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Dan Garrett:There was absolutely no punk rock in Hawaii! What's on that single is the recording of our first and last song at our only show in Hawaii. I guess you could consider that the only punk rock show that ever happened in Hawaii. You gotta understand though; our goal wasn't really to be punk rock; it was to be fully original. We were really into doing improvisation. We tried to play something different every time we got the chance to go on stageWhat was the crowd like at that gig?
It was a very small audience. Sep (Eric "Sep" Ishii, vocalist) was mock terrorizing them with a large hunting knife a la "The Brown Buffalo" in Fear in Loathing in Las Vegas. People cleared out except for our friends who were rolling on the floor laughing. It was a great little live show; let's put it that way. It was in a small community college just above Pearl Harbor. After that show, we moved to San Francisco to play music. We did live shows at this club in San Francisco called the Sound of Music.
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Pretty good actually! The thing that killed us in that town was Sep made a poster for an upcoming show we were doing that was a rear entry shot from a porno. He posted it all over the Catholic Mission District on every telephone poll. The cops didn't like that and they went around to all the club owners and said "Don't book these guys." Without any venues to play in, that was the end of the band. That was about December of 1980.Did you continue playing music in San Francisco after you guys split?
Yeah. I was in a band called Murder with Bob Clic from the Lewd and Nyna Crawford from VKTMS. We did a single on a label called Broken Rekids I was also in a band called the Uptights that was more of a hardcore band and then I was in the Ronsons with Kurt Vanderhoof from Metal Church. I haven't had a chance to get a band together out here in Burbank. I have a friend who I play with down here named Pete Wilkinson who was a childhood buddy of Randy Rhodes, but that's about it.So where are the other guys in the band today?
I just found out two days ago that Howard (Howard Nishioka, guitar) died seven years ago. Boy! How's that for a cold shock, you know? I saw him in Hawaii the last time I was out there in '02, and apparently he died in '03. People don't telegraph and say they're gonna die--they just stop calling. That's been happening to me too much lately. Sep died in 2000 from a brain aneurysm due to complications with leukemia. Considering all the things I've done, it's amazing I'm still alive! The bass player, Bob Wilson I think lives in the LA area but I haven't spoke to him in years. They were great guys and I miss them. We were real aliens in Hawaii, so it made us form a strong bond.How do you feel about people caring about the record 30 years after it came out?
I'm flabbergasted! It was a fun band to be in; that's for sure. A fun piece of terroistic art.One of my favorite things about the record is the cover art. I just think it's fantastic.
Cool. All that artwork was done in one afternoon on an acid trip. Yeah… being in that band was fun.TONY RETTMANYou can listen to "Swiss Cheese Back" and its b-side at this guy's blog, but after you've done that you've got to promise to buy a copy of the reissue from De Stijl. Promise.
