of Black Randy and the MetroSquad? I would love a copy of "Pass the Dust, I think I'm Bowie" that didn't cost $200 or whatever.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 02:29 (nineteen years ago)

There needs to be a lot of comp reissues of these break-of-the-80s LosAngelexploitation bands... and a single Nervous Gender discography CD. One of my many musical prayers for 2006.

― Dom iNut (donut), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 04:18 (nineteen years ago)

could swear there was a Black Randy CD...

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 04:22 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think "synth" is a very interesting way to categorize the music you seem to be interested in. Yeah, NG could be called "synth-punk," but for most of the other (very interesting) artists mentioned here synth was just one element, not necessarily dominating (and synth was omnipresent in pop music at the time, outside of punk). No synth in 100 Flowers/Urinals; no synth (I think) on the first Savage Republic album; etc. etc. Post-punk, or (maybe) no wave would be more useful names, since it seems like a lot of this stuff fed on the energy of punk and responded to the limitations of punk music and the often boneheaded (and homophobic) hardcore punk audience. Though perhaps it would be better for someone to coin a new term altogether to describe this scene. There does seem to have been a lot of incestuous stuff--I think 45 Grave and Nervous Gender people (along with others) were both in Vox Pop, a kind of joke-sludge act that might be worth a closer look for what it says about the "scene."

Non was based in San Diego, I think, but certainly a presence in L.A.

It might be useful to start cataloging the relevant compilations. Certainly:
Darker Skratcher
LAFMS Emergency Light Bulb Cassette (not all L.A. though)
Keats Rides a Harley
Life is Ugly so Why Not Kill Yourself (this one might have been mostly punk, though)
Life is Beautiful so Why not Eat Health Foods
Life is Boring so Why Not Steal This Record
L.A. Mantra (I think that was the title, Bruce Licher-issued cassette)
What else?

― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 07:24 (nineteen years ago)

OH yeah, "Darker Skratcher" seconded, it has some great stuff on it.

the overlap with Nervous Gender, 45 Grave and Vox Pop = Don Bolles

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 07:38 (nineteen years ago)

Who very conveniently provides the link to hardcore punk as well.

But I was trying to remember who else was in Vox Pop, besides Bolles, Dinah Cancer, Paul Cutler, and I think one of the main guys from Nervous Gender--Gerardo? Jeff Dahl was also there, I think, but I want it to have encompassed some others as well.

― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 07:53 (nineteen years ago)

Mikey Ochoa from Nervous Gender was a regular member of Vox Pop, not Gerardo. I too occasionally played with Vox Pop ( I was a pushy kid). Also : L.A. Mantra was not issued by Bruce Licher, but rather by a guy named A. Produce. There was also a second volume of that comp as well as a handfull of other releases on the 'Trance port' cassette only label

It's probably also worth noting that the BPeople and Human Hands mostly consisted of the prime movers behind the LAFMS (i.e. Tom Recchion, Rick Potts, Dennis Duck, Fredrik Nilsen).

An early version of the BPeople was named "Little Cripples" and the singer was none other than Michael Gira. Also Tom Recchion breifly drummed with Sonic Youth whilst living in NYC. I think he appears on that early SY live album.

I could go on and on. Good Times !

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

We need Elvis T. on this thread.

could swear there was a Black Randy CD...

There was, maybe it's out of print.

Perhaps we should all pool our resources and start a tiny 'Them Cool LA Things From That Time' label. I will write flowery liner notes.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 16:16 (nineteen years ago)

A few More relevant comps :

Mighty Feeble LP

Feeble Efforts 7"
(both compiled by the minutemen but with lots of synth noise stuff including,you guessed it, my first noise/punk band Debt of Nature)

Color The Reality LP

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 16:21 (nineteen years ago)

To Robust Cookies:

"synth" was just a common element as you said.. I have no idea what to call all these groups.. I made up the dumb term "LosAngelexploitation" just because it sounded and looked cool for a few seconds.. and also because none of this stuff was quite "punk" nor "post-punk" nor "synth-punk" nor "l.a. indie" nor "noise" but just weird goulash of all of the above, and was quite unique and incestuous. "Mission 1980: Incest L.A." I'm throwing darts now...

Mike Watt could come up with a brilliant five word term for all of this perhaps, as this era of music changed his life when he and d. boon used first started going up to Hollywood to see these shows.

― Dom iNut (donut), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 16:49 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Apparently surviving members of Nervous Gender have just launched an archival website with a history timeline, with photos, flyers and a promise for product. Interesting.....

― Jonathan Barcly (exotique1958), Monday, 30 January 2006 19:50 (nineteen years ago)

Sorry, heres the url: www.nervousgender.com

― Jonathan Barclay (exotique1958), Monday, 30 January 2006 19:51 (nineteen years ago)

Nice!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 30 January 2006 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

The Black Randy CD was put out by SFTRI, it has everything and then some. Drew, email me if you're interested...

― sleeve (sleeve), Monday, 30 January 2006 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

Anyone else here fond of the Indoor Life record? Suicide-y type stuff from '81 produced by Patrick Cowley(!) of all people.

― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 03:05 (nineteen years ago)

http://eichlerla.com/al

Somewhat related : a podcast I just posted up of a leisurely trawl through some recordings by the experimental/synth punk/power electronics band of my adolescence, Debt of Nature circa 1981-1983 in Los Angeles,CA.
Play it in iTunes for special bonus visuals !

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=113333835

feed://www.eichlerla.com/podcasts/podcast.xml

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Thursday, 2 February 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

:-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 February 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

there was also the party boys......

http://www.theoretical.com/partyboys.html

― ben jones, Sunday, 5 February 2006 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

I've got that LP...was it on IPR or just printed by them?

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 5 February 2006 17:07 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

also many bands on the synth side of KNAC sponsored rarity called Up Another Octave Transmission which was a "future of the 80s" V/A comp put together by, then, very new wave commercial radio station KNAC

Listening to this now! Great and ridiculous in equal measure.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 27 August 2007 00:43 (seventeen years ago)

Genre-related question: anybody know anything about a synth-freakout-proto-industrial band called The German Shepherds? I just listened to an old radio show I did in college and it had some of their "Sick Music for Queers" LP on it and now I need to hear the whole thing . . . has it been reissued ever?

― Drew Daniel, Monday, 27 August 2007 01:30 (seventeen years ago)

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2007/06/german-shepherds-music-for-sick.html

I don't think it has been reissued.

― sleeve, Monday, 27 August 2007 02:06 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

patrice repose of gobscheit now has a myspace page http://www.myspace.com/patricegobscheit

and nervous gender are doing shows in 09...............and having a great time.....Shanti/Edward/of n.g

― gobscheit, Saturday, 10 January 2009 15:44 (sixteen years ago)

Nice!

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 10 January 2009 16:02 (sixteen years ago)

wow

― sleeve, Saturday, 10 January 2009 20:26 (sixteen years ago)

three years pass...

Technically from Tempe, AZ but oh man how great is this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ2vR6W83QM

― goya cézanne (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, 15 November 2012 23:14 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

long, amazing interview with the guy from SF's Dumb Records (thanks to Wall Of Sound for the link):

http://www.lastdaysofmanonearth.com/blog/?p=342

― sleeve, Saturday, 12 January 2013 01:11 (twelve years ago)

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