ADOLESCENTS TOUR DATES DEC/12- JAN13

12/7/12 

Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory, w/ TSOL, CH3, & more ...

12/9/12 

 Agoura Hills, CA @ The Canyon Club, w/ TSOL, Gears, & Love Canal 

*******

12/27/12

 Dallas, TX @ The Trees, w/ Youth Brigade & more ..

12/28/12 

 San Antonio TX @ The White Rabbit, w/ Youth Brigade & more.. 

12/29/12 

Corpus Christie TX @ The House of Rock, w/ Youth Brigade & more ..

12/30/12 

Houston TX @ Fitzgeralds, w/ Youth Brigade & more ...

12/31/12 

Austin, TX @ Red 7 on NEW YEARS EVE !!  w/ Youth Brigade & more ...

1/2/13 

Gainesville, FL  @ Loosey's, w/ Youth Brigade & more ..

1/3/13 

Deland, FL @ Cafe DaVinci, w/ Youth Brigade & more ...

1/4/13 

West Palm Beach, FL @ Respectable Street, w/ Youth Brigade & more ...

1/5/13 

Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbits, w/ Youth Brigade and more ...

Hallowe'en! 31 songs to Celebrate

We love Hallowe'en a whole bunch in this house. We cut our teeth on Universal monstersThis is our good time month. To celebrate, here are 31 great Halloween songs that we like. This isn't a family that pushes censorship, so use your own discretion. 

31. Danny Elfman: This is Halloween from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas

There is no denying what an awesome and wonderful song this is, it really caught the spirit of the song. Elfman should be no stranger to anyone who followed Los Angeles Music, or even the Dr. Demento Show. Who can forget the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman's brother's thing from the Gong Show? 

30. Oingo Boingo- Dead Man's Party

Speaking of whom, using whacked, colorful, almost Posadas inspired puppets, this is a great merge of classic new wave from the 1980's & Dia de los Muertos imagery. No doubt that for Hallowe'en,  Weird Science works, too, but I think I have to cut ole Danny off here.

29. Ramones- Pet Semetary

"I don't want to be buried in a pet semetary....." No denying the merit of this song as a Hallowe'en classic, and a great example of what a catchy songwriter Dee Dee Ramone was. The Ramones were so much to so many of us, including this family, with the elders being fans and having seen them more times than we recall. The kicker for a movie based on Stephen king's novel of the same name, King was, like so many of us, a fan.

28. Siouxsie & the Banshees- Night Shift

A moody and uncomfortable, creepy riff circling around an obsession. At the top of their game no one from their genre could touch them, and there isn't anything I have heard in years from the spooky kids that even comes close. This clip from Koln, 1983. Anyone who saw this band knew how heavy they could be. 

"My night shift sisters, 

With your nightly visitors, 

A new occassion in life, 

My love with a knife."

27. Goblin- Suspiria Theme

The theme from a pretty scary Italian slasher film (but it is so much, much more than that) there is no denying that without Goblin's soundtrack, there would be no grounding for Dario Argento's classic. One of the greatest soundtracks to any horror movie.

26. Alice Cooper Band-  Ballad of Dwight Fry

There are a couple of brilliant versions of this on the internet from live shows in 1971, neither of which would load. Using the story of Renfield, played by Dwight Frye, Alice Cooper took mental illness and put it out in the center stage. The following video is pretty heavy. You're warned.

25. John Carpenter- Theme from  Halloween

One of the coolest discoveries I learned was that parts of the slasherfest known as Halloween were filmed here in Sierra Madre. The town doesn't boast of it much, but the cemetery scene was filmed here, as was the much later funeral of Laura Palmer of Twin Peaks fame. La tee da. So, John Capenter beat out the keys, and scared the hell out of us all. just hearing the music, much like hearing the theme of Jaws, could prove to be..... unsettling.

24.  Screaming Jay Hawkins- I Put a Spell on You

What a great showman! No denyng the charm and the swarm that was Screamin' Jay.

23. Roky Erickson- Two Headed Dog

22. Misfits- Die, Die My Darling

21. It's the Mummy from Mad Monster Party

Dance, dance, dance, but don't lose your head! A dance party claassic with all your fiends dancing along. Woo-hoo!

20. Addam's Family Theme

Not to be confused with the Munsters, this is the show with the French speaking Morticia! Then there's that cute Wednesday and her headless dolly.....

19. Roky Erickson- Bloody Hammer

Roky Erickson and the Aliens put out a record that could have been a Hallowe'en classic on itsown merit (The Evil One) and this song, often lost in the mix of out of this world greatness, is a stand alone classic.

18. Mike Oldfield- Tubular Bells: The Soundtrack from The Exorcist

And the scary hits keep a coming! Put it on with the soundtracks to Halloween and Suspiria and try to go to sleep.

