Mutants + 6 O'Clock News @ San Francisco, CA 1980-08-22

 


LIMITED TIME / LAST TIME

https://pixeldrain.com/l/a87mA3aY


Mutants
Mabuhay Gardens
San Francisco, CA
1980-08-22 (Friday)

THTP Release 108

Recording chain: 
Stage mics > splitter (split to house snake/SBD and TH snake) > TH dedicated snake >
Peavy MkII 12 channel mixing board (11 channels snake, 1 channel audience mic) > 
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape

Archival Process: 
1999: Sony TC-KA3ES > TDK SA-90 tapes playback (NO Dolby) > BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer (to clean up tapes) >
Tascam DA-30 DAT > HHb DAT-125 DAT tape
2002: HHb CDR-850 Professional CD Recorder (In real time) > HHb CDR74 Gold 100 year archival grade CDRs
2005: Transfered to HDD in AIFF file format

Dime release processing: AIFF Master Files > FFMPEG > 16 bit FLAC 8 > tagging, cover artwork, checksums.

Recorded, preserved, and master AIFF files provided by: Terry Hammer

Setlist:
01. Opposite World
02. Strange Night
03. Modern Conversation
04. Bolero
05. Furniture
06. Space Song
07. 21st Century
08. Sofa Song
09. Too Much Too Soon
10. Odd Man Out > encore applause >
Encore:
11. Tribute To Russ Meyers
12. Black Flags
13. Think,Think,Think > Dirk outro

Length: 51:18

Band:
Freddy Mutant (Fritz Fox) - vocals
Sue Mutant (Sue White) - vocals
Sally Mutant (Sally/Sellier Webster) - vocals
Brendan Earley — lead guitar
Paul Fleming - bass
John Gullak - rhythm guitar
Dave Carothers - drums

Notes:
* Another rip roaring Mutants performance!! This evening saw the Six O'Clock News (THTP 56) opening.
* As the band hits the halfway point 1981, the power of the group is growing, increasingly driving and dominant in their performances. I will never fully understand why they did not gain wider success. A friend who played in the SF scene around the same time thinks it was because they were literally only 18 months ahead of their time (because of the B-52s and groups like them making record companies scurry to sign bands that appeared similar, though the Mutants are nothing like the B-52s). 

* Band website: http://www.sfmutants.com 
* There's an odd thing about Fritz Fox, he seemed old beyond his years in these early years, and when I saw the Mutants during the last 10 years, one thing that struck me about Fritz was that rather than getting 'older' per se, he had simply become the person he had always been. It's hard to explain this if you haven't seen them, but it's slightly disconcerting. 
* About band: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mutants_(San_Francisco_band)
* "The Mutants are an important band in the history of San Francisco punk rock and new wave music. They are known for their theatrical performances which often include elaborate props, projections, and comical antics. They are credited with being one of the first "Art-punk" bands in San Francisco, and were one of the most popular bands of the San Francisco punk scene during the late 1970s and early 1980s." - But this doesn't really give a fair impression of how great their performances were!!
* The Mutants were one of the very early punk bands to start the initial San Francisco punk scene, and as such, reflect the wide musical and creative diversity that was the hallmark of the first gneeration of punk rock.
* One of the most striking things about the Mutants live was their 3 singer attack, with Fritz taking lead vocals and Sally and Sue singing backup, in their wild outfits. Truly the best of San Francisco's legendary Art Institute, the birthplace of many early San Francisco punk bands.

* What's that you say? You never heard the Mutants? Then how did you ever find your way to the Insect Lounge?

* Snakefinger helped produce their album 'Fun Terminal', whose record cover showed the old Fun Terminal that was an entertainment/pinball arcade right across the street from the (then) 1st and Mission East Bay Bus Terminal. The upstairs of the Fun Terminal had more than a few all nighters and parties. Unfortunately 'Fun Terminal' did not fully capture the frenetic wildness of the Mutant's at their twisted and out there live best. CD Presents released a live album, "Savoy Sound — Wave Goodbye" as well. 

