The Weirdos were an American 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...

 band from 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...

. They formed in 1976 and broke up in 1981, were occasionally active in the 1980s, and recorded new material in the 1990s. Critic Mark Deming calls them "quite simply, one of the best and brightest American bands of punk's first wave."

History

The band was formed in 1976 by singer John Denney and his brother Dix on guitar, initially using the band names The Barbies and The Luxurious Adults. They were the only constant members, though guitarist/bassist Cliff Roman, bassist Dave Trout and drummer Nickey "Beat" Alexander were relatively long-term Weirdos.

Cliff Martinez

Cliff Martinez

Cliff Martinez is an American film score composer and former drummer.-Biography:Cliff Martinez was born in the Bronx, New York. Raised in Columbus, Ohio, his first job composing was for the popular television show Pee Wee's Playhouse...

, who briefly drummed for the band, went on to join the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...

, playing on the latter's first two albums. Dix Denney was also close to becoming a member of the Chili Peppers. However, after many practices with Denney, things didn't work out and he was replaced by guitarist Jack Sherman

Jack Sherman

Jack Sherman is a guitarist best known as a member of Red Hot Chili Peppers, playing on their debut album.He has also recorded with Bob Dylan, George Clinton, Gary Mallaber, Tim Drummond , Barry Goldberg, Jim Keltner, T.Bone Burnett, Danny Kortchmar, Bob Glaub, Peter Case, Gerry Goffin, Tonio K,...

. Zander Schloss

Zander Schloss

Zander Schloss is a Los Angeles, California based musician, actor and composer. He is perhaps best known as bass player for The Circle Jerks and The Weirdos and for his contributions to a number of independent feature films. His first screen appearance was as "Kevin the Nerd" in Repo Man...

, who would later join a reunited Weirdos lineup, also auditioned for the Chili Peppers when guitarist John Frusciante

John Frusciante

John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums...

 quit in 1992.

The Weirdos were originally an art rock

Art rock

Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with influences from art, avant-garde, and classical music. The first usage of the term, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. Influenced by the work of The Beatles, most notably their Sgt...

 band, and were featured in a news article featuring punk rock groups in Time magazine; thus the "punk" label stuck.

The band broke up in 1981, but reunited several times, recording 1990 album Condor. A 2004 reunion included Circle Jerks bassist Zander Schloss

Zander Schloss

Zander Schloss is a Los Angeles, California based musician, actor and composer. He is perhaps best known as bass player for The Circle Jerks and The Weirdos and for his contributions to a number of independent feature films. His first screen appearance was as "Kevin the Nerd" in Repo Man...

 and The Skulls

The Skulls (U.S. Band)

The Skulls were a Los Angeles punk band formed in 1977, and later reformed in 2000. Their final show was in Corona, California in March 2006. The Skulls had several line-ups with only one consistent member, vocalist Steven William "Billy Bones" Fortuna....

 drummer Sean Antillon in the lineup.

Cliff Roman later became an eighth grade Art & Algebra teacher at Oliver Wendell Holmes Middle School in Northridge, CA.

Albums

• Condor (1990), Frontier
  Frontier Records
  Frontier Records is an independent record label, started in 1980 in Los Angeles by Lisa Fancher, a former employee of Bomp! Records and writer of the liner notes for the first album by The Runaways....
  
  
• Live on the Radio (2008), Frontier

Compilations:

• Weird World 1977-1981 - Time Capsule Volume One (1991), Frontier
• We Got the Neutron Bomb - Weird World Volume Two 1977-1989 (2003), Frontier
• Destroy All Music (2007), Bomp!
  Bomp! Records
  Bomp! Records is an Los Angeles-based indie label formed in 1974 by fanzine publisher and music historian Greg Shaw.-History:The label has featured punk, pop, powerpop, garage rock, new wave, old school rock, neo-psychedelia among other genres, and its roster has included artists such as The Modern...
  
  

Singles, EPs

• "Destroy All Music" (1977), Bomp!
• "We Got the Neutron Bomb" (1978), Dangerhouse
• Who? What? When? Where? Why? EP (1979), Numbskull
• "Skateboards to Hell" (1979), Numbskull
• Action Design EP (1980), Rhino

External links

• "Weirdoism" by John Denney, from: Fucked Up + Photocopied, edited by Bryan Ray Turcotte and Christopher T. Miller, 1999. ISBN 1-58423-083-5 (paperback), ISBN 1-58423-000-2 (hardcover).
• "Profile on PunkRockers.com"