17. Grim Grinning Ghosts-

It's still brilliant. You know I am right. 

16. Theme from Martin

"Nosferatu....." Way before that wonderful Let the Right One In, we all met Martin. He was a little bit Harold and Mad.....

15. Siouxsie & the Banshees- Playground Twist

Another tense song from Siouxsie and the Banshees, pretty amazing that it was released as a single in 1978 considering that.

14. Munster's Theme

The other spooky family from the sixties. Thank God the networks were trying to outdo each other. Two great shows for the price of one!

13. Cramps- Human Fly

and I say buzzzzzzz...... Sure do miss the Cramps. 

12. Damned- Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

11. Screamin' Lord Sutch- All Black & Hairy

10. Monster Mash

 9. Zacherley- Coolest Little Monster

8. David Seville- The Witch Doctor

The creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks, David Seville (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) was the cousin of "Bill Saroyan" (writer William Saroyan, both of whom hailed from Fresno, California) as pointed out on this clip. Pretty neat guy, did lots of work with Hitchcock, and figured out cool tricks with tape speed to create his characters.

7. Phantom of the Paradise- Life at Last

6. Samhain- Diabolos '88

Not on many lists, for whatever reason, but this is one damned fine piece of Hallowe'en music. Maybe it wa simply because it fell too vauely between the legend that was the Misfits, and the reality that was Danzig's latter music, but this little gem, and fine band, were pretty much forgotten. 

5. Halloween III Silver Shamrock Theme

Omaha, Nebraska, it says, but lots of it is the old downtown Sierra Madre, here and there. Carpenter used the Sierra Madre locale one other time (The Fog) but the dancing pumpkins from a TV store remains my favorite. 

4. Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs- Li'l Red Riding Hood

Awooooo! Set with classic cartoons. Great song and a nice presentation here.

3. Theme from Spiderbaby

Good times with knives and ropes.

2. Psycho

Music soundtracks designed for fright and suspense have to acknowledge this one. 

1. Theme from Blood Feast

Not going to run the other clips with the scenes here, but it is the original gore film that introduced bright red to the tattered silver screen.

Bogota! The Rundown

On February 18, 2012 the Adolescents played on their second trip to South America. The first had been 18 months back when the band played in Brazil. On that fateful trip Steve lost part of his thumb in an accident where a window had slammed shut and crushed his left thumb. This current trip to Colombia had begun in the summer of 2011 when Laura had approached the band in London where she was on location for a pulishing company and had seen the band. She and her husband Robert have a booking company and rehearsal studio in Bogota called Alto Voltaje. As we had never been to Colombia, we were very excited and began the planning through our European agent to begin planning our weekend in Bogota. Unfortunately, we had not researched the terrain too well, and approximately ten days before the trip we realized that the altitude of Bogota was close to two times the height of Denver, Colorado, and that posed a health risk for both Steve and myself. 

After consulting with our physicians, it was determined that I could do the trip with medicaton, but it was not advised for Steve to make the trip. We were stuck with a problem that has rarely come up as a possibility- and that was that the band would need to perform without Steve. This problem had surfaced in Brazil on the night that Steve was injured, and once in 1980 when we were kids and Steve's parents had insisted on his attending a church camp retreat. It became necessary to either locate a fill-in, or to cancel the show. We felt that it was too late to cancel the show givent the circustances and the amount of promotion that had been done. To cancel may have caused difficulty for the promoters, and we felt that it wasn't possible to do that. Steve made a couple of phone calls, and we were lucky to find that Joe Harrison, who has been a member of the band for seven years, but who currently attends Berkely College in Boston, would be able to fly in to Colombia to play bass. 


The flight to Bogota was pretty long, and began with leaving to the airport at 4AM PST for an international flight. I began taking medication on Thursday to help with my breathing (I have significant asthma) and outside of my usual insomnia, I was rested and ready to go. After the usual LAX airport monkey business- which usually involves me being randomly screened very closely, emptying my bags, and being x-rayed twice- we finally boarded for Miami International. Now, theoretically, people are chosen at random for screening, but I find that I am randomly chosen about 25% of the time. In any event, we got to Miami and hd to kill a couple of hours. Miami is a wonderful airport as far as killing time, and as far as I know, the only one that openly encourages patrons to take complimentary shots of rum. We passed on the 2PM booze boosterism, but I am still scratching my head about that. We are on our way to Bogota by 5PM SST, and landed in Bogota at about 8PM CST. Mando, Dan, Mike, and I would meet with Joe and the promoters when we arrived at El Dorado Airport.

