The Screamers
Encyclopedia
The Screamers were a punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 group active in the Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 area in the late 1970s. The Screamers were pioneers of a genre now known as "synthpunk
Synthpunk
Synthpunk is a music genre combining elements of electronic music and punk rock. The term was coined by Damian Ramsey in 1999 as an attempt to retroactively identify a small sub-genre of punk music from 1977 to 1984 that involved musicians playing synthesizers in place of electric...

," and can also be classified as art punk
Art punk
Art punk or avant punk refers to punk rock of an experimental bent, or with connections to art school, the art world, or the avant garde....

.

The Screamers were among the first wave of the L.A. punk rock scene. The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

 applied the label "techno-punk" to the band in 1978. In the documentary Punk: Attitude (2005), the Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....

 cite the Screamers as a key influence on their group and as one of the great unrecorded groups in rock history.

The Screamers were noted for unusual instrumentation, featuring electric piano
Electric piano
An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...

 and synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 while omitting guitars. Additional musicians, including violinists and a female vocalist, were occasionally incorporated into their performances. The group featured a highly developed theatrical presentation that centered around a manic lead vocalist, Tomata du Plenty
Tomata du Plenty
David Xavier Harrigan, aka Tomata du Plenty the singer of the late 1970s Los Angeles synthpunk band The Screamers. He was also founder of Seattle's counterculture troupe Ze Whiz Kidz...

. DuPlenty and Tommy Gear, a keyboard player and vocalist, were the band's principal songwriters.

Although the Screamers developed a substantial following and generated considerable press coverage, they never released a record.

History

The Screamers' founders Tomata du Plenty
Tomata du Plenty
David Xavier Harrigan, aka Tomata du Plenty the singer of the late 1970s Los Angeles synthpunk band The Screamers. He was also founder of Seattle's counterculture troupe Ze Whiz Kidz...

  (born David Xavier Harrigan 1948, died 2000) and Tommy Gear first collaborated in Seattle in 1975, where they formed The Tupperwares.
The original lineup of the Tupperwares included Tommy Gear (at the time, using the name "Melba Toast"), Tomata du Plenty, and Rio de Janeiro on vocals, backed by Pam Lillig and Ben witz (later of Girls), as well as Bill Rieflin (later of The Blackouts and Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...

) and a teenage Eldon Hoke
Eldon Hoke
El Duce redirects here. The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was known as "Il Duce."Eldon Wayne Hoke was an American musician. Nicknamed El Duce, he was best known as the drummer and lead singer of the self-described "rape rock" band The Mentors...

 (later known as "El Duce" of The Mentors
The Mentors
The Mentors are an American heavy metal band noted for its deliberately sexist shock rock lyrics.They formed in 1977 in Seattle, Washington and relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1979, where their irreverent attitude aligned them with the city's punk rock scene. Their music has developed...

). Tomata du Plenty and Rio De Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 were veterans of the theatrical troupe Ze Whiz Kidz, and du Plenty had also worked with the drag troupe The Cockettes
The Cockettes
The Cockettes were a psychedelic drag queen troupe founded by Hibiscus in the late 1960s in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. The troupe performed outrageous parodies of show tunes and gained an underground cult following that led to mainstream exposure.In 1971, over differences in...

.

In late 1976, after legal threats from Tupperware
Tupperware
Tupperware is the name of a home products line that includes preparation, storage, containment, and serving products for the kitchen and home, which were first introduced to the public in 1946....

 trademark owners, the band's name was changed to the Screamers. The trio Tomata, Tommy, Rio migrated to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, leaving the other band members behind. Shortly after arriving In Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 Rio De Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 left the band due to creative differences and they added David Brown and drummer K. K. Barrett
K. K. Barrett
Keith "K. K." Barrett is a production designer known for his work on feature films by Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola. Barrett also played drums for the 1970s punk rock band, The Screamers...

. Brown soon left to found the seminal punk label Dangerhouse Records
Dangerhouse Records
Dangerhouse Records was a punk music record label in Los Angeles, California.Started in 1977 and collapsing by the end of 1980, Dangerhouse was a short-lived enterprise, which nonetheless left its mark on the punk scene....

; he was replaced by Paul Roessler
Paul Roessler
Paul Roessler was a prominent member of the L.A. punk scene during the late 1970s and '80s. He played keyboards in bands such as The Screamers, Twisted Roots, 45 Grave, Nervous Gender, SAUPG, Geza X and the Mommymen, Mike Watt and the Secondmen, Nina Hagen and The Deadbeats...

.

The Screamers created a visual presence in the press before they ever played live. Studio photos of the band—their hair greased into spikes, Tomata's rubbery face contorted by turns into a demonic grin or a mask of anguish—began to appear in magazines even before a full band had been assembled. Artist Gary Panter's
Gary Panter
Gary Panter is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the second generation in American underground comix...

 logo for the band, a stylized cartoon of a screaming head with spiked hair, became one of the most recognizable images to emerge from punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

.

From 1977 through 1979, the Screamers became a sensation in Los Angeles rock clubs, selling out multiple-night engagements at the Whisky a Go Go
Whisky a Go Go
The Whisky a Go Go is a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip.-History:...

. They were the first band without a recording contract to headline the prestigious Roxy
The Roxy Theatre
The Roxy Theatre is a famous nightclub, on the Sunset Strip, in West Hollywood, California. The Roxy is owned by Lou Adler and Adler's son, Nic, who operates the club.- History :...

 on Sunset Boulevard. These performances highlighted extreme psychological states. Their lyrics veered between jocular engagement with pop culture ("I'm Going Steady With Twiggy") and quasi-fascist commands to the citizens of the future ("Punish or Be Damned," "In a Better World, Everybody Must Be Made to Feel Important"). The music combined pop melodies, droning synthesizer, propulsive drumming, and vocals that were screamed.