* Here are some good videos that capture the energy of the Mutants:
Joe Rees/Target Video: Mutants: New Drug (Mabuhay 1978): 
https://youtu.be/m9ZZXJrf7g0
Joe Rees/Target Video: Mutants: Furniture (Mabuhay, 1978): 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue3nGNjt38E
Search and Destroy (a big punk weekly): Louder Faster Shorter (UXA, Dils, Avengers, Sleepers, Mutants [Insect Lounge], Mabuhay 1978):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufHdeaKQiiM
* Joe Rees' Target Video was the multimedia part of the San Francisco scene. Before there was MTV, there was Target video, who had a small space in the Mission, I think on South Van Ness, a bad neighborhood at the time, where people in the punk and art world would go, often after hours, to watch this new format of 'music videos'. 
* Search and Destroy (RE/Search publications, edited by V. Vale between 1977 and 1979) was the go to source for up to date punk and other out there music news and information (pre internet, that is). Reprints are available online.
About Search and Destroy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RE/Search

* About the Fun Terminal: Some of the Mutants lived above the Fun Terminal, which is why their album was named that. They would have frequent late night after hours parties, and sometimes rent parties (you'd pay something to get in, with a keg etc, and proceeds went to paying rent). While the details are somewhat fuzzy, some of them lived in a loft space there, some lived in rooms, I believe it was basically a flat over the arcade. 
* Along with the Hellhole (Tenderloin), the A-Hole (South of Market), Bruce Loose's flat, various warehouse and industrial spaces, and many other locations, there was a kind of network of party spots that formed a kind of late night alternative to just going home after the 2am shows ended, which you would always be searching out after the official shows finished at 2 AM. Often some of the most interesting stuff happened in these unofficial locations, since they were not at all controlled. I have faint memories of ZEV playing at a late night warehouse party, for example.

* "Maybe we need a new... connection... I'm sick of your politics... I don't care if you are a communist... we need a new drug.. we need a new drug... Maybe we need... a revolution... We're not the problem, we are the solution...". This in a sense perfectly encapsulates the mindset that swirled around much of the scene at the time, but there's more to those lyrics than meets the eye.

* "If we ever had contact with another world... this could be it!! Let me introduce people of the opposite world!!"
This brief statement seems to categorically confirm my long standing suspicion that the Mutants are in fact aliens.

* Includes photos.

===========================================================

No distribution in lossy formats!!
No selling!!
No bootlegging!!
No remastering!!
Yes sharing. Definitely share.

Support the artists when or if they play, and buy their records/merchandise.

Please correct any errors or oversights in this information in the comments section so the information can be as accurate as possible.

If you can find related materials like flyers, posters, ticket stubs, even photos, etc, please add them in a comment and I will add them to the main release folder, so that can be included on the next re-seeding. Every bit is welcome, and as I am time constrained on this project due to the amount of material, I cannot spend as much time on each release doing research as I would like, so if we can add to and improve the information and release contents during this series, that would be great.

Please make an effort to pick at least one of these THTP releases and keep it seeded for as long as you can, particularly the lesser known groups. That will really help out long term.

===========================================================
About Terry Hammer and the THTP:

Someone put my feelings very well about these recordings in the following quote. I can't really improve on their words beyond noting that these recordings sound absolutely and utterly stunning, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to present these to you here in their original, first generation, lossless hi-fidelity versions, for the first time ever.

"[These recordings were] recorded and preserved by collector/engineer Terry Hammer, for broadcast over the UC Berkeley station KALX and several others from the 1979 -1981 period. Anyone who spent a night at one of these clubs knows how chaotic the atmosphere was. That he was able to, not only get a decent feed from the sound mixing board, but was also able to get clean recordings was something of a miracle. And the fact this guy did it over and over again is pure dedication to the cause of preserving history for decades to come. Fortunately for everyone, he’s been making these gems of history available and their value as historic documents is inestimable. This is really exciting stuff and I am grateful for Terry’s foresight and deft skill."
src: https://pastdaily.com/2014/06/25/gang-four-live-american-indian-center-san-francisco-1980-nights-roundtable-concert-edition/ 

