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The Screamers

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The Screamers

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"The Scream"
Sample of The Screamers "The Scream" (Rene Daalder, David Campbell demo) (1978).
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Template:Sample box end The Screamers were a punk rock group active in the Los Angeles, California area in the late 1970s.

Included among the first wave of the L.A. punk rock scene, the label "techno-punk" was applied to the band by the Los Angeles Times in 1978.[1] The Screamers are widely cited as the pioneers of a genre now known as "synthpunk," and might also be classified as art punk. The Screamers were notable for their unusual instrumentation, featuring electric piano and synthesizer, 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, whose stage persona one early commentator described as "a psychotic Mickey Rooney."

Though they developed a substantial following and generated considerable press coverage, the Screamers never released a record. In the Don Letts-directed documentary Punk: Attitude (2005), singer Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys cites the Screamers as a key influence on his group and as one of the great unrecorded groups in rock history; a sentiment echoed by Brendan Mullen, who ran the punk club The Masque.

History

Du Plenty (born David Xavier Harrigan in 1948, died 2000), a veteran of the theatrical drag troupes The Cockettes and Ze Whiz Kidz, first collaborated with the Screamers' principal songwriter Tommy Gear (then using the name "Melba Toast") in Seattle in 1975, as The Tupperwares. The lineup of the Tupperwares included Gear, Du Plenty, and Rio de Janeiro on vocals, backed by Pam Lillig and Ben Rabinowitz (later of The Girls), as well as Bill Rieflin (later of The Blackouts and Ministry) and a teenage Eldon Hoke (later known as "El Duce" of The Mentors).

In early 1977, after legal threats from the Tupperware trademark owners, Gear and du Plenty changed their band's name to the Screamers. At about the same time, the two migrated to Los Angeles, leaving the other band members behind. In LA, they added David Brown (who largely shaped their characteristic drums-synthesizer-electric piano sound) and drummer K. K. Barrett. Brown soon left to found the seminal punk label Dangerhouse Records; he was replaced by Paul Roessler.

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 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.

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. They were the first band without a recording contract ever permitted to headline at the prestigious Roxy on Sunset Boulevard. Their performances highlighted extreme psychological states, and 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 literally screamed.

Describing a July, 1979, performance, music critic Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times focused on "Du Plenty's extraordinary power on stage." According to Hilburn, "Du Plenty'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 someone whose troubles are even deeper... By the end of the 40-minute set, du Plenty has 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 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?'"[2]

Remarkably, the Screamers made no records. (Several bootleg recordings have since appeared, composed of rehearsals or live recordings.) At one point, the group determined they would release their debut album only in video form (this was a very unusual appraoach at the time, before MTV 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" band, Nervous Gender. The other band members pursued non-musical careers, though Barrett reunited with Roessler to perform several Screamers songs in 2000, in tribute to Tomata du Plenty, who had recently died in San Francisco.

Recordings

In 2004, Target Video released a DVD 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.

Tomata du Plenty starred in the 1986 punk rock musical Population: 1. 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.

Notes

  1. ^ Los Angeles Times, 2-27-1978 "L.A. PUNK ROCKERS - Six New Wave Bands Showcased"
  2. ^ Robert Hilburn, "The L.A. Rock Scene: A Dramatic Resurgence," 'Los Angeles Times,' July 24, 1979
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