T 1981 - 1982

PART ONE -- BACKGROUND -- 1978 - 81

 

In November 1978, the nascent Bakersfield punk scene began when Cole Jolley and Brad Ryerson got together and recorded a song of Brad's on acoustic guitar, bass and an infamous reel to reel. This was the dawn of the legendary Lizerds. Unfortunately, the recording is lost to the dustbin of history, and the duo temporarily disbanded.

 

In the summer of 1979, Brad Ryerson, Gary Bratcher, and Eddie Ruff first got together and formed an original band. They called themselves Rorschach, and wrote around 10 songs. Their first song, written by Gary, was called The Light. Other songs from this period included Apparent, Apogee (As Far As I Know), Two-Wheel Fever, and Shock Future. Brad played guitar, Gary played bass, and Eddie played a tiny keyboard, a toy really, called an Orgatron. No recordings were made at the time, and there were no live shows. The songs incorporated unconventional time signatures and spacey lyrics; influences included Pink Floyd and Devo. A high point of the summer occured when Gary was able to secure a Vox Continental organ for Eddie -- the same keyboard used by The Doors, The Animals, and just about every other 60's band. The following winter, the three got together in Eddie's apartment on Belle Terrace and recorded 5 or 6 of the songs from this era, with Vern Luther, a great drummer, sitting in on salad bowls. Unfortunately, there are no extant tapes still around.

 

By this time, Brad and Eddie had joined with Marvin Jolley and Vern to reform a new version of the Lizerds. This became a legendary Bakersfield band that went through various permutations and in a later form recorded a vinyl single that today is greatly prized by collectors worldwide. In the winter of 1979-80 the original Lizerds played a few parties. At one show, in December of '79, the band set up in a huge backyard of a house outside of town, and was lucky enough to have a nice rack of professional lighting set up and operated by Herb Romine, a friend of the band. At another show, they played at Lila's house for Mike & Bret's going away party. This was a legendary show. Scott Sturtevant sang on one song, Total Control by The Motels. Other artists covered included The Ramones, the Talking Heads, and the Sex Pistols, along with liberal doses of Neil Young.

 

That proved to be the final Lizerds show with that lineup. Afterwards, in January 1980, Marvin and Brad regrouped with Greg Demos, and were also fortunate enough to hook up with Bruce Brink of the Oxnard punk band The Rotters. They had met Bruce after going to Ventura, on January 26, 1980, to watch Bakersfield expatriots Bill and Dick Reynolds' infamous punk band The Assault. Bill Reynolds introduced Bruce to Marvin and Scott; Bruce was playing in a Hendrix knock-off band called RAF that was opening for The Assault that night (Bruce's vote to name that band VO5 had been rejected, unfortunately!). As it was, Bruce turned out to be more than happy to help form the fledgling Bakersfield punk scene, and joined The Lizerds immediately.

 

This incarnation of the band moved to the L.A. area, a prerequisite for "making it" at the time, and produced the now highly-valued single Out of My Hands, b/w Is It Late?, which is now a cult favorite. In fact, Is It Late? has the honor of having been selected for the Killed By Death compilation series. Marvin and Brad wrote these two great songs. The band appeared on Greg Goodsell's local community college radio show, which was devoted to punk and new wave at the time. They raised a few eyebrows at the time by referring to the people of Bakersfield as "pigs." There was also a student film made of the band, by a friend of Bruce's from Loyola. Scott witnessed the filming, and it is agreed all around that the version of Out of My Hands performed at that time was a true Lizerds peak. Unfortunately, the film student has disappeared into the sands of time, along with the film. We'll keep looking for him, and it.

 

After The Lizerds drifted apart, we all know how nature abhors a vacuum, so Teen Suicide came along to fill the empty space. This band was Scott's baby, and he was able to pick up two former Lizerds, Brad and Bruce, plus the former Rorschach bassist Gary, who was fresh out of the Air Force. Teen Suicide played several legendary live shows at the Falafel, a trendy little dive downtown. Scott would stagger drunkenly through the audience, drinking out of people's beer pitchers and chucking chairs around. The sound they made was the most beautiful noise. Fortunately one recording from a live show remains, the song Coming Back From the Dead is immortalized today on the Lizerds site.

 

Meanwhile, Eddie was learning to "play" his Vox Continental, and making home recordings. His first collection of songs was titled Instead, and he was lucky enough to have Greg play the song Bott's Dotts on the community college station. Fortunately... ? this songs still exists on the Instead tape. As early, experimental examples of bedroom tapes, the quality is mixed, to put it politely.

 

Actually, Eddie got the idea of making album-like tapes from Gary, who was the first to produce them at the time. Gary's first tape was called Celestial Circuitry. No copies of this tape are still known to exist. Another "album" Gary made at the time was You Saw My Words Coming Out, which has also unfortunately disappeared. Hopefully, Gary will turn up again some day, tapes in hand!

 

Teen Suicide continued to shock Bakersfield audiences in 1981 -- the capper being a live lunchtime show in the quad at Bakerfield College. This show was captured on videotape. It was the first, and last, punk show ever at the college. Some student made a big deal out of the upside-down cross crudely scrawled on Scott's forearm, and needless to say the uptight residents of our backward community just weren't ready to accept the powerful, anarchic sounds produced by a hardcore punk band in that early era. The video of this performance has also unfortuately disappeared. Much of the time the camera wasn't even aimed at the band, but panned down at the sidewalk. Very artsy. Hopefully as a valued artifact it will turn up again someday. Unfortunately, there are virtually no recordings of Teen Suicide in existence.

 

By the summer of 1981 Teen Suicide had pretty much run its course. Eddie was bored, living up in an apartment at Christmas Tree and Columbus with Tracy Abrams. He would sit around and noodle on the Vox, dreaming of forming a rock band. Mainly, he wanted to reform Rorschach, with original members Brad and Gary. But they were hard to nail down. So instead he formed a concept called Swap Wives -- a loose conglomeration of whoever wanted to just come over and jam. And throughout the summer, that's just what various musicians (and non-musicians!) did -- come over, sit around, and play little impromptu songs. EVERYTHING went on tape. And yes, the Swap Wives tapes still exist. At various times, Brad, Gary, Marvin, Tracy, and a mysterious eccentric character known locally as the Antman sat down and made up unconventional jams on the spot. Some were OK, some weren't so good. And some were phenomenal. A compilation tape was made, and given to Greg, who played Dottie's Daughter by Brad and Eddie on his radio show.

 

On to PART TWO -- THE TERRORISTS (coming soon!)

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