THE ANGRY SAMOANS
(A Punk Retrospective by Slimedog)
The Angry Samoans might be, in my opinion, the most underrated important punk band of all time. Another one of those early West Coast bands, there at the start of or even before it, they were, I believe around before Black Flag.
Anyways, I’m not sure who the first “hardcore” band I heard was, certainly it was before the term hardcore was even used, but I’m willing to guess it was these guys. Two of the original members also wrote for Creem, my favorite music magazine of all time, including lead singer Mike Saunders, and that magazine was hugely influential on me and what I do on this website.
I first became aware of this band when many moons ago Bang popped a tape he made into his cars tape player. At that time albums cost five or six dollars and you might buy an album without hearing the band but by just the look of the cover. That’s how Andy happened to stumble upon “Back To Samoa,” the first album by The Angry Samoans, and he was quite happy with his purchase.
I remember when me and the other guys laughing at the lyrics when we first heard it and maybe a little shocked at the short times of the songs. Some might still take offense to some of their un-politically correct lyrics but like the band Fear, I think the lyrics don’t come from hatred but more from the immature notion of saying the “bad words/wrong thing” to be humorous.
We saw the band in the early eighties, when the all-ages Sunday matinees were a new concept. This show was at The Chanel, a big warehouse like room that had two or three bar areas. So for the all-ages show they put a chain-link like fence around the area of one bar and didn’t open the others and you had to show your bracelet to get inside. I mention this because I remember a guy pouring his cup of beer through the fence so his girlfriend could drink from it!
Anyways, twenty five years later I was living in California and they played at a little club about five miles from my house. I had checked their MySpace page before the show and had noticed they had a picture from that same Channel show. Before the show I asked Mike Saunders why he had that picture and if he remembered the show and he said he did as it was the first big show they had ever played!
I put these guys in the Fear/ Dictators category- punk bands with humor, probably the root of all the humor in punk that was to come. You can trace all the punk bands with humor that became much more successful to The Angry Samoans.
Again, I think they get a little lost in the cracks when talking about the big names in punk/ hardcore but if you like a lot of the current bands we have on our website, it’s not a stretch to say these guys would fit in well today.
This is the second song off of “Back To Samoa” and one of the first tunes I heard by them. I think it was written about a local serial killer. It’s called “The Todd Killings.”
The Chamber Brothers were a black, hippy, California soul/rock band that had one big hit and this is it and The Samoans able attempt to desecrate it.
“Lights Out” is the best song in the world that clocks in under a minute. It’s about existential angst and how the best way to cope with this is by poking your eyes out with a fork. At shows fans used plastic white forks to stimulate this. Overwhelmingly, their best song and I cannot listen to this tune without a smile especially as the energy kicks in for the last chorus. A pure, wonderful, absurd tune.
I read this song,“The Ballad of Jerry Curlan,” was written about a local politician at the time. Possibly the funniest song of all time.
“You Stupid Asshole” and “You Stupid Jerk”- Well, you know how they do sequels of movies?
There’s a 50’s/60’s movie called “They Saved Hitler’s Brain,” which involves Hitler’s brain being stored in a kind of fishbowl like a pickled egg and being used for evil purposes. In fact, a local band in Boston, UnNatural Axe- had an underground hit with a song with that title. This one goes- “They saved Hitler’s cock/ They hid it under a rock- If Hitler’s cock could just talk/ It would say. To kill today!”
Here a few more for ya, “My Old Man’s A Fatso” and “Steak Knife” again, more deep philosophical discourses about the state of mankind and the state of Montana.
Let’s take it out with a video someone made of “Lights Out”- it’s time to get hip to the Lights Out Way!
