LK 93 was a full length release from a band that had already been inactive for a couple of years, yet had made an impression on Chris Appelgren during his run in’s with the strangely gimmicked San Diego guys over the years. The band was ‘Rice’ – a band influenced from the positive hardcore bands of the late 80’s but with a heavy dose of off the wall punk humour.
Rop Vasquez (Rice, The Peechees) : “I didn’t meet Chris until his band, Bumblescrump came down to San Diego and played with Rice. I used to live in this shed at the backyard of the kids in the band ‘Heroin’. My roommate at the shed was this kid Cory Linstrum, who was in ‘End of The Line’ with the ‘Heroin’ guys and he decided to move to Oakland. He ended up moving in a punk house with Chris, who by coincidence also started dating my other roommate, Sam, who also moved to the bay area. Cory told him that Bumblescrump should play together with Rice, because it was a good match. So they came down, we played together and we bonded.”
Chris Appelgren : “Bumblescrump got together summer 1991 and included Patrick Hynes, Josh Indar -later of Black Fork- my friend Theo and Ernst from ‘Jack Acid’. We recorded, went on tour and sort of imploded on the tour, it was kind of an awesome disaster.”
A tour was booked by Appelgren for Rice and Bumblescrump bringing the bands together even closer. During the Olympia date the bands were joined by Molly Neuman in Rop Vasquez’s station wagon for the journey back to the Bay Area where the tour would end. The bond between the two bands developed into working together on the self released Bumblescrump/Rice Split 7”. Although not part of the Lookout catalog, the matrix inscription reads LK 33 ½ - inside knowledge between Appelgren and Hynes to the fact they used the regular Lookout pressing company to manufacture the EP.
Prior to becoming inactive, Rice had also released a 6 tracks 7” EP on Chula Vista based label ‘Vinyl Communications’. The two releases highlighted the strange alter at which the hardcore band worshipped – the all encompassing concept of Rice!
Rop Vasquez (Rice, The Peechees) : “The concept of ‘Rice’ originally started when I was driving the band ‘Struggle’ on tour in early 1991. We had just left this house we stayed at in the Bay Area and had been on the road for nearly an hour. We stopped to get food at Denny's and I realized that I left this Rice Cooker that my grandma gave me at that house, so we drove back and got it. That dedication and changing most of the lyrics to whatever hardcore song that was playing on my tape player in the car ride home from the Bay Area shows sealed what would become RICE.. The first lyrics I wrote were really dumb, just putting words together, and then yelling Rice in between to hammer the point just to match the rawness of the music. When we actually started really writing hardcore songs, is when I decided to write the songs like how a hardcore band should, with a serious front. This was the early 1990's, where almost every band we liked and were into or knew about, had the same message of unity and were really politically charged. Sometimes it felt like preaching to the converted, so I went that route in writing songs about rice with political undertones.”
As the band had slowly unravelled and friendships were put in place to form what would become ‘The Peechees’, Chris Appelgren approached Rop and Carlos with the idea of releasing a full length album for Lookout. The release became the ‘Fuck you, This is Rice!!!” LP (LK 93). The record is surprisingly brutal for a Lookout Records release, with a fine smattering of metallic riffs layered on top of hardcore fury. All of the older tracks were featured from the previous releases as well as a couple of ‘Chain Of Strength’ tributes in the form of the track ‘Grain Of Strength’ and a cover of said bands ‘Just How Much’, becoming ‘Just How Much Rice’. Also featuring as model for the reverse of the LP is Molly Neuman, photographed by Chris Appelgren dressed in a flashy Rice jacket!
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