"Wave After Wave" by Owleyes James Wiegel

Just in time for June Gloom, curator Colin Manning brings Tears and Ecstasy to Echo Park salon SANCHO. Featuring visual artwork and performance by LA veterans including Owleyes, Don Bolles, and Nora Keyes, TEARS & ECSTASY awaits you with open arms.

What’s the idea behind Tears and Ecstasy? Why curate a show of ‘emotional artwork’ at this time?
Colin Manning: In a time when the ominous clouds of climate change and social unrest (due to severe inequities) are broiling over our heads, I think human beings will find that the fury of their emotive selves will give them the power they need to create the revolutions they must. Tears are not only the product of profound sadness but are also sometimes the symptom of ecstasy and successful revolution.
Who’s in the show? What criteria did you use to choose artists for this emotionally themed exhibition?
I believe I asked the artists I did for this show because I had at least sensed in them an honest connection between their artwork and their “emotive selves”. Unbeknown to me when I asked, it turned out that many of the artists in the show were dealing with some recent upheavals.
I met you way back when you were involved with Show Cave– What have you been up to since then? Any particular experiences with tears and ecstasy in your personal life that led to this show?
I think its been at least three years since I was helping with Showcave, and as the jack of all trades that I am, it would be hard to sum up what’s happened with me since then…. but I’ve continued to develop as a projection artist. And as a collage artist. And as a Christmas lighting designer (Ha!). And as a handyman. I organized some live performance events at Cinespace. Lately I’ve been hosting figure drawing workshops at Sancho. And yes I have certainly had some experiences in recent years that have brought both tears and ecstasy, the biggie being the passing of my father almost two years ago now. I was right there with him, and although sad, it was a very transcendent experience.

Will Ambrose

How do you know Dani of Sancho gallery? Why do you believe community oriented salon style spaces are important to LA right now?
Well Danielle became involved when the space was still called DIY Gallery and I was involved with some of the shows then as well. We were like a big happy extended family for a few months but turmoil soon developed and the space and the community have since evolved for the better. But yes the community oriented salon/gallery is where it’s at because people need art and music and culture and the extended communities they support. Precious art in museums and shnazzy galleries is wonderful, but Sancho is the kind of gallery where ordinary people can actually collect or at least appreciate art, most often made by artists who live down the street and with whom they can talk in the gallery. If you ask me, there should be such galleries everywhere, not just in Echo Park

Brian Schirk

TEARS AND ECSTASY UNTIL SATURDAY JUNE 18 AT SANCHO, 1549 WEST SUNSET BLVD, LOS ANGELES.

The Fancy Space People are led by No-Ra Keyes (of the Centimeters) and D’on Bolles (of the Germs, Celebrity Skin and 60 million more) and currently include X-Orb-X, Bri-On, Shonn, Saratonin, guest Earthling Paul Roessler, and DAN-NEE. But they’re truly led by space aliens who direct No-Ra and D’on to deploy glitter rock toward the total fancification of Earth. Their self-titled EP is out now, thanks in part to Billy Corgan. This interview by Dan Collins and Chris Ziegler.

