giftforthescreamers.blogspot.com

SATURDAY, AUGUST 25: My first love gave me a precious gift one birthday: a pressing of the Screamers’ demos, 1977-78. I had admitted that I really liked them, and he had tracked down a copy for me at a local record store. My love for them grew, and I wore a neon orange pin with the caricatured face of lead singer Tomata du Plenty as drawn by underground comix artist, Gary Panter. Then I broke up with the boy and moved, carrying that record along, up to the Northwest. I ended up living in a dirty punk house, sitting on its last legs with mold and decay. I somehow lost the actual album and, before I moved away, I left a mirror in the basement on which I wrote in Sharpie, “A Better World Starts With You”—a quote from my favorite song, “In A Better World.” This is one of three songs that Craig Leonard uncovered in Toronto while “rooting around in some archives in Toronto,” sourced back to the Center for Experimental Art and Communication (Toronto, ’73 – ’78), which hosted some of the first punk concerts in Canada under the banner “Crash & Burn.” Leonard decided that uncovering this lost piece of history meant something, and he wanted to share the find with the world through a gift-giving (rather than commodifying) exhibit which was hosted by a downtown L.A. gallery called Raid Projects. The DIY process continued as Leonard spent 16 hours to make 5 pairs of translucent white vinyl records, by first making a rubber mold, pouring liquid plastic silicone into the mold, and then recording the tapes onto the vinyl. Buddying up with punk photographer Jenny Lens, the exhibit features a rare Screamers’ recording, which will be known as the “Crash & Burn Demos” or the “Eva Braun Tapes.” When visiting, Craig excitedly explained the concept behind the process as I tried to listen to the platter featuring the 13:44 song “Eva Braun”—named after Hitler’s girlfriend, and something about her in a red dress—but I would have needed to really concentrate if I was to hear through the seemingly-slowed down sound—like something just died on top of the record player and it’s so-whoa-whoa sad!—of the high speed antics of this synth-driven and burlesque-loving crew. Thankfully, the process is documented at http://giftforthescreamers.blogspot.com, where I asked Craig if I could hear the song again. He is asking for leads on the whereabouts of three band members: Tommy Gear, Jeff McGregor, and David Braun. Before I left, he gave me a new pin that I am now wearing that says in simple black letters on white: “SCREAM CRASH BURN.” (SS)