The First Taping of what was then to be called"The Fab Mab Live", was the Readymades on December 8 ,1979. The Fab Mab Live broadcasts would go on until June of 1981 [but KUSF took the broadcasts over from KALX and Terry January 1981]. Some of these performances were given to the Maximum Rock'N'Roll magazine run by Tim Yohannan, and were distributed to the PBS network for broadcast across the country on various PBS stations that carried the Maximum Rock'N'Roll radio program of interviews and some of [Terry's] live songs of the artists being featured. 

As Terry notes about the process of recording these shows: "Like all of my live recordings this was mixed direct to 2-Track Reel To Reel (and Cassette deck for backup and personal use) using headphones. Sitting in the club with the loud P.A. sound trying to drive the amp in my mixing board loud enough to hear what I was mixing.If you've ever been to a live concert,then,you know how loud it can be."

If you've ever been looking for an excuse to upgrade your sound system, these recordings certainly should provide you with some motivation, because they have incredible sound. And if you already have a quality sound system, you are in for a treat!! The audio goes straight to 20k hz, no losses I can detect. Due to the reality of tapes, even high end as used here, the low end starts at 47 hz.

And if you want to learn more about this incredible musical era, listen to the stuff you haven't heard, there are amazing gems in there.

Do we call these soundboards? Technically not precisely because this is not the house mix, these shows were mixed using a dedicated mixing board, with an additional 1 to 2 audience mics (1 for Mab because he needed 11 snake inputs), 2 at other clubs) in the mix. But I call it the Terry Hammer Tape Project (THTP) to make sure there is no doubt about the project's creator.

TECH:
Note that Terry made 2 master recordings (recording at the same time) when he mixed these shows live:
1: Reel to reel, for the radio stations: 
Technics RS-1500 Reel To Reel (mostly TDK Audua L-1800 & LB-1800 tape with back coating or Scotch 206 / 207 with back coating. Maybe a few Maxell UD-XL). Terry made Dirk buy the tape for the Mab so Terry had him keep them in his warehouse. Those were destroyed in the fire.

2: For his own use, and as backup in case something happened to the reels: 
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape

3. Terry stopped doing the Fab Mab Live recordings for KALX in January 1981. He turned it over to KUSF then and they actually installed a phone line and broadcasted live from there. So all Fab Mab shows after January 1 were Terry at the soundboard, recording straight into his cassette deck.

Terry isn't sure, but thinks the audience mics he used maybe were Electro Voice EV-DS35's.

Info: http://www.bbesound.com/products/sonic-maximizers/482i.aspx

===========================================================
About Dirk Dirksen and the Mabuhay Gardens/On Broadway:

Dirk Dirksen (RIP 2006), aka 'The Pope of Punk', was the music promotor and MC (but really more accurately, the impresario) of the Mabuhay Gardens/On Broadway punk clubs. Dirk was an incredibly interesting, sharp-witted, biting, cutting element of the original San Francisco punk scene. His legendary introductions and post set commentaries are preserved in many of these recordings. Dirk was a nephew of United States Senator Everett Dirksen. 

Shows at the Mabuhay started probably in 1977. The On Broadway was an upstairs night club right next to the Mabuhay that opened in summer 1981 and closed 1984. Terry recorded / broadcast Mabuhay gardens shows weekly. He was also the first soundman at the On Broadway when it opened in 1981 (they initially only did Friday/Saturday night shows).

The Mabuhay Gardens was originally a Filipino night club/restaurant run by Ness Aquino (RIP). One fateful day he was approached by Jerry Paulsen, who offered to try to fill the club on slow nights (Monday/Tuesday) with punk shows. Dirk took the booking and MC duties over from Jerry, and the rest, as they say, is history.