Author John Keel warns that extraterrestrials always screw over the Earthlings they use for these kinds of projects. What steps have you taken to prevent being screwed?
No-Ra Keyes (vocals): We’re busy screwing Earth people right now!
Don Bolles (guitar/vocals/synths/etc.): I don’t know why I always get those missions!
How did you find the actual people in Fancy Space People?
DB: It’s an all-volunteer force! It’s like emergence theory. But it’s emergence reality. Like Bri-On. He came to Ding-A-Ling every time. We didn’t wanna try him out—‘What if he’s bad? He’s our friend! We’d lose a friend and a customer!’ We’d had other drummers, and after every show Bri-On would say, ‘That guy’s alright, but I could do that ten times as good, seriously …’ No-Ra said, ‘Bri-On, I like you—I don’t want you to be in the machine that is Fancy Space People!’
NK: When Bri-On used to come to Club Ding-A-Ling—we’d write bulletins and tell people to wear weird outfits, and no one ever did it except Bri-On. He’d come with like a plate taped to his head cuz we told him to, and just be sitting at the bar. So I was afraid to put him in the band!
How did the Psychedelic Furs’ Mars Williams play teeth on your album?
DB: It’s like when Frank Zappa played a bicycle on ‘The Steve Allen Show.’ He’s invisible—did you know?
Do people always think he’s late to things? ‘Where’s Mars?’
DB: And always some smart-ass points to the sky—‘It’s right there.’
What human body part do you want to record next?
DB: Our leaders are sensitive about us talking about probing human bodies. That’s not a good subject.
Your former bass player was subsumed by invisible psychic creatures called ‘mojos,’ which then attacked you. How do you fight off psychic attack?
NK: I got rid of them by climbing a mountain in the Angeles National Forest. I read Psychic Self-Defense by Dion Fortune and it said the only way to get rid of these things is to climb a mountain. And wash all your clothes.
You talk about ‘parasites’ in your title track—are those the same as mojos?
DB: The parasites are the humans. We always thought there was a battle between good and evil going on. The good aliens wanna depopulate Earth in a good way and the bad ones wanna depopulate the planet by having the humans continue to indulge all their worst qualities and ruin their own planet so no life can enjoy it again, except maybe some vile insectoid thing. It’s kinda creepy!
What’s the good way to depopulate Earth?
DB: Getting everyone to move up to another vibrational dimension. Or to physically leave the planet and colonize elsewhere. We explore these themes in a lot of our stuff, and themes that relate to these things in literature and culture on Earth. Like the ‘Frankenstein’ song we have—what are we trying to say? It doesn’t sound like some cosmic space message of world-altering import to me, but who are we to say? The beings have been right so far—right down the line. They told us how to make the songs good. And they ended up good! I hate most songs—I hate most music! But these are good songs. I’m happy to put my name on them. I can’t honestly say we sat down and made them, but I’m proud to say they’re ours. We already know what the next album is gonna be called—Xxenogensis 2. And the next is gonna be Castle Sounds of the Electrical West. That’s us getting back to our roots. And the next one is Back to Monolith. It’ll have us all cavorting like naked apes on the cover while a glittering monolith comes out of a ruptured planet.
You once soloed note for note over tons of garbage 70s rock I was DJ-ing. Does it pain your mind to be so polluted with garbage 70s rock?
DB: Not as long as you got competing vibrations to cancel that out. You can actually mutate any of these vibrational patterns once you get them in your brain.
Does this make your listeners especially pliant and obedient?
DB: They pretty much are pliant and obedient enough for our liking. That’s all we require. They listen and the message just gets to ’em—we’ve done our job.
What’s the most pleasant way your mind was ever controlled?
DB: Everything I do with Fancy Space People is … great! My mind … isn’t actually … controlled by anything else that I don’t … voluntarily … want … it … to … be … controlled by. Whoa! Wait a minute … what time is it?
So what commands should we await?
DB: It’s already been thoroughly implanted. The guitar solo will actually reboot your entire operating system. See, the space brothers concocted their language from snippets of pop songs—that’s why it sounds like stuff from the 70s, 60s and 90s. Cuz it takes a long time to get their planet. No-Ra and I had it pointed out to us by the space brothers— the songs most popular on the radio contain the most retardedly infantile onomatopoeia. ‘Ooh ooh!’ ‘She loves you, yeah yeah yeah!’ ‘Tweedle-ee-eedle-ee-dee!’ What the hell? We were at Norm’s in Huntington Park—home of Slayer, where we record—and listening to the radio, sure enough they were right. Every song had some dumbass onomatopoeia that was the hook. It was revelatory. It’s like glitter-rock baby talk! The closest thing we got to a universal language. We were like, ‘What are the denim-wearing beardmen gonna think of this thing?’ They made these smirky sounds. ‘We got it taken care of.’ And they were right
