Angry Samoans
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Angry Samoans are an early Los Angeles punk band, formed by rock critics "Metal" Mike Saunders and Gregg Turner after the demise of VOM, with fellow critic Richard Meltzer.
Later in the Samoans career unspecified grudges against influential KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer caused them to write a defamatory song called "Get Off the Air," which caused many Los Angeles clubs to avoid booking them until the mid 1980s. The band's particularly offensive, politically incorrect attitude and lyrical content probably contributed to this situation as well.
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[edit] VOM
The Samoans began as VOM in 1976, a self-described beat combo featuring the renowned writer and critic Richard Meltzer on vocals, with Turner on guitar and 2nd vocals and Saunders on drums. The band also featured Dave Guzman on 'tuneless rhythm guitar', 'Gurl' on bass guitar, and Phil Koehn on lead guitar. The name Vom is short for 'vomit', as their early live act is said by Meltzer and Turner to have included throwing various 'viscera', cow parts and food substances at the audience to provoke reaction.
Both Meltzer and Saunders had already contributed to music as a whole in very distinct conduits. Richard Meltzer had written The Aesthetics of Rock (written in '68 but published in '70) which was certainly the 'first serious' discussion of rock music in long format as an art form. Mike Saunders is credited for coining the term 'heavy metal' as a sub-genre, while writing for Rolling Stone. In 1970 he wrote: "Here [Humble Pie] were a noisy, unmelodic, heavy metal-leaden shit-rock band, with the loud and noisy parts beyond doubt," in a review of As Safe As Yesterday Is. "This album," he continues, "more of the same 27th-rate heavy metal crap, is worse than the first two put together, though I know that sounds incredible." Though Saunders himself states that the title is "right there" in Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild" ("heavy metal thunder...") he was the first to lend it to the new hard rock of Led Zeppelin, Blue Öyster Cult and Black Sabbath, of which Sabbath was being termed 'downer' rock.
Besides 'I'm In Love With Your Mom' and 'Too Animalistic', which remained rare nuggets in the Samoans catalog, Vom were notorious for a song called 'Electrocute Your Cock', which began with Saunders Ramones-like tom tom beat and Meltzer's cries of "Electrocute your cock, electrocute your cock / Looking for a handjob? Stick It in a clock!". Despite its profane audacity it had the pop catchiness and wit to be somewhat of a hit for the band, and also made it into future Samoans set lists. Other songs included 'Broads Are Equal' and 'I Am (the Son of Sam)'.
Videos for 'I'm In Love With Your Mom' and 'Electrocute Your Cock' were produced, which has to be a very early example of the art form as a DIY method long before bands really became required to do this. Richard Casey (who went on to direct videos for Blue Oyster Cult, Buck Dharma and Romeo Void) directed the two - 'I'm In Love' shot as the band performed on the beach, with Meltzer wearing briefs on his head. The more visually interesting video is certainly 'Electrocute', with some humorous moments, including a side-shot of Meltzer in a chair screaming the lyrics and sprawling comedically backwards, and Meltzer in a bathtub being electrocuted. Both videos can be found in the Samoans documentary, also featuring work by Richard Casey (their video for the Chambers Brothers 'Time Has Come Today', which actually got late-night air-play on MTV). This video also features live footage, interviews with Meltzer, Saunders and Turner, and the Samoans classic Kenji Shibuya skits. Meltzer, according to Turner, "threw in the Vom towel" in 1977, which left Turner and Saunders to pave the way for the Samoans.
[edit] The Angry Samoans
The first Angry Samoans gig was opening for Roky Erickson and the Aliens in Richmond, CA in 1978. Roky actually didn't make the show but remained a friend and inspiration to Gregg Turner and the band throughout their span.
In the middle 1980s Angry Samoans returned to their roots in 1960s garage rock (they had always cited the 13th Floor Elevators as being their major influence) and put out two releases, Yesterday Started Tomorrow EP and STP Not LSD. Singer/bassist Todd Homer left in 1989, and formed The Mooseheart Faith Stellar Groove Band with Larry Robinson, formerly of 1970s teen pop-soul band Apollo. Turner left soon afterwards, putting out an album in 1993 with the Mistaken before forming his current band, the Blood Drained Cows, featuring autoharp player Billy Angel (nee Miller) from the Aliens. Metal Mike formed a series of bands. Vince Neil's Windshield, with Lisa Lombardo and Julia Altstatt of the Gargoyles, and Bob Fagan from Mood Swing, played mainly covers, including the Nervebreakers' 'My Girlfriend Is A Rock' and "Slave to my Dick" by the Subhumans (from Vancouver, Canada.) Saunders' played in guitar duos named The Clash Brothers (with Fagan) and the Sons of Mellancamp (with Turner) performed around this same time as well. The Angry Samoans continued with Saunders, drummer Bill Vockeroth, and a wide variety of other individuals, sporadically active throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium. In the 2000s brother Kevin Saunders returned to guitar duties. The Angry Samoans shows have remainined mainly among the west coast of California and neighboring states. They have done extensive tours in the 2000s with the likes of the infamous Dead Kennedys and other older hardcore bands. As of 2007 they are still playing weekends, usually all-ages shows in the SoCal area. Shows include a 15+ year old list of songs to beat even the oldest of crowd goer into a frenzy of chaotic slam pit madness and sing-alongs. The non-pure punk ethics of the band have remained intact with crowd participation and reditions of punk hardcore classics, pop-cultural references (Britney Spears has been a fave) and in your face freaked out & hyper-sped covers of classic 60's protopunk "Nuggets" psychedelia (The Nightcrawlers "Little Black Egg" being an old standard cover) without losing their "1-2-3-4" abrasiveness as heard on Inside My Brain and the Back From Samoa sessions. The Angry Samoans remain an enigma from the Los Angeles, CA and surrounding area's punk rock scene to this day.
[edit] Discography
VOM
- Live At Surf City-EP (1978) White Noise Records
ANGRY SAMOANS
- Inside My Brain (1980)
- Back from Samoa (1982)
- Yesterday Started Tomorrow (1986)
- STP Not LSD (1988)
- Return to Samoa (1990)
- Live at Rhino Records (1992)
- The Unboxed Set (1995)
- The '90s Suck And So Do You (1999)
- Fuck The War-EP (2006)
[edit] Members
- "Metal Mike" Saunders - vocals, guitar
- Gregg Turner - vocals, guitar
- Kevin Saunders - guitar
- P.J. Galligan - guitar
- Steve Drojensky - guitar
- Todd Homer - bass guitar, vocals
- Bill Vockeroth - drums