"...deliberately baiting and trading insults with audience and band members, which had the effect of raising the energy of audience and performers alike. In order to maintain the show's fast pace, he would move past an encore to get to the next band and tell the audience, "Eat it." Dirksen's abrasive persona (which was largely a performance) was a central part of the atmosphere of the Mabuhay.
...
Dirksen was the sole person responsible for connecting the English punk rockers with those in the United States. By creating an exchange program, punk bands for England and NY came to the Mabuhay and vice versa, staying in each city performing a few nights at a time."

Terry remembers him like this:
"He believed in theatre and group participation that's why he was sarcastic. He wanted to get a rise in people and get them to participate. He was a really nice person if you got to know him."

Dirk was also active with the organization H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers), the organization started by Kathy Peck of the Contractions (also part of this THTP series).

It was hard to really know how diverse his interests were until I went to his memorial service in San Francisco, where his punk friends and connections were only a fraction of the people who spoke in his memory. He was involved in various charities, the Mission Recreation Center, the list was quite large.

Apparently a book about Dirk Dirksen will be coming out Summer 2020.

Wikepedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabuhay_Gardens
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Dirksen
SF Gate obituary: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Dirk-Dirksen-pope-of-punk-amused-insulted-2466523.php

===========================================================
 - teetering




6 O'Clock News
Old Waldorf
San Francisco, CA
1980-08-22

THTP Release 56

Recording chain: 
Stage mics > splitter (split to house snake/SBD and TH snake) > TH dedicated snake >
Peavy MkII 12 channel mixing board (10 channels snake, 2 channels audience mics) > 
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape

Archival Process: 
1999: Sony TC-KA3ES > TDK SA-90 tapes playback (NO Dolby) > BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer (to clean up tapes) >
Tascam DA-30 DAT > HHb DAT-125 DAT tape
2002: HHb CDR-850 Professional CD Recorder (In real time) > HHb CDR74 Gold 100 year archival grade CDRs
2005: Transfered to HDD in AIFF file format

Dime release processing: AIFF Master Files > FFMPEG > 16 bit FLAC 8 > tagging, cover artwork, checksums.

Recorded, preserved, and master AIFF files provided by: Terry Hammer

Setlist:
01. Terry intro > Workin'
02. Eye Witness
03. Everybody I Know
04. Television Baby
05. Don't Go To Town > Terry outro

Length: 25:21

Band:
Janet ? - vocals
? - guitar
Eddie Garcia - bass
Preston Thrall (?) - drums

Notes:
* This is not the Six O'Clock News founded in 2002, for obvious reasons. I found one Bay Area flyer (included) from this time (Friday, August 25, 1978) that had a band 6 O'Clock News, so I'm assuming that's the right spelling for the band name. It also fits with what the band said, they had a drummer from the East Bay.
* The only hint of this band I could find was a 1986 single:
https://www.discogs.com/6-Oclock-News-Run-Run-Rudolph-Whenever-I-See-Your-Face/release/1660438
* Eddie Garcia, Janet informs us, is 'straight from the Philipines'. "The man has a doctorate in Bassology"
* Preston was from South Oakland/North Berkeley.
* The guitar player never finished introducing the band so the other names are not known.
* Not certain about track 4 title, Television Baby.
* About Old Waldorf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Waldorf
"Old Waldorf was a music venue located in San Francisco, California. The famous club was located at 444 Battery St, and was originally opened by Jeffrey Pollack in 1976 before selling it to Bill Graham who closed it in 1983. During its time Old Waldorf hosted some of the biggest names in the music industry, such as AC/DC, Dire Straits, Blue Öyster Cult, Iggy Pop, Blondie, Rory Gallagher, Metallica, Pat Benatar, R.E.M., Spirit, Poco, U2 and Dead Kennedys.
The Punch Line comedy club now occupies part of Old Waldorf's location.". 
Note: 444 Battery Street (at Washington St.) is about 6 blocks from the location of the Mabuhay Gardens (at Broadway & Montgomery/Kearny), which was in a much seedier part of town (The Famous Carol Doda's Strip bar was right by the Fab Mab, on the cover of Broadway and Kearny if I remember right). But the Old Waldorf was situated right in the heart of the downtown business district, which tended to be completely empty at night after the business crowd had left, so these two venues were very different in feel.
* It was raining this night. So the singer said.
* The Inmates were next in the line-up.
* "Our singer Janet is not from the Bay Area, she's from the South..."
* "We ain't in it for the money, we're in it for the rock'n'roll!"
* And that's that, no hint of this band, no pictures found, just that one flyer, and this one Terry H. recording, without a sign, gone, like tears... in the rain...