Are you ever worried you’ll do too well and be regarded as glitter gods by primitive Earthlings?
DB: I used to worry till it started happening—now we’re into it.
I noticed your space masters directed you to use parts from Linda Perhacs and the MC5 in one of your songs. What other alchemical combinations of primitive rock ‘n’ roll have they suggested?
DB: We just do what strikes their fancy. Usually they’re right. We have other songs we haven’t done in the set yet. They’ve been having us go for a more succinct approach. We have an anthem for Fancy Space People—well, not an anthem. I don’t think we expect anyone to sing it at fancy sporting events.
If you had to be tragically killed during a fancy sporting event, how would you wanna go?
DB: Curling. It just seems a very manly way to die. Or chess. Getting a brain aneurysm while paying three-dimensional chess. You could explode like Scanners.
The late great Matty Luv says that guitar solos have been found by the state of California to transmit venereal disease. Are your guitar solos catching?
DB: We’ve found you can transmit all sorts of things. We transmit—as I’ve been coming to understand more and more—almost as many messages to the people of Earth through the guitar solos than the actual lyrical content. Maybe even more! Glitter rock is the universal Earth language. It did a lot better than Esperanto. Esperanto, for any of your readers who don’t know, was at one time proposed as the universal language everyone would learn besides their own, instead of some imperialistic pig language being imposed on everybody. What happened to Esperanto is very simple—it’s sort of like what happened to the music business. It’s just excess shit nobody needs. The word for ‘fork’ in Esperanto is ‘forko.’ I rest its case. And it needs some rest, too. Glitter rock has taken over and rightfully so.
No-Ra, the Centimeters are one of the few bands to ever play a mental institution—
NK: Our experience playing in a mental institution? It was a princess party, so we got there and there were all these castles and pink balloons. We had a song called ‘I Am Insane.’ It was very melodic, and I found that people in institutions only respond to things with beats.
DB: They loved Celebrity Skin when we played Camarillo!
Did they pay you anything?
DB: They paid us pretty well! They’re crazy!
NK: And there was cake at the end. I never desire to play a mental institution again, but I did play an old folks home and we really hurt the old people because their hearing aids were breaking down the whole time we were playing.
Don, after the great Dr. Bronner’s Soap wrongful arrest trial, did you end up with more money than you lost being in jail?
DB: That enabled us to make some of our initial recordings, and enabled us to begin our record, which now … exists.
Is that a sustainable business model?
DB: We’ve got a song—speaking of products—that’s just WAITING to be picked up by Nissan!
NK: About Dr. Bronner—I always felt them helping us helped them too!
DB: They sold more soap than ever! When I went to tour the factory, the workers stopped and cheered! ‘We just got an order for more soap than we’ve ever sold! We never got anything like that before!’
NK: Because Don told the L.A. Times he had the skin of a 15-year-old.
DB: The complexion of a 15-year-old! ‘Germ Busted for Soap’ said the headline. And the next one was, ‘Germ Free!’
Who is your least favorite Germ?
Bri-On (drums): Don.
DB: I was gonna say besides me!
What’s the best record Billy Corgan owns?
DB: Fancy Space People. He’ll sit there with an acoustic guitar and you think he’s just acting like he’s playing because there’s a record on, and then you realize he’s really playing all that—it’s kind of humbling.
NK: He’s really good at advice. He’ll come out of nowhere.
DB: Oh yeah! The major thing he said about our record production—he came in the studio and listened to ‘Pleiadian Youth’ and said, ‘You know what? This has to sound like Kiss’ Destroyer.’ And we all went, ‘Oh—the man is right.’ We kinda knew that, but we couldn’t put it in such a succinct sentence.
Do you feel the spirit of Sky Saxon even more in your music now than when he was alive?
NK: I believe he’s part of the Fancy Space People in a way. It was from his memorial show that Don left his cymbals behind, and that’s how we met Billy.
DB: And I sang half that stuff. Billy was like, ‘Toooo hard!’ I was like, ‘This is great! I’m hearing this famous guy sing backups for me on a Sky Saxon song off a paper with lyrics on it in front of millions of people!’ Sky was a weird guy—he was like a teenage rock star till the end.
NK: A rebelder. Rebellious elder. Don is a rebelder, Kim Fowley is a rebelder, Sky—I don’t think Sky and Kim got along.
DB: You can only fit so many rebelders.
Who is the most obvious extraterrestrial you ever met at a show?
NK: I asked David Liebe Hart if there were any space aliens at Club Ding-A-Ling and he said, ‘No, but I have noticed an Omegan woman there.’ They’re the enemies of the Korendians, which David Liebe Hart is. ‘A large blonde woman—definitely Omegan.’ So I asked her and she immediately responded, ‘Honey, you didn’t know that? The little green men come and get me every night!’

