Angry Samoans

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Angry Samoans
Origin Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genre(s) Punk rock, hardcore punk
Years active 1978–present

Angry Samoans are an early Los Angeles punk band, formed by rock critics "Metal" Mike Saunders and Gregg Turner along with guitarist Kevin Eric Saunders, bassist Todd Homer, and drummer Billy Vockeroth in August 1978. Saunders and Turner were alumni of the band VOM.

In January 1979 grudges against influential KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer caused them to write a song called "Get Off the Air," [1] 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] The Angry Samoans

The first Angry Samoans gig was opening for Roky Erickson and the Aliens in Richmond, CA on October 30, 1978. Roky actually didn't make the show but remained a friend and inspiration to Gregg Turner and the band throughout their span.

The Samoans' first album, Inside My Brain, was one of the early hardcore punk albums to come out of the LA hardcore punk rock scene. Their seventeen-minute long hardcore album, Back from Samoa, released in 1982, featured lyrics on such themes as the trendiness of poking your eyes out ("Lights Out") and finding Adolf Hitler's penis ("They Saved Hitler's Cock") over thrashing guitars and catchy pounding drum beats.

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 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. They perform mainly along the West Coast. They have done extensive tours in the 2000s, with the likes of the Dead Kennedys and other older hardcore bands. As of 2007 they are still playing weekends, usually all-ages shows in the Southern California 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 renditions of punk hardcore classics, pop-cultural references (Britney Spears has been a favorite) 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

[edit] Members

  • "Metal Mike" Saunders - vocals, guitar
  • Gregg Turner - vocals, guitar
  • Jeff Dahl - vocals
  • Kevin Eric Saunders - guitar
  • P.J. Galligan - guitar
  • Steve Drojensky - guitar
  • Todd Homer - bass guitar, vocals
  • Bill Vockeroth - drums

[edit] References

  1. ^ Saunders, Mike, "Get Off the Air", Retrieved 2007-08-06

[edit] External links