16th
I didn’t know about The Screamers as a kid, just learned about them recently. Their story is fascinating - huge sellout crowds in LA, ground breaking performances at the Mab in San Francisco - but very little recorded legacy. In fact, if it weren’t for a few live videos and a smattering of raw demos, there’d be no way to hear their music today. When I first watched this live footage of their anthemic In A Better World from 1979, and the rest of their Target Video work, I was immediately struck that this is a missing link band. The Screamers were a huge piece of a certain creative ground floor that Devo, the Dead Kennedys, probably Oingo Boingo, and certainly tons of new wave and punk bands later built upon. Lead singer Tomata du Plenty didn’t break the mold of rock frontman, he obliterated it. There’s something so compelling and urgent about his presence, that watching him one can get the feeling that the speed of time passing has changed, that the parameters of perception have been messed with. Backed by distorted analog keyboards and no guitars, he howls and stalks the stage like a beat poet cross-bred with a hyena, frightening, exciting, dangerous and beautiful. Would love to have seen their show, and I’m glad these few artifacts survived. Check out the wikipedia entry for more Screamers’ history. Tip to Michael V for turning me onto this important band.