THE FANCY SPACE PEOPLE WITH THE DEADBEATS ON SUN., MAY 15, AT PART TIME PUNKS’ SIX-YEAR ANNIVERSARY AT THE ECHO, 1822 SUNSET BLVD., ECHO PARK. 10 PM / $8 / 18+. ATTHEECHO.COM. FANCY SPACE PEOPLE’S SELF-TITLED EP IS OUT NOW ON STARTONE / STARRY. VISIT FANCY SPACE PEOPLE AT FANCYSPACEPEOPLE.BANDCAMP.COM.

A sort of psychedelic cross between TV Party, Liquid Sky, and Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson, minus any concept of structure, The Three Geniuses was a live public-access TV show started in the mid-90s by Dan Kapelovitz, John Schere, and Mr. X. A mash-up of contextually ironic stock footage, trippy camera effects, and spiraling space vortices aplenty, the vital ingredient—what made Geniuses its own special breed of spontaneous insanity—was the footage the crew filmed themselves.

The lucky few present at Silent Movie Theatre night got to experience it reproduced in person, in (sur)real time. You could envision a Gary Wilson concert, on 2C-I, held at the schizophrenic homeless man’s funhouse under the freeway, and be part-way to imagining the atmosphere.

The Geniuses and their friends—from ex-Germs drummer Don Bolles, who did much of the sound design and set decoration on the original show, to regular guest stars like Karen Centerfold and Francine Dancer, public-access stars in their own right—posed, postured, and provided live accompaniment and personal flair to the projections on screen.

Kim Fowley, mad musical genius and subterranean L.A.’s favorite dirty old man, played MC, giving a modicum of method to the madness in the form of Q&A, T&A (bringing whichever young ladies struck his fancy up to the stage for indulgently crass interviews), and a hauntingly good freestyle song drummed up over the bass part to Van Morrison’s “Gloria” (kinda).

This naked lunch of “alternative Hollywood Babylon” (to borrow a phrase from Fowley) may not have been well-received or readily understood by much of contemporary society, but even the furthest from this subculture couldn’t deny the laudable brazenness and unadulterated energy put into the spectacle.—Not to mention the costumes! Perhaps that’s why Fowley asked at the beginning of the show, “Is anyone here from the L.A. Weekly? … Good.”

—Regina Cherene

[ed. note — apologies to all of planet Earth for delay in posting this!]

As I pulled fifteen bucks from my now-empty wallet, I wondered what Sky Saxon would have done if he’d brought a hot date with him to a show on Saturday night and been told he had “no plus one.” The young lady with the clipboard at the VIP entrance even spent five minutes ID’ing Rodney Bingenheimer. Good God, gal, do you not see Sunset Boulevard up yonder? Is he not the Mayor of Sunset Strip!?! Now that Sky’s gone, Rodney’s the biggest flower punk left!

“Sky Saxon is the father of garage rock! He’s one of the very first people I met when I came to Hollywood. I’ve been a really close friend with him. I even put one of his songs on one of my Rodney on the Rock albums. He used to call me from Hawaii, and I’d put him on the air.” —Rodney Bingenheimer (KROQ DJ)

Thank God—or should I say YaHoWha?—that the show started with a cathartic bang in the form of Ya Ho Wa 13’s Djin Aquarian. A thin spry Santa Claus in a white robe, Djin Aquarian (along with violinist Ysanne Spevack) gave perhaps the most amazing performance of the night right out of the gate: a song done half live and half with Sky Saxon’s recorded voice itself, a la the Beatles’ “Real Love.” This was not to be a wake. For musicians, death means nothing, not even your last live show.

“He’s the ultimate teenager. He’s going to live forever. He didn’t really die!” – Kari French (performance artist, Luxuria Music DJ, go-go girl)

Djin followed the tunes with some hippy calisthenics—something called the “Star Exercise” that required us to stand with hands outstretched, breathe in and out 120 times in rapid succession, and visualize a white star in our heads that we could then shoot through the chakras in our body. This was supposed to shake loose any negative vibes we might have carried about Sky Saxon when he was alive. And the room did seem to brighten. Folks even stuck around for Djin’s short lecture on “The Name of God.” (Surprise: it’s “YaHoWha.”) Djin explained how the Hebrew letters for God look like a gender-neutral person standing upright and got into the last day of the Mayan Calendar and Sirius the Dog Star and goddamn it—if that’s not the perfect benediction for Sky Saxon, then Jason Voorhees wears a catcher’s mask.

“When I joined the Source family in 1972, at that point I met Arelick Aquarian. Arelick Aquarian had a long brown beard, and long dark brown hair, and he was Sky Saxon. We lived by the same teachings that Father Yod, YaHoWha taught, so our relationship is an eternal, spiritual blood relationship. I’ve shared my blood with him when he was leaving the body in ‘77 because of a bleeding ulcer. He wouldn’t take anyone else’s blood. He’d rather die than have a non-vegetarian, non-Aquarian person’s blood.” — Djin Aquarian (musician, spiritualist, carpenter)

Next up, the young tykes in the audience swooned as a the super group Spirits in the Sky assembled on stage, headed by that most Smashing of Pumpkins, Billy Corgan. You could almost hear the audience rumble like tectonic plates as a wedge of grungy adulation nearly forced itself across the trenches of hip disdain. I didn’t know what I’d make of Corgan, that former Courtney Love boy-toy whose recorded history could best be described as “spotty.” He and his smooth bald head sauntered onto the stage covered in a military cap, baggy pants and a ratty red and black striped sweatshirt—it was like if John Malkovich from Empire of the Sun was simultaneously playing the role of Freddy Krueger.

“The last time I saw Sky was at Billy Corgan’s house. They were recording music together in his studio, and me and Don Bolles and his girlfriend and my dad James went to another part of the house, which happened to have Billy sitting there, eating his raw food. And Sky was stoned out of his mind, and Sky immediately just says out of nowhere, ‘Everybody stop looking at Billy! Stop watching him eat, man!’ And we were not even looking at him! It was so hilarious, but uncomfortable at the same time, making it seem like we were these super fans. So to get Sky out of his weird mood, I go, ‘Hey, Sky, what about that time you kicked Kim Fowley’s ass?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, man, I fucking kicked Kim Fowley’s ass, man! I fucking kicked him in the back of the knees. I brought him down in Vegas!’” – Giddle Partridge (singer)

Corgan may have dressed down and dirty, but the band was a celestial mind fuck: Mark Tulin of the Electric Prunes on bass, Mark Weitz from the Strawberry Alarm Clock on keys (looking exactly like my dad if you threw a Nehru jacket on him), members of Ancient Chinese Secret and even the first live appearance of Smashing Pumpkins’ new 19-year old drummer, Mike Byrne. Sounding neither like an oldies revival nor like some watered-down Pumpkin Seeds, their cover of the obscure Saxon classic “900 Million People Daily” was an almost tropical psychedelic delight. Though Corgan looked nervous about playing for us fickle Echo Park patrons, his guitar-god licks and David Byrne awkwardness won over anyone paying attention. They even premiered a new Corgan ditty called “Freak” that made far more sense at a Sky Saxon tribute night than a grungy version of “Pushin’ Too Hard” ever could have.

“He was a magician. He’d appear and disappear. One day he’d be on your couch, and the next day, he’d be gone!” — Billy Corgan (musician)

“Sky Saxon took on life and music on his own terms. Unlike many of us who went through the ’60s Sky remained true to the peace and love mantra of those electric years. He was truly a free spirit unbound by societal norms. He was the shaman, the jester, the philosopher and the fool. He performed his music, his way, right up to his death. No musician can ask more than that.” — Mark Tulin (musician)

Up next were back-to-back sets by the Alarm Clock and the Prunes, both with far more original members than, say, that recent Zombies show you jerked off over a few weeks back. The Prunes seemed a little tired—far less magical than they’d been in the early 2000s when they’d toured with their old keyboardist’s son and gave the BJM/Warlocks crew a serious run for their money. Tired or not, though, they still rocked it on out, and their Strawberry Alarm Clock brethren proved to be even more balls-out now than they had been on album back in the day. It kind of floored me thinking that some of these guys had fucking appeared in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and still could play guitar dressed in a Caligula throw-over and make kids one fourth their ages groove on a hot night that technically—technically!—was somebody’s funeral.

“I always tell people—Gram Parsons died one day before Jim Croce died. In those days, nobody cared about Gram Parsons, and all people could talk about was Jim Croce passing away. Sky Saxon died right when Michael Jackson died. But at the end of the day, Gram Parsons is a lot larger now in his legacy than Jim Croce is, and I think we’ll see the same thing with Sky Saxon in the future because the Jackson 5 only made about seven or eight good songs, and the Seeds had three really fucking amazing albums. You hear ‘Scarecrow’ by the Pink Floyd and you hear ‘Mr. Farmer’ by the Seeds about a year earlier and you go, “Oh, so that’s where that came from!’” – Dominic Priore (author of Riot on Sunset Strip)

So many friends, historians, and musical well-wishers! I was overwhelmed. The next act—Simon Stokes and friends—should have been killer. How often do you get to see a sixties garage punk turned Elektra recording artist show-off turned black-leather grandpa play on stage with the Knitting Factory’s Bruce Duff and a Fleshtone or two? But under the circumstances, I found things far too aggressive and serious, and headed out on the smoke pit’s bleachers. Here the Star Exercise from earlier had clearly made an impression on folks—the vibe was full of remembrances and good will towards Sky Saxon, even warmer than the summer air.

