Screamers “Demos 1977-78″ on blue vinyl, bootleg release on Sob Records, date unknown. This is another recent acquisition – Mother’s Day gift – and until now I was not familiar with the Screamers, but for good reason: they never released an official recording during their ‘77-’81 run. Joe quipped it was because they were so punk that an official release would be too mainstream. Perhaps, but it’s also likely they were just too far out there for any labels to take real interest or maybe the band line-up was too unstable.

Demos 1977-78 is demo quality – lo fi with way up-front vocals and musically jerky and weird with the use of synthesizers, but also beat-driven with elements of both bright punk pogo and what would soon become the signature dark West Coast punk snarl. The Screamers were part of the first wave of Cali punk, contemporaries of The Germs and the Weirdos. (In fact, the Screamers have a version of the Germs’ “Sex Boy” on this record, which Darby Crash wrote around 1976 and appeared on their Live at the Whiskey, 1977 recording.)  According to Allmusic’s bio of the Screamers, “On the basis of a demo tape and a set of photos, Slash, L.A.’s first punk fanzine, lionized the group and they played their first show at a loft party in early 1977 to approximately 500 people. The Screamers soon became the hottest band on the Los Angeles punk scene and the group’s ambitious and striking live shows, which employed props, unusual lighting, and video screens, also won them a great deal more attention from the mainstream press than their peers.” Founder/frontman Tomata du Plenty’s (David Harrigan) art performance background provided the base for the wild shows; originally from New York, he spent time in the late 60′s and early 70′s in San Francisco’s and Seattle’s underground theater and drag scenes before starting the Screamers in L.A along with Tommy Gear, K.K. Barrett and David Brown.