Describing a July, 1979 performance, music critic Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn is a pop music critic and author. As critic and music editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles have appeared in hundreds of publications around the world...

 of the Los Angeles Times focused on "Tomata's extraordinary power on stage." According to Hilburn, "Tomata's hair was greased to stand straight up, giving him the look of a man who had just stuck his finger into an electric socket. His performance reflected the nervous, relentless anxiety of a ... By the end of the 40-minute set, Tomata had gone through the same disintegration of the human-will that we associate with such books as 1984. Eventually, the tuxedo jacket, shirt and tie are ripped off, leaving him "symbolically"(not literally) naked in his attempt to maintain some dignity and individuality. As if suddenly put in another man's body, he asks in horror: 'Who am I?'"

The Screamers never released a single official recording of any kind, although several bootleg recordings have since appeared, composed of rehearsals or live tapes. At one point, the group determined they would release their debut album only in video form (this was a very unusual approach at the time, before MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 existed), and they devoted time and resources to constructing a small movie studio. Despite some fitful efforts in the early 80s, the band had effectively dissolved before their video plans were realized. Roessler joined L.A.'s other "synthpunk
Synthpunk
Synthpunk is a music genre combining elements of electronic music and punk rock. The term was coined by Damian Ramsey in 1999 as an attempt to retroactively identify a small sub-genre of punk music from 1977 to 1984 that involved musicians playing synthesizers in place of electric...

" band, Nervous Gender
Nervous Gender
Nervous Gender is a punk band founded in Los Angeles, California in 1978 by Gerardo Velazquez, Edward Stapleton, Phranc and Michael Ochoa.Their use of heavily distorted keyboards and synthesizers made them, along with The Screamers, one of the original innovators of what is today called...

. The other band members pursued non-musical careers, though K.K. Barrett reunited with Roessler to perform several Screamers songs live in late 2000, in tribute to Tomata du Plenty, who had recently died in San Francisco in August 2000.

Recordings

The song '122 Hours of Fear' by The Screamers recorded in 1978 was inspired by the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181
Lufthansa Flight 181
Lufthansa Flight 181 was a Lufthansa Boeing 737-230 Adv aircraft named Landshut that was hijacked on October 13, 1977 by four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine...

.

In 2004, Target Video
Target Video
Target Video is a San Francisco-based studio, founded by artist Joe Rees, who collaborating with Jackie Sharp, Jill Hoffman, Sam Edwards and others, archived early art performance, punk and hardcore bands on video and film. Performers and artists as diverse as the Sex Pistols, the Dead Kennedys,...

 released a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 of a Screamers concert from 1978, filmed at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco and appended several early Screamers music videos shot at the Target studio around the same time. Unauthorized live recordings and demo tapes of the Screamers circulate as bootlegs.

Three of their songs feature on the 2010 compilation Black Hole: Jon Savage Presents/California Punk 1977-1980.

In popular culture

Tomata du Plenty
Tomata du Plenty
David Xavier Harrigan, aka Tomata du Plenty the singer of the late 1970s Los Angeles synthpunk band The Screamers. He was also founder of Seattle's counterculture troupe Ze Whiz Kidz...

 starred in the 1986 punk rock musical Population: 1
Population: 1
Population: 1 is a 1986 punk rock musical film written and directed by Rene Daalder.The film stars Tomata du Plenty of the Screamers as a defense contractor who somehow becomes the sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust. In his solitude, he traces the history of U.S...

. The October 2008 release of Population: 1 on DVD features a bonus disc of rare Screamers concert footage.

A poster advertising a Screamers show is featured in the hallway (along with many other band's posters) of the house in the film Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon (film)
Laurel Canyon is a 2002 American drama film written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko. The film stars Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone, and Alessandro Nivola.-Plot:...

.

External links

  • The Screamers – "An Unofficial Screamers Website"
  • 122 hours of fear 1978 recording, lyrics and video.
  • Population: 1 Official Website
  • "The Screamers", the Screamers page on PunkRockers.com
  • Tomata du Plenty 1948-2000: some remembrances, theoretical.com, March 13, 2002. (archive.org)
  • "Tomata du Plenty, R.I.P. 1948-2000" by V. Vale
    V. Vale
    V. "Valhalla" Vale is a writer, keyboard player and, as Vale Hamanaka, was a member of the initial configuration of Blue Cheer, prior to that band becoming famous as a power trio. He is the publisher and primary contributor to books and magazines published by his company, RE/Search Publications...

    , ReSearchPubs.com, 2005.
  • "Somewhere Between Rammstein and Twiggy", from: We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk by Brendan Mullen & Marc Spitz, 2001. ISBN 0-609-80774-9 (At LA Weekly
    LA Weekly
    LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...

    website, December 5, 2001.)
  • "Two Ears and a Tale: The Screamers: by Kurt B. Reighley, Seattle Weekly
    Seattle Weekly
    Seattle Weekly is a freely distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as The Weekly...

    , May 8, 2002.
  • "A Tribute to Synth Punk 101: The Screamers Come Full Circle in Seattle" by Jennifer Maerz, The Stranger
    The Stranger (newspaper)
    The Stranger is an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, USA. It runs a blog known as Slog.-History:The Stranger was founded by Tim Keck, who had previously co-founded the satirical newspaper The Onion, and cartoonist James Sturm. Its first issue came out on September 23, 1991...

    , August 8, 2002.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK