In the course of researching his his exhaustive biography of the Penetrators, Che Underground historian Ray Brandes referred to a seminal document that helped bring San Diego’s musical underground to a broader audience: San Diego Reader music critic Steve Esmedina’s diary of his six-day California tour with the Penetrators.
“Does anyone have a copy of that ‘Two Dollar Tour’ article from the Reader?” Rockin’ Dog Dave Ellison asks. ” When that was published, I thought it was the most glamorous, exciting thing I’d ever read … I saved it for years, but it’s gone now. I can still remember parts of it … like Dan McLain eating at Taco Bell and claiming that food with too many vitamins made him throw up!”
In honor of the pending 30th anniversary of this Oct. 18, 1979, article, I thought I’d share the copy Ray sent me (courtesy of Penetrators archivist Joe Piper). I’ve formatted it as printable PDF file and posted it for download here.
While the text is a bit of a challenge for aging eyes, it confirms why this story made such an impression on Dave, Ray, me — and many of you, too. Steve Esmedina pours real passion into this piece, which compares favorably to San Diego native Lester Bangs’ 1977 account of his travels with the Clash. (Indeed, Esmedina notes that he was quick to place the Pens in the Clash’s league: “At the time I concocted that comparison,” he writes, “I knew it smacked of hyperbole, but such an imposing reference point seemed the most effective way of getting people to pay closer attention to the group.”)
It’s a great read that illustrates both the Penetrators’ appeal and the support it won them.
Download “Two Dollar Tour: On the road with the Penetrators”!
“‘Let’s get some food and get ripped. We’re not going to play tonight.’ There is no argument. McClain gets out his food stamps and we head across the street to the Food Basket.”
You can see the appeal this had to 15 year old aspiring musicians (like I was). Thanks for putting this up!
Ah,the Queer Element-I always thought it was those same Jocks who had just discovered “Slam Dancing” two years after we all did!
>>I continued to be a jock without actually being a “jock” throughout my involvement with the scene while still in high school. I ran cross-country and track and was on the wrestling team at my high school.
Bobby: One life regret is that my own effete attitude (and the locker-room culture of lotsa sports situations) kept me away from athletics.
Even though I was younger than most classmates, I was pretty big and strong for my grade until about fifth. Then I got passed up and was always relatively small and clumsy. 🙂
And moving into San Diego and junior high simultaneously just totally culture-shocked me! No WAY was I going to get into any locker rooms with those maniacs.
I was lucky that theater had some prestige at San Dieguito … But I am sorry I didn’t learn to enjoy the ocean or participate in sports without getting hung up about my abilities and about “jock” stereotypes.
BTW, digressions are what make these threads fun! And the Penetrators played a big part in me finding a sense of identity in San Diego, so … There! Brings it right back to Steve Esmedina’s article about them. 🙂
P.S. (to reign in this tragic derailment!) I walk the beat! I walk the beat!
I thought Fear were definitely clever angry stupid and brilliant all at the same time.This was always a territory that was ripe for paradox.
Yeah- Maybe I was kind of not totally clear (I do that- I expect people to read my mind sometimes!) I thought Fear was the peak- John Lydon did it to some extent but Fear were our version of “worst case scenario” when it comes to who you want to hassle onstage. and really, nothing really held up to scrutiny after that. Fear were willing to fight, smart asses, eloquent, rough, funny, total devil’s advocates- if you said you supported something they’d instantly be against it, and vice versa. They brought testosterone to the table with a caveat- and dared anyone to say they weren’t artistic (with Derf in a dress!) I loved FEAR, both on vinyl and live. I still use their first album to punish my neighbors who make me endure shitty corporate “music” of this present time at the wee hours of the morning.
But to get back on topic- I bet Gary played FEAR once….. (I’m reaching here. I need to make a whole new Penetrators thread just to redeem myself from this.)
Oh yeah- and after that, the imitators just didn’t hold up- they werent as funny, werent as intelligent, didn’t scare us as much- all the way around, they didn’t have the trifecta of being intelligent, counterculture and in some way lethal. I left. Some stayed and either soaked up the accolades of the newcomers or endured the demise of a culture, as it morphed into something new for someone else who had new ideas of what it was.
In the end, I was really excited to get a message from Gary. After all these years, that was pretty neat. I still think the Penetrators are pretty cool. I’d like to go back in time and wreck some shit in some cheesy all ages club while they layed down the soundtrack, and maybe Gary might tell me I’m being an ass, and maybe he might climb down from where he’s perched on the stacks and wreck some shit too. 😉
I loved the first FEAR album..still do…and if I remember correctly Derf and another member of the band left the band after they got severely beaten by audience members after a show…a post I did elsewhere on here about seeing the germs on a halloween night, well that same night the penetrators were billed to play with FEAR the starwood in LA…I can’t remember why we didn’t play the show but for some reason I think Dan flat our refused because of the violence. I wish I could open the link to the story above because i’d love to read it. I only fight men who hit women, and bouncers that beat up kids.
I only fight girls who decimate men….;)
>>I wish I could open the link to the story above because i’d love to read it.
Gary: Webmaster question here … What link can’t you open? I’ll fix it!
the reader article itself…but I think its not on your end.
>>the reader article itself…but I think its not on your end.
For you, I’ll e-mail it. 🙂
Agree with that DAVE!
You just hate jazz,Bruce!
I wonder what a Fear show is like today,if it still has some element of the funny/scary/audience baiting shows of the past or if they are just a cartoon of their former selves like so many others on the “reunion” circuit.Punks not dead,it just smells that way.Who let all you longhairs in here tonight?
I hate Jazz?? Although I have no background in jazz, I’ve been studying jazz and bop for about two years now.
