Iconic Punk Label Marks 40th Anniversary At Berkeley's Cornerstone
By Dave Pehling
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The label started by San Francisco punk-rock icon and outspoken political gadfly Jello Biafra celebrates its 40th anniversary this weekend with Tentacle Fest, presenting two nights of music at the Cornerstone in Berkeley with local heroes Tsunami Bomb, Arnocorps, Victims Family and more.
One of the Bay Area's pioneering punk-rock figures, Biafra first came to fame as the lead singer and main songwriter for the Dead Kennedys. Started in 1978, the brash San Francisco quartet mixed surf, garage rock and rockabilly, providing a foundation for the singer's bitingly humorous lyrics and caustic delivery on classics like "California Uber Alles" and "Holiday In Cambodia."
The band would release a string of landmark albums and EPs starting with Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables in 1980, but having already founded their own independent record label Alternative Tentacles to issue the "California Uber Alles" single in 1979, the imprint would become one of the pioneering imprints of the punk era. In addition to putting out records by the DKs, Alternative Tentacles became the early outlet for many Northern California punk bands like 7 Seconds and Flipper as well as groups from outside the region like the Butthole Surfers and T.S.O.L. Alternative Tentacles also released important compilations Let Them Eat Jellybeans! and Not So Quiet on the Western Front that helped document both the U.S. and Bay Area punk scenes.
Biafra would make headlines with a sarcastic run for San Francisco mayor, but a controversy surrounding a poster with inflammatory art by H.R. Geiger inserted in the band's 1985 effort Frankenchrist set off a long and draining court battle that eventually led to the dissolution of the Dead Kennedys.
While he would spend a good deal of the years that followed delivering marathon politically charged spoken word performances that commented on both national and global socio-political foibles, Biafra would release numerous high-profile collaborations in the decades that followed via AT. He teamed with the likes of Ministry's Al Jourgensen (in the group Lard) and Mojo Nixon and tracked classic albums with Canadian contemporaries NoMeansNo and D.O.A. (both of whom released material via Alternative Tentacles) in addition to recording and touring with grunge iconoclasts Melvins. The label also put out seminal recordings by such notable bands as Alice Donut, Neurosis and Victims Family into the '90s and continues to put out music by vital new bands to this day.
The first night of the AT 40th anniversary celebration will be headlined by Petaluma pop-punk sensation Tsunami Bomb. Founded in 1998 by bassist and main songwriter bassist Dominic Davi and keyboardist/vocalist Oobliette Sparks (they were later joined by drummer Gabe Lindeman, guitarist Brian Plink and vocalist Emily Whitehurst aka Agent M), the group issued a couple of split singles before releasing their debut EP The Invasion From Within! the following year. Extensive touring including regular appearances on the Warped Tour helped establish the group as a rising force.
The band signed to Kung Fu Records to release their first proper full-length album The Ultimate Escape in 2002, an effort that was widely hailed for it's punchy aggression and indelible hook. Unfortunately, interpersonal tensions would lead to founder Devi's departure in 2003. While the group continued with new bass player Matt McKenzie, releasing two more albums and headlining successful tours across the U.S. and Europe, the group would disbanded in 2005 over frustration with the music industry.
Outside of a one-off reunion to play a benefit for a friend from the Petaluma punk scene in 2009, the band would remain dormant until original members Sparks, Davi, Plink and Lindeman got the band back together in 2015 with new singer Kate Jacobi replace Whitehurst, who declined in order to to focus on her own project, Survival Guide.
Tsunami Bomb started playing live again late that year and released a rarities collection LP called Trust No One early in 2016. Plink would depart the band due to health reasons and his temporary replacement Chris LaForge died suddenly in 2017, affecting the band deeply. The group would soldier on, hiring new guitarist Andy Pohl as they worked on new material. Earlier this month, Tsunami Bomb released their first new album in 14 years -- entitled The Spine That Binds -- on Alternative Tentacles to rave reviews.
On Friday, the group will be joined by the action-rock heroes of ArnoCorps. Electrifying audiences for nearly two decades since being founded in 2000, the San Francisco sextet of musical combat veterans aims to take back the Austrian mythology and lore appropriated for American consumption by actor and former Governator of California, "Austroploitation" figurehead Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Dealing out such spectacular rock anthems as "Terminator," "Predator," and "Total Recall," the dynamic outfit led by charismatic vocalist Graf Holzfeuer (pronounced holz-FOY-er) has built a rabid local base of fans while cultivating an international following with regular UK and European tours. In addition to 2015's reissue of the group's debut Greatest Band of All Time (made available on vinyl for the first time through AT), ArnoCorps also teamed with AT to release the "Two More" 7-inch single which featured the pump-inducing tributes to the Austrian bodybuilding fable that Schwarzenegger would plagiarize for his '70s film Pumping Iron.
