The History section of this web site is very sparse, especially the pages from 1980, onward. With time, these pages will be flushed out with lots of photos, and the sparse text will be replaced with, ah, well - it'll be replaced. The text following 1980 comes directly from Joe Nolte. Hopefully someone out there will be "encouraged" to write me with alternate ideas about the events described...

So early this year I go to a Troubadour show and run into this 17 year old

punk rock girl I know, and comment "y'know, I haven' t been here in 15 years"

whereupon the aforementioned girl gives me a look bordering on horror and

bails, and it occurs to me that I might be just a bit out of touch.

At which point, at brother Dave's insistence (and Kristi's), I call Gwynne

Kahn, she of Pandoras, Mad Monster Party, Negro Problem, Magpie, etc. fame.

We talk for 5 hours, and she gives me the address to a party.

So the party turns out to be hosted by Adam (Cockeyed Ghost) Marsland. It was

my induction into the Pop Underground. For those of you who don't know, this

scene is still going very strong and consists of many many bands playing

around the L.A. area, with the common denominator being (obviously) pop

sensibilities. However, rather than being an insular, soundalike scene, bands

in this scene run a wide gamut, genre-wise. There are hard core bands,

paisley throwback bands, "classic" pop bands (whateverthehell that means),

essentially bands from almost every extant genre that share simply a love for

melody, and thankfully a love for music played very loud and hard.

You'll find links to some of these bands on our link site, and from there can

find the rest. The main celebration of the Pop Underground is a yearly thing

called Poptopia which happens every January or February. Some bands of note

are Cockeyed Ghost (now featuring our current drummer, Robbie Rist), The Negro

Problem (Gwynne used to be in this band, now Heidi from Wednesday Week is -

small world?), Velouria (just deceased - pity), The Wondermints, Brian Jones

Was Murdered, Martin Luther Lennon (one of the best), and a whole lot more.

Anyway within a month we were playing the Roxy, and the rest of the year saw a

lot of good shows, on which more later.

That fall a bizarre tragedy occured which I may or may not ever elaborate on -

it spelled the end for this version of the band, however, and Naz played his

final show with us in October, at Spaceland.