“He was always very positive. Jealous was something you couldn’t feel around that guy. Jealous is a mad, dark feeling… there’s no need to feel anything dark around Sky!” – Lee Joseph (Dionysus Records)

“When I first heard Sky’s vocals on ‘No Escape,’ I knew that this was something beyond anything I’d ever heard before. This would essentially become an obsession with raw 60′s garage rock that I can ultimately blame on Sky Saxon. I’m sure there’s plenty of other people that feel the same way about Sky, and this memorial proves it. I wonder if any of the dudes from Axe body spray are here?” – Rick Barzell (bassist, Thee Living Sickness)

“He’s going to be dancing with the dogs in heaven. He loves dogs more than people. His spirit will be mingling with the dogs.” – Kari French

A solo singer-songwriter chanteuse named “SofizeL” hit the stage next. A Frenchwoman who now hailed from England, I’d like to believe she was jetlagged or grieving. Her performance was a bit lethargic and more than a little nervous, like she knew she didn’t belong. Of course, she truly didn’t, having only barely ever known or performed with Sky as part of “The Europe Seeds” for some tiny portion of 2005. But hell, it wouldn’t be a true tribute to Sky if everything made sense and professionalism ran rampant. And hey, I doubt my death will cause singer-songwriters to spend a day on a plane each way to come to L.A. for a three-song set.

“I met him at this gig in London. I was the only one who brought a record to be signed that wasn’t a bootleg. He said, ‘Brother, I love you!’ He stayed about eight months at my house, partying and partying and partying, and bringing back young girls every other night. I would lend him money, and he used to buy knick-knacks all the time! Like lighters, or things from a 99 cent store, coming back and saying, ‘Michael, look at this, can you believe it? This is so cool! Isn’t it great?’ But on the other hand, he was a very bright character. Often he was just listening to music, getting high, but when he said something, it was really brilliant. He had visions all the time, not to make a million dollars, but to make a billion!” – Michael Wolf (designer)

This was one of those tributes where truly everybody from all walks of life is getting up on stage in support, and it was hard to keep up—for example, who was that random vintage-looking woman between 35 and 40 who was occasionally announcing bands? And who was Sunny Sun-downer? Did I miss the Woolly Bandits’ set entirely? And was that really the Fleshtones guy I saw earlier? And why was a strange girl go-go dancing on the side of the stage with the flimsy tube-top dress that she had to keep tugging upwards? How many people had Sky touched, and in what ways?

“When Spindrift first moved to L.A. in 2002, we were lucky enough to open for the Seeds at our first show at Spaceland. Shortly after that I got a call from Sky to join his band. I refused though, figuring I wasn’t up to speed with a psychedelic legend. He was—is—a big influence. I’m more a Saxon than a Jackson.” – Kirpatrick Thomas (singer, guitarist)

But there was no mistaking Sky’s ever-patient widow, Sabrina Sherry Smith Saxon. I’d recognized her from years ago, when a friend had banged his head against my van’s door after a Seeds show at the Bigfoot Lodge, and Sabrina had made Sky give him a healing benediction. This night, sadly, there was no healing that could lighten the mood, and her thank-yous to countless friends and relatives in attendance (Sky had how many grandchildren?) and obituaries from those who could not attend reminded us all that there was more to Sky than just music and colorful scarves.

“Every morning a screwdriver. Vodka and orange. I gave him the money, but most of the time he spent the money for the screwdriver on knick-knacks and lighters and lollipops and toys, and then I had to give him another five pounds to get a screwdriver. But that made him happy and that made me happy, too.” – Michael Wolf

Nels Cline, L.A. RECORD favorite and a man seemingly too somber for flower power, played maybe the most sorrowful Seeds cover of the night: “Flower Lady and her Assistant.” It’s my favorite Seeds song, and last time I had heard Nels play it, it was alongside Sky Saxon himself in the downstairs lounge at Zen Sushi a few years ago, when Nels’ beautiful cacophony of notes and effects pedals shimmied all around Sky as he huffed and puffed his way back and forth through the song for about five people. Now Nels played to a packed room, including some bona-fide flower ladies, but there was no Sky to assist.

“It’s really weird. I grew up listening to not just the Seeds, but also the Strawberry Alarm Clock and the Electric Prunes. Sky rocked out with the Seeds for two hours for like ten people two months ago. It’s like, how long are we here for? We don’t even know.” — Nels Cline

Too bad I drowned my sorrow in an extra Jameson or two, because suddenly a new super group emerged on stage, with Djin Aquarian and Billy Corgan on bass! This was “YaHoWha 33” and suddenly the calm, meditative breather from before must have recharged his chakras! Djin rocked and cooed and smiled from behind his beard like nothing I’ve seen since the Soggy Bottom Boys appeared on screen a few years back. No hippie love jam this, unless by “jams,” you meant things to Kick Out. There was rock and sweat and vitality, screaming dudes in robes, and man, I just could not believe Sky Saxon was dead, because I felt so alive!

“It calls for a change, and I just turned the knob up to 11! And then I can make my ascension at 11, and then I go to 12 which is bringing down the consciousness, and then I go up to 13, which is take the consciousness up beyond death, beyond the spectrum of the third dimensional density.” – Djin Aquarian

I didn’t have much mental density left when the Seeds took the stage. Of course, it’s hard to call them the Seeds without Sky out front, but this was definitely more authentic than a Misfits or Dead Kennedys reunion. Leighton Koizumi of the Morlocks and Don Bolles took turns screaming out the vocals, and my favorite Seeds/Love/Kind Hearts/Red Hearts alumnus, Justino Polimeni, was rat-tat-tatting out the drums of their greatest garage hits like he wanted Sky to hear him in heaven. Well played, sirs, especially Leighton’s turn on “Mr. Farmer,” which would make even his NA sponsor want to smoke weed.

