Groovie Ghoulies : early years

Wendy Powell (Groovie Ghoulies) : “I met the Ghoulies through my roommate at the time – Dal Basi – who was a huge Groovie Ghoulies fan from the ‘Appetite for Adrenochrome’ days. I had been in a band, so they knew I was a drummer and their drummer, Brian,  was leaving and so they asked me if I wanted to try out. I learned about 15 songs and we started playing out, which climbed to 50+ songs I think. We used to have fun calling out songs we hadn’t played in forever at practice to try and stump each other. We used to play out a lot – some months we would play 10 shows and these were all on weekends. There were so many great shows – Muffs, OC, RipOffs, GuitarWolf, Lazy Cowgirls, Creamers, Troublemakers, Trashwomen, The Loved Ones, Gas Huffer, SuperSuckers, so many. Playing places like The Purple Onion, Bottom of the Hill, Gilman, Hells Gate in LA, Crocodile in Seattle, Old Ironsides & the Cattle Club – great venues. I guess my fave show would have to be opening for the Cramps on Halloween at the Warfield – I still can’t believe I played that show.  Living together  made things so much easier – only one place to drive home to after shows. We could have a band meeting whenever, we could make merchandise and watch a movie at the same time. We had tons of bands stay at the house -Ghoulie Manor – it was one block from the cemetery. Kepi & Roach’s bedroom was next to the bathroom downstairs – there were a few drunken people who would accidentally roam into their room at night looking for the toilet – there were some very close calls.”

"We played all the time anywhere we could drive to on the weekend or an extended weekend. We went from Phoenix to Canada, but pretty much stayed on the West coast. We always made an event out of a roadtrip – if we were in LA, we would go to Disneyland and Canters for knishes, if we were in Seattle we would go to Archie McVee’s, we would get hot donuts in Berkeley or burrito’s in the mission. We went to Alcatraz one day before a show and must have looked interesting - I think Kepi had a bunny mask and was jumping around- because one of the ParkRangers took us on a private tour of the facility.  We never got so wasted - although there were times when me and Roach tried -  that we couldn’t do something fun during the day of a show wherever we were. Playing Canada was interesting because you couldn’t bring instruments in the country without a business visa and you couldn’t come back with too much money. After each Canadian show we would spend all our money on candy. We always stopped at cool toy stores, flea markets, garage sales – it was like vacation all the time."

Although there is an obvious sound of a band evolving over the course of the 7 years from the first to third albums, the constant thread of smile inducing pop punk runs throughout. The Lookout reissued debut from 1989, features a crew of different folks from the original days of the band (John Vetter on bass and John Philip Sosa on drums), with a grand total of five of the fourteen tracks being Ghoulied up cover versions of popular classics (Kiss, Rolling Stones, The Monkees, Hermans Hermits and the Dracula perfomed ‘King Kong Stomp!). The rest of the album is made of furies and energetic Ghoulies originals, all with the comic book charm that would give the band a long career to come. The second reissue has its equal share of cover versions as the debut and follows along in similar steps, although some of the originals lack the initial energetic flair of “Appetite For Adrenochrome’, making the album feel plodding slightly at times. With a newer line up the band had worked it’s way down to a punk trio : Kepi handling bass and vocal duties with Wendy Powell taking over on drums. The same line up returned for the first proper album for Lookout, ‘World Contact Day’. The third album certainly has it’s charm, and features more of the original energy stored on ‘Appetite For Adrenochrome’.

With the EP already previewing the new material, it wasn’t a huge assumption from the four releases to see the band were obviously on a certain course with the output so far. With ‘World Contact Day’ following again in similar footsteps, the band had certainly found its niche and sound, but also were working on the blueprint for Ramones type punk. Not that this was a bad thing, as time would tell with the consistency of top notch prime punk nuggets that would follow. The band however hadn’t yet to rise to it’s peak, songwriting and production wise, but that would soon change in the coming months. Shortly following ‘Appetite for Adrenochrome’ it was obvious that it was time for the band to step up more, a move that wouldn’t sit well with Wendy Powell

Wendy Powell (Groovie Ghoulies) : “I felt more secure about the drums than I had on ‘Born in the Basement’, I really love that album. Again, Kepi picked some great covers and he wrote some really catchy songs. S Britt did the artwork and it was fun to watch Kepi describe his concepts and him come up with this amazing artwork. After we signed to Lookout I did one short East Coast tour with the Groovie Ghoulies before I left. Everyone at the Lookout office was great and super warm and friendly, I worked for Tower Records – so I totally knew Lookout and knew it was a great indie label with a great roster. Once we were signed I did feel pressure to tour more – not immediately – it seemed like the Lookout bands toured all the time and they wanted to put us on some of those tours. It wasn’t threatening though and it seemed to be the obvious next move for the Groovie Ghoulies. Leaving the band was a really hard decision for me and a part of me will always regret leaving. I had just bought a house when we got signed. I had to keep my day job and I didn’t want to hold Kepi & Roach back, so I bowed out. I had felt I was holding things up for a while at that point. It was sad, but I was happy for them and they were ready to drop it all and give it everything.”

Comments

[Edward Pignataro IV]

gotta love the ghoulies!