dan's

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Something Weird Video

ADOLESCENTS 2012 EURO TOUR

12.07.12 GER-Berlin, Wild at Heart

13.07.12 CZE-Tabor, Mighty Sounds

14.07.12 GBR-London, The Jamm

15.07.12 GBR-Basingstoke, Sanctuary

16.07.12 GBR-Newport, Le Pub

17.07.12 GBR-Manchester, Star and Garter

18.07.12 NED-Eindhoven, The Rambler

19.07.12 GER-Glaubitz, Back to Future

20.07.12 GER-Frankfurt, Au

21.07.12 GER-Oberhausen, Devilside Festival

21.07.12 GER-Münster, Volcom Bergfest 2012

22.07.12 GER-Saarbrücken, Garage

23.07.12 GER-München, Feierwerk (Zero Boys & Avengers)

24.07.12 AUT-Wien, Arena (& Zero Boys & Avengers)

25.07.12 ITA-Cuneo, Campo Sportivo Caramagna

26.07.12 FRA-Toulouse, Saint des Seins

27.07.12 ESP-Badalona, Estrapero Club

28.07.12 ESP-Torrelavega, Takio Fest

29.07.12 FRA-Bordeaux, Heretic

30.07.12 FRA-Lyon, Warm Audio

31.07.12 SUI-Luzern, Sedel (& Zero Boys)

01.08.12 GER-Karlsruhe, Alte Hackerei

02.08.12 CZE-Moravska Trebova, Pod Parou Festival

03.08.12 POL-Warschau, Punkt & Radio Luxembourg

04.08.12 LIT-Ratnieki, Laba Daba Festival

05.08.12 FIN- Tampere, Klubi

06.08.12 FIN-Turku, Klubi

07.08.12 FIN-Helsinki, Bar Loose

09.08.12 SWE-Göteborg, Way Out West Festival

10.08.12 DEN-Kopenhagen, Stengade

11.08.12 GER-Verden, JZ Dampfmühle Festival

12.08.12 GER-Hamburg, Hafenklang (& Zero Boys)

13.08.12 GER-Hannover, Bei Chez Heinz

14.08.12 BEL-Tongeren, Rockcafe Sodom

15.08.12 TBA. Secret bar show

16.08.12 SLO-Tolmin, Punk Rock Holiday

17.08.12 FRA-Le Havre, Mac Daids

18.08.12 FRA-Theix, Motocultor Festival

Sister Goddamn

Sometime around 1991 or so I was approached by Amy Wichman (formerly of the band KAOS- remember "Alcoholiday"?) to join her new project- as their singer; they would later become the Mini Skirt Mob. We began tracking some demos (the woderful Elmo Jackson and the Starfish Six cassette) with Bruce Duff, while Amy's band politely rehearsed without me (I suspect that Amy hadn't gotten a group consensus on my participation).

Both Amy and Bruce had played in the Jeff Dahl Group on the "Scratch Up Some Action" and "Vomit Wet Kiss" LPs (as well as on the later released live album) and after Jeff went solo they were both outjamming with other musicians. I was without a band, everything I was working on kinda fizzled out.

The demos Bruce, Amy, and I recorded eventually morphed into a band with Mat Young who had played drums in the Flower Leperds, Pinups, and Abandoned with me. The band would eventually become Sister Goddamn, named after a variation-combination of  the Velvet Underground's Sister Ray and the Bette Davis's book Mother Goddamn. 

We would end up playing together for five years, recording two albums (Portrait in Crayon, and Folk Songs of the Spanish Inquisition) for Triple X and Bitzcore, and then morphing into ADZ around 1996. By the time the second Sister goddamn CD was recorded Amy lefte the band (She recorded three songs before she moved on.) Three women finished out the album, with only the awesome Sylvia LaCroix actually seeing the band through to the end. In the summer of 1995 I went to Europe for the first time, doing double vocal duties with both ADZ and Sister Goddamn. We recorded both bands' sets at the Melkweg in Amsterdamn for an album that was never released.

I was watching this video, somehow recorded on a budget of zero by a guy that usually made videos for the Flaming Lips. How Bruce figured this one out is anyone's guess. I saw it posted, and it made me smile. Amy had such a joy de vivre. She would always peer over he cat eye glasses and say , "Indeed" like a snobby old battle  axe, and the Starfish 6 joke, which revolved around the mysterious disappearance of  the elder Elmo Jackson (thus reducing the Jackson 6 to the Jackson 5) combined with our absolute conviction that Bruce (Brooooooooose) was really Jacque Cousteau in hiding- was endless hours of uncontrolled laughter, while Bruce patiently stared at us and wondered if we'd both lost our minds..... 


I really miss her. 


To you, Amy. 









(These photos were taken at the sessions for Portrait in Crayon circa 1992 at Pendragon Studios, El Segundo, California. In the pics are Bruce, Amy, Mat, myseldf, and engineer Wild Bill Krodel. These photos most likely were taken on Bruce's camera.)