“Sky was the kind of guy where you could drop him off in the street in any town, and in two hours, he’d come back with a new band and a new album that’s ‘going to be bigger than the Rolling Stones!’” – Justino Polimeni (drummer)

“I think the music says it all. The music’s going to live on forever. I can see from all these fans that are here, I’m thankful for everyone who came out. God bless Sky, and wherever you’re at, I know you’re having a great time, and your legacy lives on.” — dude from the Seeds

The whole thing ended with virtually everybody and their dad on stage, Alarm Clocks mingling with Pumpkins mingling with Germs and Prunes and Woolly Bandits and, yeah, by this time, I was happily working my way through some vegan slices at Two Boots Pizzeria, next to the Echo. We’d all had a great time celebrating Sky Saxon, but funerals make me hungry. In honor of Sky’s love for canines, I took my leftovers home in a doggy bag.

“His music is going to live forever. He’s definitely a legend.” — Rodney Bingenheimer

“On one side, he was the Father of Punk Rock. On the other side, he was the Father of Love!” — Lee Joseph

I’m very sad that he’s gone, but I believe he is here with us. He always said he was eternal.” — Giddle Partridge

“Have you been checking out the vibe, here? This is the legacy. The legacy is loooove, establishing a quality of psychedelic music that speaks wisdom and love and teaches the holy name, the sacred name of God, Ya Ho Wa, and stands up for the children and the dogs and wolves and human rights and medical marijuana, and just free marijuana!” — Djin Aquarian

“I think Sky Saxon’s legacy will ‘mushroom’ in ten years time.” — Dominic Priore

“He left us with the battle cry, ‘I choose love!’” — Isis Aquarian

—Dan Collins

Within Heaven’s Earshot opens Friday, March 13th, and closes Easter Sunday, a set of dates providing perfect bookends for an art show exploring the world of religious album covers. Curator Kieran Sala and helpful collectors like Don Bolles combed through the archives for several categories and sub-categories of records designed to stave off eternal punishment. Sala speaks now before the show goes up on the wall at Synchronicity Gallery on Melrose. This interview by Drew Denny.

Where did you find all the records? Did you meet any friendly record collectors in this process?
Kieran Sala: The records are coming from several collectors. Don Bolles, Mitchell Brown, Edward Colver and myself.
How are you grouping the albums? What sort of organizational method are you using?
There are two major categories: children’s records and everything else! The children’s category has puppets, pirates and ventriloquists. The general category has many subgenres. ‘Not Square!’ As in the ersatz hippie trend—the producers of Christian records realized that they better emulate the hippies or no one would buy the records. I’m not sure this scheme worked. Come and see for yourself! Another category is ‘Armageddon.’ A pretty self-explanatory area. One of my favorite categories is ‘Made Whole’—blind, burned orphaned and paralyzed folks can still make records.
What was your criteria to determine whether or not an album cover was religious? Were there any that left you feeling uncertain?
The criteria was simple: is the objective of this record to save souls? There are some examples of borderline categories. Elvis did a sacred album. I wouldn’t necessarily include that. He was expanding his demographic, not recruiting new Christians. However Little Richard—who is currently a preacher—recorded some gospel albums. That would qualify. But the true test is how great is the cover?
How did you stumble upon this project?
Funny you should say stumbled cause that’s exactly what it’s like—you know the tour? The L.A. Conservancy is putting on a tour called, ‘City of Seekers: L.A.’s Unique Spiritual Legacy.’ I’m in the Modern Committee part of the Conservancy with Chris Nichols and Jay Lopez, and I thought, ‘Gee it’d be great if I could get my record collection on display on this tour!’ And Chris said, ‘Here’s Jay, head of the Silverlake gallery commission.’ And Jay says, ‘Great idea, I can find someone!’ That was in October or November—by December we had a gallery. To make this good, I couldn’t just use my record collection—I only have like 70 records. There are people who have more religious records than I have records!
How did you find record collectors who had religiously themed albums?
It turned out I knew people who collected this stuff! I just went to their houses—it was very eye-opening. So much insane stuff! The scope of it’s pretty amazing—especially the children’s records. It’s out of control!
Does Don Bolles have a secret stash of kiddie records?
It’s not a secret! Definitely not! He used to have a radio show—there was a lot of religious stuff and lots of children’s records.
What does the L.A. Conservancy do?
We rescue endangered buildings—gems of architecture that might be swallowed up by developers. I’m in the Modern Committee, so we focus on mid-century buildings. We’re architectural preservationists. It’s actually strictly voluntary. No pay at all! I’m an actor. And a substitute teacher. I’ve been involved for 8 years but only got elected into office this year.
What’s the site tour all about? Where are they going?
We’ll be visiting five sites: the Philosophical Research Society, the Angelus Temple, the Ann Ree Colton Chapel of the Jesus Ethic, the Self-Realization Fellowship—one of the birthplaces of yoga in the west, really—and the Bonnie Brae House—the birthplace of Pentecostalism, actually. I had always thought of Pentecostalism as a Southern thing, but I guess it got its start here in L.A.!
Which one is your favorite?
I’ve only been to three so I can’t really say, but I love the Ann Ree Colton building. So modern! The Philosophical Research Society is fantastic, too. That’s where Manly P. Hall had his empire—he was a character! He had a very Manson-like stare. He was a mystic and claimed he could read minds. Very enigmatic. These kind of people thrive in L.A. His legitimacy as a philosopher is debated, but he really was a character. Larger than life.
Are you a religious man?
I’m very spiritual. I’d love to find a church that fits me—maybe I’ll find it on the tour! What I need is a cult! I’ve got nothing to eat right now—if I had a cult, I wouldn’t have to worry about that.
Which came first—the bus tour or the art show? How are you working together?
The City of the Seekers tour came first. We are working together schedule-wise. My opening is Friday, March 13th, in the evening. The tour—a self-guided driving tour by the way—happens Saturday the 14th from 10 am to 4 pm, and then we are showing some movies at the gallery that same evening. There will be a lecture called ‘Visionary State’ on Sunday. It will be an exciting weekend. Then on Tuesday, there will be night of movies called ‘Occult L.A.: Esoteric Cinema in the Southland’ at the Silent Movie Theatre. There will be many events during the run of the show. Most Saturday nights we will screen some films. We plan a book signing, and an auction of religious collectibles. That will be held on Good Friday—April 10th. Anybody can bring something to auction! The gallery will take a percentage. Saturday, March 14, we will screen The Hands of God—this film is about a Christian camp that trains puppeteers. That same evening, we will show Never Too Old For God—this features Ezra. He is the ventriloquist dummy half of Gail and Ezra. He decides to become a big Hollywood star, but learns that everybody needs Jesus. On March 21st, we will screen God’s Angry Man—the short Werner Herzog film about Dr. Gene Scott. We also want to screen Black Friday. Significant because Manly P. Hall—the founder of Philosophical Research Society—hypnotized Bela Lugosi for the film. March 28th we’re hosting the L.A. premier of God’s Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack T. Chick. He is the author and artist of those little Christian comics that everyone loves to hate. And on April 4th The Light of the World—Jack T. Chick directs this film. This film is ‘the biblical account of why Christ came to the Earth and how He dealt with the sin issue once and for all.’ The film consists of beautiful paintings by Fred Carter.
After all this, what will you do next?
For my next show, I think I might want to feature a gallery full of dolls!

