Dateline: June 1977, Los Angeles, CA. In an interview for SLASH Magazine they proclaimed “We’re not punks, we’re Weirdos from Hollyweird!”. This wasn’t just goofy sloganeering this was a stance intended to distinguish The WEIRDOS as a band apart from the burgeoning punk rock scenes in New York and London. After all, The WEIRDOS were dwelling in their own urban wasteland, L.A., which they embodied in their songs, graphics and clothes. Back in 1976, while attending CalArts, Dave Trout and Cliff Roman had been staging various ‘performance art’ installations. It was around this time, that Trout and Roman hatched the concept of a ‘rock band as performance art’. To the art snobs at CalArts in 1976 rock music was horribly passe and Roman and Trout were no different. But this was just the kind of contradiction in terms that appealed to Trout and Roman’s non-conformist sense of irony. With Trout on bass and Roman on guitar they quickly inducted mutual friend John Denney as their lead singer. Denney, an un-employed, part-time student actor and malcontent with aspirations to be a rock ‘n roll frontman was eager to join a band. Days later, Denney’s younger brother Dix, a 19 year-old guitar ace right out of the garage was added to the line-up. The drummer-less quartet, heavily influenced by Iggy and The Stooges and The Ramones, began to jam on covers such as “Pushin’ To Hard” by The Seeds, “Break On Through” by The Doors, “Mystic Eyes” by Them and “Bad Girl” by The New York Dolls. Soon, all the lofty notions about performance art had fallen by the wayside as their first few original songs began to take shape. Highly motivated but with no real plan, they continued to jam and rehearse. Unbeknownst to them, the proto-Power Pop band The Nerves rehearsed at the same studio as The Weirdos. Credit Mr. Peter Case, then of The Nerves for ‘discovering’ The Weirdos. One night, while The Nerves were waiting for their turn to rehearse, Case was struck by the thundering bombast that shook the walls of their tiny studio. When The Weirdos concluded, Case entered the room looking perplexed and asked; “That sounded great, but, where’s the drummer?” The Weirdos chimed; “We’ve had a few but we fired ’em all. …to be continued.
In June of 1977, Time Magazine published a photo of THE WEIRDOS as part of an expose on the emergence of ‘punk rock’. The unexpected publicity prompted the band to jump on the proverbial bandwagon. Six weeks later, The Weirdos were headlining the hallowed Whisky A Go Go. ..to be continued In 1990, after releasing records on BOMP, DANGERHOUSE and RHINO, The WEIRDOS released the CONDOR LP and the crucial WEIRD WORLD VOL. I on FRONTIER. In 2003 The WEIRDOS released the long-awaited WEIRD WORLD Vol. II; a collection of studio and live recordings.
Dateline: July 7, 2004—The WEIRDOS are named BEST PUNK ROCK/HARDCORE BAND at the 2004 L.A. Weekly Music Awards.
Dateline: May 27, 2013 Las Vegas, NV—After a seven year hiatus The WEIRDOS made a triumphant return to the stage at the Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival. And, they’ve been rolling ever since. Tours in 2013 and ’14 culminated at the glorious Muddy Roots Music Festival in Tennessee. 2015 promises to take The Weirdos far and wide.
To be continued…