===========================================================

No distribution in lossy formats!!
No selling!!
No bootlegging!!
No remastering!!
Yes sharing. Definitely share.

Support the artists when or if they play, and buy their records/merchandise.

Please correct any errors or oversights in this information in the comments section so the information can be as accurate as possible.

If you can find related materials like flyers, posters, ticket stubs, even photos, etc, please add them in a comment and I will add them to the main release folder, so that can be included on the next re-seeding. Every bit is welcome, and as I am time constrained on this project due to the amount of material, I cannot spend as much time on each release doing research as I would like, so if we can add to and improve the information and release contents during this series, that would be great.

Please make an effort to pick at least one of these THTP releases and keep it seeded for as long as you can, particularly the lesser known groups. That will really help out long term.

===========================================================
About Terry Hammer and the THTP:

Someone put my feelings very well about these recordings in the following quote. I can't really improve on their words beyond noting that these recordings sound absolutely and utterly stunning, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to present these to you here in their original, first generation, lossless hi-fidelity versions, for the first time ever.

"[These recordings were] recorded and preserved by collector/engineer Terry Hammer, for broadcast over the UC Berkeley station KALX and several others from the 1979 -1981 period. Anyone who spent a night at one of these clubs knows how chaotic the atmosphere was. That he was able to, not only get a decent feed from the sound mixing board, but was also able to get clean recordings was something of a miracle. And the fact this guy did it over and over again is pure dedication to the cause of preserving history for decades to come. Fortunately for everyone, he’s been making these gems of history available and their value as historic documents is inestimable. This is really exciting stuff and I am grateful for Terry’s foresight and deft skill."
src: https://pastdaily.com/2014/06/25/gang-four-live-american-indian-center-san-francisco-1980-nights-roundtable-concert-edition/ 

As Terry notes about the process of recording these shows: "Like all of my live recordings this was mixed direct to 2-Track Reel To Reel (and Cassette deck for backup and personal use) using headphones. Sitting in the club with the loud P.A. sound trying to drive the amp in my mixing board loud enough to hear what I was mixing.If you've ever been to a live concert,then,you know how loud it can be."

If you've ever been looking for an excuse to upgrade your sound system, these recordings certainly should provide you with some motivation, because they have incredible sound. And if you already have a quality sound system, you are in for a treat!! The audio goes straight to 20k hz, no losses I can detect. Due to the reality of tapes, even high end as used here, the low end starts at 47 hz.

And if you want to learn more about this incredible musical era, listen to the stuff you haven't heard, there are amazing gems in there.

Do we call these soundboards? Technically not precisely because this is not the house mix, these shows were mixed using a dedicated mixing board, with an additional 1 to 2 audience mics (1 for Mab because he needed 11 snake inputs), 2 at other clubs) in the mix. But I call it the Terry Hammer Tape Project (THTP) to make sure there is no doubt about the project's creator.

TECH:
Note that Terry made 2 master recordings (recording at the same time) when he mixed these shows live:
1: Reel to reel, for the radio stations: 
Technics RS-1500 Reel To Reel (mostly TDK Audua L-1800 & LB-1800 tape with back coating or Scotch 206 / 207 with back coating. Maybe a few Maxell UD-XL). All the KALX shows went to KALX, they supplied the reel to reel tape.

2: For his own use, and as backup in case something happened to the reels: 
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape

Terry isn't sure, but thinks the audience mics he used maybe were Electro Voice EV-DS35's.

Info: http://www.bbesound.com/products/sonic-maximizers/482i.aspx

===========================================================
 - teetering