KIERAN SALA’S WITHIN HEAVEN’S EARSHOT OPENS FRI., MAR. 13, AT SYNCRONICITY, 4306 MELROSE AVE., SILVERLAKE. CONTACT VENUE FOR TIME AND ADMISSION. ALL AGES. SYNCHRONICITYONMELROSE.BLOGSPOT.COM.

Download: The Germs ‘Lexicon Devil’

Interview by Dan Collins.

So Shane has been singing with the reformed Germs for like three or four years now.
Don Bolles (drums): What’s funny is that we just figured out that this new version has been together longer than the old one was.
I think you’re right! Is Shane the permanent Darby Crash, or are you permitted to have any other people channel the spirit of Darby Crash?
Lorna Doom (bass): He’s not Darby Crash. He’s Shane West.
Shane West (vocals): I’m the last.
D: We don’t plan on it. Of course, we didn’t plan on this, either. It just sort of happened. Suddenly there was this guy there who knew how to do the thing. And then Pat was thinking about it because the movie people got him to teach the people how to be the Germs. And then I helped Pat be the Germs again.
What happened to having the band fronted by the reincarnation of Darby Crash in his ten-year-old cousin?
L: No, there’ll be no other replacement for Shane.
S: That is one-hundred percent Don Bolles, and every time it’s spoken of it’s Don, and every time Don says it, he’s not speaking with accuracy. In a way, he’s correct that she has talent, and she’s a wonderful person.
D: Her being ten and all made it so that she was really busy with grade school and stuff.
S: She’s already fifteen now. But she should have her own band. And she’ll have an amazing band.
Lorna, where have you been for the last twenty-five years?
L: I’ve been waiting for Shane to be born, and for things to finally come around to the right stage to resume the throne.
Any beauty secrets for those of us who want to transition from sweet young thangs to gorgeous sex-dowagers like yourself?
L: Stay out of the sun!
I just watched my screener copy of What We Do Is Secret a few days ago. It was a pretty funny movie in so many ways—though of course sad, too. When you guys watched it, were there a lot of tears, or more laughter?
L: It’s both!
But you know when you’re watching that the end is coming?
L: It always eventually does, but it was quite a shock when it actually happened.
S: It was all those emotions at once. But with distance—as time goes by—more laughter. At the beginning, more tears. My mom watched it, and she called me, and I had to stop her from crying. It was hard—there were drugs and dying and all this stuff, and my mom was so affected.
Do you think Shane pulled off his Darby Crash enough to make it moving?
L: Shane is unbelievable. Yes. It was such a spot-on performance. Darby would be so proud of his portrayal in the movie.
What other actors in the movie do you think deserve any praise?
S: J.P. Manoux who played Rodney. Rodney on the ROQ. Sebastian Roche who played Kickboy. I thought they nailed it. Those are my favorites. And also the guy who brings the drugs at the end: “I have no idea what this is!” He’s a very fine actor.
What do you think Darby would say if he were here right now and could see the reformed Germs playing together with a Hollywood actor performing in his role?
S: I think if he could see it, he’d like it. But he’d rather do it. Any time an original singer could do it, he’d be like, ‘Fuck that guy, I want to do it!’ Darby, I think, with the movie coming out and the band playing, would be rolling over in his grave—in a happy way. I think he’d be tickled pink.
Do you think he’d call it a cover band?
L: Oh, he would call it a cover band! But yes, wherever he is, he is smiling down on both the movie as well as our reforming of the band.
Who do you think is better—the reformed Germs or the reformed Sex Pistols?
D: Definitely the Germs.
S: Yes. I’ll put that out there. We’re tighter.
Do you think the Germs were more influential in the long term?
D: Well, the Sex Pistols ushered in that entire trend. I don’t think we did that. We’re some other thing. I think we were lucky to have that trend to ride around on for a little while. And we were lucky that what we did resembled what was punk. Because it had to be a little something besides a guy cutting himself. You know, that had already been done.
Maybe this isn’t a good thing, but certainly hardcore punk seemed to evolve from the South Bay scene, which kind of evolved from the Germs. Do you agree with those who ‘blame’ hardcore on the Germs?
D: It’s funny because it evolved from the people who liked what we did, but it was bound to match their media-exaggerated violence approach to punk rock. They didn’t know from punk rock. They weren’t the kind of people like the original punk rockers, who were the guys who were wearing the skinny ties and the sunglasses and looked like Jesus and Mary Chain people! You know—like Beatles people? They were record collectors. These were the people who first had punk rock. And they brought the singles back from England. And their friends might start a band here. You know, these guys first brought punk rock around. And they were looking for it. They would look for it through records and Melody Maker and New Music Express and Sniffin’ Glue and all that—that would crawl over here with people. So these people were actually seeking it. And by this time, all the intellectual fan base were already in it, and there were all these media reports, and the media reports were scoffed at by everyone who knew anything about punk rock. But at the time, that was a really small percentage of people. So these people—these high school people in the South Bay and Orange County—when they came to punk rock, they weren’t looking for anything. They came across punk rock as this other thing that already existed. They saw on TV this thing that they’d sort of heard about maybe from someone else by this time. And it was like—’What, I can just go and beat people up, and then I’m cool? Whoa, that’s kind of what I like to do anyway ‘cause I’m a dumb jock!’ So there was a huge influx of that. And they weren’t really about the music, but they needed to have the bands and music. And with the DIY thing, of course—that’s easy to take everywhere and to pass on because everyone wants to just do this stupid thing to themselves. And so they did that. Unfortunately, their idea of the music was just so they could have a friggin’ mosh pit and beat people up. Or just to have some kind of thing that involved beating people up and then being thought of as cool.
But I feel you and maybe Pat as well evolved into better trends…
D: No no no—that wasn’t what it was at all. What it was is that they took the music, and being sort of punk rockers in their way, they said, ‘Well, I can’t learn to play this shit. It’s fucking hard! What if we just take some of the beats out, you know?’ Oom-pah-oom-pah-oom-pah-oom-pah! And shout fucking lyrics over it, you know?’ That’s what they’re pretty much doing. We had all these subtleties in there. I never did that ‘forbidden’ beat, except a couple times backwards, you know, in a couple choruses. And that’s it. That ended up being hardcore, and I take no responsibility for that. Or the progressive hardcore that came from that shitty version of it because it wasn’t that good! It came from a really bad copy of what we were doing. It’s weird. What we were doing was good the way we did it. I don’t think what we were doing really translates that well into the stuff these guys were willing to do.
I noticed on stage that you had double bass drums.
D: I didn’t!
I could have sworn I saw them.
D: Well, I do now! I didn’t then. I always do now. I was dead set against it back in those days. It seemed like single-kick music to me at the time.
How was your reception at various Warped-Tour type activities?
S: That was great! We were on the Old School Punk Rock stage. So we were playing with people like M.I.A., Agent Orange, TSOL… Mike Watt, who was one of my favorites. The only hippie punk rock guy I know who plays like a fucking genius. And one of the nicest guys in the world. The crowd that showed up for the shows was great.
D: That was an L.A. thing, and it was insane. Maybe because we used the color blue in our logo, and it’s a Dodgers thing—I dunno!
Do you think it’s weird when you see people in the audience who weren’t even born when the Germs ended? People who born in, like, 1985, slam-dancing to the Germs?
D: No, that’s just a lot of the people I know now. So it’s the other people who are weird.
A couple of years ago I got to see you and Pat get together on stage for the Celebrity Skin reunion. Which was more fun—reuniting that band, or reuniting three fourths of the Germs?
D: I think they were both really great! I think Celebrity Skin shows were really amazing. A lot of people who don’t know anything about anything really like that show.
At Sunset Junction, I talked to a lot of people who were impressed by the Germs performance who, you know—went there expecting to deride it.
D: A lot of people do, but no one can after they see us do a couple of things. They realize that we’re up there being every fucking bit of it. Even the actor. He used to act like Darby a little more. Now that he’s fallen into the role—what he does is exactly what Darby did, except he does it better, which is what the singer in the Germs is supposed to do. So that’s what he’s doing. And if it’s like Darby, well, he’s got the tattoos and he looks a little like him, and he studied him for years so he could do this stupid movie. And he does a really good job. He sings way better!
Do you think in thirty years there’ll be a documentary about this time in the Germs’ career?
L: Of now? Of Circle Two? That remains to be seen.
S: The only way that would happen would be if I fucking killed myself on stage, and that ain’t gonna happen!

WHAT WE DO IS SECRET IS IN THEATERS NATIONALLY NOW. WHATWEDOISSECRETTHEMOVIE.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/GERMSMOVIE. VISIT THE GERMS AT GERMSRETURN.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/GERMSRETURN.

Don Bolles is keeping it very real in his red fox fur scarf!