Love American Songbook stuff now. Nat King Cole, Gershwin, Errol Garner, Lerner & Lowe,…….
New Yorks alright if you like saxophones.
all i know is i’ve had chet baker’s Italian Sessions on in my car for a week straight……
And I’ve spent the last two nights learning “Have You Met Miss Jones”. Further research shows that, (SURPRISE! SURPRISE!), this is really a song about withdrawing from Heroin!
LOVE those old standard jazz dudes…always veiling their classics in seemingly innocuous love songs!!
Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales….
True story: my son’s grandfather- a Filipino man from Oahu- was doing a tour in Italy with the US Army (he might have been stationed elsewhere, and visiting Italy on his own time), and he’s walking around checking stuff out, abroad from this tiny island he grew up on, and he hears this sweet horn coming from off somewhere in the distance. He thinks it’s a jazz club, and being super keen on that period of Jazz (present day stuff at the time) he cruises around and tries to find the source of this sweet trumpet. He eventually corners it to a big industrial/municipal type building, and he sees a cop and asks him where the horn is coming from, and the guard points at a window and tells him that’s Chet Baker, the famous American Jazz player in a cell in their jail.
Great story, my son’s grandpa is a huge fan of that Baker/Getz/Coltrane/Davis/Brubeck/Mingus era of the sixties when everything was just about to go electric and “kool”, but hadn’t yet and was still visibly and audibly connected to the blues.
Delightful…dreamy…imaginative
>>”everything was just about to go electric and “kool”, but hadn’t”
I LOVE that time.
Hey Bruce- check your email. Aloha- Toby
>>”channeling stuff that hadn’t even really come about yet- they were like aliens, showing us what was going to happen next!”
Nice summation of a period that is hard to articulate about. My professors have not been able to address this in such a succinct manner!
Wish I knew more about this phenomenon. Where did these guys get their shit from??
Since I’ve heard no better explanation, I’m going with the alien theory!!
Narcotics.
Were it that simple.
BOBBY -- explain more please!!
Quote- Matt: ” One life regret is that my own effete attitude (and the locker-room culture of lotsa sports situations) kept me away from athletics.
Even though I was younger than most classmates, I was pretty big and strong for my grade until about fifth. Then I got passed up and was always relatively small and clumsy. 🙂
And moving into San Diego and junior high simultaneously just totally culture-shocked me! No WAY was I going to get into any locker rooms with those maniacs.”
Math, science and the arts- that’s not enough for you kids? Why you wanna upset the applecart with this wrestling and softball? Leave sports to the wops and the micks- that’s all they’re good at (aside from crime and drinking.) You stick to your equations.
😉
(and me too: culture shocked at the new school in seventh grade. And me too- I probably could have cleaned house if my personality had room for “team sports” and all that comes with that. But it didn’t and I dont, and I write poetry and hope those football clowns hate it. 🙂 )
>>And me too- I probably could have cleaned house if my personality had room for “team sports” and all that comes with that.
Toby: Yeah, all that stuff wasn’t my thing, either … But man, you can skateboard down a whole parking structure … And I heard about you doing handstands on a surfboard … That’s poetry, too! (The one time I tried to skateboard, I ended up in a hip cast.) 🙂
Seriously, I sometimes have dreams that my body is doing exactly what I want it to during some fast, fun activity like skateboarding. That would be so cool.
Bruce:Maybe you never said”I hate jazz” or “I can’t stand jazz”,perhaps I was mistaken.Or maybe you want me to explain why some jazz musicians are as punk as anything else.I think not,you know already,don’t you?
and when not lovin it…dreamed and wrote of it.
BOBBY -- thanks for more! I DID say I didn’t really like Jazz, at some point, although I play it constantly on my guitar now. I’m not a HUGE fan of listening to jazz but I love playing it.
I’m amazed at how much MORE Jazz musicians know about music than classical players. We tend to just play what’s written -- they play everything else!! Got me very interested and the past year or so of studying Jazz has really increased my musicianship!
CLAY -- I think Jazz musicians loved drugs more than the “P” word even. “Have You Met Miss Jones” is not about a woman…believe me. And what about Billy Holiday, Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald???
I wonder if Gene Krupa ever pooped on his set?
Yes. He did.
You were there!? ?! !? Where’s the you tube clip? Scatological…
My bad. I thought he sat in with the Mentors!
just to clarify,I can’t explain it,or even offer many examples.it is simply true.I can hear it.
I agree. I just gave my rudimentary efforts at quantifying the statement.
>>”if jazz was about heroin it’d make me barf.”
Start puking Clay!!
No, maybe it wasn’t ABOUT heroin, but it sure had a defining role in many performers lives.
again bruce….i think we established that very-much-known fact.
>>the souls of many are etched upon the profits and legacy of the drug-trade and it’s various chic merchants, sales reps and foot-soldiers.
i’ve honestly felt for a long-time that the music-industry was one of the dirtiest one could ever want to be a part of.
i think for every label that had contracts to draw up they had a fleet of dealers who’d hang-out at all the right gigs and parties and some rather slinky-ladies too of course who enjoyed a little sniff or bang occasionally and these leeches would do their best to weaken you…..once a relationship with dealer and poison were established…you were putty.
their putty.
rock-and-roll man….you’re such a heavy dude.
wanna another hit?
even the term “hit”…..want one?
“hey man we’re your friends….don’t be like that.
freddy get the man his favorite…..”
I wonder if music execs, health insurance execs, and lending institution execs are one and the same??
>>”these leeches would do their best to weaken you…..once a relationship with dealer and poison were established…you were putty.”
Same species,different genus
Great clip,Ray,thanks.