In 2016, Holzfeuer and company announced the band's next recording project, The Unbelievable EP. Answering the longtime demand of their fans to take back some of the more humor-filled tales of the Austrian mythos exploited by Schwarzenegger during the 1990s like Kindergarten Cop, Twins and Jingle All the Way, a Kickstarter crowd-funding effort for the album was met with a resounding response as disciples contributed over $20,000 to the cause. The EP came out on Alternative Tentacles a year ago to solid reviews, but it is the outrageous spectacle of the band's kinetic live show complete with bass-case crowd surfing (ridden simultaneously by both bass players) and onstage demonstrations of physical strength and muscular symmetry by members and fans alike that has made ArnoCorps a longtime Bay Area concert favorite.
The band released a new 7-inch single through Alternative Tentacles last May, but shocked longtime fans recently when it was announced that the dynamic rock crew would be going on an extended hiatus to allow Holzfeuer a chance to pursue other interests. The audience at Friday's Tentacle Fest is sure to be packed with face-painted heroes and sheroes gathered to experience Arnocorps one last time for the foreseeable future. Brooklyn-based punk/klezmer octet the World/Inferno Friendship Society opens the show, playing songs from their forthcoming second AT effort All Borders are Porous to Cats.
On Saturday, the Tentacle festivities continue with Saturday's concert featuring a headlining set by avant-garde electronic drum corps Itchy-O. Founded in Denver a decade ago, the sprawling costumed troupe of percussionists, instrumentalists, dancers and tech support numbers well over 50 members. Initially called the Itchy-O Marching Band, the collective decided to shorten the name to simply Itchy-O due to the fact that the ensemble featured no brass instruments and didn't march so much as "swarm and cluster," according to the band's anonymous spokesperson.
Augmenting marching and taiko drums with an arsenal of guitar, bass, synthesizers, theramin and samplers, the ensemble fills venues with it's polyphonic chaos, the group built a big enough following in Denver that it began receiving invitations to perform at such festivals as Riot Fest and Santa Fe's Interplanetary Fest and share stages with the likes of Devo, David Byrne and St. Vincent and the Melvins. Itchy-O was signed to Alternative Tentacles in 2014 and has since released two recordings by the group including From the Overflowingin 2017.
Prior to the immersive spectacle that is Itchy-O, the Tentacle Fest audience will be treated to a set by veteran jazz-punk trio and longtime AT band Victims Family. Started by guitarist/vocalist Ralph Spight and bassist Larry Boothroyd in 1984 when they were just a couple of scrawny Santa Rosa teenagers, Victims Family recently celebrated their own landmark with a 35th anniversary show at the Bottom of the Hill.
Bringing together the lyrical venom of the Dead Kennedys and the eclectic punk virtuosity of The Minutemen and NoMeansNo, Victims Family created a ferocious stew of hardcore, jazz, metal, funk and math rock with original drummer Devon VrMeer. Embracing the DIY punk ethos of the time, the young trio booked its first national tour in 1985, honing its chops while sharing the stage with such bands as NOFX, Tales of Terror, the aforementioned DKs and Social Unrest.
The band issued its debut album Voltage and Violets on Mordam Records the following year, unleashing Spight's vitriolic social commentary on salvos like "Homophobia" and "God, Jerry, & The P.M.R.C." in addition to writing likely the only instrumental tribute to jazz guitarist George Benson ever performed by a punk band. Victims' follow-up effort Things I Hate To Admit further refined the group's sound with more ear-pleasing, barbed wire hooks on such future fan favorites as "World War IX" and "Corona Belly."
VrMeer's departure to start a family led to his short-term replacement by Eric Strand before roadie Tim Solyan stepped in and completed what many consider to be the band's classic line-up. Victims Family crafted what still stands as one of the outstanding punk albums of the decade with 1990's White Bread Blues while furthering their reputation as a blistering live act with multiple U.S. and European tours, sharing the stage with the likes of Nirvana and Primus while having future stars Mr. Bungle and Green Day serve as opening acts.
The line-up released a second album, The Germ, in 1992. It was the band's first effort for Alternative Tentacles, but the grind of the road eventually led to a two-year hiatus. A reunion would produce another solid studio effort (Headache Remedy) and a live album that captured Victims' volatile onstage chemistry before Spight and Boothroyd moved on to band projects Saturn's Flea Collar (with the bassist switching to drums) and Hellworms (another trio that featured Bluchunks/Walrus drummer Joaquin Spengemann).
Victims Family put out one more album with yet another drummer — Apocalicious in 2001 featuring My Name drummer David Gleza behind the kit — before the principles moved on to explore other creative outlets. Spight would front his own band The Freak Accident in addition to anchoring Biafra's lauded new band The Guantanamo School of Medicine on guitar, while Boothroyd would tour and record extensively with celebrated experimental outfit Triclops!, though he eventually would be brought in to play bass with Biafra's band.
Still, semi-regular Victims Family reunions bringing Solyan back into the fold often find fans traveling long distances to catch another brutal live set. The trio embarked on a brief string of dates this past January, playing three dates in the Bay Area followed by three more in the Pacific Northwest with Portland, OR-based punk band Nasalrod in addition to their 35th anniversary gig in August. Both Tentacle Fest shows at the Cornerstone in Berkeley will feature Biafra serving as both host and DJ.
Tentacle Fest
Friday-Saturday, Nov. 22-23, 7 p.m. $25-$29 (2-Day passes $40)
The Cornerstone Berkeley
